Lily's 1st Birthday

Happy Birthday Lily!

Having a minor meltdown 
Aunt Jenny, cousin Maygan, Nana, me, Lily and Aunt Julie
My soon-to-be 3 year old


Silly Lily
Nana and Papa with Lily

Aunt Jenny and Collin

Lily trying to sneak a peek at her presents
Aunt Jenny and Lily
Lily's thinking hard


Lily's yummy cupcakes

Lily's first taste of cupcake.  She LOVED it!
Feeding Daddy

She's making sure I don't take any of her cupcake

Collin wasn't happy to take this picture.  Welcome to the life of a 3 year old!

Me and my sweet little niece, Maygan "May"
Nana and Papa with Abby Cadabby in the background : )
Nana, Julie, Papa

Lily having her afternoon bottle
Lily and her new "Lily Leapfrog"
Are you seeing double?  No, it's just Jackson Bell and Collin
Lily in her Tech cheerleader uniform with Grandad.  Wreck Em' Tech!

Grandad and Papa with Lily
Hmm...this thing looks interesting.
Got it!

Lily turned 1 on Saturday.  Can you believe it?  This past year went so fast that it seems like a blur to me.  Lily has now chosen to walk as her main form of transportation.  She gets around really good now.  She will still occasionally crawl when she really wants to move somewhere quick.  She waves to everything and everyone.  She LOVES to dance when she hears music.  Her favorite thing to dance to at the moment is the theme song to Curious George.  We had a small birthday celebration at our house on Saturday.  She was in a great mood and loved all of the attention.  She was more impressed with the wrapping paper than the actual gift itself.  She'll come around : )  Collin was a great helper and helped her blow out her birthday candle.  You know he's never far away when cake is being served.  She loved her cupcake and wasted no time at all putting it away.  She took a 3 hour nap after her party because she was so exhausted from all of the action.  What an amazing year this has been!  

San Fran

The Beautiful Golden Gate Bridge

Aunt Sherry and Uncle Sid

Napa Valley winery

Me and Todd having a cocktail before the show Wicked

The famous Fisherman's Wharf

The crazy streets of San Fran

Lombard Street

Me and Todd at our first winery

Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf is where all of the Sea Lions like to sunbathe

Alcatraz Island

On the trolly

Muir Woods

Todd and I took a trip to San Francisco to celebrate our anniversary and my birthday.  We left the kids with his parents for 3 nights.  We had such a great time there!  We vistited the most crooked street in the world, Lombard St.  I love the architecture and scenery of the city.  It's such a beautiful place!  We visited Muir Woods National Park just outside of San Fran which is the home to some of the biggest, most beautiful redwood trees I've ever seen.  Todd's Aunt Sherry and Uncle Sid live in Napa Valley, so we stayed with them a night and toured a few wineries during the day.  The last night there we went to see the Broadway show, Wicked.  We had a blast there, but we were ready to come back and see our little munchkins. 

Funny things about being a mom

Today we were driving past a golf course near by and Collin said, "Look at those mountains Momma."  I told him that those were not mountains and that they were hills.  He said very seriously, "Yeah.  Those are ant hills."  I LOVE it!  Can't they just say cute stuff like that forever?

So today we went Target.  Collin's favorite store.  He tells everyone that anything we own came from Target.  I think I've warped his little brain.  Anyways, Lily dropped her toys like 900+ times while we were chaotically trying to hurry and get milk and wipes.  Both kids were being fussy and Collin had pushed Lily for the 100th time.  I was so frustrated at the checkout.  As I was standing in line I happened to look over and see another mom give a big sigh and lean down to pick up her daughter's toy.  I just had to laugh.  As frustrating as it seems sometimes, we aren't the only ones going through this crazy time.  Some days may be filled with chaos, but it's all worth it at the end of the day when you get to see your child's beautiful smile or get a big "squeeze" around the neck.

Destin, FL

Me and Lily being silly

Mimi helping Collin with a drink

Me and Lily

Collin was being sweet so he could get a cookie after taking the picture

The four of us

Taking a walk with daddy

My blue eyed babies




Collin and Todd on the pirate ship

Collin and Calico Jack



Lily didn't like the sand on her
The view from out balcony
Feeding Lily in the bumbo

Mimi and Grandad came with us and the kids to Destin, FL.  It was a long haul, but we survived it and it was definitely worth it.  The beach was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Collin loved the water and went back and forth between the swimming pool and the ocean.  Todd helped him get up on his boogie board and he actually caught a couple of waves and did it all by himself.  It was so cute!  Lily liked to be in the water, but she wasn't very excited about the sand being all over her.  She tried to eat it a couple of times which made her pretty upset.  We took Collin on a pirate ship boat ride.  The smile on his face the entire time was priceless.  The pirate told stories and Collin got to steer the boat for a little bit.  

We made great memories and are already looking forward to going again next year!