Travel buddy

Sweet Caris has spent many hours in this exact spot. She is a traveling queen! And definately makes my trips much more enjoyable.

p.s. LOVE love the Ergo baby carrier! Perfect for the 'bigger' baby. The Moby Sling was great when C was tiny, but the Ergo was a lifesaver this trip. Seriously, the greatest travel companion aside from lil' C.

We just returned from another cross-country adventure. And Caris and I are quickly becoming traveling pros :) Or something like that. Or maybe nothing like that. But nevertheless, we travel. And had an overall very nice travel venture this go-round.

On our return trip, we traveled solo. And sat next to a couple that instantly got the 'oh-no-we-are-sitting-next-to-a-baby-i'm-so-annoyed' looks on their faces. Buying headphones to "block out the noise"

So I reverted into overly-anxious momma trying to keep lil'C appropriately maintained and overly-analyzed every behavior.

But Caris proved them wrong.

And gave them payback. With a stinky diaper that was perfectly timed with the arrival of the service carts, rendering us unable to change for a good 30 minutes.

Nice one, C.

Which by the way, if you've never changed a diaper on an airplane with a 24 pound TALL toddler. You really should. An experience not to be missed.

And I'm not going to lie, I gave a little smirk when they commented on how good a traveler Caris had been; suprise in their voices not hidden.

We've definately had our share of fun travel moments. remember the time we slept in the terminal? that was fun. Or the one where we had hours of delays? Also fun. We've faced the dreaded security line with baby items. Who knew they had to remove teeny shoes? The shuttle bus with luggage. Managing bags alone with baby in tow. And can anyone tell me how mom is supposed to 'go potty' when traveling alone with a baby? Haven't quite solved that mystery yet...

But my little travel buddy takes each in stride. Seriously, I couldn't ask for a better traveling companion. And no offense to the rest of group, but I'm pretty sure Caris complains less than quite a few folks I've traveled with..... ;) And I think is less gassy/smelly* than many a folks I've been stuck on a plane with too...

I'm not naming names.

*Sorry for the many potty references in this post. But not really. But kind of.

I scream...

You scream.

And caris' dances for ice cream

Summer is coming!

On a hot, hot day in the country with no A/C, we gave Caris her first taste of ice cream. She clearly loved it. Even fed herself. Hey, sometimes, you gotta splurge.

The Many Faces of Caris.

We recently had some family pictures taken and I LOVED what we ended up with! So many of them we felt SOOO depcited Caris' multi-faceted personality. And the FACES this girl comes ups with! We die. They are so grown-up sometimes.

The 'semi-sweet'. Or 'I'm all done, please pick me up?'

Recovering from a mini-meltdown.

Initiating the melt-down. Our MAD face.
The calming mechanism.

Girl loves her THUMB.

She looks a little annoyed with us, no?

The smirky smirk.
Curious Caris. 'What's behind there guys?'
ummm. I'm over this.
Trying to smile. Really I am.
Excited. Found something new.

She is quite the expressive little one.

Springy

We have really enjoyed the past few weeks of Spring weather. With the Houston weather, Spring can often pass by without much notice. Quickly transitioning to the hot muggy air that makes up the almost unbearable Houston summer heat.
But it seems we have gotten our fair share of beautiful days. Weekends and evenings are spent enjoying our yard and neighborhood. Caris loves testing our her new trike (thanks Uncle Jordan and Aunt Natalie!) she tries so hard to pedal, but her legs are just barely too short.

We love these mini Adirondack chairs.

Caris had her first date there. She made the first move by holding his hand, stealing his food, and trying to take over his chair. Good impression I think...

And Caris LOVES playing in her new garden house! Her birthday present from her Grammy and Pawpaw. She has too much fun checking her mail, playing with her tools, and going in and out of the door.

We have really enjoyed all the outdoor ventures Spring has sprung!

Ain't no Party like a First Birthday Party....

And a First Birthday Party Don't Stop!

(much like this post....be prepared for overload...)

One year of this sweet little face surely called for celebration!

And celebrate we did.

Birthday morning, we set up for a family party. G was on-call that evening, so the morning was our big birthday-day celebration. I just LOVE birthday mornings, and Caris took to her first one with the same wonderment and joy. Seriously, she crawled right to her little set-up and gave such a sweet smile, like 'this is all for ME??!!' She knew right away it was a special morning. Caris' present from Mom and Dad was her own outdoor table and stools...unfortunately only the stools were represented on the morning excitement.

And our first birthday candle! Caris even attempted to blow it our herself.

**picture disclaimer...well, I tried. But not all pics made it in correct format or in correct order. and as per usual, I forgot to take all the pics I wanted. and also per usual, Aunt Alli's pics are the best! so I borrowed Thanks ALLI!!:)

And then to the BIG SHOW! The Birthday Party!! We celebrated year one with a Garden Party for our garden girl.

Our little peony :)

And seriously. Is this not a garden birthday flower dress if there ever was such a thing?

Caris' favorite thing that day was splashing in her new butterfly pool! (thanks Aunties Tara&Shelby!)

Family pic at the dessert table.

And Mom and her ONE YEAR OLD!!

Sisters. Aunties. We are lucky to have such great ones! Seriously. They all spoil C so much and she has so much fun with all her Aunts!!

Grandparents. LOVE these pictures. Caris seriously is a lucky lady in this department. We have such generous, loving, and fun grandparents!

The Cake.

*I started shopping for cakes. And was shocked at the cost. And so with my Mom and Garrett's convincing, I decided we could undertake the task ourself. Plus I thought it would be fun and a great memory to have of the first birthday. And so we set out on the task.

