ONE

I cannot believe I have a ONE year old. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. Poor girl's birthday is the day after Christmas but I didn't want to forget all that she has accomplished this year. This post is more for myself so I can remember how much she has changed this year. I did this each month and plan on doing it each year of her life now that she is one. 

January 26, 2011 - You are one month old today!

Today you eat like a champ.

Today you love your swing and monkey pacifier. 

Today you will sleep 5 hours at night. 

Today you don't like to be swaddled. 

Today you are beginning to recognize mom and dad. 

Today you love your aunt B. 

Today you are beautiful and growing and we love you!

February 26, 2011 - You are two months old today!

Today you wake up at 6am on the dot. 

Today you love to suck on your hands. 

Today you love to smile at your dad. 

Today you only wake up once a night to eat. 

Today you like to take naps in your swing. 

Today you recognize mom and dad. 

Today you are a super smiley girl and we love you!

March 26, 2011 - You are three months old today!

Today you love your Ragedy Ann and Andy dolls. 

Today you love your play mat. 

Today you are sleeping through the night. 

Today you love to go outside. 

Today you love to suck on your hands. 

Today you love your dad. 

Today you love to smile. 

April 26, 2011 - You are four months old today!

Today you will belly laugh, but not all the time. 

Today you can roll over from back to tummy. 

Today you sleep from 7:30 - 6:30.

Today dad wakes to give you a pacifier each night. 

Today you are super talkative and get sooo excited. 

Today you love to go on walks. 

Today you love to stare at the t.v. 

Today you are starting to recognize other people. 

Today you are always putting your hands in your mouth. 

Today you still love your pacifiers. 

May 26, 2011 - Today you are five months old and mom didn't fill this out!

June 26, 2011 - Today you are 6 months old!

Today you sleep from 7-7. 

Today you can get your own pacifier and put it in your mouth. 

Today you eat food once a day. 

Today you can sit up all by your self. 

Today you love to take baths. 

Today you love when your dad comes home from work. 

Today you love to swim in the pool. 

Today you eat 5-6 oz of milk every 3 hours. 

Today you smile at everybody; especially the camera. 

Today you are getting such a personality and your dad and I love you more and more each day!

July 26, 2011 - Today you are 7 months old!

Today you are in Hawaii. 

Today you roll over while sleeping. 

Today you are an excellent sleeper. 

Today you love your Mr. Bear. 

Today you like to eat breakfast and dinner. 

Today you love putting your feet in your mouth. 

Today ou are very close to crawling. 

Today you still have NO teeth. 

We love you!

August 26, 2011 - Today you are 8 months old!

Today we moved into a new house. 

Today you started really crawling. 

Today you say Mama and Baba. 

Today you sleep from 7-7 with two 1.5-2 hr naps!

Today you love your jumper. 

Today you love when dad comes home. 

September 26, 2011 - Today you are 9 months old!

Today you crawl all over the house. 

Today you have one tooth!

Today ou pull up on everything. 

Today you fight nap and bed time. 

Today you are talking a lot. 

Toda you sleep from 6:30 - 6:45 and take 2 naps. 

Today you get 4 bottles and eat 3 meals a day. 

Today you finish 3 jars of baby food a day. 

Today you love to hang on to your mom. 

Today you like to dance to music. 

You are the most beautiful little girl and we love you. 

October 26, 2011 - Today you are 10 months old

Today you can wave bye bye. 

Today you no longer fight nap time. 

Today you love to turn and read books. 

Today you are very connected to your mama. 

Today you are super druely. 

Today you are starting to cuddle more. 

Today you say mama. 

Today you pat your head and pull out all your bows. 

We love you!

November 26, 2011 - Today you are 11 months old and mom didn't fill this out!

December 26, 2011 - Today you are ONE year old!

Today you can stand on your own but do not walk. 

Today you say mama, dada to both of us. 

Today you talk all the time. 

Today you are very petit for your age. 

Today you love all phones. 

Today you take Mr. Bear with us where ever we go. 

Today you love to swing outside. 

Today you love to suck your thumb. 

