Sunday Funday:)

We had such a fabulously fun day today!

It started with a picnic at a park near our house.

What is inside our picnic basket for lunch??

Oooh...it looks good:) I love her expression in this picture.

Then we came home for naptime. After Nelia woke up we set up the little pool and she had a blast splashing around and playing with her toys!

Finally, Patrick installed the bike seat for Nelia on his bike and she went on her first bike ride ever! She had a blast! 

We finished the day with a yummy dinner - parmesan crusted halibut and broccoli.  Nelia went to bed quickly - she fell asleep in a record 2 minutes (must have been all the fun from the day) and we get the rest of the night to relax.

Happy 1st Birthday sweet girl!!!!! 12 month update!

Dear Nelia, Nelia Jane, Nelia Janey, Nelly Jane, Nuggie, Nelly Bean, Nelly, Nel...

My amazing, beautiful, sweet girl.  Happy 1st Birthday!  What an incredible year this has been.  I truly couldn't ask for anything more in life. You have enriched our lives and taught us more than we could ever have imagined. It is hard to believe that you have only been with us for 12 months - I feel like you have been a part of our lives forever. 

We are guessing that you are close to 25lbs - such a big girl!  You are wearing a size 4 diaper and wearing 12-18 month clothes.  You have four teeth - two on the bottom and two on top!  You starting weaning at 11 months, 4 days and by the time you turned one you were done completely.  I feel proud of both of us that we made it a year - that was my goal! You made the transition to whole milk pretty quickly - I started with mixing it with formula and slowly decreased the formula until you were just drinking milk. You have a great appetite! Some of your favorite foods include mini pancakes, blueberries, string cheese, brocolli, carrots, strawberries, spaghetti, maple puffs, veggie straws, ham, and Ritz crackers.  This month you tried a few new things: pizza (which you loved), turkey burger, ricotta and spinach pasta, meatballs and Go-Gurt.

You are crawling everywhere and you are into everything:)  You still don't seem too interested in walking, but perhaps that is because you are so quick and efficient at crawling.  Either way, we are not rushing you. Just take your time, little girl:)  We had to completely baby-proof the house - latches on the cupboards, gates on the staircase, and a gate into the front living room.  You love your toys, but you definitely find joy in things that aren't meant to be toys, like the remote control to the TV or the cat toys.

You know how to say dada, mama, ball, and kitty. You are able to identify a ball, cat, and balloon in books (and probably a few others that I am forgetting). You know where your nose, ears, head, hair, toes, and belly are! Such a smart little girl!  You know how to use your signs for more, please, and milk which is so cool! You love to blow kisses, you wave hello and goodbye, and you love playing peek-a-boo. I love to watch you sit in your little chair and read your books - you turn the pages and get so excited when you see something you recognize, like a kitty or a dog.

We had a busy month - Sophie's 1st birthday party, which was so fun! Her mama did an awesome job on her Rainbow Brite theme. We went to Ryder's 1st birthday party, which was also fun. It was neat seeing you play with your cousin, even if he tackled you:) We went to Trudy's graduation party, where you got to meet a few other babies and crawl around on the grass.  We have had lots of fun playdates with Steph and Grace, Lindsey and Hunter, the Opsahls, and Brysann and Stella. 

Well little girl, happy 12 months! Hard to believe that you are a toddler now (of course you will always be my sweet baby girl though). Thank you again for being so amazing - we love you more than anything in this whole entire world!!

Love,

your mama

Nelia in July!

First, my apologizes for neglecting the blog.  I am going to blame it on the beautiful Seattle weather we have had in the last few weeks - we are just having too much fun enjoying the sun!  To make it up to you, here are a bunch of new Nelia pictures:)

In the beginning of July I headed to Lillith Fair with three of my girlfriends for a fun weekend getaway.  It was my first time leaving Nelia overnight, but I knew she was in great hands with her daddy:)  I was so excited to see her when I got home...and I think the feeling was mutual:)

That same weekend we celebrated the 4th of July with our good friends Nate, Brysann, and baby Stella. We had a great time!

Nelia packing a bag of toys to take over to the Swanson's house, although I am not sure that she played with many of them. It was way more fun going through their things!

Baby Stella:) Isn't she adorable?!

Trying to get a picture with Nelia is impossible! The girl is constantly on the go!

Opening up a present from the Swansons:) 

A new book!  It quacks when she presses the button. She seriously LOVES this book! Thanks again:)

The rest of these pictures have been taken throughout the rest of July.  It is hard to get pictures of her these days since she is always on the go!

Giving her puppy kisses:) Such a sweetie!

Playing in her swimming pool!  This is just a small pool we have set up in our yard. We have been doing lots of swimming other places too! We spent an afternoon with Lindsey and Hunter, which was really fun. Then we swam with Addison, Sophie, and Denise at their house - they have a really big pool!  And we went to Kili's house and swam in her really big pool. I bought Nelia one of those floaty things, which is so nice. I can just plop her in there and she can float around the pool.

Okay mom...stop with the pictures!

I just remembered that I haven't posted her 12 month letter - and to think that she will be 13 months tomorrow!  Headed off to do that next!

Nelia's First Birthday, Part 5: The presents!

We were only able to rent the community center for a short amount of time so we decided to save presents for later.  I had mixed feelings on that because I always love seeing the reaction from people when they open my gift. However, it ended up taking almost 3 hours + several breaks for Nelia to open all her presents so we probably did our guests a nice favor by not making them sit there and watch:)  I am going to send a picture of Nelia opening each guest's gift with the thank you card, but I thought I would share a few here too!

Oooh fun!!! Thank you Henry:)

Ooh...a watering can! Thank you Stella:)

Wow! Look at all my presents!

What is this furry thing???

Oh, I can't believe it!!!  It is the furry ostrich puppet that I loved so much in Sun Valley!

So sweet:) My '1' lamb for my train!

Watch your mailboxes for your picture of Nelia opening your gift:)  And again, a huge, huge THANK YOU to everyone!  You were all so generous and Nelia is so lucky to have so many amazing people in her life. xoxo!

Nelia's First Birthday, Part 4: The birthday girl herself!

Yayyyy it's my birthday!

Eating lunch and getting loves from Auntie Deanna!

Getting ready for everyone to sing Happy Birthday, but first we put on her party hat, which is the point where everything went down-hill!  Poor girl didn't want to wear her hat:)

Family picture:)  Getting ready to sing!

So sad:(  Look at the tears!  I got pretty choked up while singing Happy Birthday to her, which surprised me. But really, it is just so hard to believe that my baby girl is one!

Make a wish!

Is that a smile, Miss Nelia??:)

Hmm...this looks like fun!

Here mama...you try!

What is all over my hands???

Overall, she wasn't too into the cake. She didn't even want to eat the frosting! Silly girl! She must like her veggies too much:)

Balloons always make her happy:)

With Grandpa Roy

A-ha! We got the party hat on, finally:) Of course it only stayed on for about 4 seconds, but still!