Our finished products!

Big cake and mini C cake. It really was a fun project. But I COULD NOT have pulled it off with my Mom (color guru and icing extrodinaire) and sisters (creative vision and bug maker supremes). HUGE THANK YOU to them!!!

Even the boys got in on making bugs....theirs are on the back

-except Bobby's bee which took top honors!

Which got a little crazy at 1:00a.m...

Caris and her cake.

She knocked the candle off and then wasn't sure what to do with the cake...

Also you can see in this pic the super cute birthday banner that Grammy Jane made! Turned out so cute! We will love using this over the years :)

This was the point where Caris had a mini-meltdown.

Poor girl had been sick the week/end before and our napping schedule was a little off. But she pulled through. However, she refused to sit in her highchair.

So we ate cake on the floor.

Still good, right C!

Some 'after' pics of our party decor.

Which includes a good view of our finally FINISHED backyard project!! Which really deserves a post of it's own, but who am I kidding these days, so now is as good of chance as any! Garrett has logged some serious man hours redoing our back porch over the past year. With the gracious help and hard labor from our dads, brother, and brother-in-law, he was able to pretty much finish it off in time for the garden party! (good incentive :)

G extended our back porch and put in flagstone (above pic) and made an additional patio on the far back side under our oak tree (below).

The new patio is one of our favorite places right now. Perfect little place to enjoy our garden. We put the kid's activites here, put in all my craziness and non-existant knowledge of how to operate a first birthday, we didn't really get too many flower pots planted and sent home with the kids...

Loved the lanterns!! So fun.The brick paths were the other major yard improvement project. Garrett found a great deal and hauled 3,000 bricks over from an old house. Then spent MANY hours (with his dad and brother) cleaning the bricks, removing mortar, and getting them ready.

(did I mention he decided to do this when Caris was 2 weeks old? In the middle of finals?? CRAZY)

I LOVED how the brick paths turned out!! The really set the yard off I think. My favorite part :)

And our Garden Party was the perfect time to break in the yard!

We had a great time celebrating year one. We really wanted the party to be a way to say THANK YOU to all our family and friends who have made this year possible. Seriously, we feel very blessed. From work friends who listen to me vent to sweet mom friends who work around our weird schedules for playdates to new school friends who make the drop-off easier. And family who travels to visit when we aren't able who understand when life gets a little hectic and are willing to drop anything to help as needed; this last point so exemplified in our party as we literally could not have finished the yard or pulled off the party without their help. Love you guys! Thanks for making year one the best of my life!

Happy Happy Birthday to our girl!!

Vingette: Caris and Books

Lil' C has long shown an affinity for the written word. I can recall many times, even in her earliest of months, reading books on repeat to soothe our girl. She always seemingly earnestly listened and followed along.

We are big supporters of books and reading in our abode. Amazon deliveries frequent our doorstop with G as one of their biggest supporters. We have an array of text spanning from politics, finance, and oral surgery. We now have two Kindles in frequent use. And school books abound.

But I will admit, with the business that is our hectic daily lives, we haven't read to Caris as regularly as I had envisioned. We read to her, but in our hour timespan getting ready, fed, cleaned up, etc. it is often fit in between the 'have tos' of our day. (weekends are a bit different)

So, back to the vingette at hand.

Caris, during our morning ready-ing ritual, follows me out of my room. I proceed to the hall bathroom. Caris to her bedroom. I find it cute that she decides to go to her bedroom and play; where I encourage to play while I finish morning chores.

Soon there after, I hear 'shuffle shuffle thump shuffle shuffle thump' and look into the hall and see Caris crawling down the hall, book in one hand, excited smile on her face.

C sees me, stops, holds up her book, smiles so big and says 'Buoou?'

I of course find this absolutely adorable.

So I stop. And we read. And then we finish. And then C crawls down, finds another, holds it up, 'Buoou?' And so we read.

And so on and so forth through the majority of her collection.

Fun new little activity. Which now completely preoccupies Caris' play. If she sees a book, beeline to said book. And then beeline to the closest reader inquiring their services. Book?

Enter phase two.

Time to put the books away.

Caris enters into SCREAMING fit. Back arch, hands and face down on the ground. Clearly did not approve of time for book to go away.

Everytime book time concludes, the girl is UPSET.

So our week/end has consisted of trying to appropriately manage this new little reaction while encouraging reading.

Luckily, it seems to work well to encourage Caris to sit still through diaper changes, clothing, other fun tasks with the reward of book at the end. And I am learning to begin by setting the limit (which, by the way, is a high limit...)

But hey, Lil' C loves her books. What's a girl to do?

"Buoou?" "Sure :)" And with that, C climbs on my lap.

Music to my ears

Lil' C loves making music...(noise?)......definately music to her momma's ears :) So it was a natural love at first sight when we happened upon this little guy.....

Who now graces our living room thanks to JJ and Susie's birthday present.

Lil' C Loves, loves, loves, to play here.......

Caris was also gifted a music set complete with xylophone, kazoo, harmonica, bells, and clappers. Oh my. We are in a constant state of music at our house these days. Caris loves all her new instruments, and has attempted to play them all.....some less successfully. But no worries, she just passes those on to mom or dad to play while she accompanies on piano.

And just because it's my all-time favorite Lil' C show (thus far)....a reminder to revisit this little dancer.....

More music

Another favorite is guitar with Dad. A cute little video of her first guitar practice :)

(I couldn't get this video to go on the previous post....so close enough...right?)