Today you eat food just like mommy and daddy. 

Today you love to ride in the car and look out the window. 

Today you have 4 teeth. 

Today you haven't had a haircut but are in desperate need of one. 

What a great year this has been!

I can't wait what's in store for year 2!

A Ride for Life

This Saturday my parents, husband and I will be riding in "A Ride for Life" bike ride with George Hincapie. Proceeds to go support LA Children's Hospital and the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Clarita. I figured it was a great way to end 2011 and kick start 2012. 

We opted for the 60 mile ride. My husband and I rode a century for Multiple Sclerosis a couple of years ago and it kicked my butt. I'm hoping the 60 will be a bit easier. 

In lue of my training to ride I won't be posting the rest of the week. 

Happy New Year!

An Old Fashion Thank You

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. We had a wonderful time celebrating with family. Did you get some nice gifts as well?
Call me old fashion, but I still like to send thank you cards in the mail. My mom instilled it in us at a young age to write thank you's and I want to teach my daughter the same. I love when I get a thank you note in the mail and I hope that people appreciate when I write them one. With her birthday and Christmas last week I have a lot of Thank You cards to write. I usually would buy some at Target or a local party store but I knew that there had to be some pretty cute one's that I could download and print for free. And sure enough, there is! Here's a few cute one's that I stumbled upon {click on image to take you to the source to download}.


Jones Design Company

Armommy

JuneLily

Big Box Detox

The Twinery

Tip Junkie

The Handmade Home




Two Brunettes

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....well, not really. This is the forecast for the next week here in Southern California:

I did live in the snow for 9 years and have experienced a white Christmas. These photos do make me kind of miss the snow. There is nothing more peaceful and quiet then when snow is falling. It makes me kind of miss having the snow around for the holidays {only kind of}. 

Merry Christmas {white or not}!!

Call me Scrooge

Call me Scrooge or the Grinch but I am ready to take the Christmas decorations down and get my house back in order. I love it at first, and then it my OCD really starts to get to me and I just want to put everything neatly back where it belongs. Maybe it's the fact that my Christmas tree is totally dead or that the decorations have been up since Thanksgiving but I'm ready for my house to be back in order. Hopefully I'm not alone. 

Don't worry, I'll keep the tree up until the 26th although my husband has warned me not to keep the lights on too long or we may have an extreme fire hazard on our hands. 

Lemons and Oranges

We moved into our current house in early September and I quickly realized we had two citrus trees in the backyard. I assumed we had limes and lemons based on the overall shape and sizes of the fruit that was growing on the two trees. We are now officially in citrus season which means my trees have fruit that is ready to pick. I went out back early last week to find that I had oranges and lemons growing on the same tree! Yes, two different fruits growing on the same tree. And they both are delicious. It is a great blend of Navel oranges and Meyer lemons!  How is this possible you might be asking yourself, well apparently I have a "fruit salad" fruit tree. A fruit salad tree is a plant that produces a variety of fruits on one tree. To create this tree, multiple cultivars of various fruits are grafted into a single root. You can buy them at most local home improvement stores or nurseries. 

Here is the proof:

Lemon on the left and oranges on the right.

And the tree in all her glory!

First Birthday {details}

We had a great time celebrating the little one's 1st birthday this past weekend. About 50 of our closest family and friends were at our house to celebrate and I think everyone had a great time. We had snacks and dessert which kept it easier than serving a full meal. I tried to carry the balloon theme throughout the decor and food. Here are a few of the details:

1st Birthday Cake. I highly recommend the Trader Joe's chocolate cake mix and frosting. It was delicious. 

Balloon Cupcakes: 

Balloon and candle sugar cookies:

Ikea frames {$.99} with pictures through out her first year adorned the tables. I also filled the votive candles with sprinkles which was a fun touch. 

I made each of the little one's birthday hats using chevron cardstock and pom poms from the craft store. It was a super simple project and I think they turned out quite cute. 

It wouldn't have been a party without some apothecary jars filled with gold fish and puffs. You can also see in the background that I cut out balloon shapes using different cardstock and just sewed them down the middle to create a cute streamer. 

