S's vistors: Aunt Micki, Grampa H and Ama

Company always makes S happy. More entertainment. More attention. More love.

the mission lawn. never a bad spot to hang out.

bathtime entertainment

just what I needed.

Last night my friend came over and get this...she helped me clean up my kitchen and wash dishes that she didn't even help dirty! And the best part was that she listened while I got a few things off my chest (and I needed to believe me!). Friends are the best, aren't they? So thanks friend. For listening. For praying. For just hanging out :)

she wore a flower in her hair

In my current situation of being a stay at home mom, and everything that goes along with that (minus the minivan), I have been doing some different things with my time. For example my MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers (and under)) group always does a craft when we meet. Originally I thought "eww!" because I am not a crafts girl. (cover your ears craft loving friends) The smelly glue that gives me a headache, the glitter that gets everywhere and lets not forget the knick-knacky finshed product are all the reasons I need to stay away! BUT the craft each week at MOPs (thanks to Amy) was always something cool and useful!

Which brings me to the nature of this post. This spring we made some vintage looking flowers that you could attach to pins (so you could where it on your sweater) or hair clips. And since then I have received nothing but compliments on mine. It is more fun than I expected to respond by saying "Thanks, I made it!". When I mentioned this to my sister and niece (whom the craft gene did not skip) they requested pictures...so this post is dedicated to them.

Directions for making silk flowers:

Step 1: Cut a piece of silky material (apparently you can buy a mixed bag of these scraps at your local craft store) into a variety of different sized circles. Material is shown below.

Step 2: light a candle (little tea candle works great) and hold the edges up to the flame to singe the edges...this make them curl up a bit giving each one a different personality.

Step 3: Take a metal brad and poke it through the center of all the different sized flower petals. Then take the hair clip (or pin) and pull the brad ends in separate directions over a hole in the clip (so the flower and clip are attached) . Cover with hot glue.

Be careful not to clamp down on the clip until the glue is semi-dry or it will glue the clip together!! (placing a piece of wax paper in between might help with this)

I promised a friend that I would make her one and I decided to attach hers to a sturdy bobby pin I had... I think it work out well!

Here are some of my finished products!

Cute huh?

Looking for a REAL craft blog? This gal came and spoke to our groups about her crafts and blogging (as a pastime and career).

http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/

She is pretty amazing...even I was impressed!

13 months now!

Well what can I say? My baby is growing up and might even be considered a toddler...yikes! She is "toddling"aka walking/running (I knew she would be running soon!) all over the place now. She uses her 4 favorite words all the time: hat, eat, dada, and hi. What could be more important than these things? I mean if a girl has a full tummy, friends to socialize with, a doting man in her life and something to hide her bad hair days she is pretty much set! No wonder those are her first words!

Yesterday we took her in for her one year check up and she is the picture of health (see picture above). She is a tall girl for her age (90th percentile) and since she has been busy busy all the time she has trimmed way down (50th percentile). Did I mention she has a big head (95th percentile)? Ha!

My favorite things S is doing right now are:

Running with both hands above her head and a big smile on her face (imagine Rocky after he climbed to the top of the steps!)

Giving kisses! (she likes to lean in nice and close, and sometimes she puts her lips together for a little smooch!) Ask her for one next time you see her :)

mothers & daughters

Last week I was up in Sacramento for Mothers Day. It was great to spend the day with my mom, my sister and my nieces. Girls rock!

And if that wasn't fun enough I also got to visit with one of my very best friends at her parents house. It was so fun to see our kids enjoy each other. (Eating chips and salsa while sipping margaritas by the pool wasn't too bad either!) I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship for these two.

I couldn't help but reflect on the mother daughter relationship a little bit after all this sweet girl time. It is slowly occurring to me all the things that I will be able to share with Sydney because she is a girl. What a life long blessing! I think this has been slow coming to me because I am one of 5 girls in my family... sooo since there were no boys my Dad did boy stuff with all of us girls. Which is why this whole time I was envisioning us enjoying together the things I enjoyed as a kid like hiking, bike rides, playing ball, climbing trees, body surfing, etc. But how sweet it will be to share in the other things too. As I was pondering all of this I was reminded of the Irish saying, "A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life." Amen!

"I have absolutely nothing to wear!"

It was quiet for far to long while Sydney was playing in her room yesterday. I walked in to find her like this with no clothes left in her closet cubbies.



But even when she is being bad she is still cute:)

And for her next trick she will be running!

It is crazy how fast her walking skills have developed. The first part of the video was 3 weeks ago and the last sequence was shot just yesterday!

first easter basket love

So glad we decided to make the drive to Orange Co. for Easter. We shared a great meal with the Folmars. My does S love playing with her cousins!

Ama put together the cutest easter baskets for her grandkids. S's basket was felt and had a big monkey on the front. Inside was a book, a music dvd, baby coloring markers for the bath, a mini purse and some chocolate (for mom). Wow...good thing I didn't even try at an easter basket this year it would have failed miserably by comparison :) Thanks AMA!

Church Retreat

I love this picture! Morgan and his kiddos enjoying a cup o' joe :)

Uh...how funny is Sydney in the background doing her head tilt?

Hands down cutest retreat picture ever!

Even though we could only join in the fun for the day it was so great to spend time with some of the other mommies and babies that go to our church. I was impressed by all the willing moms to brave the retreat with their little ones.

