Emilee's BEE-day party!

The day before Emilee turned one, we threw a little BEE-day bash for her. It was SO FUN! I started collecting bee-themed things a few months ago and I was able to put together a cute little party for her 1st birthday. I hung yellow paper lanterns above her party high chair and attached little bee stickers to it so that it sort of resembled a bee hive.  I made little BEE party bags for all of the kids to take home filled with bee stickers, bee erasers, honey sticks, bee candy, yellow striped candy sticks, bubbles, etc. The gift bags were just yellow lunch bags and I glued on black strips of felt, googily eyes, and little wings made out of sparkly scrapbook paper. ADORABLE! I found a beehive drink dispenser at Pier 1 several months ago and filled it with lemonade for the kids (and adults) to enjoy. Lynae got a bunch of mini bottles of honey in those little bear shaped bottles, emptied them out, and turned them into cute little sippy cups for all of the kids!  Emilee's ADORABLE cake was made by Upper Crust and looked like a pretty little bee. She very much enjoyed the cake, and I even tried some of her semi-slobbery left-overs because, um, HELLO... it was from Upper Crust!!! Everyone else got cute little cupcakes made by Safeway with black and yellow decor. Tammy got little bee antennas for everyone to wear. She also made an AWESOME board for photos with little holes for the kids (and adults!) to put their faces through. Soooo cute!

We had such a fun time. All of Emilee's family and little friends were there. Everyone played and mingled and had a great time together, and then blessed Emilee with lots of presents! She got tons of CUTE outfits, mostly for this fall, and some reallllyyy fun toys. I love our friends and family and I'm so thankful for all of them. I'm so happy everyone could come and celebrate our little princess with us! I can't believe she's ONE!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures from her special day. Enjoy!

Our little Emilee is 1 year old!

Today is Emilee's birthday! She was born 1 year and about 5 hours ago. :) She was such a sweet, cute, TINY baby and she brought joy to my heart IMMEDIATELY! She is such a blessing each and every day!!!!! Ryan and I are so in love with her and we talk about how cute she is before bed like, EVERY night. She makes us so happy.

 

 

 

Emilee has been walking along furniture for a while now, but just a few days ago she started walking with some walking toys. She is ADORABLE. I think she will walk very soon.

She is a curious little girl who loves to explore. She takes all of the books off of the book shelf. She gets into boxes of toys and diapers. She TRIES to reach the trash and speed-crawls toward the bathroom any time we leave the baby gate open. She is just starting to be interested in opening cabinets. She steals my purse every chance she gets.

She has a few large stuffed animals that she loves to go up to and snuggle. It is so cute! She will also do this to pillows or blankets if they're on the floor, and she does it to Mommy & Daddy, too, which is the BEST. :) She loves food, but has been a little bit pickier lately. I hope she doesn't end up as picky as her Dada. She gets really, really excited if she sees graham crackers. She LOVES bath time.

She usually hates getting her diaper changed because she's rather be playing or crawling around instead of laying still. She is VERY silly. She knows what will make us laugh. She makes funny faces and sounds all the time. Even if she's not doing anything silly, if we start laughing, she will laugh, and we have a laughing-fest. We do that pretty much every day.  She gets extra silly when she's tired. Daddy likes to hang her upside down and she loves it. She loves to get her ribs and feet tickled! I love her giggle. It's one of the best sounds I've ever heard.

I can't believe how fast a year can go by. It feels like she was just born. I miss her teeny-tiny little self. I have been a little bit sad that she's growing up so fast, but it is also just so amazing to watch her grow and learn new things. She has a cute little personality. I love her SO much!

Yesterday we had a big BEE themed party to celebrate her birthday. It was so cute, and we had 51 people there!!! I was so glad that everyone could make it and share Emilee's special day with us. This morning when she woke up I brought her into our bed to say hi to Daddy. We spent the morning together and she talked and talked. She talks non-stop (baby talk). She really thinks she's communicating, but we have no idea what she's saying! Haha! It is adorable though. We went to church, and after she had her afternoon nap we took her to the fountain park in Oroville with Grammy Tammy. It was perfect. She was SO cute and happy. We didn't stay too long, but I think she had a great time and it was very special to spend the whole day with my little sweetie!!! We also got a chance to try out her new trike that she got for her birthday from Grammy Tammy. She LOVES it and she just chills in it like she's sooo cool while we push her around. She's the sweetest little thing. :)

 

  

 

 

  

  

Happy Birthday, sweet baby girl!!!

