Charlotte's 1st Birthday

We had Charlotte's first birthday party last Saturday, Nov. 6. Her actual birthday was Nov 9. I can't believe it's already come and gone. We planned for it for such a long time before and the week leading up to it. We stayed up every night, working on games and favor bags and the pinata. And on the actual day, it was windy and cold and rained a bit, which was bad since we had it at the park across the street. But in spite of the weather and the initial chaos it caused, the party was wonderful. All of our family came and some of our closest friends. Some had to leave early, some came later, but in total we had about 57 people. It ended up being much bigger than I thought it would be, but I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The birthday girl, happy, but cold with blue lips

With Uncle Chris

Pin the eye on Muno game that Andrew made (we had a Yo Gabba Gabba theme)

Grandma was worried that Charlotte was freezing

Waiting to smash the pinata

About to eat her first bite of sugar

The only picture I have of our Brobee pinata

Lining up for the food

Grandpa Bunnell, Great Grandma Charlotte, and Charlotte

DJ Dad Andy wearing DJ Lance's hat

Andrew's aunt took all of these pictures. I didn't take many pictures myself and we didn't videotape anything! What bad parents we are. Thank goodness we had lots of aunts and grandmas around. Thank you to everyone who helped us and came and made the day so memorable.

pictures

She loves playing peekaboo!

the headband and shoes didn't stay on for long...

10 months old tomorrow!

at Kings Canyon with Grandpa Bunnell

Charlotte and her friend, Thurston

Woodward Park with Scott, Christie, and Thurston

Jefferson, Levi, Andrew, and Charlotte on July 3rd

Charlotte and Great-Grandma Charlotte!

In Sacramento with her BFF, Sayuri

TGI September

Today is nice and cool and overcast, which makes me so happy. I love the fall. Especially after the long, brutally hot summer. Everyone has said this summer wasn't so bad, and I guess it wasn't, but I don't like the heat at all. It makes me want to move to Portland. It's so beautiful up there. But could I handle the rain all the time? I'd like to think so, but I guess I won't know unless we move. The amazingly clean, fresh air sounds wonderful though.

Anyways, I'm glad we're almost to fall and sweaters and my favorite time of year. And all the fun holidays are coming! First, Andrew's birthday is coming up, and we didn't do much last year since I was 8 and a half months pregnant, so I have to make up for it this year. We have to decide what Charlotte will be for Halloween, then her big first birthday party! We're already making plans!

Right now, we're just getting back to the grind, since Andrew's semester started. Our summer was nice. We had a few small trips. One to Napa and Sacramento to see Charlotte's great-grandparents and my nephew, his wife, and their beautiful little girl. And a few to Kings Canyon Nat'l Park, the beach, etc. Charlotte is getting to be more and more fun. She's noticing more and excited about everything, which makes us excited about everything. She's been crawling everywhere, which is exhausting, but a good workout. It seems like she's close to walking because she pulls up on everything and walks around while pushing this baby walker thing, but no first steps all by herself yet.

Anyways, here's some photos. They're mostly taken with my phone, so the quality might not be so good. Happy September!

the summer so far...

Making a mess eating

with Daddy at the beach

With Grandma at the Swedish Festival

With Grandpa

Efren and Denise's wedding party

Paradise Cove in Malibu

at the Getty Center

we took this video in a park in West LA a couple weekends ago while on a walk with our dear friends Anh and Amanda. We've been to Los Angeles a couple times already this summer and seen a lot of friends so far. The only problem is there's so much to do around the house, especially if we're really going to have a housewarming/fireworks bash on July 3rd. Homeownership is a lot of work. We've got plans to visit Bay friends too, but everything keeps getting pushed back farther into the hot summer. here is a pic of our friends Sara and Mario with baby Charlotte. And maybe I'll do some more of the summer so far...

Happy v day

Well, since I posted what we ate for valentine's day last year, I might as well talk about this year. We had a shrimp pasta dish again, but this time it was a buttery garlic sauce of andrew's creation. And it was delicious! We had a side salad with lemon vinagrette and red velvet cupcakes for dessert. It was pretty great. We topped the evening off with some Big Love and snuggling with Charlotte. It was a fun valentine's day spent with my two favorite people in the world.