Kite Festival 2008

Another year at the kite festival has passed. We had such a great time!

Caitlyn had a fun time flying her 1st Kite!!!

Dad bought his 1st fighter Kite and we played 'knock the can down'.

Caitlyn with dirt on her face... I spent the 1st day trying my hardest to keep her clean and then realized that it is impossible while camping. Cocia Hana and Aunt Scarlet climbed this mountain of dirt with Caitlyn!
Caitlyn running towards the Pacific Ocean, she loved jumping the waves.

Three sun bathing, wave jumping beauties!

Caitlyn playing with her sand castle bucket from Uncle Jonny and Mandy.
This is her excited to be holding her 1st kite
That's me trying to show her where her kite is in the sky.
That's Dad making sure she learns all the right kite flying moves. Caitlyn relaxing at the camper.
More sun bathing beauties! Jumping the waves.
I love the excitement in her eyes!
If you look close at the picture below,

you will see she ate the sand... mmm!

Top 10 favorite moments of Kite Festival 2008

1. The beach, the sand, the waves, the sunshine… everything about the beach!
2. Flying my 1st kite
3. Bean bags and Holy Balls
4. Sleeping in the same gigantic sleeping bag as my mommy and daddy
5. DziaDzia’s surprise visit
6. Noodles on the LBW strip and Nacos
7. Exploring everything and playing in puddles
8. Barguments and Loaded Questions
9. Laughter, fun, and excitement 24 hours a day
10. Being on vacation with my family

I ran outta space on my camera from pictures at the beach. So we didn't get much of the actual camping action... 'til next year!

Rough Morning

Caitlyn finally went down for a nap... so I am going to blog, then shower, then have lunch with Ksavera, then hopefully by that time Caitlyn will be awake and I will take her to the Tacoma Farmer's Market! My morning has gone as follows...
7:00am-woke up,
7:10am-diaper change and ventured downstairs for some breakfast,
7:15am-gave Caitlyn 2 bites of pear, strwaberry, and granola....
7:17am-then she wanted to read her books
7:20am-tried rice cereal... didn't work
7:22am-checked for teeth... none!
7:23am-let her play while I did laundry
8:00am-tried some more bites of fruit... wasn't interested. Continued playing but had to be touching me while she played.
8:30-attempted hamburger buns (this is actually one of her favorites right now) two bites successful
8:35am-continued to play the alligator xylophone
9:00am-gave up on trying to get her to eat... gave her a bottle (only took 4 ounces)
9:10am-huge poopy diaper, then thought maybe she had an upset stomach and NOW she'll wanna eat... no such luck (maybe this is why she only weighed a measley 17 pounds 2 ounces at her 1 year check up)
9:30am-she starts rubbing her eyes I think she is tired, but doesn't go down for a nap. I tried laying with her and still not interested in napping or playing or eating at this point. This went on for about an hour.
10:30am-decided to heat up some leftover chicken from Sunday Dinner and she loved it... finished her bottle and then ran around the house as if there was some form of energy booster in that chicken.
11:30am (now an 1-1/2 past her usual morning nap time) she acts a little tired again.
11:40am-trying to get Caitlyn down for a nap and Ashley calls to see how his girls are doing... Caitlyn steals the phone from me and hangs up on dad.
11:45am-I put her in her crib and called Ash back (at this point I am kinda crabby cause I haven't even showered yet this morning)
1150am-start this post... it's already putting me in a better mood because I am realizing that it wasn't that bad afterall... maybe Caitlyn is transitioning to only one nap a day... We'll see!
Now-I'm headed for the shower!

Our Walk

Friday was so hot... we decided to walk to Starbucks to enjoy a smoothie! It was cooler outside than it was in our house! Enjoy the pics of Caitlyn on our walk!

I guess I could've chose a place with better scenery for this post... sorry.

Numbers

Caitlyn's 1st Year Statistics

Weight: 17 pounds 2 ounces (3%)

Height: 30 3/4 inches (90%)

Head: 46 (75%)

Splish Splash...

It's Caitlyn's 1st Birthday Bash! Saturday, after I posted on my blog... Caitlyn and Ashley woke up, we made cinnamon rolls and sang happy birthday to Caitlyn... She learned that she really likes cinnamon rolls!

In the evening, we went to our friends' (Sandy & Ian's) wedding.

