Say "Cheese!"

Chuck E. Cheese, that is!

Yesterday we took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate Rori's birthday!  We are having a little BBQ with some friends tomorrow night for her little party but we wanted to do something on her actual birthday too.  So it was just us (and a million other kids, lol).  It actually wasn't nearly as crowded as I thought it might be, considering it was the weekend and right at dinner time!

We had a lot of fun!  Rori loved it!  She liked all the lights and sounds and just kept looking at everything!  They gave her a balloon and crown since it was her birthday...





While we were eating, Chuck E. Cheese came by our table to say "Hi".  Rori was not too sure how she felt about him at first, I think it startled her to see him standing right there all of a sudden.  But later, while he visited other tables, she coudn't keep her eyes off of him!  She tried to wave to him a couple of times too. lol





Rori liked playing in the toddler area!

















After Chuck E. Cheese's, we came home and Rori opened up a couple of her presents.  Of course, she LOVED the Elmo wrapping paper the most! lol



Then we let her have her first taste of ice cream!  YUM!!!




Even though Rori still has no clue what a "birthday" is, I think she had a fun one!  We'll have even more celebrating tomorrow when we have some friends over and she gets to have some cake too!  :)

Now and Then

Most of you know that we take a picture of Rori every month on her "month birthday".  It's always on the same blanket and with the same teddy bear so we can watch her grow.  Well, today we took the last of her monthly pics!  Here are the pictures from today...











Now... Just for fun, how about seeing just how much Rori has grown this past year....
The first month pics were taken at Ryan's mom's house so they are done with a different blanket but here it is... One month old and one year old...

Happy Birthday Rori!

My baby isn't a baby anymore! 

Today is Aurora's One-Year birthday!  Wow, can you believe it? 



There are many things that time makes you forget, especially with childbirth.  (Thankfully!)  But I do remember a lot about Rori's birth day.  I especially remember the first moments after she was born.  She was just so sweet!  I couldn't keep my eyes off of her and she seemed to feel the exact same way.  She didn't cry.  In fact, she still doesn't cry very much.  She was content to look around and take it all in.  She just seemed peaceful and happy just to "be". 



Aurora still likes to "look".  She is very inquisitive!  She watches everything and you can tell that she is just thinking and processing it.  She's quite smart (Yep, I'm a biased mom!) and I often get comments from others who think the same thing after observing her observe the world.  She is also very BUSY!  Because she is so curious, she gets into EVERYTHING!  It keeps me very busy, too! 



Aurora has been a wonderful blessing in our home and in our lives!  It's hard to remember that there was a time that she wasn't a part of our family.  We are so grateful to be blessed with such a sweet, special girl!

Happy Birthday, Aurora!!!

Three Days To Go!

Aurora's first birthday fast approaches!!! I cannot believe she is already turning one year old! Where does the time go???

We had really wanted to go down to Sacramento to celebrate her first birthday with our family there, like we did for Acadia's first birthday... but the scheduling just did not work. So then we were left with the question of what to do here? We thought it would just be nice to have a couple families over that Rori really likes and have a BBQ but most (if not all) of the people we wanted to invite were going to be out of town on her birthday! So, we have finally decided to celebrate on Monday instead.

Acadia and I went to order Rori's birthday cake and while we considered Elmo or Butterflies as the theme, when we got there we realized the only theme it should be... DUH! Princess Aurora, of course!!! So, we ordered a cute cake with Princess Aurora dancing with Prince Phillip on it. :) Then today we got a couple cute Sleeping Beauty (and other princess) decorations. Yay, it's all coming together!

We're so excited that Rori is growing up so big! She does lots of fun stuff now. Like, opening every drawer she can find and emptying all their contents, pushing any button she sees even if it's the TV and you were watching something, experimenting with various objects as she hits them against other objects (sometimes parts of your body) to see what happens... you know, stuff like that. ;) She is also doing super cute and sweet stuff like blowing kisses (she even makes a really good kissing sound, none of this "open mouth" stuff), waving hello or good-bye (usually most enthusiastically when it's little kids, like Cadi's friends), giving "loves" by snuggling and saying "Aahhh", dancing in circles, singing like The Little Mermaid (Ah, ah, ahhhhh, ah, ah, ahhhh...), sharing cheerios with us (even ones she already started to put in her mouth, lol), and lots more. :)

She's a cutie! We think we'll keep her! ;)

Oh, ya gotta love a good book!

Like everyone else and their grandma, I got my copy of the new Harry Potter book yesterday. Not much has gone on since then. lol I'm pretty sure the kids are both still alive... I think I remember feeding them at least once. ;) Other than the absolute bare necessities, I have done nothing but read (and go to church - including choir practice which I probably would have skipped if I had known we weren't going to be singing today in Sacrament Meeting afterall. lol)... and now I AM DONE!!!

*NO SPOILERS*

And I LOVED it!!! I was not disappointed! I don't think it gives anything away to say that it was intense.

Now I just need to get Ryan to read it so I can talk about it!

But, you know how when you're reading a really, really good book you can almost forget that it's not fiction? Okay, I'll admit it... I sometimes get carried away with LOTR and I swear - there are so many details, itty-bitty details... I swear it could be real!!! Well, last night as I was reading (granted it was late at night so I was tired and Ryan was at work, which always makes me feel anxious), I kept getting spooked. Now, I'm the type who likes to have a plan so I occasionally think, "If someone came bursting through my door, how would I get me and my kids out safely?" Well, last night, the answer to that question was, "I'd grab my wand and disarm them immediately!" And I quickly tried to remember the name of some curse that would surely protect me from an intruder!
LOL

I seriously laughed at myself when I realized that was honestly my plan at that moment. And then I realized that I must be pretty tired and I should probably head to bed, so I did... and then natually, I spent another couple of hours up reading in bed, too, before actually putting the book down and attempting to sleep.

Oh, ya gotta love a good book! :)

1 down... 19 to go!

It took 11 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days but Rori has FINALLY cut her first tooth!!!

HOORAY!!!

The dentist always tells me it is better to have their teeth come in later and so I haven't minded hers coming in late at all... However, the "teething" symptoms for months on end is SO NOT FUN!!! So I am glad that we finally have something to show for it! lol

Friday

Hey, it's Friday the 13th! I'm not superstitious so I really don't care but it's fun to joke about. :)

Yesterday was my birthday! I'm getting old! lol

We didn't really do anything special though, Ryan worked the night before and last night too so he slept most the day. It was also the only day we could visit with some friends who had moved away and were here this week visiting family, so we had them over for dinner. That meant I spent my day going to the store to get stuff for dinner, cleaning the house, and cooking. But dinner was really nice - and one of my favorites. :) It was fun visiting with our friends (Hey, Arizona Beauty - we love you guys!)!

It has turned out that for the last couple of years, Ryan has had to work on most of the "special days" - or when he hasn't worked, he had another reason where he ended up being gone... this was the second birthday in a row of mine (he has also had to work 2 of the last 3 birthdays for Cadi), the last 3 Mother's Days, at least the last Valentine's Day (I was pregnant and sick the Valentine's Day before this one and honestly don't remember much about that time so I couldn't say what happened that year.), and even our 10th wedding anniversary. Most of those days were celebrated later and it shouldn't really matter whether it was on the actual day or not... but I'm getting to the point where I'm tired of it always getting postponed. I want the next "special day" to be a priority! :P

I think the current plan is for us to go out on Tuesday. We'd better!!! lol