Summer Recap

I sat down this morning to look on Realtor.com at houses in the area.  That's right, the Butlers have decided to take that GIANT leap and buy a house!  I have to say, we are very excited to be taking this next big step.  We just want a place of our own with a yard and plenty of room for Evie to run and explore.  We have to wait a couple of months, but it sure if fun to look :)

I am pretty sure after Evie's birthday party, my summer, somehow, got even busier.  With Keith working two days on, two days off, Evie and I found ourselves playing A LOT and when Daddy was home, going, going, going!  We also ATE OUT WAY TOO MUCH!  But here is a recap in pictures:

Whale Watching for Father's Day

Evie's cute 4th of July outfit

Watching the fireworks!

San Diego beach trip

Mommy and Daddy enjoying the beach

Cold Water!!

Sea World

We loved all the fishies!

The grown-ups at LACMA

He's so strong!

View of the Hollywood sign?

My flight with Ella (a student) in that little plane!!  I took Uncle Nick too!

It was so much fun!

Carpinteria Vacation

Morning walk on the beach

Look at the anemones!

She loved playing in the water!

I can't believe it is over and I am back to work already (Loving this Labor Day weekend after TWO VERY LONG WEEKS!)  Being back at work sure does make me miss my lovebug.  She is at the stage where we play all sorts of things.  She just got a tea set from my cousin and it is so cute to watch her pretend to sip tea and give her baby dolls sips.  She is also doing very well with her signing.  She will be fifteen months this month!  She knows signs for: many animals, train, please, thank you, water, eat, more, dance, and a few others too.  She also understands so much.  I will ask her to go get me something and she does.  She can point to many body parts too.  It is absolutely incredible!!

A First Birthday Party

Nearly all of my free time for last three weeks has been spent on making birthday party decorations, favors, and treats.  I would play with Keith and Evie during the day, but once Keith went to work and Evie went to bed, I would spend a good 4-5 hours each night working.  The pay off?  A super cute party for my little lovebug.  She was so cute dressed in her homemade birthday dress and hat (thanks Grammy!) and she knew it was her special day.  She walked around and greeted guests with a smile and put on her very best center of attention act.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the party.

Mama and the beautiful birthday girl.

Eating her watermelon!  Yum!!

This is when we started to sing happy birthday to her.  She had us all laughing with her excitement.

Nina is a yummy cake maker!

She loved all of her gifts (well mommy loved the clothes!)

Here is the super cute dessert table.  I made the banner with rainbow cardstock, a cricut for the letters and a ribbon that I sewed the paper to.  Isn't it great?  Definitely holding on to that one!  I also love the balloon arch!  I got the idea on Pinterest and knew that I HAD to make one for the party.  It took a lot of breath and time, but it was so festive and really made the decorations!

 Because I went with a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme, I had to do these cute cakepops.  They were a bug hit with all of the kids (who all wanted the red heads haha).  My girlfriend, Emily, and I spent a whole morning making these and our ice cream cones.  I have to say, they were totally worth it!

Mini cherry pies!

I even had all of the food he munched on in the story.  I found these cute tags pre-made online and made the little tag holders one late night.

I had a copy of the book for friends and family to leave a message for Evie to read as she gets older.

My amazing Nina and Mom made this fabulous cake for Evie!  Those are Mini M and Ms and our littler caterpillar was made of fondant covered Rice Crispy Treats.  So cute!!

As a favor I ordered 4" lollipops and made these super cute tags to put on them.

This party was worth every once of effort I put into it.  I love how everything turned out and had so much fun.  It is still sinking in that I have a one year old, but I had so much fun the first year of her life, I am so excited to see what kind of surprises are in store for this year!!

Happy First Birthday Love Bug!

Our sweet Evie turned one today. I can't believe that a year ago we held her in our arms for the first time. Being a parent is a funny thing. I once read a quote (on Pinterest of course!)that said, "Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart walk around outside your body." Our love stole our hearts one year ago. Happy Birthday our sweet girl. You are our sunshine!

Fun with Beans

After being home with Evie for ONE day, I realized that this being a stay-at-home mom thing for the summer was going to be a bit of a challenge. Don't get me wrong, I was really looking forward to some quality time with my little girl, but Keith just went back to work and I am having to figure this solo thing out. The hardest part is keeping her entertained with something for more than 3 minutes. At least my first graders will be content for 20, with a one year old things can be a little tricky. She loves to tear apart the Tupperware cabinet and attempt to eat dog food when I'm not looking, but Mommy is not okay with those activities. So after scouring Pinterest early one morning I came up with this: 

You should have seen her face light up when she came down stairs in the morning and saw all of this on the floor! What is it you ask? Simply garbanzo beans in a dish tub with cups and spoons. This kept her entertained for a full half hour. In mommy-time that is GOLD! The best thing was she was still engaged when I put her next to it later that day and the next day. 

Now I need to change out the beans for something new...hmmmm....

A Missing Year

I'm sitting here enjoying my first day of summer break. Teachers are productive by nature and so in my first day off I have already done about half of the things on my to do list for the week. I just laid Evie down for a nap and as I was looking through pictures on my computer and organizing web albums, it dawned on me how quickly this past year has gone by. My precious little girl will be ONE in 5 days!. Oh. My. Goodness. Where did the time go? It went so fast and while I have a baby book, albums, and videos to remember it, I wish I had a journal of every week. The highlights of what she learned each week, because, as we all know, babies do learn something new, it seems, every single day. So while I am bummed that I didn't do this for her first year, I can start now. Highlight the first birthday, the first words, the first, well whatever, you get it. And because I missed the first year, I will post a smile-box video to make-up for it.