Howdy Friends,

I hope everyone is having a fabulous day so far! I am still running a few weeks late on her monthly updates, but hey, at least I got this one up before she turns one. I'm all about celebrating the small victories! :)

How do I even start to describe my sweet, giggly, cheeseball of a baby girl this month. The amount of joy she brings into our lives is really immeasurable. She makes me want to pull my hair out occasionally, causes me to shed a happy tear quite often, and makes me laugh hysterically every single day. Every day things such as eating lunch, running errands, and hanging out watching a movie are 100x's more fun with this tiny human by my side!

She has really taken to hamming it up even more lately. She likes to give big squinty eyed grins and cracks herself up on a regular basis. She just radiates joy and goofiness!



She is very organized like her father and likes to keep everything in just the right place. All of her very important items tend to end up in the trunk of her favorite pink car. Cell phone...check! Sippy cup... check! Red ring.... check! Ok, Mom I'm ready!


Even though she is busy busy when she is awake, she will sometimes fall asleep in my arms when I'm rocking her if I'm really lucky. This picture was taken post playdate and she fell asleep before I could even finish singing her favorite song Amazing Grace.


Speaking of playdates, her favorite place to meet up with buds is the pool. She loves floating around in her floaty and kicking her legs while I'm holding her. Now, the splash pad on the other hand is another story. She was not a fan! I think there were a few too many big kids running around and splashing her.



Crawling is still not happening no matter how we try to bribe her. Notice the fruit drop on the ground in front of her. She can scoot pretty well (mainly backwards), and is really good at standing up while holding onto things.  She's a stubborn one, so I'm sure she'll do it when she's good and ready and not a second before.


Belle is by far the definition of a Daddy's girl! When daddy is around, mommy reverts to peasant status and is only needed for food prep purposes. :) They really are two of a kind. It cracks me up how similar their personalities are. She absolutely lights up whenever E walks into the room and cracks up at every noise he makes (even the not so lady like ones). Here she is helping daddy shop for tools.


Speaking of being a daddy's girl, she can pretty much get him to do whatever she wants, including share his cupcake!


I can't believe this little angel is about to turn one. Time has seriously flown, but I am so excited to see what adventures the future has in store for my sweet little family.

Thank you God for picking me to be this little one's mom. I truly an blessed beyond measure!

In health,

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Howdy Friends,

Back to back baby girl updates! On the day she turns 11 months old, I am finally getting her 10 month update posted. I know every parent thinks, "wow, how time fly's," but I it really hit me today that my sweet baby is going to be ONE in a month!! How in the world did that happen? It's crazy how sometimes the days seem so long, but 11 months have seriously flown by. I wish I could just freeze her cheesy grins and belly laughs and hold on to them until the end of time.

This tiny human gets more personality by the day. She is a complete ham, and will give you the sweetest and biggest grins anytime you are talking to her. She is definitely a social butterfly and still gets pretty annoyed if you expect her to entertain herself for too long. In her mind, I should be a stand up comedian all day long.



She still thinks daddy is the greatest things since sliced bread. My favorite part of the day is watching how excited she gets when he comes home! They are two peas in a pod and she has him completely wrapped around her tiny little finger!


I mentioned last month how Belle has some pretty wicked dance moves. Well, she has perfected them even further. Her favorite song is "Drop It Low" and the second it comes on, she gets a huge smile on her face and gets down!



She's getting really good at pulling herself up and loves to hold on to her jumper and dance. She still hasn't quite nailed how to sit down slowly, but it's a work in progress. Still no developments on the crawling front, but she can push herself backwards while sitting. I'll take what I can get.



Baby Belle is still extremely ticklish and loves when you tickle her legs or belly. Most of the time, she starts laughing so hard she folds herself in half.


She has also made friends with the people at the HEB deli. She much prefers shopping with a side of turkey! The challenge is getting her to just eat the meat and not the paper.


I think she gets more fun with each passing month. Each stage is wonderful, but I absolutely love how she is really growing into her personality right now. She makes me laugh and my heart burst with love every single day!

I am so so lucky to get to be this little angels mom!

In health,

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Howdy Friends,

So I officially win worst mom of the year award! It is 6 days before this little one turns 11 months old, and I am just now getting up her 9 month update posted. With the start of PulsePointe and some other family matters going on, life has been crazy to say the least. I thought about skipping 9 months and going straight to 10, but I really want to have these blogs to look back on one day, so here it goes!

