Happy Birthday Sierra!!

Before we get to the birthday thing, we have to say a big, huge congratulations to the newly-wedded Travis and Ashley Stewart! Yay! We had a fantastic time in Austin celebrating their wedding last weekend- the wedding and the bride were gorgeous and the family and festivities were loads of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't make it out with any pictures of my own, so we'll have to wait for the full wedding recap post. Here's one Travis took of Sierra and GrandDoug waiting for the ceremony to start- 100% precious!

Also, is that not the cutest dress ever? Mamaw is credited with the find on her adorable silk Strasburg and Aunt Arlene for hauling it around Texas to get it all cleaned up and ready! Definitely more pictures to come....


aaaaaand... BIRTHDAY!
Little Sierra Elisabeth is now a BIG, toddler Sierra! Wow what a year it has been. By which I mean the absolute best, most love-filled, rewarding, exhuasting year of my life. I'm definitely sad to see the baby-days slipping away, but also excited for the fun toddler milestones that I know are in our future. Like talking. Walking is no longer a challenge, but her communication is still limited to "point-and-grunt." She's definitely a good-natured baby- almost always happy, sleeping through the night, sweet as sugar. She's up to 8 teeth now! We're just in a constant state of teething I think. She loves finger foods- no patience for Mama & that spoon- and she'll almost anything you put in front of her. How could her parents not be blissfully happy? :)

On her birthday morning, we sang her first "Happy Birthday" and opened presents in our jammies.

To celebrate her special day, we took a trip to Dewberry Farm to meet some farm critters, test our navigational skills in the corn maze (Mama failed, no surprise), and pick our pumpkins with GrandDoug, GeeGee, Uncle Travis, & Aunt Ashley.  

All day, we talked about the day she was born. And I remember feeling just like this.  :P Hard to believe I weighed 55 pounds more last year than I do now! (Well, my knees believe it.) Wow!

After a not-so-quick dinner out, we headed home to start working! what? Yep, cake & cookie time in preparation for Sierra's birthday party! Papa rocked the cookie decoration- pink butterflies & dragonflies. What a sweetie. :)

Our "theme" was girly bugs.  Overall pretty impressed with my first attempts at cake decorating.

 

 Sierra had her own little cake to maul. I looove the little leaf plate I found- if you look closely, you might see the "chewed" out holes along the edge.

Birthday Girl!

Super-cool gift from GrandDoug-  he made this little hippo that chomps his mouth when you roll him along!!

Birthday banner: "Baby year in review." High girly factor- the clips are hair barrettes!

 

Look how much she's grown! It's pretty amazing when you see it charted like this. (By weird coincidence, the bottom edge of this thing is 19.5 inches- her length at birth!) We'll add in the 1 year point after her official "weigh-in" at the pedi on Monday!

We had a great party and really, really appreciate all the loving friends and family that came to celebrate with us. Sierra loves you all! :) Thank you all for the sweet gifts and adorable outfits- we'll have a fashion show soon! 

And just to be nostalgic, her first picture!

And now... bed. Phew!

Super Mega Post

So yeah, it's been a month, plus. Sorry! I blame my laptop this time- my hard-drive finally got so full I couldn't download pictures anymore. In fact, it was so full, I could no longer copy&paste or even run Photoshop- that's bad. Anyways, thanks to a new hard-drive (installed by a sweet hubby who got sick of my whining), I'm now armed with 600GB of empty space, so that should last me another couple months. Now, on to the fun!


Part 1: The Kitchen
It's done, it's done!!! Phew what a whirlwind couple weeks. We decided to plow through and get everything done as quickly as possible- a slightly painful approach- but life with 3 humans and 3 dogs and no kitchen is not pleasant. So here's the laundry list: We knocked out the hanging cabinets between the kitchen & den to open it up (there was an existing bar, but it was basically unusable), had a carpenter build new doors & new drawers (with glides!!! a major improvement over the old wood-on-wood design), tore out the old tile countertop & replaced with granite (Kashmir Gold) & a travertine backsplash, new sink & faucet, and (finally) replaced the old cooktop. After some rewiring to add new switched outlets, Travis installed some sweet LED undercabinet lighting & a purty new LED spot above the bar. We're REALLY happy with how everything turned out and feel good about getting enough "bang for the buck."
Ok, enough talk- here are the before & after shots:

When we moved in. Fantastic hardware, plaid wallpaper, old appliances, tile countertops- and completely filthy. There was an immediate mini-fix-up to replace hardware, repaint the cabinets, and update a couple appliances (like the 1960 oven). And lots of cleaning. LOTS.

(seriously, there were handprints on the ceiling!)




And, tada! The new and improved kitchen. yeah, side-by-side doesn't look nearly as impressive... in pictures at least-oh well!!

Here's a comparison of the other side, where we knocked out the hanging cabinets:

This really made a huge difference in how open the kitchen feels. You can actually see the TV from the kitchen now! And it makes the den much brighter. SO glad we finally did this!



