Happy Birthday Leah!

Today is my little girl's first birthday! I can't even believe how fast this year has gone, and how much she has grown. You can take a fun trip down memory lane (I did) by clicking HERE to see a few pictures from her first day here.

Today I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I did a year ago, but I did take a few. Her big celebration is still a week away, but I thought you'd enjoy some pictures from her day today. We had no big plans. It's been a very busy week, so today we planned to stay at home and relax. Aunt Jenny came by with breakfast. (Remember when she did that for Eli? Another trip down memory lane...As a side note, if you did click on that link you'll see a picture of Eli on the news. Leah was also on the news this morning, but I did not think the picture I sent the news had gotten through...because I got an e-mail saying it HADN'T gotten through. I tried 4 times and each time had the e-mail returned to me. So I gave up...and then at 7:50 am there she was on the tv...and I didn't have my camera ready :( I'm pretty sad that I didn't get to record her first tv appearance...) She brought Leah a muffin from Einsteins...I think she was excited to get it :)
Little baby, big muffin :)
Mmmmm! Tasty!
Eli and I got some yummy bagels and I got my favorite coffee in the whole world-Einsteins Vanilla Hazelnut. YUM.
Leah took a little nap at 10:30, then had lunch (tried eggs...she spit them right out. So she had some bread, cheese...and goldfish. This girl could eat her weight in goldfish.


This post would make it appear that all she did today was eat...but she did do more than that...she irritated her brother on several occasions, giggled more often than I can count, 'helped' me load the dishwasher and fold the clothes (her favorite household chores) and pretended to take an afternoon nap while I baked cookies. So after a dinner of spaghetti (another one of her favorites) she got a birthday cookie :)

She was pretty happy with it :)

After some more evening fun, she helped Eli play on his favorite website-starfall.com. They both love to watch daddy navigate his way through that site.

She also did a bit of dancing :)

Oh...and the reason she has no clothes on is that she dumped my entire 32 oz bottle of water on her when I wasn't looking. I think she looks kinda like a sumo wrestler with no clothes on...my little chunker :) (Something tells me she won't like that nickname in a few years)

Leah is such a sweet little girl. She's nearly always happy and smiling. She is SO smart. She has figured out all of her toys, and how to get her way :) She LOVES her daddy, and gets so excited when he gets home. She is saying so many words-every day she'll say something new, or try to. She has started 'parroting' things I say. She loves to say her name, and the word 'stinky'...which is what mommy says when she changes her diaper. She's said the words mommy, daddy, brother, ouch, hi (her first word) yucky, uh-oh, caterpillar (I swear she said it once...) puppy....those are the ones off the top of my head. NOW, these might be words that only mommy can understand, and some of them may have been a fluke, but I'm counting them :)

She started walking a couple of weeks ago, so there's no stopping her now! She can walk from the family room all the way through the kitchen. She is SO proud of herself when she walks, and is completely adorable. It's so funny to see a kid walk when they're that little!

She is such an amazing blessing from God. I can't believe how blessed we are to have such a sweet little girl!!

My beautiful nephew :)

The past couple of weeks have been so busy. The sad thing is, I don't really know what we did in the last couple of weeks, but I know it's been busy :) One of the very fun things we got to do was to hang out with Ethan :) These pictures are from a couple of different times that we were over there, and I have been meaning to post them for a while...but I finally got to looking at them today while Leah is napping :) So enjoy some pictures of this little cutie!

Big yawn!
I love a swaddled baby :)

Love those little toes!

Happy family!

Abuela getting some snuggles.

The proud grandparents!

And a proud big brother :)

Having a little conversation...

He's just so sweet!

Having a happy dream.

He smiled a lot for the camera :)

And he even opened his eyes for a while the last time we were over there :)

He's such a sweet little guy. Can't wait to hang out again soon!

Meeting Ethan!

Tuesday night Leilani called and said that her contractions were getting stronger...so we were kinda on alert :) So Wednesday we got to hang out with Isaac while his mommy was having a baby! This little guy is now a big brother!
So Eli thought he'd teach him some 'big brother stuff' on Wednesday :) Ya know...like sharing your toys, and stuff...

Leah had fun playing with her cousin too!

I think I need to send some of these home with Isaac-he had a lot of fun playing with them. I had loads 'o fun cleaning them up...

Leah followed Isaac around most of the day.

He was pretty tolerant of her-even when she was hitting his head.

Instead of getting mad, he just helped her put her pacifier back in. He's got this 'big brother' thing down!

Cute kids :)

These two played in this tent for a long time. They just giggled at each other. Completely adorable.

At about 6:00 we all (Edgar, the kids, mom, dad, and I) headed to the hospital to meet Ethan. It took us a while to get there...then once we got there we had trouble finding the room, so by the time we made it to the room it was after 7:00...SO, we didn't get to stay for long. By the time I got to snuggle him he had to go get blood work done, so I only got to hold him for about a minute...but it was a good minute!