April 13th

Here are some funny pics from a couple weeks ago, taken on S's acutal birthday.

Thanks Anna for taking us to Yellow Bird music class!!

We stuck her candle in a chocolate covered strawberry and when we lit it she wasn't sure she wanted to be that close to an open flame! Right as she reached out to touch it James quickly blew it out for her. Daddy to the resuce!

But she definitely enjoyed the chocolate!

She makes me smile

The other night we took an after dinner trip to H.ome De.pot to look at kitchen stuff (an upcoming remodel is in our near future). S starts hooting and hollering with both arms waving even as we approached the store entrance. Pretty soon she was waving to every person we passed shouting sweetly "Hiiiiiiii" with a huge smile on her face. Of course most people stop in their tracks and wave, smile and say hi back followed by a fair amount of S oodling. But the rare person just pretends to ignore her without so much a nod in her direction...despite the fact that she is literally screaming hello to them as if they were a celebrity. Even when she didn't find someone to greet she was busy looking in both directions with one hand in the air giving her best princess wave. Desperately seeking her next victim. The whole thing is a riot. Needless to say she is the only person in our family to enjoy the H.ome De.pot.

Then tonight I am driving along and hear her saying "hi, hi" to me from her car seat. So I glance into my rear view mirror and see her holding her board book up over her face just so she is barely peeking her eyes out from under it. Of course I say, "peek-a-boo" and then she quickly covers her face completely with the book. I look again and she is peeking at me from around the side of the book. "Peek-a-boo" Her little grinning face tells me that she is pretty smitten with herself for this new trick. I know, I know, don't crash the car right?! J already warned me about this!

some party pics

Sweet Gwen...Happy Birthday to you Today!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Every time I think about writing this post I start to get emotional.

One year ago today Sydney was born at 2:01 pm. She is the child that we longed for, ached for, prayed for, talked about, thought about and waited 3 years for. And when she came I felt overjoyed. But not a jump up and down joy (especially not after 30 hrs of labor!) but rather I felt a peaceful joy, a content joy. There have been moments of panic and worry... did she just swallow a thumb tack...is she still breathing....will she ever sleep more than 3 hrs in a row? But the fact that her life is so completely a gift from the Lord reminds me that she belongs to Him and He has her life under HIS control. But when I am holding her in my arms everything just feels so right, so good. I wish I could say that I haven't taken a single minute for granted but I know thats impossible. But what a good year it has been, so full.

My cup runneth over.

Now in celebration of that girl we call Sydney (and babycakes, snugglebug, pookie nu nu, pumkin pie, etc.) here are some milestones from the year:

1 week- finally got the hang of breast feeding!

1 month- first smile, first flight

2 months-slept in crib all night

3 months-first giggle, first time away from mom, first sailing trip!

4 months-first time in the nursery at church, first try at rice cereal (she hated both of these!!), rolled over!

6 months-grasps objects, eating some fruits and veggies

7 months-waves hello, sits up by self, learned to clap

8 months-crawling, drinking out a straw, first cold

9 months-finally enjoys eating solids!, pull self up, first & second teeth, first word "hi", hold own cup

10 months-first trip to the ER (for croup), 3rd & 4th teeth, knows and says "dad", says "whoof"when she sees a dog.

11 months-stands alone, takes first step, says "eat" and makes "yum" sound.

trademark Sydney....

(because I had so much fun with the milestones...hey if I can't unabashedly gush over my daughter on her birthday then when can I?)

-crossing her feet (at the ankles) while she eats.

-never turning down a meal :)

-wrapping her little arm around mine to 'hold on' when being held

-passion for the outdoors, people, kids and dogs.

-to give and receive smiles from anyone and everyone

-playing with books, playing cards and doors (little ones and big ones)

-music and singing (especially Kelly Clarkson)

-playing on the floor, rolling around, etc.

-clapping,waving, babbling, crawling around (head down sometimes for speed...yes she has run into walls this way)

-getting super excited and waving arms around while making a "he he he" or "oh oh oh"sound

Baby Dedication...

Thanks to everyone who came to church with us for this special day, it meant a lot to us.

Too bad we have the parking lot view in this picture :(

And now the video you have all been waiting for....

James was actually planning on reading a little further in Ephesians but he figured no one was listening at that point....Sydney truly did steal the show!

Out to lunch.

At the zoo. With dad.

The snow leopard was our favorite. She was so pretty!

Look at how long her tail is!!!

Thanks (James) for the lunch date at the zoo, your girls loved it :)

Morning Runs

For the past 3 weeks I have been good about going running (after a 6 month hiatus). I have been feeling great as a result and enjoy the structure that it gives my day. At least I know I have accomplished something if I get my run in:) Sydney loves this time outside and usually takes the opportunity for a little morning snooze. Lately it has been so cold though she looks something like this...all bundled up.

Her (Secret) Admirer

This adorable dress showed up on our door step and the note said "From Grady". Already she is getting attention from the boys (Grady is 1 year old). Daddy is not happy :) Happy St. Patrick's Day folks!!!

One fine day...

..back in July of 2003 James & Marissa got married on this very hilltop area at the zoo! And yesterday when I took Sydney there with some friends and she had a blast chasing the birds around the lawn.

Her favorite both times we have gone is the petting zoo section. She gets so excited that she starts jumping up and down in her seat and squealing with delight. She would scale the fence and hop in the cage if I let her. As usual she was cracking people up with her antics.