Part 2: Ashley's Bridal Shower
The clock was ticking- loudly- during the kitchen remodel because my mom & I were hosting a bridal shower for my (very) soon-to-be sister-in-law Ashley at our house a week later! Eek! But everything came together and we had a wonderful party!  For those that don't know the story, Travis proposed over a game of Scrabble, so I made tiny chocolate Scrabble tiles to decorate the table and the chocolate mousse desserts. Ashley has some fabulous style, so we showed off some yummy "something blue" stilettos as the centerpiece.  But this may be my favorite part- we framed some of the dress designs my grandmother had sketched when she was young (and stuck in bed due to asthma).  Many, many thanks to Mom & Arlene for their help! And yes, Ashley got to keep the Tiffany boxes... and the martini glasses inside them. :) We're so incredibly excited to be adding Ashley to our family! Just 23 more days to go until their wedding- we can't wait!

The lovely bride-to-be, Ms. Ashley Lauren.

All the goodies.

Yummy Marc Jacobs centerpiece (something blue... and borrowed! haha!)

One of my grandmother's dresses, drawn in 1939. (something old!)

And lots of somethings new!

Being the terrible Scrabble player I am, this was the most advanced play I could pull together. :)

Part 3: Lil Longhorns
We took a quick trip to Dallas for more wedding-related fun: Ashley's bachelorette party & a bridal shower. While we were there we stopped to visit with our friends Tommy & Audra and their adorable little boy Jack, who is just 3 weeks younger than Sierra. Being the good Longhorns they are, they have some tiny orange duds for Jack, so we had to get some cute pics of the Lil Horns. Photographing 2 babies is hard enough, but add in a bucket full of toys, 3 dogs (their 2, Max & Albert, plus Zoe), and 2 impending nap times and it's a serious challenge.

Next up: Sierra's first Texas game!!! Whooo!! :) And walking- that's pretty cool too..  ;)

Roseola & Kitchen Cheerleader

We passed another new milestone for our little soon-to-be-toddler: our first real illness. Boooo!!! Last Sunday evening, she suddenly started running a high fever- by bedtime it was 102, despite the ibuprofen. By 2:30 am, she was up to 103.5. Not fun for anyone. A sick, shivering baby is the saddest thing! Mama & Papa took turns sleeping with her in the La-z-boy, and we got a trip to Dr. Cohan Monday morning. To rule out a UTI, the doctor needed a urine sample, which for a little baby means this bizarre bag that goes inside her diaper or a catheter. Well Mama was quick to offer up Sierra's potty skills as an answer. Much to the surprise of everyone at the the pediatrician's office, Sierra sat on the potty and peed in her cup! Woohoo!!!
So, yes, our infant uses the potty. She's actually been doing this for about 2 months now. Call us crazy if you like, but she's a champ at it and there are many fewer dirty diapers- and who can argue with that?? Anyways, no UTI, the fever disappeared a couple days later and she broke out in a rash- good 'ol Roseola. A week later, it has FINALLY disappeared. No worse for the wear and hopefully we won't have to go through that one again!

Yeah, she'll hate me for this picture someday...

In other, more fun news...
We finally did it- we started remodeling our kitchen! I promise pictures will be coming soon- this project has to get done before I lose my mind!
Sierra has been cheering for all the workers in our kitchen. Yesterday, she was clapping for all the tile guys. Too funny!


And today, a magical moment between a baby and her dog....the beginning of a beautiful friendship. :D

Wave to the camera!

Our newest skill! She also now waves at the dogs, the tv, and inanimate objects (including the ceiling).






















Another new skill: unfastening velcro.

Sierra and her crew keeping an eye on Papa in the backyard

9 months in, 9 months out!

It's hard to believe that pregnancy was really this short! And from teeny-tiny speck, to newborn baby, to crawly-cruising almost-toddler has been 18 months! Really?? After our pedi check-up on Friday, we scheduled her 1 year appointment! Holy time-warp, Batman, is that right??
Anyways, here are her most recent stats:

Length: 28"
Weight: 19 lbs, 7.5 oz.
Head circumference: 17"
Another point on that 50% growth curve! At least for length and weight- the only thing this child has of mine is her head (25% percentile.)

Papa even got to join us for this pedi check-up! And lucky him, it's the only one we've had in 9 months where she didn't get a shot. Of course, he got doubly lucky when he was called in to work for an hour right as we were taking her to the lab for a blood draw (standard lead testing). In true Sierra-fashion, she was over it and smiling about 2 seconds after they put the bandage on her finger. Then we fed the ducks our Puffs while we waited for Papa to finish at the office.

Other random pictures from the last couple weeks:

Playing in the ball pool at Nana J's house- such fun!!

Her first outdoor theater show! Going to see Little Shop of Horrors at Miller Outdoor Theater. A bit of an adventure when curtain is 15 minutes before her bedtime and it's threatening rain, but we still had fun!

Big girl transitions: sleeping in her crib! At least for naps and starting the night. By about 2am, she's cuddling with Mama in her bed again. (yeah, doesn't look so much like sleeping here, does it?)