 

What's goin' on?

This summer has been a lot of fun and there have also been some changes little changes in our lives

Emilee is growing up so fast. She's turning 1 year old in ONE week! I can't believe how fast the past year has gone by. WOW. She has changed so much. Every day she's changing! She started off crawling on her belly a few months back, and it was so cute. She looked like a little inch worm. She eventually started crawling on her hands and knees, but for a while there I thought she was going to go straight from an army crawl to walking. For the last several weeks she's been standing and pulling up on furniture and cruising around holding onto tables, the couch, chairs, and anything else she can reach. I think she's going to walk really soon. I think she'd be able to, she just doesn't want to or hasn't figured it out yet. Her legs are strong and her balance seems pretty good, but she's always holding onto furniture. Today she like, SPEED WALKED against a pew at church. She was holding on the whole time but boy, she FLEW! Haha. It was super cute.

I started watching a cute, sweet little girl part-time for a little bit of income. I watch her Mon - Fri from the morning until about 1:00. It's a really great schedule for me. Emilee takes a nap during part of the time, so it's actually a pretty easy job most days. The little girl is about 2 1/2 and she's really well behaved, curious, loves to learn shapes and colors and new phrases. Her newest favorite thing to say is "Behind you!!!".  I think she learned it from Blue's Clues. Uh, yeah, I've been watching a lot of Blue's Clue's these days, as well as Mickey Mouse, Yo Gabba Gabba (O-M-G!) - I pretend I don't have access to Dora or Barney. ;-) It's been going really well so far and I hope I can continue to watch her until she goes to school in a few years.

Ryan is still working at the same place and is doing well there. He is in a good, secure position there and I think a lot of his co-workers and department members like him. (How can you not?) ;-)  I'm really thankful for his job. Both of our jobs. He works hard and takes care of us well.

This week I'm finishing up plans for Emilee's first birthday party. We're doing a Bee theme and it's going to be SO cute. I will try to remember to blog and post pictures on here. I hope she gets a good nap beforehand. She's going to love her cake, I already know it! :)

Today felt Fall-ish, and it was the first time it felt that way in a long time. It looked like it might've rained overnight last night. It ended up warming up, but it felt nice to open up the windows this morning. I also got to put Emilee in some cute little jeans that I've been wanting to try on her, but it's been too hot. She looked so cute. The front pockets have little bows, and the back pockets are shaped like hearts. Awwww! I generally LOVE sunshine and summer time, but I am looking forward to this Fall. In my mind, it doesn't have to be hot outside - it can be quite chilly and I wouldn't mind, but I've gotta have the SUN. Rain sucks. :) So if it happens just overnight like last night, that's fine with me!

Vintage high chair revamp

I got this high chair on Craigslist for only $15!!!  I found out later that a friend's mother-in-law has basically the same exact high chair and she's had it for 33 years. Wow, I didn't know it was that old! Anyway, I bought some supplies and painted it baby pink and it turned out so CUTE! I love it.

Ryan is 30!!!

Back in July Ryan turned 30! I know 30 is not that old, but I can't believe my HUSBAND is 30! haha. I'll be there before I know it. I planned a surprise party for him and I was really proud that I actually pulled it off without him finding out. He had NO clue! It was tons of fun and it made it extra fun that he had no clue!

 

 

We kind of "recreated" a picture from one of Ryan's birthday parties from years ago (9 or 10 years, maybe?) The one on the left is the old one... (duh).

My dad took a video of the big "SURPRIIIIISE!"  Here it is:   http://youtu.be/1hpI3j66U-g

I have the most amazing husband. In the last 30 years he's grown and matured into a WONDERFUL man, husband, and father to our sweet little lady. I love him SO much and I'm so glad we were able to spend this special day together.

