--Our Big 1 Year Old Birthday Girl--

Kayden turned O.N.E.!

First of all, I can't believe it.  Second of all, I can't get over it.

.. But I won't even go into that because I could go on and on .. but she'll still be one, so we'll just get to it =).

Daddy was able to take the day off, so that was very fun and special!

We started off with some special snuggles and games in mommy & daddy's bed.  She loves to play in our bed.  We get a kick out of it too =).  She's a riot!

My two lovebugs in blankies =).

HAHAHA!

We got going and took birthday girl to the zoo.  We have passes, and haven't gone as much this summer as we have in the past years .. but have made it down there a few times.  So far she pretty much was just happy she was outside and in her stroller, oblivious to where she was.  This time, however, she seemed to have a blast!  And so did we.  We've been going to the Albuquerque Zoo for years, but they have never had giraffe feeding before.  Just so happened that they had it that day, AND that we realized we were feeding them at exactly 12:13 -- the time Kayden was born!  How cool is that?!  =D  We were very excited about it.  All (week and) day we were saying, "Oh look, right now we were going to the hospital" (Wednesday lmao!)  "Right now we were going into surgery"  And then we realized that exactly one year later from when little Kayden was pulled from my tum-tum, she was feeding a giraffe all on her own!  My how a year has changed things, and my how fast it has gone.  I must admit though, feeding the giraffe's with my little family was a lot less painful then getting cut apart on a table.. ;-p

Happy Birthday Kayden Elizabeth!!!

Her little toofers =)

Our goal was to make her have the best day of her life so far.  =D  We were going to continue her day out, but after the zoo it was clear that she was ready for a nap.  We were sure she would wake back up and we would go back out ... but we were wrong.  She slept the whole day away and barely woke up at about 830 pm (I think only because she was hungry .. but still VERY tired).  We gave her her first cupcake and she seemed excited for her very own sugar filled goodie, that she could make as big of a mess that she wanted to ... (this was seriously a first, and a treat .. we're not big on giving her a bunch of crap .. so we were excited to see her be pleased...)

However .. as soon as she had it all to her self .. it didn't seem so thrilling after all..

This poor girl was SO tired and grumpy .. and NOT in the mood for shenanigans!

But my trooper baby came around, as she often does, and realized that this was some fun stuff .. to at least play with..

Demolished! =)

Poor little thing was tired, and passed out to get rest for her party the next day.  But I take that as a sign that she had a great day full of fun =)

Love you birthday girl - hope you had a wonderful birthday and I will try to make all of your birthdays wonderful! =) <3

My precious lovebug...

---

I've had this feeling lately .. this indescribable feeling .. I search for words but I can't find the right ones.

I found this.  Somebody read my mind.

Baby girl, you turned o*n*e, eleven days ago.  And I can't even believe you're one already!  But already -one and eleven days- ?!  Pfft!  Not fair.

I know you are going to grow up, regardless of my efforts to make time stop.  And I am so excited to watch you learn and grow, watching you this far has been amazing.  And I know that if I kept you little, I would miss so many things.  But right now, there are just S.o.M.a.N.y. cute things that I love!!

I love the way you put your head on my shoulder and squish your little face into my neck.  I love the way you crack up at my funny faces.  Whether they are actually funny, or you're just doing it to float my boat, only you know sweet thang =).  The way you run around like a monster, and crush your block boxes.  The way you chase Dozer and laugh so hard.  The way you push your lips up to your nose and make the funniest blowing noises.  The way you 'blow kisses' - hand to face and blow out your nose! =D  Your concentration face ... playing, eating, anything.  The way you point out your little lips so preciously and focus so hard.  The way you think you can crawl through the coffee table, but almost always get stuck.  The way you take out every single VHS movie (not necessarily my favorite part lol) and then come to show me, so proudly, that you rescued the movie from that pesky case that you hate.  The way you hug my legs and bury your head into them.  The way that you'll always go shopping with me ... and be interested in anything that I'm willing to show you.  =)  The way you look up at me from your car seat, you have to look really far back, but as soon as you figure out which side I'm on you get the biggest smile.  The way that now that you can walk, you love to follow me through out the house.  The way that you love to wave to little kids, anywhere and everywhere we go.  The way that you love to explore, and to be with other people, but most of all, how you will choose yourself to come over to me and climb into my lap =).

So many things, that I could never finish.  So many things that I love, and hope I always remember the specific feeling.

I love you for always Kayder-tators!  As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

We've been reading this book, but I'll save that for another post. =)

♥ Play time with Auntie Kourt ♥

Kourtney came to hang out and help me out with some Krafts Galore stuff =) (Thanks Kourt!) Kayders had a blast!

-tickles & giggles-

Miss you already kourtbourt!! <3

Catching up.

These days it doesn't ever feel like I can catch up.  I definitely can't catch up on pictures and I deffffinitely can never catch Kayden.  This monkey is every where these days!  Not a joke.  E.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e!

This bunch is from July.

*Gahlala* I looove these little sholder blades.  The weird, random things I have found myself oooing over in these mom-days of mine.

