My baby turns 1!

Charlotte turned 1 on October 17th.  I'm not too sure how I feel about her being a year old.  I love my baby girl and I don't want her to grow up!  Charlotte started walking a few weeks before she turned 1, but she still prefers to crawl.  She is the happiest baby we have ever had.  She is also the most talkative!  She loves to clap and make noises with her mouth.  Whenever somebody turns on the vacuum she speed crawls straight for it.  She loves to chase it!  She also likes to stand on her head.  And watch out during bath time!  She is wild for water and splashes and swims like crazy!  She still likes to wake up every two hours at night. . .grrr.  But she's adorable and I'm enjoying every second of our little cutie!

29 things from my 29th year

I decided to compile a list of 29 things I did this past year.  Some are big, some small, but it all happened while I was 29!

 1. Had my fifth baby

 2. Experienced natural childbirth (ouch)

 3. Made the kids Halloween costumes

 4. Drove to Texas 3 times

 5. Drove to Seattle 1 time

 6. Flew 3 times

 7. Moved across the country

 8. Re-did 4 pieces of furniture

 9. Learned how to grocery shop with 5 kids

10. Photographed my first wedding (see 5)

11. Was robbed (see 10)

12. Said good-bye to my grandma

13. Spoke at my grandma's funeral

14. Was a pallbearer 

15. Started a craft blog

16. Spent 7 weeks in Utah

17. Went to a Twilight party

18. Got my eyeliner tattooed (ouch)

19. Hauled a trailer from Utah to Texas

20. Inherited a piano (see 19)

21. Read 35 books

22. Saw 3 movies in the theater

23. Got a dog

24. Lived without A/C for 3 days in July

25. Took apart and fixed the kitchen sink

26. Celebrated 9 years of marriage

27. Dyed my hair red

28. Baked my first apple pie

29. Bought a Mac

The Big 3-0

I turned 30 on September 29th.  Wow!  Seems crazy!  I remember always thinking that 30 was old.  Not so much anymore.  I decided to embrace it and not be all gloom and doom about it.  My birthday was great!  Last year my birthday was awful so I made sure to make this one special.  I went shopping the day before and bought a "birthday outfit" to wear on my big day.  One of my good friends threw me a birthday party lunch with a few other friends.  It was so nice to get together and chat and just have fun. After lunch, I went to a bookstore and loaded up on books.  I love to read!  Then I went home and baked my own birthday cake.  (But only because I wanted to bake my own cake!)  I use to have the traditional Rex Spice cake every year when I was younger and I haven't had it for years so that is what I made and it was soooo good!  Dave brought home dinner from my favorite, Freebirds.  And then I opened gifts.  It was a perfect day!

My birthday outfit

Me and my kiddos

Sophie turns 5

Sophie turned 5 on September 9th.  She is lovin' Hello Kitty lately so her birthday was centered around that.  Sophie is still our little dare-devil.  She's tough and not afraid to try new things.  She LOVES to color and paint.  She goes to preschool twice a week and enjoys it so much.  A little while ago Emma was telling Sophie something.  Sophie wasn't sure if Emma was teasing her so she said, "For truths? No double tricksies?"  Very cute!  She can be stubborn and does not like to clean up here messes, but without fail, she always makes me smile and laugh each day!  We love our little Sophie!

The Dad Life

HILARIOUS!!! Because it's so true!

"Must -Haves" of late

Just thought I'd share some random things I've been enjoying lately.

L.O.V.E. this show!  I can't believe I just started watching it in May.  Seriously, it has become my favorite show EVER.  Love it!

Oh my goodness!  Best. Burrito. Ever.  I could eat one every single day. So, so good.

Maybelline Pulse Perfection Vibrating Mascara.  This is great mascara.  It adds volume and length and the pulse action separates those lashes perfectly.  Love it!

The iMac.  We got one a couple of weeks ago and of course, Love it!  As my sister says, "Once you go Mac, you never go back!"

Heaven.  Divine. Perfection.  Yum.  Yes, LOVE it!

It's the little things in life that make me happy!

Tom Cruise on Home Teaching

Summer Fun!

Emma's Baptism

We were in Utah from the end of May until the first of July. Yeah, for like, seven weeks!  It was great to spend so much time with all of our family in Utah. While we were there, Emma was baptized on July 3rd.  It was a special day and I'm so glad that we got to spend it with all of our close family. She asked her Uncle Daniel and Aunt Steffani to speak and they both gave awesome talks.  Emma was baptized in the same font that I was baptized in!  Pretty cool!  Unfortunately, someone pulled the plug in the font before we got there and we had to fill it back up the fast way.  The fast way being with cold water.  So, it was a bit of an icy experience for Emma!  But she was a trooper. 

Celebrating July 24th

We weren't in Utah to celebrate Pioneer Day, but we did have a lot of fun here in Texas!  Some of Dave's co-workers had a little shindig on a lake for the day.  Ummm. . .can you say fun?  It was absolutely gorgeous.  The lake was actually a dammed up part of a river. And it was the perfect temperature.  The kids had a blast and swam in the water almost the entire time.  There was a rope swing that Dave had some serious fun with!  The food was great, the people were great, and the water was great!  If I could spend the summer at a lake house I might actually enjoy the Texas heat!  And not to forget about the pioneers and the heat I'm sure they endured in their journeys, we endured sweltering heat in our house when we got home and found the a/c broken.  Ummm. . .not so fun.

A beautiful place to spend the day

 Many jumps from the swing

Swim, swim, swim

Our little fish

Charlotte had a nap

LOVE her!

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

I love this! Very cool!

Zelda

We got our first dog!  The kids have wanted a dog forever, especially Emma.  Last year we promised her we would get a dog around her birthday.  So. . . we're only a year late.  We decided on a lab or a lab mix.  Dave and I narrowed down a few names for the dog and let Emma choose one.  So here is Zelda!  She's a really sweet little lab mix puppy.  She's all black.  And she's got cute little perky ears. 

She was obviously sleepy in these pictures.  I'll have to get some when she's playing with the kids.

Randoms