My Baby is ONE!

brown and pink tutu idea complements of corynne escalante, props.

While Oct 6th came and went a while ago, we just celebrated our little Charlotte's 1st Birthday yesterday. A small gathering of friends and family, to lavish our love on the little one. She was a little emotional at first(imagine that), but she cheered up and seemed to enjoy her first birthday party. It seems no 1st birthday is complete without a few tears. Charlotte is amazing and has been a welcome lively addition to our family. She keeps us on our toes...constantly and at 1 year old is ready to take on the world! She waddles around from one end of the house to the other, with her feet barely able to keep up with her determination. Anything in the way gets vigorously shoved aside or momentarily crashed into. Her eyebrows speak volumes and are often times intensly furrowed. Not to many people meet Charlotte without commenting on her chubba wubba cheeks! ( which are currently red and chaffed from a rather blustery day) Her favorite birthday gift was probably her cell phone, which she walks around with saying "HEWWO" is a strangly deep voice. She really loves her daddy and is always the first one to greet him when he comes home. She is our little snuggle bug baby and we couldn't love her more.



Leading the pack

Bapa grillin' burgers

Friends enjoying those burgers Birthday Cake Mmmm!www.cakesbydanielle.net (aka the cake ninja)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY CHAR!

Movin' and Groovin'

So for those of you who haven't heard, we are finally moving! Yes! We fell in love with a little house in Santa Ana and the Lord totally opened the doors for us to be able to rent it. (Isn't it the cutest?) So as crazy as things can be around here at times, this is like nothing before. I started packing on Friday and the boxes are piling up quickly. (not to high of course because Char pushes them off eachother!) Which brings me to another point. How do you pack a house with children around? Brandi? Erica? Carly? Any ideas would be appriciated. The girls NEED all day long, they need to eat(multiple times a day), they need to play, they need to be outside, they need my attention, they need to cuddle, they need to be kept safe from stacks of boxes and everything that was once hidden away in a closet or drawer and is now at their disposal. And somewhere in the midst of all this I am to pack up my entire house, succesfully? Yes. Yes I am. And obviously I have even been able to take a little blogging break! God is Good and I am in the packing Groove. It may sound strange but I actually really enjoy packing things! I like the way everything gets wrapped up and fits snuggly in a box and then that box is stacked neaty with the other boxes of completion. I love going through and organizing and throwing away things that I know I do not need and will never wear or use. Those of you with similar personality types are sure to understand. And...... I like using the packing tape dispenser.... I like the sound it makes(:

What a Trip

The girls and I made a quick trip to Fresno last week. It was shorter than most of our trips but still very sweet. My sister Brandi and her fam are now officially Californians again and it was great to have all the cousins together. They played non-stop! Which was really good for Nevaeh. She had them all acting like animals! And surprisingly she held her own while interacting with her cousins who have been described as 'professional kids'!




I also had the privilege of meeting the newest member of the Coplin family. My friend Carly gave birth to her second boy, Myles Everett on Sept 8, and he is just simply precious.

Wasting No Time

She just took her first steps a few days ago and already this little Chubba-lub is on the move. It seriously seems like she is getting better and better every hour. This video was taken yesterday and today she is much improved and has been working on her 360.

Look at her go!

Princesses in Training

Nevaeh was in the princess mood yesterday. Dresses, crowns, shoes and plenty of dancing!

"Aren't I such a beautiful Princess mama?"

she asked, as she practiced her twirls in front of the mirror.

"Ya gotta turn dis way, dis way, then all the way round!"
"Dance with me mama!"

"Char will be the prince!"

Char can never be left out of anything and so she had her turn to be a princess too! Charlotte is really into putting things on her head lately. Yesterday she crawled in the room with a onesie on her head that she had fished out of the laundry basket....never a dull moment with that one. She has also taken a few steps and prefers to walk down the hall holding on to the wall as opposed to crawling...she should be taking off any day now. No rush....absolutely no rush.

Girlz in Curlz

Mother-Daughter Bonding.

Can you believe she has enough hair for curlers?! I thought this day would never come. My little bald baby in curlers! Its really weird having a daughter that's like a real person now. I look at her often, several times a day at least, and think ,

"Wow I can't believe your my little bald baby, with little eyes as wide as they can get, little heart so soft and timid"

Black Attack

Well ladies and gentlemen...I finally did it. My once white Shabby Chic Antique table is now BLACK! Ok well, I didn't actually do it myself, my dad (Ernie, to specify between the many) painted it for us and did a marvelous job. It turned out really shiney which is okay with me it just means that everything shows up on it and I have to clean it often...which is a good "have to" for me. You would think that a white table would require more cleaning attention.. but Oh So not so...white hid the crumbs, which fall my the tons around here, much better. But I was so tired of my white table and chairs that Al and I bought 7 years ago just before we were married. We found the table at an antique shop in Reedley, Ca. For those of you who think Fresno is small town, you should visit Reedley. I think we paid like $200 for it which seems like alot now seeing as how there were no chairs, but at the time it felt like a steal! We found our four matching chairs at "Wisteria" a quaint little shop in Fresno's Tower District, next to the guy with the used bookstore who looked like Peter Jackson when he directed Lord of the Rings. That was a great little store, its gone now...Anyone know where he went? Anyways My table is Black and I like it.