To say this little bit has a personality would be the understatement of the year! She is full of giggles, funny noises, and will most certainly tell you when she is not pleased. Most of the time she sounds like a cross between a squealing bird and a dragon. This makes going anywhere in public extremely interesting.



This month we celebrated Easter, and baby girl got to show off her beautiful Easter dress. She wasn't so sure about sitting still in church, but she always likes hamming it up for the camera.


Eggs, on the other hand, she prefers to feed to champ. She's also not a huge fan of strawberries, peaches, or anything she finds even the least big tart. Luckily, she did get her love of watermelon from her mama!



Speaking of daddy, she LOVES watching daddy play any kind of sport. As you can tell by the picture below, she is an extremely good cheerleader!


She is also miss social. Hanging out with friends (aka stealing their pacifiers) is her favorite!


Overall, she is still an extremely happy but opinionated little girl. She still refuses to even attempt to crawl, but loves to sit and play with any toy that makes noise and flashes fun lights. She now has 4 teeth, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. She still wants to wake up around 4:30 - 5:00 AM for a quick snack, but other than that, she is a great sleeper! Annabelle's cutest new skill this month is definitely her dancing! She has some major rhythm and loves to dance at the studio when the music comes on.

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Howdy Friends,

How are you? I've been a little lot MIA from the blog world lately because I've been working on a big huge project! I've poured my heart and soul into this endeavor for the the past few months, and I can't even begin to describe how excited I am to finally share it with the world!

A few months back, I told you guys about the continuing education workshops I was launching. I received such a great response to those, that I decided it was time to pursue my full dream of creating a barre certification!

This whole journey really began over 8 years ago when I first started teaching Pilates at Texas A&M. I had just fractured my sacrum from over training, and needed a lower impact exercise to keep me in shape. I tried Pilates, absolutely loved it, and got certified shortly after that. I continued teaching Pilates throughout college and grad school. Then, in 2011, I discovered barre! To say I was immediately hooked would be an understatement. I took classes all throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex trying to lean as much as I could about this exciting new format. After a couple of months of taking classes, I took my first barre certification and began teaching multiple classes per week.

I had been teaching group fitness classes for 4+ years at this point, but nothing made me as excited to teach as barre! I loved coming up with new choreography, refining my cueing skills, and seeing my students improve. I continued to take barre classes from other instructors, pursued 8 additional Pilates and barre certifications, and refined my craft. I sought to combine the fun factor and cardio elements that I loved from group fitness, the amazing lower body workout from barre, and the killer core strengthening abilities of Pilates to create my own barre format. My goal was to have my students leave class drenched in sweat, smiling, and feeling like they got a total body workout while having the time of their lives!

As I moved from Dallas to Florida State University, I was excited to bring barre to FSU. When I started to look into getting my instructors certified, I was disappointed to find that many of the barre certifications were either too expensive, not the up beat barre class we were looking for, or not offered in our area. I had students that I knew would make amazing barre instructors, but no way to get them certified.

After moving back to Austin, and diving into teaching barre 8+ times a week, I decided it was the perfect time to combine my love of barre and Pilates and my passion for mentoring other instructors into a power packed barre certification. Thus, PulsePointe barre was born!
My goal in creating PulsePointe barre was to offer a high quality, creative, and fun educational experience at an affordable price so everyone can have the opportunity to fall in love with teaching barre like I have!

PulsePointe barre is an innovative and challenging barre experience that seamlessly weaves together traditional muscle-sculpting barre choreography with exhilarating cardio segments to define and challenge the body in a whole new way. PulsePointe takes barre to the next level by matching each segment with upbeat music to motivate and energize your class from start to finish! By utilizing the unique PulsePointe barre class blueprint, you can mix and match the barre segments using your own creativity to deliver a rock solid class every time! 


After months and months of praying, working on educational material, getting approved by ACE & AFAA, developing a website, creating logos, etc. etc., I am beyond excited that it is finally time to start sharing PulsePointe barre with the world!

So what makes PulsePointe barre different from other barre certifications?

