Luke's First Birthday Party Luau

My mom and Luke
Zoe...all smile :)

Cousin Zach

Zoe and Daddy

On March 18th, my cousin's little one, Luke, had his first birthday party. It was a luau at a Hawaiian restaurant and it was such a cute place! My cousin, Wendy, knows how to throw really fun parties. Some that are top on Shaun and my list are a Willy Wonka party, Batman party, Mario party, and Harry Potter party. She goes all out for the themed parties and the whole, I mean WHOLE house gets decorated in the theme. Just as an example, the entrance to their house for the Willy Wonka party was COVERED in edible candy wallpaper. They even get their guests to dress up for the theme. The next on the list is my cousin, Jack's, Amazing Race party, that will have drivers and destinations and the whole bit! Too creative!!! Luke's party was blue and green themed and his favors were cookies with his picture on them. They asked for no presents, instead bring an item to put in a time capsule for him to open when he is 18. Such a cool idea! People brought gas receipts, magazines, videos of the disasters around the world, forever stamps, lottery ticket, and many other thoughtful things. The food was terrific and they had a full dessert table. YUM!!! I was SUPER preggo at that time, so I was thrilled with the desserts! :)

My Baby Shower...Feb. 26th

I am in the process of catching up! I have been meaning to blog, but prepping for the baby was my first priority, so everything else was put to the side. My mom and Heather threw me a shower at Los Canyons Golf Club on Feb. 26th. It is kind of a tradition for Heather and I to our parties there. It is such a great location and it is a really memorable place for Shaun and I because we got married there too! As always, my mom and Heather threw a beautiful party. Heather has been an event coordinator and has joined businesses with her mom who runs a floral business and they can do it all! Zoe was able to come with me and she was such a big help when it came to opening all the gifts for her baby sister. Thank you to everyone that came to celebrate with us and to many of you who even thought of the "big sis". We are so grateful for all of our good friends and family, we couldn't be any luckier!!!

First French Braids...

After the braids...

First french braids...too cute!!!

Zoe sat still enough to get braids in about a week ago...the struggle is the second braid and Mommy just used too much hair on the first one. The next day she had cute wavy hair. We will keep trying for better braids :)

Zoe LOVES Visitors

Swinging with Tasia

Nona at the beach...it was CHILLY!!!Tasia and ZoeHaving a YUMMY snack!

Nona and Tasia have been visiting from Montana since Monday night. Their flight got in after Zoe went down, so she was so excited to see them in the morning. Uncle Todd picked up Nona and Tasia from the airport and stayed over until Wednesday night. On Tuesday, YiaYia came out and the 3 of us got to go get a little shopping done. That is a must when Tasia comes to CA :). Of course I don't have a problem with that! Zoe kept Nona company and just keeps her laughing all of the time. We have shopped, had lunch/dinners everywhere, and went to the beach. It was CHILLY today, but we had to try the beach for Tasia. We even took Nona. It was a nice day, but the wind made it soooooo cold! We didn't stay long...

We are STILL WAITING...the hope was to have Kylee at the beginning of their trip here, so that they could hang out with the little one too, but it seems that she has a different agenda. They probably will not get to see her until the reunion this summer. Our midwife said she just cannot justify an induction yet because there is no reason, plus Kaiser has a policy to induce only after you reach 41 weeks. We may go in on Sunday and possibly have her Monday, but it would be after Nona and Tasia head home.

Easter Egg Dying at Grandma's

The big kids really took pride in their eggs.Ryder hasn't quite mastered "gentle" yet :)...

Very cautiously dying her first egg.What happened to my baby girl?! She is so big and full of personality.Daddy loves this part of Easter...All hands were on deck to help assist the kiddos with their eggs.Zoe did such a great job decorating her orange egg.Busy bees...dying eggs.Say "cheese".Grandma creating funny faces...poor kids!!!The kids had a great time dying eggs. The older two were pretty good at dying eggs. Zoe forgot on the second or third egg what she was doing and she knocked it on the table to crack it, just like she was helping me make a cake or something. It was pretty cute and we all snickered a bit, including Zo. Then Ryder was pretty funny too. He decided that splashing the egg around was the best practice. Shortly into it, he decided this activity wasn't for him. Jadyn loved dipping the egg in and out, in and out, in and out of the dye. Zoe even made an egg for Kylee! What a great big sister! Too bad her baby sister doesn't seem to be in any hurry to meet her big sis.

Last weekend it rained and Zoe asked to go out and play in the rain...it was barely drizzling, so I let her. She stood under the drips of the from the overhang and thought that it was the funniest thing to catch drops.

Hum...dee...dum...hum...dee...dum

Well I am currently 38 weeks + 5 days preggo, but who is counting?! Shaun and I decided that I would take a week off before Kylee arrives to spend a little time with Zoe. It was such a good decision. We just finished day 3 together and Zoe has been sooooo good! It is fun to see how much she really understands and how well she interacts with me. (Not that we didn't interact a lot before, but it's nice to spend a lot more time with her.) She plays so well by herself too!!! We are working on clean up, but it is a work in progress. Since being home we are working on what is appropriate for an almost 3 year old (YES!!! ALMOST 3) to say. She picked up a few phrases from the older kiddos at the sitter's house that we don't particularly think Zoe needs to say EVER! She sings, dances, has such a humor these days, and can conversate with people in English and Spanish very well! Her sitter said her "espanol es muy perfecta"!!! It is so good that I can't even figure out what she is saying. She loves wearing "twirly dresses" and pretends she has "dance class".
I am just WAITING now...hum...dee...dum...hum...dee...dum. We have had some "false" alarms in the last couple of days and it is getting me a little anxious to get the party started! On Saturday, we went to Costco and all of a sudden I wasn't feeling quite right...I said "Hurry, we need to fill the freezer!" So we jammed through and ate lunch. After we got in the car, I started to feel a little better. I went and had a pedicure and that helped me relax a bit. Then EARLY this morning, I was up for about 4 hours with what I thought was IT! NOPE!!! I am still around and just WAITING! This is not how it all went down with Zoe, so I don't even know what to expect next. With Zoe, my water broke before I was in labor, so I was eventually induced. This time we would really like Kylee to arrive prior to Shaun's grandma and Tasia's visit, so we shall see!!! They arrive on Monday. We will cross our fingers!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

It is always fun when all the cousins get to hang out and we just happened to have an excuse this week...Grandma's birthday! Zach is so good at baking cakes for birthdays and we had Stone Fire Grill, yum! I am super preggo now, so Auntie Heather and Uncle Greg took care of everything and we just provided the house. The kids are doing so well playing together now, it is fun to see them interact now. They had a great time playing on the swing set, in Zoe's playhouse, and with all of Zoe's girlie toys. Happy Birthday Grandma!