Penny's Birthday Post #3

Or The Birthday Party/ 1-Year-Old Photos

Penny had a great 1st birthday party!  We just invited family and a few of her friends, which turned out to be 94 people!  (We actually had about 50 show up)

Penny had a lot of fun- especially with the cake!

Everyone else had lots of fun too- especially Travis.

I couldn't stop laughing at this picture.

Penny LOVED opening her presents.

Everything was "Oh wow!"  And she had to hug all of the clothes and the baby dolls.

She got a fun new bike from Grandma & Grandpa Smith that she loved, but had to fight all the other kids for it!

Great Grandma Fraser got her her own little camping chair.  She had to make some phone calls in it after the party.

My sister made Penny her birthday shirt.  It had a lady bug on the front and this "1" on the back.

Aunt Sarah took Penny's 1-year-old photos.  We took them at the Japanese Garden at CSULB and they turned out gorgeous!

This one is my favorite:

Check out the close-up:

  

Gotta love that face.

And I promise I am done posting things about Penny's birthday now.

12 Months

Penny is 1!

And obviously very excited about it!

This kid has ridiculous amounts of personality.

She is now 23 pounds and 29 1/2 inches, 75th percentile.

She has officially been walking for about a week now and is getting pretty good at it.

She is still a giant chatter-box, although she is speaking a different language.  She has said a few words in actual English: "Mama"/"Mom" (all the time), "baby", "oh wow" and "wow wow" (also all the time), "no", and "yummy".

She also loves to clap and will clap along to "If You're Happy and You Know it".

She is a great eater and will eat most things- she LOVES cheese, mac 'n cheese, and desserts.

Penny loves to play with her friends Blake and Noah!  She really loves "Grandma Carolee".  I think going to her house to play with her and the boys is one of her favorite things.

 

Another one of her favorite things is "cooking."  Everyday, she has to get out the pots and pans and all the spices and "cook."

She is a pretty good listener but hates boundaries and being told what she can't do (I don't know WHERE she gets that from).  Her cousin Luke was in his infant carrier in the stroller one day and she climbed up it to see him.

Penny's favorite time of the day is when it is time to get dressed.  If I ask her, "Do you want to get dressed?" she claps her hands.  And if I open up her dresser drawer she charges over to me and then starts going through her clothes until she finds what she wants to wear that day.  Seriously.  So if you ever see her in a questionable outfit, it is because she picked it out.  We figure you're never too young for self-expression.

I don't even know where this year has gone!  I just had a baby!  And now she is walking all over the place and telling me "no"!

Penny is "full of personality" which sometimes is the same thing as "difficult" but overall she is a really good little girl and she just makes us smile all day long.

We love you, Penny!

Stay tuned for the birthday party post.

Happy Birthday, Penny!

One year ago today, this sweet little thing came into our lives:

We are so lucky to have her, I can't believe how the time has flown by!



We love you, Penny!

Penny's Favorite Video

This is Penny's favorite video.  She makes me play it for her several times a day (I don't actually mind though because I like it too.)

If you don't get the end then you need to watch this one: (this is a real commercial)

And here is a video of her watching it.  She usually gives a good show of her own: clapping, dancing and singing.

Bathroom Wall Makeover

 Recently I walked into my bathroom, looked at the walls and said, "Ew!  I have lived here for over 3 years, and my bathroom walls have nothing on them!"

I don't know why I didn't even notice for 3 years and suddenly now, it's appalling. So I started on Project Dress Up My Wall. I went to Goodwill and bought 3 used frames, each for a buck.  Then I got busy finding/ making prints and dressing up the frames.  Here is the before and after:

 

Electric Light Orchestra is one of our favorite bands and Livin' Thing is definitely our favorite.  We have mini dance parties to it all the time.  So I made this print with a line from the song, and then sanded the frame down a little.

I found this blog a little while ago that has amazing printouts for Young Women lessons.  The author is a graphic design artists who shares them for free.  I found this adorable print there (not a freebie) and purchased it from her business.  

 

I had decided to do this project for free or almost free but I fell in love with this print and had to get it, and it was a good price.  Here is her graphic design website.   I then used this technique to get the crackle on the frame.

I found this design on this website.  They have a ton of free wedding stuff, including monograms.  I just edited a monogram to say "Smith", then painted the frame purple.

 

I am much happier now!  And total I spent about 10 bucks!
 

Books Worth Reading

Here is my next set of books that I have recently read and recommend reading.  Some of these I just could not stop reading, they are really good.

And don't forget to give me your recommendations!!

Click here for the previous "Books Worth Reading".

OC Zoo

A couple of weeks ago we went on a family outing to the Orange County Zoo.  We needed some quality family time since it was 2 days before I left to be a counselor at Girls' Camp.  I made sure to take lots of pictures of my favorite two people to bring with me.

If you haven't been to the OC Zoo, you should go!  It's in the middle of Irvine Park, which has lots of other things to do. It's a small zoo and is perfect for little kids, and it only costs 2 bucks to get in (And there is a coupon online for a BOGO on weekdays!).  We were lucky enough to be there during feeding time for the mountain lions (which is at 11:00).  It was really fun- the keepers fed them meat balls and made them do tricks, like grabbing onto the chain link fence with all 4 paws, to get their food.  Since mountain lions sleep about 20 hours a day, I highly recommend going during this time.

Penny loved watching the big kitties.

And then, who do we run into, but Scott's cousin, Kacey!  She has 2 little boys (and has a little girl on the way!), the younger of which is 3 weeks older than Penny.  We got some really cute pictures of them.  I especially love the first one:

"Hey, you wanna hold hands?"

"No, my daddy says I'm not allowed to."

 

"Well, I guess it's ok, since we're cousins."

Meanwhile, Easton just does his own thing.

It was a good thing we had such a great weekend together, because although I had a really fun week, Penny got sick (ear infection with a fever of 104) and Scott had a nervous breakdown!