Goofy girl!

There was a warm, light rain so we went and played.  She absolutely loves water.  Any type of water.  Playin in the rain included. =)

-xo-

Who's going to create smell-a-blog?

I would send them a smell-a-blog of roses.  I would have preferred roses over what I got when I opened the door to Kayden's room the other day...

These nasty little hands, which I normally find so precious and nom-able, made a MESS.  To say the least.

Kayden seemed ecstatic to show me her 'artwork'...

And confused as to why I was making the "I might die/puke/cry/whywhywhy" face...

But as soon as she realized that I was laughing at the same time as almost crying and puking she went along gleefully to show me that she didn't miss a spot on anything she could reach.

You would think I would only let this happen once right?  Wrong.  This was actually the second time.  The first time, I woke up to her happily occupying herself in her room so I decided to get some things done.  Twenty minutes later, I went in, to find a mess, not as bad (but obviously always bad), but a mess none the less.  I did the whole sha-band of wipe down and vowed that it would never happen again.  Not on my watch at least.  (Daddy was lucky enough to be at work).  Welp,  the other day I heard her wake up from her nap, and went in right away leaving her no time, or so I thought.  She is a silent artist.  A sneaky one.  A proud one.  And hopefully a never-again-one.  

I recently came across a blogger who had posted about her daughter smuggling in a purple permanent marker ... eeek! Ya.  <-- Take a look.  Scary!

My point...

Kayden, I will always support you.  Shoot for the stars baby girl.  But I plead and beg for you to never show your artistic abilities in the following ways:

• Purple permanent markers.  Or any color for that matter.  Mommy's very anal about the walls, lets put that out there right now.
• No poop anymore, that'd be great, thank you!
• Playing hairdresser on anyone that is an alive, moving, breathing, creature.
• Make-up disasters.  Nail polish disasters.  Paint disasters.  My poor poor carpet.
• Carving.  Somehow wood shouts "please carve into me" to all children.  

I'm sure there are many more scary art projects in the future that I can't think of/will never think of until they happen.  I plan and hope to keep Kayden's creative side very busy!

-xo-

Tator tot loves balloons!

She loves balloons so much!!  I can't wait until her birthday, there will be a lot of balloons =D!

We got this from a restaurant we ate at a couple weeks ago, as soon as we walked in Kayden started pointing and pointing and reaching and wanting.  I snagged her one to keep her pleased at the table, which worked, until it came off the string and flew up into the super high ceiling.  Luckily it went behind something and Kayden got distracted.  However, as we walked out, she pointed and pleaded in her cute little way, and I grabbed another for the ride home ;-p.

<3 I love how she crinkles her cute little nose <3

Watching TV with her stroller and cup =)

She is too much fun!  She is getting really good at walking, and is loving to climb.  She climbs on annnything that she can!  And I mean anything.  I'll have to start catching pictures of her doing it.  She's such a dare-devil!

Just heard her wake up from her nap -- and I've learned my lesson that I need to go grab her out of her room quickly ... explanation & pics soon to come ... ;-)

Ponytails and Cellophane Rolls.

Wittle munchkin got her first ponytail! =D Yaaaay!

I work on the back dining room table and Kayden hangs out with me =).  This particular day I used the end of the cellophane so she got a cool new toy.

-xo-

Happy Forf!

We spent our forth just hanging out with my mom and Jerry and bbqing.  Fireworks were forbidden here in the desert because of all the tonnnns of fires (last I heard it was 23?).  So everywhere (Walmart, Grocery Stores, etc) took their fireworks off the shelves!  I think they had a show about 45+(and traffic, oh god!) minutes from our house but we decided to just hang around the house with some good food and drink and not drag grumpy girl out past her bedtime for some maybe-fireworks.  Ok with me! =)

We, of course, had to do some Chloe Chic Bowtique modeling with Kayder's new forth of July bow. =)

Mmm, cheerios!

Oh no!  I've been spotted.

"Mama, pleeeease give me all these goodies you have!"

"Riley, seriously, I put them all on my 'tray' for you, now take them!"

She is connnstantly chasing around Dozer, trying to get him to take whatever she has (which often is, acutally his toy), and sometimes he'll get brave and come try to gently take it from her hand, but then gets sketched out and confused because she doesn't let go and just the right time.  She holds on strong.  But then chases him some more until he will try again.  Sometimes this game is successful, and Dozer will run away delighted, but usually not.  Lol!  Riley though, shown above ^, will just let Kayden do prrretty much, anything.  Kayden's newest thing is trying to find anything to boost herself onto the couch ... Riley is often the "thing" she finds.  Poor Riley.

And just for the record -- our dogs are not forced into these situations.  They are fully aware that they have many places to go to get away from the monster, ie their mattress on the floor in our room that turned into their bed (spoiled, I knowww), or my closet floor that they have taken all kinds of comfy stuff into and made their own bed lmao, or their kennel (which is supposed to be their spot lol!), or ... you get the picture lol!  But they like to hang out and get stepped on ;-p.