It was at the Point Defiance rose garden and it rained all day... but cleared up just in time for their outdoor wedding. It was beautiful!!! Caitlyn stayed the night at Babcia and DziaDzia's house (her very first night away from us) so Ash and I could spend the next morning getting ready for her big party.

Sunday was the big day!

We celebrated at my Aunt Cindy and Uncle John's house, they were gracious enough to let us invite many of Caitlyn's friends over for her first pool party! There's not much to explain... just enjoy the pics...

Here's just a few of Caitlyn... her cake... her friends... In this collage... she gets her own special cake to eat... which she prefers to feed to me... then to herself... then she offers me a frosting fingered hug... then feeds dad

(she's loves to share & we teach her that sharing IS caring!)
Then of course we had to take a family pic with frosting all over!
Here are a few more pictures of many of her guests.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this party so special! Who would've thought throwing a party for a 1 year old would be so exhausting!?!

Exactly a Year Ago Today…

She changed me into a better person! When Caitlyn was born, my life was flipped upside down and into a total tail spin, since then… I have grown and learned just as fast as she has. On this day at exactly 8:29am, I met my baby, Caitlyn Leigh. She was like no one I had ever met before. She completely melted my heart. In one single very short year she has changed me and taught me to be so many things, including: patient, caring, understanding, happy, sacrificing, hard-working, imaginative, proud, tender, and most importantly how to love with all my heart! I was a pretty emotional person pre-Caitlyn, but since her arrival… my emotions have been enhanced and boosted to some new level. Ash and I were reading through my blog from start to present and we realized that I cried (or shed a tear) a lot. Everything about her makes me so happy and brings me to tears… This morning… I have a ton of mixed emotions. I have cried 2 times so far (I’ve only been awake for an hour). Both times were because I can’t believe it’s been a year! I feel excited and happy that I have a happy and healthy 1 year old. I feel sad that she’s not a tiny baby anymore, I feel amazed that this year has gone by so fast and scared because I don’t know exactly how to slow down time.

Thank-you, Caitlyn Leigh for making me who I am today! I love You with ALL my heart...
and I am shedding happy tears as I type this post ;)

Surprise Visit!

I was trying to scrapbook and play with Caitlyn at the same time (which I have learned is very difficult) when my phone rang... It was Krista Kellett! She was in the area with Ludy and Caitlyn's best friend, Avery. I told them to swing on by!
Here are the babes playing so well together... it was right around Caitlyn's nap time (which shows in the expression on her face). It seems as though I hadn't seen Avery in a while... and my how she is growing! She has 4 teeth... since Caitlyn is STILL toothless, I measure growing by teeth! Avery is so darn cute and a good grower of teeth!!! Oh... and I was so happy to see that Avery was moving all over our family room and would crawl to Caitlyn and grab her eyes or her cheeks... I think it was pay backs for all the times Caitlyn stole Avery's pacifier outta her mouth!

I thought this was a great picture of Avery's little teeth...

I'm becoming obsessed with baby teeth!

Whip Cream

Last night, Ash and I both woke up to a very loud cry... we rushed into Caitlyn's room and tried to cuddle her back to sleep... we brought her into our room, changed her diaper, offered her a pacifier and a bottle, but she just flailed like a fish outta water all over our bed. I thought to myself... this is it... We HAVE to be teething! After a half hour of walking and rocking... Caitlyn fell asleep... and to my surprise, we woke up this morning WITHOUT teeth. I still have a toothless baby!!! I do LOVE her gummy smiles, but I think she'd enjoy food a little more if she had some teeth to mush it all up.

After work today, Caitlyn was in quite the investigating mood. As Ash and I were preparing our dinner Caitlyn ventured through the fridge. I let her explore and she found the whip cream!!! What a treat!

I have been dying to get a good picture of Caitlyn on this pretty pink pony. It was a gift from my friend Stacy at work (Thanks, Stacy!!!) It was her little daughter's and they gave it to Caitlyn... who was deathly afraid of it when we first got it. Now, it is the 1st thing she goes to play with in the morning. If you pinch it's ear... it sings a catchy pretty pony song (which is currently stuck in my head). Caitlyn squeezes the pony's ear until the music plays then starts to do slow squats with a little bit of a pelvic thrust until the music stops and then she does it again... and again... and again!

Oh yeah... and we finally finished and bottled the limoncello and it rocks! Thanks Uncle Paul for the Recipe! We will bring some to PA for you to be our most important taste tester!

