Mia's 1 year stats

So, if you haven't been keeping score, this is my 8th post for the month of December.  That's a personal blogging record for me!  Not only have I had a lot of things to write about, but the updates that were made to the blogger site make it so much easier to put the posts together (takes half the time to do an entry now!)

I just wanted to write a little followup from Mia's birthday.  We celebrated a couple days early with my sister's family, on a day that was more convenient that the actual day.  It was pretty low key-- cake and presents.  I posted up a few of Mia's 1 year photos in her Birthday Letter a couple weeks ago, but here are the rest of them, along with her stats and progress:

Mia's One Year Stats:

Weight -- 16 lbs 9 oz -- 1%

Height --  27.75 in. -- 13%

Head -- 45.5 cm -- 64%

..she's such a cute little bobble head. :)

As far as the rest of it--She cut her top center teeth the week of her birthday, so she had 4 teeth in total by 12 months.  She walks more than crawls, her favorite food is anything with meat, she is still allergic to milk, and her current favorite forms of entertainment are peek-a-boo (where she does the hiding), unraveling the toilet paper in the bathroom, and emptying the bottom shelves in her closet as quickly as she can.  Can't believe she's one!!!!!  We made it through the first crazy year, woohoo!

 Time to get messy! :)

 So I actually made dairy free frosting for Mia's cake, and then she didn't even really want to eat any.  Everyone else enjoyed it though--No one could tell it was an imitation :)

 I love the sprinkle in Mia's pigtail. 

 Carrot Cake!

 I like how you can see Mia's tiny little finger prints in the frosting.

 The card was from my mom.  can you see the label? cracks me up.  

My favorite gift for Mia--a fluffy red party dress from Omi! Thanks for the splurge mom!

I took a few pictures on her actual birthday too--she got a princess car from Omi, so now she can keep up with her big brother and his Mcqueen car!

It's a 4-in-1 rider. Goes from a rocker with waist support all the way to a regular ride on car.  She LOVES it.

Family Photos

We met up with Jess and Nate the week after Thanksgiving at Scottsdale Quarter to try and get a nice up-to-date photo of our family to put on a christmas card.  Nate has a really nice camera, and knows how to use it too--he ended up getting a few shots that I just love.  Big thanks to them for driving out and spending the evening with us!

 I think I already posted this one to my blog on another entry.  It's my favorite :)

 LOVE THIS FAMILY.

The next three photos just make me laugh.  Illustrates so nicely what happens during a picture session with kids.

1.  Jake wouldn't look.  He was pretending to be shy.

 2.  I leaned over and quickly "reminded" (threatened) Jake that he wouldn't get his promised treat if he didn't turn and look at the camera for one more picture.

 3.  Success! Jake looked at the camera! ...  and Mia lost interest.

 In all fairness, my expectations are way too high for my kids attention spans.  Thanks to Wes and Jake for the positive attitudes so we could get the shots I wanted :)

Posing two kids is a cinch when you compare it to 4. sheesh.

 After we finished snapping those photos, we walked around and enjoyed the ambience.  A live band was playing Christmas music, the giant tree was lit, and we got some hot chocolate at Starbucks.  It was a fun night :)

We are so grateful for all the blessings we've received this year.  It's been a real roller-coaster--gaining a new member of the family, moving to a new state, and all the other surprises that our life has brought us.  I feel very lucky to be surrounded by so much love, having the support and friendship of so many.  I'm excited to begin a New Year.  I hope for the best, and I know that whatever comes my way, it'll be more joyful because of my family.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Fun times with the Larsons

My sister just gave me a bunch of pictures from her camera the other day, and I wanted to do a quick catch up post!  Some of these are kind of old, but I wanted to put them up on the blog for posterity.  Cheers!

Happy Halloween!  Pumpkin Carving at the Larsons :)

 Halloween Jammies! I love themed holiday pjs. to die for. :)

 The pumpkins..ours is the semi-boring one :)

Jess is in charge of the playgroup for her ward, so I've gone to it a few times.  Funny story--the first time we went, I told Jake ahead of time that we would be going to the park to meet up with Sawyer.  When we got there, he looked around and asked..."wheres the grass?"  I pointed it out to him..it was all obviously dead and brown (yay desert!) ...he looked at it thoughtfully for a minute, and then said "hmm...maybe they should water it."

haaha.  We're not in Utah anymore buddy. Sorry.

 These pics were taken back when Mia still had the Dorito cut on her forehead ;)

 love that little Violet!!!!

 blue-eyed bombshells.

 She is SUCH a little beebs. Through and through.

...does that sentence make sense to anyone outside of my family? hmmm maybe not.

I feel like my ponytail looks like its about 10 feet long in this picture. is it too long?  I need a haircut.

 sawyer "borrowed" some older kids skateboard.  Jake followed along, as usual.

 The Zoo!!! We squeezed in one last visit before Christmas last week.  Let me tell ya, the zoo is a LOT more fun in 60 degrees than in 100.  

 Always happy as long as she has food!

Also, I don't have any pictures for this, but on zoo day we stopped by Ikea afterwards since we were close by.  Jake and Sawyer are both over "38 inches tall/potty trained" so we were able to check them into the Ikea day care area for an hour.  They had a blast, and we loved the down time with our babies.  Yay for Ikea!  I will definitely be using that resource in the future!

I'm on a bogging marathon this week, lots to update and write about.  Can't believe we are coming to the end of another year.