E at 18 Months

I can hardly believe that 18 months have passed since the first time that I held E in my arms. I have conquered most of her milestones with joy, but this time around was bittersweet. Although, I have to admit that I am working on a photo project for one of the walls in the new house which required me to labor through EVERY SINGLE PICTURE that we have of E. It was awful. If awful means turning the laptop around to your husband every 60 seconds to ensure that I wasn't the only one drowning in this pool of emotion.

We are on our way to living with a two-year old!

-E at 18 months you are such a spitfire. You are figuring out how to communicate all the things you want with words and gestures, but when you can't accomplish that, you stomp your feet, back into a corner and whine a little bit louder. Hopefully I can keep a smile on my face through this phase.

-You weigh 23 lbs. and are 32 inches tall. Seventy-fifth percentile for height!

-You are doing great eating with a fork and a spoon, of course we still end up with a mess, but at least it's a cute one.

-You have all of your teeth except your two-year molars. Your top K-9 teeth are coming in now and we might just have a summer free of teething.

-You enjoy helping with some of our household chores; especially emptying the dishwasher and putting laundry into the washer or dryer.

-You are talking up a storm. Your vocabulary includes more than 25 words, but you will make a decent attempt at saying anything that we ask.

-You recently started mimicking 'momma' behaviors. You love to wheel your baby dolls around in a little stroller, feed them a bottle, pat them on the back and give them kisses. It is the sweetest thing.

-You love to be independent and do anything that makes you feel like a big kid. You often refuse help or only let an adult give you minimal help with a task until you can follow the lead. 

-One night during a particularly bad teething episode, Daddy showed you a video of Barney on the computer. Now you just might be OBSESSED. Sadly, J and I have learned the words to all the songs and added a Barney box set to our DVD collection. Go ahead and laugh, but Barney has saved us during a recent eight-hour car ride.

-You still love to read books. I love watching you pick up a book and chit chat your way through it or fly through the pages. Reading is one of my favorite times with you. You will sit on my lap, or snuggle up close to Daddy, or climb over Grandpa to sit on his left side for the second book of the evening after you enjoyed the first on his right side.

-You are a dancing machine. You love to dance anytime that there is music playing, at home or in the car. You have mastered the art of getting Nana to turn on music on her cell phone for an impromptu dance party.

You continue to challenge me and teach me about the depth of love, even if we are just laughing our way through it.

Dive Right In!

E got a little excited tonight when I was running her bath. To help her beat the heat this weekend, J filled up her little pool and put it on the patio. She must have great memories of her swim yesterday because she decided to hop over the side of the tub and start her bath with all her clothes on!

Easter 2012

In previous years, we have spent Easter weekends camping in the desert with some amazing friends. E spent her first Easter riding out the the wind in our fifth wheel. This year we were able to spend the holiday weekend with my family. We went to church in the morning, hung around our house and enjoyed the weather after E's nap, and ended the day with a feast at my parents' house in great company.

Just cookin' breakfast before going to see where the Easter Bunny hid her basket

Found it Momma!!

Look what I got!

Ready for church.

Cruisin'
(She insists on pushing it herself, but she has to hold the handle.)

Dance party!!

We're back...but from a whole new zip code!

Our lives have completely changed (well, almost completely) since I wrote a blog post. I'm sorry that I haven't made the time to chronicle everything as it was happening, I had every intention...and then life happened.  I'm sure it happens to every mom once in a while , right? I promise to give you the long and short of all the changes. Soon.

I'm going to pick up my posts and move forward from today. My intention is to make the blog a priority. After all, this is the 'yearbook' for our sweet little family and all of the adventures we create. For my own satisfaction, I am going to finish a few posts that I intended to publish months ago. Hopefully all of the adorable pictures of my daughter don't bother anyone, even if they are nine months old and she looks, acts and eats nothing like she did all those eons ago. 

Thanks for sticking with us, or joining us for the first time. Updating the blog is more important than ever. As our family has a Southern California family that has loved our daughter just like a Momma, supported J and I through the changes we've decided to make (cliffs we've decided to jump off of) and created some fabulous memories with. We've revving our engines for a whole new start, come along for the ride! 

Bed Head!

These pictures are from a few weeks ago, when E woke up with a particularly stunning case of bed head. Plus, she was just so happy! These pictures always brighten my day!

11 Months! Time is Flying By!

I can hardly believe that E is already 11 months old! We are furiously planning for her first birthday extravaganza, but are happy to savor every day with the sweetest girl we know. I hope I can still call her my baby after she turns one, cause I am not ready for her to be a little girl yet.

Baby Girl, at 11 Months you:

We went camping at Lake Cachuma, just the three of us with the dogs.

You love to hang out around the dogs' crates.

You had a great time at the Camarillo Air Show, you weren't even scared when the fighter jet flew over at the beginning of the show, even though your Daddy scrambled to cover your ears before every pass.

You shared your first Popsicle with Daddy during a particularly rough Sunday afternoon of teething.

We put away your infant carrier car seat and moved you to the convertible car seat that you will use until you don't need a car seat anymore...in about 8 years!

During a quick trip to the pediatrician, you weighed in at 19 lbs. 6 oz. Still a little peanut.

You have become a big help with the dishes, especially when you climb on the dishwasher.

Laughlin 2011

For the past three years we have taken a summer trip to Laughlin with some wonderful friends. We always go with the K family, which includes one of my best friends A, her boyfriend P and their son. Also along on this trip are both of A's sisters and their families and her parents. We have been very lucky to be adopted by this family and have many great memories with them over the past few years. Each year the trip is a little bit different; the first year we were invited, A and her sister we both pregnant, last year I was pregnant and this year we had three beautiful babies to keep us entertained.

This year, we went in the very beginning of June and decided to take our chances camping at Park Moabi in Needles, Calif. The site has full hook-ups for the trailers so that we could crank the air conditioning to combat the 105 degree temperature. Our campsite was backed up to the river and had it's own private beach. Each morning we set up camp on the shoreline and enjoyed the day playing the in the pool with the kids, wading in the water and riding the jet skis.

This early in the summer, the water in the Colorado River can still be pretty cold. We would fill up the kids pools early in the morning so that the sun would warm up the water for the kiddos. J and I weren't sure what E was going to think of the river water, but she loved it!

Here are some pics from the trip:

First Time in the River

Taking a Bath in the Trailer

E's First Boat Ride

We spend about half of each year looking forward to this vacation. It is the perfect time to unwind and spend some quality time together as a family. This year was really special, as we got to make some great memories with E and look forward to spend more time there together.