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.