Here's the handsome boy!

We should be seeing him again very soon...and I'll take more than 2 pictures :)

Welcome Ethan!!! We love you already :)

Not quite finished...

Yes, I'm talking about our kitchen. It's the renovation that just keeps hanging on. Eventually we will be done. But we're not quite there yet. HOWEVER, Edgar is continuing to take steps in the right direction :) Over Labor Day weekend he started working on the back splash. I LOVE the way it is turning out.
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks so nice. His dad came over on Monday and they worked on it all day. They finished a little over half of it. Now they just have to do the other walls, seal it (it's marble) and grout it...and seal it again. Once it's sealed it will darken a bit. I love it. I think I'll REALLY love it once it's done and the under cabinet lighting is in. I honestly think the thing I have been most excited about in our new kitchen is the under cabinet lighting...I'm waiting patiently though :)

This was my contribution (other than keeping the kids out of the way). Edgar needed me to hold this tile in place until the glue dried. Yeah...for like 3 hours. So I came up with this ingenious way of holding up the tile.

In other news, I decided we needed to start eating seafood. I know it's so good for you, so I thought we'd give it a try. Unfortunately, I don't like fish. At all. In fact, the thought of it makes me cringe a little. Okay...a lot. It's not the taste so much...the texture just kinda freaks me out a bit. BUT, in order to continue down the 'lets eat healthier' road we are on, I decided to get over it and try something new. Edgar doesn't like fish either. In fact, he's allergic to shrimp, so we will be avoiding that.

Anyway, I went to the grocery store and talked to the seafood guy about what someone that doesn't like fish should try. He recommended tilapia, but the only tilapia they had had crab meat in it. I know the dr. said Edgar was just allergic to shrimp, but I didn't want to risk any shellfish...so the next thing the guy recommended was...shark. Yes, you read that right...SHARK. So, I bought shark. So the first fish I have ever cooked was shark. They were shark steaks so they were pretty thick. He told me they would have a texture a bit more like other meat, so I thought I would go for it. So I marinaded it in orange juice (at his suggestion) and grilled it.

It actually wasn't terrible. I didn't spit it out, so that's good. I did have to put some BBQ sauce on it-it didn't have much flavor. I think I should have put salt on it or something when I grilled it. Eli even ate 3 bites, so I would call it a success. We will probably continue in our seafood journey...next week we'll try the tilapia, though. Shark is expensive :)

After Bath Fun

Thought you'd enjoy the little game Leah and I play every night after her bath :)

To share or not to share...to ride or not to ride

Lately Eli hasn't been too excited about sharing with her little sister. In fact, he's been quite adamant that he does NOT want to share, and has gotten into a bit of trouble lately. He thinks if he squeezes her head, she'll stop trying to steal his toys...not good. SO, we've been working on things he can do to help relieve sharing 'stress'. Sometimes he has to share. Sometimes he gets Leah a different toy so he can play with his own... ...and sometimes he sits in a fort that Leah can't get to.
I think this is his favorite option.

He does, however, seem to enjoy playing with Leah in her car (which Eli calls Lightning McQueen, of course. Oh, and excuse the diaper. He had been playing in water.)

He (and Leah) had a lot of fun playing together.

Then Eli got his bike out, started riding it, got right off, and ran in the garage to get his helmet. Safety first!

He kept taking it off so he could look at Lightning McQueen on it and to look at 9-5 (his 2 favorite numbers. He doesn't say 'ninety-five' he says 'nine five'.)

Now if we could just get him to actually ride his bike on his own :)

Our Friday

On Friday we... ...worked with tools...
...cruised from toy to toy...

...read (or sat on) books...

...and practiced the piano.

Then we went to the mall where we returned some clothes, bought some clothes, met friends for lunch, walked around, (barely) avoided buying a remote control helicopter, and played in the arcade. We failed to take any pictures, though.

Then we went to Abuelito's house for dinner and walked around...

...played with a stick...

...looked at Abuelito's plants (here you see an orange tree, avocado tree, and a papaya tree...plus a few other plants)...

...laughed a lot...

...and played with Abuelito.

It was a very good day.

Cousin fun

Thursday we got to hang out with Isaac (or, as Eli calls him, 'Cousin') for a little while. He's got lots of energy and loves to run around :) It was the first time that he stayed with us without any tears-he ran right in and started playing.
Leah was thrilled to have some company. She followed Isaac around like a little puppy.

Isaac colored for a while (a little artist like his mommy)...

...while Leah tried to eat the crayons (always hungry...like HER mommy)

He's such a little cutie!

He played with Eli's cars. Leah would open the back hatch,

and he would shut it. This game went on for a while until Isaac got tired of Leah opening it when he wanted it closed :)

It was just a couple of hours, but it was fun! Something tells me we'll be hanging out with Isaac (and his little brother!) again very soon!