Her fading mohawk...

 

I think this photo is perfect.  Good job, Justin.  Charlotte, I love you.

One. Year. Old.

Charlotte is one.  1.  Wow.  I don't know how it all happened so fast.  One minute she's learning how to suck, swallow and breath.  The next minute she's climbing off the coach and pulling down the dvd player.  Oh, how quickly she's growing up...

Family photo on Charlotte's first birthday.

We had two birthday celebrations for Charlotte.  The day after Christmas, we had a family brunch at our house.  The Christmas tree was still up but I insisted that her presents were not covered with Santas or snowmen.  I made a mini monkey cake and topped it with a little pink candle.

Here she is with her monkey cake, candle and all!

nom nom nom

Toys!  She has since destroyed some of these stacking blocks.  :)

Then almost a month later (I needed that long to recover from the holidays), we had another mini celebration for the neighborhood kids and friends.  Most of the families that came are part of my "Real Housewives of CV" group.  We're a group of working moms that meet every week for Sangria and reality TV.  They're my life line.  They keep me sane (and sometimes tipsy).  And they have the most lovely families.  More on them later, I'm sure.

Okay, Princess Party.  For Charlotte.  Mommy went only a little overboard.

I read a LOT of party/ event planning/ pretty things blogs (mainly, www.hostesswiththemostess.com) and they are always feature some kind of pretty dessert table.  So I felt slightly obligated to also feature a dessert table at the party.  I made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting, white chocolate princess lollipops (which was SO FUN), and I even made Charlotte's cake!

Here's a side view of the dessert table.  Notice the super cute Cricut banner I made using the Birthday Bash and Once Upon a Princess cartridges.

Here's a shot of the polyhedron that I made (tutorial can be found here) to decorate the door way.  There were two of these giant pink ones hanging from the ceiling.

Here is the birthday cake, complete with castle candle.  This is the very first layer cake I've ever made and decorated.  A little rough but I don't think Charlotte noticed.

And here is the tower of cupcakes.  These are all yellow cupcakes with pink frosting (middle tier) and cream cheese frosting with pink sprinkles (bottom tier). 

We set up the front courtyard for the festivities.  I made goody bags filled with crowns, inflatable swords, blinking wands, and princess themed rubber duckies (all from www.orientaltradingcompany.com) for the kids to play with during the party.  I decorated the boy bags with a frog prince and the girl bags with a little princess (made with the Cricut of course).  We also placed a cardboard castle in the courtyard for all the little kids to color and play in during the party.

Waiting for the party to start.

Frog seeking princess for kiss...

Princess here.  But no kisses.  Not for a long time.  VERY long time...

Welcome to the Party!  The top part of the sign was made using the Cricut.  The bottom part is just a sticker page that each child also got in her goody bag.

And of course, there was lots of cake and play involved.  

Charlotte wearing her fairy wings and crawling in and out and around the castle.  The castle is now sitting in our dining room.

She got cake all over her face - but not nearly as bad as I was expecting.  I think she was too tired to get too out of control.

yeah cake!

Cousins in the castle!

Peek-a-boo!

Yeah B family!  So adorable!

Mother and daughters!

Sleeping baby...shhh....

Overall, I think the party was a success.  I know that Charlotte won't have any memory of the day.  But there will be photos and it's a good trial run for when she really does remember.  :)

Tardy, Belated...grr...just LATE!

Is it seriously already the end of January?  Is Charlotte almost 13 months old?  Did I just download December 2010 photos in January 2011?!?!?  Sigh sigh.  I suppose some things never change.  I was always late to Calculus class.  I suppose I'll always be late to blog as well.

Okay, Christmas 2010.  Charlotte's first Christmas.

She helped me wrap presents throughout December.  She especially loved the ribbon.

She met Santa Claus.  Yes, I know I posted a photo of her and Mr. Claus before.  But you'll love this one.  Charlotte absolutely adored him.  Just look at that big smile.

And of course we had a Christmas tree, complete with Charlotte's first ornament (see bottom right corner).

Finally, here are some photos of Charlotte enjoying those presents on Christmas morning!

So from our family to yours, we hope you all had a very Happy Holidays and are enjoying the joyous (and if you live in San Diego) amazingly warm and sunny New Year!!!

A Cricut Christmas

I love my cricut.  Think of it as a printer that cuts instead of prints out ink.  It's amazing and I think that everyone (especially Kandice, if she is reading this) needs to have one.  :)

While the holiday season is already over, I wanted to show you some of the cricut projects I made last month. 

Here are two Christmas cards.  How cute are those reindeer?

I also made a TON of pizzelles (Italian wafer cookies made using Grandma Smith's family recipe) for my co-workers.  I packaged them in ziplock sandwich bags then made these cute labels for them.  This is probably my favorite project of the season.

And here is the Christmas card we sent out this year to family and friends. 

Hope that everyone had a very Happy Holidays and Joyous New Year!  Photos and posts about Christmas, Charlotte's Birthday, and New Years Eve to come.

True Love

Early morning conversations with my 2-year-old niece, Vivi...

me:  Vivi, do you love Charlotte?

vivi:  No.

me:  No?!  You don't love your cousin?

vivi:  No.  I love Diego. 

Yes Charlotte, there is a Santa Claus

I never took a photo with Santa Claus.  As a kid, I would look longingly at those fake North Pole set ups at the mall and wonder why I never got to sit on Santa's lap and ask for anything.  But gosh darnit, Santa is going to be a part of Charlotte's life and he's gonna be big!  Charlotte, meet Santy Claus...

Hmm, she actually wasn't too happy about meeting the jolly old dude in red.  We got one photo, however, where her back wasn't arched and where she wasn't screaming at the top of her lungs.  Note the fear in her eyes...

Merry Christmas!!!

Go Navy, Beat Army!

We headed up north to watch the Army-Navy football game this year with one of my co-workers, who is also an Academy grad.  I sadly didn't take any photos, but the food spread was phenomenal!  Amazing chili, ribs, cheese steak sandwiches, super cute football cake pops...yum yum yum!  Full disclosure - I don't think I watched one bit of the game.  But I was told that Navy won.  :)

Here's a photo of Charlotte and Patsy in their Navy gear.  Patsy was the perfect and exceedingly adorable hostess.