Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!

Yes, Lia is one! One whole year! And what a great year it has been. From the day she was born this girl had her own way of doing things. She decided when her birthday would be (by coming a day early -- I'm convinced it was her idea). She's so determined in every way but does things on her own time. Walking, talking, playing, eating -- all according to Lia. She's so happy all the time, hardly cries, gives lots of hugs and kisses and love all the time.



She sleeps through the night with her pink wrappie and her black and white woof woof. She is OBSESSED with shoes. This girl would have a million pairs of shoes if I let her. When I ask her if she wants to go bye bye she immediately sits down to put on her shoes. She brings us different shoes all day long to be put on her feet. She loves shoes. (Including those adorable ones from my mom on her feet!)

 

She also loves to get her hair brushed. She'll bring me her little brush and have me brush her hair and then she'll take it back and brush it herself. She loves to be carried by her daddy and to run around and play. She LOVES books!! She brings us book after book to read to her on our laps. "This!!" she says.



She seriously loves Max. And Max loves her, too. I tease Max sometimes and say we're going to take Lia to the store and see if we can sell her to another family. He immediately says "NO WAY MOM!!!" It's awesome to see my kids as such good friends. They laugh and play all day long. And when Max is at school Lia looks all over the house for him and is so happy when we get to pick him up.



She's such a clown, too. She will do things that she thinks are funny and laugh very loudly at them. Like throwing a ball or tickling her dolls. She loves baby dolls, too. It's funny to think I have such a girly girl already seeing as how I'm not the girliest myself. She likes wearing her jewelry and her dresses (although she protests a lot about getting dressed). She loves her baths and playing with her toys. She loves to snack! She'd live on snacks if we let her.

She's our sweet wonderful adorable smart crazy little girl who chatters all day long and keeps us on our toes constantly. She's such an amazing blessing.

So happy birthday bia bo bia! We love you more than words!

We went to In N Out for Lia's birthday dinner. It was fun to have my mom visiting again this year (she was here this time last year, too). I was bummed that Mattie didn't come with her, she was sick home with the flu. But it was fun for Max to have his Mimi's full attention for a few days! Max LOVED having her here.





Lia pretty much loves hamburgers and french fries, like her brother, and dad and mom. She ate all of her hamburger, a little of Max's and a bunch of french fries. I don't think she ever didn't have a french fry in one of her fists.



We came home and opened presents from Mimi and Danielle and us. She loved them all. Especially the "lawn moooer" from Danielle. She drags that thing all over the house. And she loves the shopping cart from my mom, too. My dad got her a bean bag chair just like her brother's (only purple and with flowers) so she can kick back like him. And she got cute shoes and clothes and books. She had a great birthday!





Max got a present, too. A Mr. Potatohead! He was so excited to get a present of his own! It's something my family used to do for my sister and I on our birthdays.













I made an oversized cupcake Lia for her birthday cake. She was so funny about it. The pictures make it look like she was really into it. But I don't know if it was because she was full from dinner or what, but she kind of picked at it and then would pick up a piece and pretend to eat. For real, she would take pretend bites. We were cracking up watching her fake eat her birthday cake!







Max blew out the candle for her!






 







I made smaller cupcakes for the rest of us. And I had promised I would make pirate cupcakes for Max at Halloween, but then I got sick and couldn't do it, so I just stuck the little flags in the pink cupcakes. He thought it was great.



I'm hoping year number two goes by much slower. I find myself wanting to absorb every second of her growing. We love her so so much. Can't imagine what our family would be like without her! I miss her babyness, but I'm so happy she's thriving and growing and loving life.

Last Baby Pictures

I wanted to post a few pictures of Lia's last night as a baby. Okay, so I'm being over-dramatic, I know, but Lia turning one is pretty bittersweet for me! I don't know why, really. I'm so happy she's healthy and bright and funny and cute. But on the other hand, I feel like maybe she's my last little baby (at least for a while) and I'm sad it's going by so fast!! Anyway... I took these pictures the night before her birthday while we were playing around the house with my mom who was here visiting. (Not the best pictures I realize, but it gets dark too dang early now to take good ones after nap!)







Here is Lia's woof woof -- the black and white stuffed dog that used to be Max's "Old Pal". Lia kind of took him over. She won't sleep without him.





We got her her own Rody Horse for her birthday -- a pink one at Max's request. We gave it to her the night before and as soon as we took it out of the box, before we even blew it up she was squealing and trying to ride on it. She knew it was for her and was sooo excited about it!

Lia Loves Juice

Yes, she does. She LOOOOVES juice. Actually, she loves anything to drink (except milk -- she's not too sure about milk). But this girl loves to carry around her juice cup all day long. Most of the time it's filled with water and she's just as happy with that, too. She has to have a cup while she's drinking dinner. She likes to sip and chew, sip and chew. She asks for juice by name, too. "FOOF" which is not to be confused with "BOOF" which means food. It's hard to tell sometimes.

The other night we caught her kicking back in Max's beanbag with her juice watching "Sesame Street." She stayed there for a good 10 minutes (that's a long time for our kids to sit anywhere!)