7 months!

Emilee is 7 months old today!!! When did my little baby get so big?! She is so cute. Right now she's bouncing away in her bouncy toy. She LOVES it. I think it is one of her favorite things to do besides play with mommy & daddy.  She'll bounce in there for a long time and she talks and plays with all of the toys on it. She'll look at me every few minutes and I'll clap for her and say "yayyy!" and she smiles SO big. Sometimes she does a little squealy laugh and it is ADORABLE. She is a happy baby. But when she gets mad, she can get MAD!!! haha!

(bouncing away!)

My little lady is growing up so fast. She can sit on her own (sometimes she falls over - she's still perfecting this skill). She "talks" a whole bunch. She's becoming more and more coordinated with her little hands. She likes to grab things - toys, people's faces, hair, pillows, blankets... anything!  She likes to watch TV (ohgoodness.) and she especially likes BASKETBALL. Just like Dada. :-/  I guess I can handle another sports-lover but ONLY because they'll be sooo cute together!

(Sitting up so well!)

Emilee loves to eat. She's not a picky eater so far. She has chunky little thighs and big ol' cheeks. I LOVE it! At her last doctor's appointment about 2 weeks ago, she weighed almost 18 lbs and she was 26 inches tall. She is in the 50th percentile for height (so as I understand it, half of the babies are taller and half of the babies are shorter than she is). And she is in the 75th percentile for weight. Cute little chubbers! I LOVE HER! :)  I've been trying to work on her baby book here and there so that I don't start to forget things. She's just growing up so fast!!!

Yum Yum, Dada!

She LOVES to smile and giggle. It's super easy to get her to smile. To make her laugh, the best way is to "eat" her ribs. She's so ticklish there. It's the cutest thing ever. After Emilee went to sleep the other night, I was showing Ryan a few videos I took of her laughing. After we watched a couple he said, "Let's go wake her up and make her laugh!!!"  I thought that was SO sweet! (We didn't wake her up, obviously!)

It's hard to get her to go to sleep, even when she's really tired. She just fights it, and she's also picky about her surroundings. We put a fan on for white noise. She also likes it dark in the room (just like her mommy & daddy). I also still swaddle her arms, but leave her legs free. If her arms are free she pulls out her pacifier and then cries. I put it back in, and she pulls it back out again. She also moves her arms too much and wakes herself up when I'm placing her in her crib if I don't swaddle up her arms. She's kind of old for that, but it works for her! I read another mommy's blog recently - she swaddled her baby 'til he was like 9 or 10 months old, I think. She said "I thought I was going to have to send him off to college with a large sheet and swaddling instructions!"  Haha! That's kind of how I feel.  Her sleeping patterns are still somewhat unpredictable. Sometimes she sleeps all the way through 'til morning, and other time she wakes up several times. Around 6 in the morning, I usually take her into our bed and she'll fall back asleep. I love waking up with her cute self next to me in the morning. It's especially fun on the weekend when Ryan is home, too. She'll wake him up and grab his face or kick his back if he's turned the other way.

She is such a good girl. Last Friday Lynae, Jessica, Emilee & I went out to dinner at California Pasta Productions (YUM!). I tried to pick somewhere that Emilee wouldn't be an annoyance if she got fussy. You can sit outside at that place and the weather was really nice, so that is what we did! Emilee was a perfect angel! No fussing. Just playing, smiles, laughter, cuteness. She kept laughing at Jessica with this really funny squealy laugh. It was SO funny. 

I think I'm going to take her to Target and Old Navy today. A friend found some cute jellies for her baby at Old Navy for like, $4, and I think Emilee needs some! And she needs some formula, too. I've been combining coupons to sometimes get up to $10 off which is HUGE! The doctor is having me try Soy for a little bit to see if it helps her gassiness. Poor baby has always had lots of farties and tummy aches. :(

We have TONS of clothes in her current size (6 - 9 months), so I've been dressing her in a different cute outfit every day. It's also been really warm here so she can wear all of her cute summer-y stuff. I love having a girl so I can dress her in cuteness!

