10 Gold Stars!!!

So the Folmars decided to give Sydney a BIG present for her birthday. A giant play structure! WOW huh? We knew it was going to be a BIG project so we snagged my brother in law (who builds houses-real ones) to help us put it together. After 7 hours, 2 guys, and a lot of electric tools they finished steps 19 out 58!!! But they hammered out the other 39 the next day, with 15 minute breaks for food:)
Here is Doug reading the 1 inch thick instruction book.

Looking good.....

There were soooooo many parts!

TA-DA....it looks just like the picture online! I smile when I think of all the kids that are going to have so much FUN on this thing!

Doug, we give you all the credit for making this happen. YOU are fantastic! We would still be on step 4 if it weren't for your help!!! Thanks!

Funny Faces

Sydney loves to get attention, espeically while she is eating. I haven't been able to capture her funniest face, where she squints her eyes and makes a fake smile...hilarious. I will post it when I catch it!

My little girl...11 months old this week!

I love this picture of the girls!

http://sbdemmins.blogspot.com/2011/03/friends.html

Everyone said she would play the piano....

but I don't think they thought it would be so soon.

Thankful

My mom and Ron came last weekend for a visit...Sydney is one popular lady! It was a great time. We took a trip to the zoo, a drive down to Carp and ate some delicious food. But the best part for me was waking up in the morning to find the dishwasher unloaded, Sydney finishing her breakfast with a big smile on her face and Ron doing yard work!! Thanks mom and Ron for all your help!

The sad part of the trip came right in the middle when Sydney woke up at 12:30pm one night hysterical and barking like a seal. For those of you not familiar with Croup those are the symptoms along with labored breathing called stridor. Long story short we rushed Sydney to the ER where she was treated with humidified air (through a tube), some epinephrine and a steroid injection. She was in pretty bad shape as the dr. on call heard her from across the ward while she was stitching up another patient and began prescribing treatment from there. She still has some of her lingering cold symptoms and a slight bark to her cough...but she is much better. The bummer is that she is prone to croup so she will be likely to get it again in the future until age 4-6. I am hoping that now that I know how to treat it at home we will be able to avoid any future ER trips! What a stressful night...boo croup! However I am so thankful for quality medical care and a husband who amist the chaos remembered to pray for our daughter!!

Guests

Lately we have been enjoying several visits from family. The Folmars came up 2 weeks ago and so did my sister and her family. It is always fun to have a giant slumber party in our 1200 sq. ft. house (seriously, it is fun).

Sydney with her Grampa Howard..so cute.

I love going on vacation in SB when we have company in town. We got to go on a long beach hike and brunch at the boat house one day and then took a hike up to Tangerine Falls the next. It was a beautiful day.

My nephew Cody rockclimbing....or should I say terrorizing my sister! (hey those rocks were slippery)

My neice Hailee and our new friend Sam (yes Riley the Chihuahua came too)

Brothers!

Kimmy at the falls with an ocean view in the distance.

It was a big hike for such a little girl!

Finger. Food.

Deciding that I had a couple of hours to kill last Friday I decided to give Sydney her lunch consisting only of finger foods.

And then we finished up with drinking formula from a cup! And I wanted to share Sydneys first milk mustache with the world. It was a good one!

So thankful that Arlen was willing to help with the clean up!

Sydneys latest obsession: picking EVERY little fuzz, leaf, crumb and speck of dirt that you couldn't find with out your spectacles off of the floor!

Question of the Day: Why will a child eat a piece of corn that has been on the ground for 24hrs, but not when you first put it on her food tray the day before ?

From Sydneys mouth....

I put together these video clips from the last month or so. If you can figure out what all she is saying let us know! She loves to babble..in her crib, to the dog, while she plays, and to herself while in the car. Our pediatrician thinks she is going to be "the most talkative person in our family"...Lord help us all!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

So at nine months Sydney's sense of adventure is flourishing! Everyday she wakes up with a yawn and a stretch and looks at me with that mysterious grin that says "Hey mom, what part of the house that I haven't seen yet can I get into today?" She is crawling like crazy and loves opening cupboards, emptying baskets, pulling out drawers and crawling under and in between furniture. Yesterday I "lost" her twice in the house....once she was in my bathroom behind the the door and the second time she had shimmied in between the sofa and a plant and was hidden behind the recliner! Sneaky little girl! Here are some of her favorite places to "play"!

She LOVES all the pictures we have up on the fridge of our friends and family.

Another favorite spot where she spies on the neighbors.

"FINALLY something I am allowed to play with!!!"

Birthday Pics

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Cheryl!!

Yesterday my sister turned 50!! I know I look to young to have a sister that is 50 but it is the truth ;) Anyways we all surprised her by decorating her house and then by hiding in different places. It was sort of a twist on your typical surprise party..... we are a wacky group I know!

Needless to say it took a little while for the rest of the group to be found including Justin on the roof!! Here are some little tidbits from the rest of the party.....what a great time :)

We love you too Cheryl!!

Pics from El Cap

James did all the cooking and cleaning up on our vacation...what a great husband!

Sydney and I cheered him on from this cozy spot!

What great weather! We got really lucky and enjoyed a lot of time outdoors this weekend. After a yummy breakfast we walked down to the beach and let Sydney play on the sand.

But all she really wanted to do was eat it!

Okay we were clearly not roughing it!

Excitement!

We went on a little getaway to El Capitan Canyon this weekend for a little R&R (which is of course why we brought our 9 month old with us!). And actually it was very fun and quite relaxing. Right when we got there I put Sydney in her chair for dinner on our porch. I don't know if it was mealtime or communing with nature or both that got her so fired up but it was super cute!!

The Folmars at their best?

Not really. After Christmas I was going into the garage to get the boxes to put the Christmas stuff away and I left the front door to the house open for less than five minutes. When I returned we had an unexpected visitor in our house. I was originally going to edit out all sound and just have music playing but the narrative just cracks me up so I left it in. However that is really embarrassing for me because I made a poor choice in words, thus the warning.

CAUTION: This video CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE and may not be suitable for small children. (enjoy)

Grandma teaches Sydney how to Clap 12/04/2010

So Sweet!

Christmas Eve

We enjoyed hanging out with the Folmars and Condies on Christmas Eve before our big trip up to Sacramento. We loved the great meal we all shared together, attending the christmas eve service together but the real highlight was seeing all the cousins enjoy each other.

Eventually Sydney even warmed up to Dave (her cousins other grandpa).

I had fun playing hide and go seek with Kyle, that is after he got tired of racing around with Sydneys new pink stroller... probably his favorite Christmas present.

Sydney fell in love with uncle Mike.

Cousins....though it isn't hard to tell!

Mary Rose-4 and Kyle-almost 2

Baby's First Christmas!