Mobility can get you in trouble! Haha- I promise I didn't put her in there. She's fascinated with everything the doggies have- their beds, their bowls, their bones. It's a constant battle all day to keep the dog stuff out of her mouth. I thought I'd have trouble keeping the baby's toys away from the dogs and it's the complete opposite!! Oh well....

And her newest piece of gear- the big girl car seat! She's getting dangerously close to outgrowing her current infant seat. So, given the new recommendations by the AAP, we went on the hunt for a convertible seat that could keep her rear-facing as long as possible (5x safer than front-facing). We decided on the Sunshine Kids RadianXTSL. Here's Sierra modeling it at the store:

This means she can be rear-facing until 45 pounds (given her current trajectory, she'd be like 6 years old!), then continue front-facing in this seat until she's 80 pounds. I'm also hoping this new position will keep her happier on the highway, since our last couple road-trips have required non-stop singing to keep her from screaming. Fun times!! :)

Summer Silliness

Just the word "Silliness" is whimsical, isn't it?
After grumbling at the laptop's "No space left" messages for a couple months, I finally burned a pile of DVDs and dragged a few (dozen) gigs of files over to the trashcan. And now that all that pesky lab data is gone (yikes), I actually have room to import all the random snapshots and videos of Sierra (and the rest of us) that I've collected over the last couple months. Just think of it as our "Behind the Music" special. :)

 Having fun at the Mad Potter making Papa a Father's Day gift.

Happy first Father's Day Papa!!

Parachute play at the Meyer Public Library

Story time like a big girl!

Silly Papa...   :D

Caution, crawling baby on the loose! Dogs, I'm sorry.... 

Also, Sierra apologizes for her fashion disaster- she didn't know she was going to be on tv.

And cruising along the furniture. A little distracted by the dogs, who are hungry and restless.

Playing with Papa. Pulling up and "dancing".


Her first chance to play at the piano. I'll spare you the whole "banging baby" routine, but instead torture you with me attempting to sight-read while Sierra "helps". (This is also my first chance at the piano in more than 6 months. Ms Elise, if you watch this, I'm sorry about the fingernails.) ;)

And what I think is the cutest. She was interested in what Mama was doing on the laptop, so I showed her the magic baby that lives in the computer (ie: the webcam). Turns out, they had a lot of fun together.

Fireworks & TURTLES!!

Wow, sorry 'bout the lapse in updates here... Yeah, no good excuse!

For the long Fourth of July weekend, we invaded Beeville- all 6 of us!!! We had a wonderful weekend full of food, family, friends, and fireworks. Sierra got to participate in all but the last- she was safely snoozing back at GrandPapa and Mamaw's house while the parentals snuck over to Granddaddy's for the annual explosive fun. Well, Chrissy is still too chicken to actually light any of these things, so Travis, Rosalie, and Stacey did the dangerous work, while Chrissy took pictures.

Since we missed the hatchling turtle release in S. Padre, we were keeping our fingers crossed for a release to happen at the National Seashore that weekend. Monday was our lucky day, so we dragged ourselves out of bed and hit the road at 4:30 am! Sierra was still in her jammies- lucky girl! We drove straight to Corpus Christi, crossed the causeway, and headed down the island to the park. Then, 10 miles from the beach (and 10 min from the release time), we were stopped at a police barricade. The road, the only one down the island, was closed due to a large brush fire (presumably a result of the fireworks the night before). The officer told us it would be hours and the only other way down the island was along the beach. Since we'd already driven 1.5 hours, we figured it was worth a shot- we had a Subaru, right? Well, we made it about half a mile down the very narrow strip of beach (and around one very stuck minivan) before we decided to give it up. So, we parked the Subie on the beach to just relax and enjoy the sunrise.

The afore mentioned Subie. (Subaru IS love, if anyone was wondering.) :)

A beautiful Texas coast sunrise. Ahhhh.... who could be stressed watching this?

I couldn't resist a picture of a baby in jammies on a beach. And Travis couldn't resist pictures in sunrise lighting.

Mmmmm... sand. I remember this stuff!

Wait, did you see that?

S'Ok.. I know I'm cute.

While Travis had the camera out, several groups of brown pelicans (juveniles, I think) flew overhead, cruising in the coast winds. Awesome. :D (Hopefully they're staying away from the rest of the Gulf Coast.)

While Papa was taking pictures, Mama was teaching Sierra a lesson about cleaning up.
***Soapbox: If everyone would just pick up 3 pieces of trash every time they went to the beach, can you imagine how clean it would be? We picked up 2 drink bottles and a lightbulb.***

After our nice 30 minute beach trip, we headed back out to the main road towards Beeville. We thought, "oh heck, let's see if the road is open". The turtles would be gone, but we could at least go visit the park. The barricade was gone!! (Lots of grumbling about the uninformed cop.) We drove into the park, practically ran to the beach, and found the release was still happening! The last 30 or so (of 107) hatchlings were still making their way to the water- yay!

Very cool experience. I definitely recommend attending a release if you can- check out their website and plan your visit!

In other news, Sierra has started crawling, cruising and standing up! I'll post videos soon!