A Quiet Home

Ashley & Caitlyn headed up North to visit Jon & Mandy along with my Dad, Ksavera, Hana, Scarlet, and some other friends to watch Batman Begins... which means... I am home alone (for longer than an hour) for the 1st time since Caitlyn was born! I decided not to go up to Jon's because I work this weekend and thought I'd be able to get a little extra 'rest' if I stayed home... and by 'rest'...I mean, I went for a 7.2 mile bike ride, came home, completed the laundry, emptied the dishwasher, swept the entire house, mopped all the floors, vacuumed, dusted, cleaned all the toilets and the bathrooms, took a 30 minute shower, and right now I have decided to REST! The house is amazingly quiet and I will probably hit the sack soon...
I miss Ashley & Caitlyn, but this evening was much needed.
Tomorrow, I work an 8 hour shift and then am driving up North to watch the new Batman (The Dark Night) at the IMAX theatre with everyone else who is already up there.
Good Night!

Limoncello Part 2

Step 2 in our Limoncello process was two fold.
1.) drink a ton of Grolsch beer… check!
2.) Clean out & prepare the bottles for bottling the Limoncello…check!

Here are the bottles soaking in boiling water...

and here they are drying in the sunshine on the windowsill.

For those of you who were confused about my first Limoncello post, I thought I’d give a brief background on the lemon liqueur...
We heard about and first tried limoncello with my Uncle Paul and Cocia Char... Limoncello is produced in Southern Italy, mainly in the region around the Gulf of Naples, the Sorrentine Peninsula and the coast of Amalfi and islands of Procida, Ischia and Capri, but also in Sicily, Sardinia, Menton in France and the Maltese island of Gozo. It is served well chilled in the summer months. It is wonderful as a palate cleanser or as an after dinner drink. We keep our bottles of limoncello in the freezer until ready to serve. The ingredients are simple and few, and making a batch doesn't require much work, just time. It is made from lemon rinds, alcohol, water, and sugar. It is bright yellow in color, sweet and lemony, but not sour since it contains no lemon juice.
I can't wait to start step 3 when my Dad comes home!

What a Weekend!

As a Registered Nurse, who works every other weekend, I have learned to really appreciate my weekends off. Caitlyn and I started this weekend off with a trip to the zoo with Tiffany and Avery. We had an absolutely amazing time... the babes loved to watch the fish swim by in the aquarium. Tiffany has already done a wonderful post of our trip so check out the good pics and photo captions on her blog (simply by clicking her name in the previous sentence or by clicking on it on my list of buddies)!

After the zoo, Caitlyn was pretty pooped from the summer heat and seeing all off the animals so she took a 2 1/2 hour nap while I prepared a picnic for Ash. The second Ashley got home I had him change out of his work attire and we headed down to our local park and ate our picnic. Caitlyn really enjoyed swining on the swings.

Saturday, we all woke up early and walked on the Tacoma Water Front. Then we came home, napped, and went to Norah's 3rd birthday party. The weather couldn't have been any more perfect for their backyard pool party!

Sunday, Ash and I woke up and called his parents to see if they wouldn't mind watching Caitlyn ALL DAY! They gladly agreed and we dropped her off and rushed to the grocery store, came home and unpacked, cleaned the house, finished all the laundry, did all of our yard work, ate lunch, rested, and headed back to their house for our traditional Sunday dinner. Today was mine and Ashley's 1st day alone since we have had Caitlyn... it was so nice to be able to get things done around the house and to be able to spend some good alone time together... but it was even nicer to return to our sweet baby girl!

Caitlyn could have swung all night if it was up to her.

Counterclockwise from Caitlyn... Avery, Dylan, and Nolan. (Norah was in the 'big kids' pool.) It was so neat being able to watch them all interact togheter. Thanks Beth and Casey for having us over to celebrate such a special day!

Really, I just loved this picture even though Caitlyn's about to lose her bikini bottoms, Tiffany looks smokin' hot!!!

Caitlyn enjoyed the pool among other things at grandma and pappy's house!

Caitlyn and Pappy looked pretty cool in the shade here in this pic so I had to post it!