A Snake and Architecture

While we were at the craft store one day Max found this snake painting kit that he was obsessing over. It was only $1 so I got it for him. When we got home he sat down on some newspaper on the floor and went to town. He painted that snake leaving not even a centimeter of visible wood. I'm surprised there was even enough paint to do it! AND, he sat in one place for a good 15 minutes doing it. Anyway, he was so proud of it, and proud of the fact that he got paint all over his legs.



He then went and built this structure with his blocks. I asked him what it was but he ignored me. I'm thinking maybe a future housing development or some kind of museum? Hmm... maybe he has a future in architecture.

Look mom! Real pirate ships!

That's pretty much all Max could get out over and over again because he was so excited! We took the kids downtown to see The Star of India ship and a few other ships docked there. We had a good time walking around and watching how excited Max got. It's pretty expensive to actually go take a tour of them. One of these days we'll get down there to do that. But Max was pretty content just watching from the docks and Lia was pretty happy just walking around drinking her juice.




Had to get a picture of the Berkeley!

Who wants to buy a couple of blue eyed babies?

Too bad.



They aren't for sale.



We've decided to keep them.

(Pictures taken by the multi-talented amazing photographer BROOKE BAKER!)

Halloween Fun!!

We loaded up our car with pumpkins and fake spider webs and headed on down to the church parking lot for another fabulous Trunk or Treat. I really love the trunk or treats because it's a great way for kids to go trick or treating without having to take them all over the neighborhood and they get candy from people they (and we) know so you know it's as safe as it can be. Anyway, we had a lot of fun watching Max get all excited about getting candy and showing people his costume. I swear we had the cutest tiger and spider ever!


It looked better in the dark without camera flash.



Lia was so happy to be walking around all over the parking lot -- something we don't ever let her do! So she thought it was just great to run around, and she did a lot of it.






Then on Saturday everyone headed over to a cute Halloween party at the Pugmires. Everyone but me! I was home sick with what is probably the swine flu. For real. (Side note -- get vaccinated! This virus sucks.)






Tyler took the kids trick or treating around the neighborhood after the party. He said Max was so wonderfully excited about the whole thing, running up to people's doors, asking for candy, making sure he took one piece for Lia and one for daddy and sometimes one for me! I'm super bummed I didn't get to go with them. I have yet to take my kids trick or treating (Max's first Halloween we were back east, last Halloween I was too pregnant and this Halloween I was all swined up). Anyway, Halloween was a great success this year. Max got way too much candy and Tyler and I have consumed way too much of it. Happy Halloween!!





And if you'd like to know what the crazies look like after LOTS of Halloween candy? Check it out. Max is throwing popcorn on the floor for Lia. She thinks it's just about the funniest thing in the world. Love these kids!!

Happy Halloween!! From us!!

Bottoms Up

Lia has this little habit in the bath. She likes to take nice, long swigs from this plastic jug. It's really the only thing she likes to play with in the bath at all. And she just throws her head back over and over. It's kind of cute, in a pre-alcholic kind of way I guess. Oh Lia, sweet little thing!







Oh, and did I ever mention how cute Max is? I can't seem to remember if I had. Here's proof. Cute thing.

What we did this morning...

Tyler took the morning off to carve pumpkins with us. Max was pretty excited about the whole thing until we told him he had to stick his hand inside and pull out the seeds and squishy guts. He was NOT having any of that. I finally convinced him to do it and he just about had a meltdown.



He was really excited to draw the face on his pumpkin. And I have to say, he did an amazing job! It's the first time I'd ever seen him draw a face before. He's not much of a colorer or art kind of kid. He will rarely sit down and draw stuff or use a coloring book. But he took that sharpie in his left hand and drew a perfect set of eyes, a mouth and "teeth" and said, "YAY!! JUST LIKE THAT!!!" like he was as surprised as we were that he actually did it.



I cut it out the best I could, following his instructions every inch of the way, and he was pretty happy about the whole thing. Cute boy! He's so dang proud of that pumpkin.





Tyler carved a pretty cool pirate pumpkin. I carved one happy faced one, because honestly, in times like these everyone could use some cheer and who can't help but smile back at a pumpkin? And I carved one scary-ish looking pumpkin. Oh, and after Max saw that I had cut noses on mine he decided he wanted one, too. So he drew a circle right in the middle and I cut it out for him.



I seriously love lit pumpkins. Happy Halloween!

Play Time and a PSA

Oh Lia...

We love Halloween!!

There's no surprise there. We love Halloween. Max has loved Halloween since he could understand that pumpkins and candy and costumes were something. Anyway, as part of our festivities we headed over the Bakers for an afternoon of cookie decorating! The kids thought it was pretty fun. The moms had fun, too, although the excessive asking of WHEN and IF the cookies were ready got old pretty fast.

And Max even ate a cookie with stuff on it! If you know Max at all you know that he is the pickiest eater alive. I was shocked when he actually took a bite of the cookie with frosting and decorations on it. Anyway, LOTS of fun!!

A Quick Family Reunion

While I was off shooting runway fashion shows and Hollywood parties Tyler's whole family decided to pay us a visit. And I mean everyone! It was so fun to have everyone together (especially since the holidays this year we'll all be doing our own thing). Anyway, I wasn't around to take many pictures, but here is one with all the cousins together. Cute, huh?






And here are a few from the family photo shoot we did. Cute grandbabies!

She likes to yell.

A lot. But she sure is cute when she does it!