 

 

Last night Ryan and I chatted in bed before we went to sleep. We were talking about what we'd name our next baby if it's a girl. (By the way, NO, I'm not pregnant and I don't want to be anytime soon!!! It's just a fun thing to talk about!!!)   We have a boy name that we both like, but we only had one girl name that we like (Emilee) and that's taken! I like Evelyn and Kaitlyn/Katelyn, but Ryan doesn't like those. He likes the name Erika which I don't like. He likes the name Kayla which I was like, "hmmm, that's actually pretty cute. I can work with that."  But then we realized that's WAY to close to CALEB! haha. That would get confusing. Ryan joked that we should name our girls Kayla and Janes and... we couldn't think of something that sounded close enough to Josiah... Lolilah? ;-) Delilah? haha!

For now, we're happy just enjoying our sweet Emilee-Bear. She brings us so much JOY. I love being her Mommy.

20 random things...

1. I really want a new mattress. Ours = sucks.

2. I have an annoying tendency to start projects and not finish them for a long time.

3. A new John Mayer song came on the radio the other day... it was the first time I heard it and I immediately started to CRY! In the past, I'd always already know about a new Johnny song because Carrisa would "alert" me. :) And when we were in high school, we'd often be together the first time we heard a new Johnny song. I felt like a dork for crying over a JM song... but it's amazing how sound/music can pull you back to a different time. I miss her.

4. Emilee brings me so much stinkin' JOY! I can't even express how much I love her.

5. My husband, Ryan, is pretty AMAZING. <3 Next March we will have been a couple for TEN YEARS!!!

6. I can't wait to have tea-parties and play dollies with Emilee when she gets a little bit older. :)

7. I have a weird thing about kids and their TEETH. Basically, there's this creepy age-range... I'm not sure exactly what age it is but it's when kids get their big-kid teeth but they still have tiny little-kid heads and it CREEPS ME OUT! HAHA! James just lost his first 2 teeth. I hope I'm not too scared of him during the next few years. ;-)

 8. I think I might've experienced the best feeling in the world the other day: Snuggling my Emilee-bear in our bed while she slept so peacefully, and her Dada was snoozing next to us. I've never felt so happy in my life.

9. The 3 cutest boys in the whole entire world are MYYY nephews!!! They're all mine - stay back! :)

10. I love how much my parents and mother-in-law love me and Ryan and our baby. :) We have a great family.

11. If you have a secret, don't even tell me you have a secret. The rule is, if you tell me you have a secret then you HAVE to tell it to me!!!!! I will bug you 'til you do. So don't even tell me you have a secret and you'll be better off. :)

12. When I was pregnant with Emilee, I thought she was going to come out as a red-head. There aren't red-heads in our immediate families, but both of us have cousins with red hair. I told Ryan we could call her our little "Ginger Snap". (I also like to call babies food-related nicknames, like when James was a baby he was "my little chicken nugget").

13. When I was pregnant I couldn't get enough French Onion Dip. I ate so much one time that I figured I'd never, ever, ever eat it again. Then 2 days later I had some more.

14. I wish our friends who don't live nearby would MOVE BACK. I'm talking to you, Lefebvre's, Tatro's, and Goodlin's (and you too, Creasy! Oh wait... I guess Heaven might be a little bit better than Butte County). ;-)

15. I don't really watch MTV but I LOVE "Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory" (and "Rob and Big"). HILARIOUUUSSS!!!

16. The best zoo I've been to is the San Diego Zoo. I want to go back really bad. I still have to feed the giraffes with Caleb someday. I've fed them with James and Joey at the Sacramento Zoo. SO FUN!

17. The cookie dough from Papa Murphy's is really good... in dough form or in cookie form.

18. I love this: http://pinterest.com/pin/154529830934122485/

19. I had never heard of The Hunger Games until the movie came out. We saw it last weekend and I like it! I might read the books or at LEAST see the movie sequels. :)

20. I made a "too soon" joke about Lincoln's assassination. You might've had to be there but... it was pretty funny. ;-)