11 Months

Well, I am two days late posting about Caitlyn turning 11 months. It is absolutely amazing how much she has learned from last month. This picture was taken at my parents' house and I LOVE the look on Yssim (their dog's) face. He wants that pretzel so bad! Top 10 Things Caitlyn Has Learned This Month

1. Kisses & Hugs
2. Clapping and shaking her bum when she hears music or her mama sing
3. Walking/Running (she's up to about 15 steps at a time and she's so fast)
4. Swimming (she's definitely our little fish, she loves the water)
5. Words: Hi, dad! Everytime she sees him she says, "hi, dad!" She also picks up any phone or tv remote, puts it to her ear and says, "hi, dad!" She also says, "phu" and raises her NEB's (Non Existing Eyebrows) when she sees Roger (our cat) or Yssim.
6. Getting on and off the couch (without hurting herself)
7. Sleeping forever... she takes two and three hour naps during the day and then sleeps about ten hours at night.
8. Eating hard things is not impossible without teeth. She gums everything so well!
9. Climbs up the stairs very fast.
10. Her mom and dad love her more than they have ever loved before!

The A to Z of being me

From Tiffany’s, Bridget's and Sara's Blogs...

A- Attached or single: Attached to Ash for over 110 months
(2 ½ years married)
B- Best friend: Tiffany Jeanne
C- Cake or pie: Pie
(specifically my mom’s homegrown and made rhubarb pie)
D-Day of the Week: Thursday (it’s my Friday)
E- Essential item: Cell phone
(if I can’t send or receive at least 10 texts a day to my family… I’m lost!)
F- Favorite color: Don’t have one
G-Gummi bears or worms: Bears
(especially when we’re at the Kite Festival)
H- Hometown: Tacoma, Wa
I- Indulgences: Pedicures with Tiffany and facials
J- January or July: July
K- Kids: 1, Caitlyn who turns 11 months tomorrow
(we’ll be trying again real soon)
L- Life is incomplete without: Family and friends
M- Marriage date: February 25th, 2006
N- Number of siblings: 3-Ksavera, Jon, Hana
(& 1 sister-in-law-Scarlet)
O- Oranges or apples: HoneyCrisp apples are amazing!!!
P- Phobia or fears: Losing loved ones
Q- Quote: Don’t really have one…
(I totally should though cause Ash texts out a quote every single weekday morning, you’d think one of them would’ve stuck)
R- Reason to smile: Caitlyn took her 1st steps!!!
S- Season: Spring, I love everything in bloom
T- Tag three: Tobi, Kristen, and Sarah
U- Unknown fact about me: I have a Master’s in Nursing
(but I’m not using it)
V- Vegetarian or oppressor to animals: I like meat
W- Worst habit: Cursing
X- Xray or ultrasound: Ultrasound
Y- Your favorite food: Stove popped popcorn, and starburst
(so healthy)
Z- Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Independence weekend

Happy 4th of July. I left my camera ON the whole day before and I did not realize it until I went to use it to take pics of the tall ships and the battery was dead. So, when we arrived at Ash's parents' house I promptly charged the battery. The only bad thing about that was Caitlyn went to sleep around 6ish and didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning... so I did not take many pics of her in her precious 4th of July outfit. Here's one atleast

The 4th is Steve's birthday, so we celebrate every year with a bang at their house. Steve probably got 5 bottles of tequila for his birthday which he shared with everyone... therefore making it a wild night .

This was the last picture I got of Caitlyn before I put her down for her 12 hour NAP!

Thought I'd squeeze in a pic of me and my main squeeze...

Here's a pic before one of Steve's fireworks grand finalies. His firework display was better than the Tacoma waterfront's this year!!!

As I was looking through all of our pictures from the celebration, I found that someone took atleast 50 pictures of people lighting and throwing smoke bombs... so I thought it'd be apporpriate to post this collage.

Another group shot...

And then there's Caitlyn...
Waking up her dad on the 5th of July... still in her 4th of July dress...so nice and rested

I purposefully didn't post a pic of me throwing any smoke bombs... cause in the beginning of the night I decided to light 6 of them in my hand at once... and burnt my ring finger pretty bad. Below is the action shot of them being lit and then how far I dropped them after my finger was burned. I wasn't being very smart.

I had the 5th of july off but had to work on Sunday... and while I was at work I recieved a call from Ash. He was so darn excited to tell me

CAITLYN TOOK HER 1st STEPS!!!

I was bummed I missed them, but she took two more when I got home and then another 5 while we were at Sunday dinner. She's on the move now!!! It is amazing to watch how carefully she takes the steps. She concentrates so hard for a second then just takes off! She is amazing!!!

This has got to be one of my longest posts ever. From now on... I will only post a few pics per post!