Miss Brooke's 1st Birthday...

Katelyn and I have been staying busy while Kyle is away. Today, after enjoying a relaxing morning together, we headed to Katelyn's buddy Brooke's 1st birthday party. Her Mama Jessica did an AMAZING job planning Brooke's birthday. She made everything from the banners, to the runners, to the cookies, boo boo bags, well and everything else you see in the pictures herself. AMAZING!! I keep telling her I would love to start a small party planning company with her because when we're together we're always coming up with fun, creative ideas for parties and crafts. It's one of the many things I love about our friendship. Katelyn and I had so much fun at the party. I didn't get very many pictures of the party going on, but I did make sure to get pictures of all the decorations. Enjoy! Happy 1st Birthday Brooke, we love you!!

This is the gift Katelyn gave Brooke for her birthday. My friend Stephanie Burke makes toy boxes as a business and I had her make a shabby shic theme box for Brooke to match her nursery. The letters are pink with white polka dots and the sides were painted with light and dark pink flowers with rhinestone accents. Inside we filled it with a coloring book, and a pink and brown crayon roll up I make for Brooke.

Dessert table....yummy.

Love the birthday banner!

Gift table with the goodie bags that had hand made boo boo bags in them. Jess also made the runner you see. If you click on the picture you'll be able to see the side of the box a little better.

Backyard decor

Katelyn enjoying her cupcake. I let her have at it, and she only at 1/3 of it. She has better self control than I do. =)

Brooke after she got to dig into her birthday cake. I'm pretty sure she would've eaten the whole thing, but her mommy and daddy decided she'd had enough.

Our friends Cesar, Patty and their baby Liam (2 1/2 months). They are such an adorable family. Jessica took a picture of Katelyn and I together so I'll post it when she sends it to me.

Thanks for the invite Shumard's, we had so much fun celebrating with you!

Moving....

No, we're not moving out of our apartment, but we did pack up some furniture and miscellaneous other stuff and put it into storage. After doing some further research on the housing market, we feel that the market may drop again before the end of the year and felt more at peace about staying where we are till March, re-evaluate the market after the first of the year, and then decide whether we want to buy then. In the meantime we needed to make room for our little baby boy, due December 3. Katelyn, our little monkey, decided to help mommy pack by climbing up on all the storage bins. The first time I caught her doing it she looked up at me with a big grin almost as if to say, "look at what I can do Mommy?!" Oh how we love her so much!!

4 Generations

While we were in Boston, we decided to have a new 4 generation picture taken of my Nana, Mom, myself and Katelyn. They came out so great, we were so excited!! Since Picture People is having a photo contest we decided to enter the picture of Katelyn with the boa in it. We'll see if she wins.

Trip to Reading, Mass, to visit family

Last Wednesday Katelyn and I headed to Massachusetts to visit my Mom and Nana and Papa for 6 days. I knew that pretty soon I wasn't going to be able to travel and Labor Day weekend was the perfect time to go because my Mom had several days off work. We had such a great trip filled with trips to the park, visiting with family, family pictures, and of course I got a little break and a chance to relax. The trip over wasn't too bad, other than the fact that Katelyn figured out how to unbuckle the seat belt and kept wanting to get down and run around. She wasn't too thrilled when I made her sit in my lap during take off and landing. I didn't have my nice camera with me, and often forgot to grab my little one, but here are some of the pictures from our trip.

On the plane ride over:

finally passed out and got some sleep:

Learning how to play the piano with her Great Nana:

Helping her Great Papa

One of the nights we were there we took Katelyn to Bean Town, where everything you see is made of jelly beans. It was so cool. We got ice cream and watched the water and light show. Katelyn loved it!!

Katelyn loves to cuddle with her Grandma. She would rock with her, and follow her around the house everywhere she went.

The street my grandparents live on is in a quiet neighborhood with an elementary school at the end of the street. So we would take Katelyn outside and let her run around in the yard and on the side walks. It's so hard to get good pictures of her once she gets going ... she's fast!

We ordered pizza one night and even though Katelyn had eaten her dinner she decided to dig in and enjoy some as well. I would never let her eat out of the box standing up at home, but I guess that's what Grandma's house is for... spoiling! She loved the pizza, it was hilarious to watch her try and eat it without cutting it up first.

On the morning we left we had family pictures taken, including a 4 generation picture of my Nana, Mom, myself and Katelyn. Stay tuned I will post them soon. We returned home last night on a late flight that was very turbulent. Katelyn cried most of the flight because she was tired and couldn't roam around due to the turbulence. After being on the plane for 6 hours I was so ready to de-board and get home. Katelyn was so excited to see her daddy, although she didn't see much of him before she passed out in her carseat on the way home and didn't even wake up when I changed her diaper and put her to bed. We all got up early this morning and Katelyn got to spend some time with Kyle before we headed back to the airport to send Kyle off on his trip. It was a great trip, but it's nice to be home and be able to sleep in my own bed. Speaking of sleep, that's where I'm headed. More to come tomorrow....

Story time at Potterybarn Kids

Last Tuesday before we left on our trip I took Katelyn to Potterybarn Kids for their story time. I wasn't sure how Katelyn would do, but she's taken such a genuine interest in books I thought it would be fun to take her. We had plans to meet up with Stephanie, Jaden and Ashlyn and were pleasantly surprised to run into some of my friends from Kids Klub and Bible Study. So fun!! Story time was great, although none of our kids sat still, except Simon (he's a stud!!). I think I'm going to try and take her again next Tuesday.

Katelyn enjoying her raisins while waiting for story time to start.

The group of us, minus some of the kids because they were playing

Happy Birthday Uncle Brendan!

On Monday night before I left we headed to the beach house to celebrate Brendan, Kyle's brother's, birthday. After a yummy dinner Katelyn decided she would help her Uncle Brendan with his birthday cake. She went to town on the icing! Happy Birthday B, we had so much fun celebrating with you!! Love you!!

Katelyn and I with Brendan and Ashtyn

Day at Grandpa and Gigi's house

After spending the first part of the week sick with a high fever, being misdiagnosed with an ear infection, breaking out in a bad rash all over her body as a reaction to the meds we figured out she didn't need Katelyn spent the day with her Grandpa and Gigi. The Saturday before I left for my trip Kyle and I dropped Katelyn off at her grandparents so we could spend the entire day together having fun and relaxing before our month of traveling began. It was so much fun to get our hair cut, have lunch with friends, a great dinner at Ho Sum (one of our favorite restaurants in NB), watch the sunset at the Balboa Pier and a enjoy chocolate covered slice of cheesecake for dessert. It almost felt almost like we were pregnant with our first, not our second. Katelyn spent the day running around, playing outside, and picking flowers for her grandparents. Thanks Grandpa and Gigi for watching Katelyn Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Monday so that I could get everything I needed to for my trip. Love you guys!!