• PulsePointe barre strives to offer high quality certifications at an affordable price.
• No licensing fees.
• Every participant who completes the 8 hour primary instructor training course will receive 8 AFAA and .8 ACE CEU's, a comprehensive instructor manual with choreography snapshots, PulsePointe barre Class Blueprints, and a certificate of completion. 
• Learn how to use music to enhance your class, motivate your students, and take the fun factor to the next level!
• High energy cardio segments will take your class to the next level and give your students a cardiovascular and muscular strength & endurance workout all in one! 
• Easy to implement choreography and class blueprints will have you ready to teach challenging, well balanced, and creative classes in no time! We take the guesswork out of class planning while still allowing you to come up with your own choreography. 

For more information on PulsePointe barre, upcoming workshops, and video demonstrations of exercises, please visit our website at www.pulsepointebarre.com! If you think this is something your would like to bring to your facility, we are currently scheduling workshops for late summer and fall of 2015. Feel free to email us at info@pulsepointebarre.com

Throughout this process, I have received so much amazing support from my family, friends, and the online fitness community! I could not have done it without each and every one of you! I am so excited to see where this new journey takes me and to share the barre and Pilates love far and wide!


Linking up for Workout Wednesday and Wild Workout Wednesday!

For my barre lovers out there, what made you first fall in love with barre?

In health,

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Howdy,

My sweet baby girl was 8 months old on March 9th, and I feel like this past month has been a big one. She's turning into such a tiny person, and I just love getting to know her personality more and more each day. Belle loves to laugh deep deep belly laughs and thinks Daddy's burps are purely for her entertainment. She hasn't started crawling yet, but she rocks so hard, it's only a matter of time before she tumbles forward onto her hands and knees. She just started pulling up on things this past weekend, even though that technically happened after her 8 month birthday, I just had to share! Every day is definitely a new (and sometimes sleepy) adventure with this little one!

Belle is still a huge fan of basketball, especially if she gets to watch it from her daddy's lap. The lights, all the people, and the interesting noises keep her very entertained. She of course loves the cute outfits she gets to wear as well (even if they are burnt orange)!


She is also still fascinated by her toes, and never ceases to amaze me with her flexibility! If you need to keep her entertained for a few minutes, simply rip of her socks and she's good to go!


Annabelle would still rather eat books than read them, but we are working on that! I like to think she's still soaking up the knowledge right?

On the other hand, baby girl DOES NOT like green peas. I've tried them a few times, and each time results in some version of this face or gagging. Looks like we are going to have to skip these for awhile! I know I shouldn't laugh, but the faces she makes when she doesn't like a food are just hilarious. She can be quite dramatic.


She is also not the biggest fan of sleeping these days. I'm not sure if she's going through a sleep regression or if her top teeth are about to pop through, but the past 4 nights have been pretty rough. Last night, she did a little bit better so hopefully we are on the upswing. Whenever she decides she is not tired, she turns her bumper into a jungle gym and goes to town. We have to pull it out of her crib so it doesn't distract her most days.


Belle may not like peas or naps, but she LOVES  puffs. It was amazing to watch her master picking up those little guys with her fingers in less than a day! Don't stand between this lady and her puffs or you might get spit up on!


She also still loves giving slobbery kisses. She'll often attack you when you're least expecting it, and I love it! I'll take a slobbery snotty kiss from this tiny human any time!


Although you might not guess from the picture on the left, Belle loves going shopping. So many cool things to look at and people to talk to. Plus, mommy usually caves and buys super cut things like pink baby aviators. Who could pass these up, seriously?


Lately, Annabelle has been a busy girl helping mommy with Pilates MatchMatness. It's hard work modeling for a new picture every day, but Belle handles it like a champ. She loves showing off all of her cute accessories like this beanie!


Most days with this one are lots of smiles and giggles, but she definitely has her rough days as well (just keeping it real). I think she's ready to be on the move, but hasn't quite mastered crawling yet so she gets bored and frustrated easily. I also think those top two teeth are going to pop through any day which can't be comfortable. You have to capture the good times and the bad right? Side note, Belle loves to try to eat the button off of this pillow which explains the massive drool mark to the right of her head.


Overall, baby girl has had an exciting month full of learning, new adventures, giggles, and lots of cuddles. She is absolutely the light of my world, and I feel so blessed to get to be her mommy!


I can't wait to see what the next month has in store for us! I hope you all have a great rest of your Tuesday!

Mommies, did your kiddos go through a sleep regression? If so, how long did it last?

In health,

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