Kaylee's Bridal Shower

Elise and I gave Kaylee her family & friends bridal shower at Grandma Lara's house.

 Here is the almost-finished table. The plates that go on that three-tiered thing were heating up in the oven.  We had a grey, yellow, and white theme with birds. Also, notice the monogrammed napkins? That wasn't me though, they were a gift to Kaylee and there was no black in her wedding colors, so she brought them to the shower.

I was quite proud of my centerpiece. Did you know that when covered like that apparently lemons put out a lot of moisture? When I did my test run at home I came back to find the apothecary jar all fogged up. I had to prop the lid on a high lemon to let out the moisture.

Elise stayed up til 3 AM making this banner and the other hanging fans over the table.

 8-6-11

 Kaylee saw this shirt over the summer and got all excited about it, she was with her cousin Kristina who then went and bought it for her. 

 I gave Valetter her first taste of paper.

 Ha. She makes me laugh.

 See her face? She was quite excited about and didn't share very well.

 This is Eric's youngest cousin, he is one month older than Valette.  I think his name is Jarod. (?)

I told Grandma Lara that I wanted to take a picture of her with Valette when the shower was all finished. I am so glad to have these opportunities to document our history.

 I love Grandma's face in this photo. She just looks so pleased.

6 am

Our AC broke. Eric's uncle came about 6:30 in the morning to start working on it. Eric woke me up at 5:30 (when he was about to leave for work) so that I would be up when he arrived. Valette woke up not long after that.

After I fed her I decided to take advantage of the being up before the sun to have pictures in the beautiful lighting.

 8-2-11

 She had just started sitting really well by herself.

These two show some great scowl faces. I love this girl. And those cheeks. She cracks me up. 

Ha.

High Chair

 8-1-11

6 Months Old

Valette's first time in the high chair. 

 And I believe those are pears, which she really likes.

Matchy Matchy

Grandma got Adria and Valette matching dresses. Super cute. 

And Celeste and I just happened to have matching hair pretties from our girls weekend last year.

 Look at Adria's skin. Is it not perfectly smooth and glowing? Oh childhood.

7-31-11

hugs. 

 Showin' off the flower. On purpose of course.

 "Mom, are we done yet?"

"How about now?"

Adria just LOVES to hug on her. But she runs away as soon as Valette tries to touch her. hahaha. 

"finger, meet mouth." Notice a trend? 

 Artistically, this one is really appealing. =)

And Grandpa time.

Valette has finally decided she can be happy with other people.  She was 5 months old before it was okay for Eric to hold her. And it took a few weeks after that for everyone else to be acceptable.  It broke Eric's heart that she was so awful to him.  But everyone is happy now.  It's such a joy to watch her with Eric and everyone else.

So I Was Too Late for a Birth Announcement...

I decided to do a 6-months announcement (card?) because I really wanted to do SOMETHING.

I love how it turned out.

Scooting...or Reverse Crawling

I finally sat down to put this video on my computer.

Valette has this scooting thing on her back. She did it all the time for about a week, and then never did it again until these last 3 days.  Mostly she does it when she is mad or super excited. It's great to watch.

It's from my phone, sorry.

7-18-11

Secrets Don't Make Friends

But best friends make secret codes. =)

I found this while Eric and I have been cleaning out our spare bedroom. (When we moved in it became the "I don't know where this goes" room and filled up very quickly.)  While going through old school stuff I found this note:

Rachael do you recognize this?

The tinker belle is actually in color but my scanner did black.

There is no date but I am fairly certain it was written in 2005.  And yes, I sat down with it and could still read the whole thing.  But I not because I still remember every single letter, mostly because I knew a few words and went from there. Rachael always had great folding patterns, that's why it's all wrinkly.

The top word is Tinker (which was my code name) The first sentence says Hey girly, what's up? and it is from Buttercup (Rachael).  I have always liked Disney's Tinker Bell(e) [It looks SO much better with the extra 'e' but they don't use it.] But I don't remember why Rachael was Buttercup. And I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with Princess Bride.

Given those words can any of you read it? It doesn't have any juicy details I promise.