And the birthday girl loved her cake...

...until we put on the party hat. 

It was a great day and I couldn't have imagined a better party! 

Christmas Card

Our Christmas cards are finally ready to send! I got a great deal with Erin Condren using Plum District. I absolutely love how they turned out.

Merry Christmas!

First Birthday {invitations}

My little one's 1st birthday party is this Saturday. I cannot come to terms with the fact that I am going to have a one year old. To say this year went by quickly would be a huge understatement. I can't believe how much she has changed and how much my husband and I would love her! 

As mentioned in an earlier post, I decided on a balloon theme party. The invitations were inspired by this photo:

Here's my version:

It was really quite easy to put together. Having the details printed on the balloon adds a fun element and  was an easy way to kick off the theme. 

On a side note I owe a thank you to the nice gentleman at Paper Source for suggesting I put "please inflate" instead of "blow me up" on the top of the invitation. 

Sources:

Back Card, Stamps and Envelope - Paper Source

Balloon - Fast Balloons

Chevron Bag - Whisker Graphics

String - Embroidery thread from Michael's

Flourless Chocolate Cake {recipe}

This past weekend I made a deliciously rich flourless chocolate cake. It turned out quite well so I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Flourless Choclate Cake with Chocolate Icing {adapted from Bon Appetit}

CAKE

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, diced
• 1 cup freshly brewed espresso or 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 cup water
• 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 8 large eggs, beaten to blend

ICING

1 cup powdered sugar

5 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons milk

1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

FOR CAKE:

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line bottom of 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides with parchment. Place all chocolate in large bowl. Bring butter, espresso and sugar to boil in medium saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add to chocolate; whisk until smooth. Cool slightly. Whisk in eggs.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Place cake pan in roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of cake pan. Bake until center of cake is set and tester inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 1 hour. Remove pan from water. Chill cake overnight.

Cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Using oven mitts as aid, hold pan bottom over low heat for 15 seconds, warming slightly to release cake. Place platter over pan. Hold pan and platter together tightly and invert. Lift off cake pan; peel off parchment.

FOR ICING:

Melt chocolate in a double boiler; add milk, butter, powdered sugar and almond extract. Stir well. Pour on top of cake and garnish with raspberries if desired. 

Enjoy!


I'm linking up to Schue Love's Christmas Cheer Link Party. Check out all the fabulous Christmas recipes here.

I need more days in December

This past weekend we had a dinner party, surprise birthday, 1 year old birthday and a baby shower. Not to mention this week I need to put together all the stuff for my little one's 1st birthday, finish Christmas shopping, wrap presents, send Christmas cards,  have girls coming over to decorate cookies, decide what to make for Christmas Eve, the list goes on and on... oh yes and I'm training for a 60 mile bike ride on New Year's Eve. 

All this makes it a little difficult to remember the true meaning of Christmas but I'm trying to have the right heart. We have been so fortunate this year and have been blessed with so many things. We do take the time to give back to those less fortunate and we're trying to teach our child that giving is much more fun than receiving. 

I know I could cut down on what I have going on but the truth is, I like to be busy and I am one of those weird people who thrive when things are busier. So I love all the stuff I have to do but I would love a few more days in December. Mostly do makes a few more fun crafts and think of a few new Christmas traditions that I can start {although I'm convincing myself that I have a few years until I need to really start with the traditions}. So if you have managed to keep your schedule less busy or have a few extra hours to do a fun project I thought these were inspiring {click on image for link}. Maybe next year!

Winter Wonderland Snow Globes


Homemade Hot Chocolate



Advent Calendars

Bottle Brush Christmas Trees

Gingerbread House

Holiday Wreath

Winter Wardrobe

I know Winter doesn't officially start for another couple of weeks but it has been quite chilly here in Southern California {I know I have no right to complain about the cold}. My wardrobe doesn't really change between Fall and Winter, other than the fact that I'll grab a coat when I head out the door but I am always dreaming of some nice winter clothes. Here are some cute outfits that I would love to wear if I lived somewhere the temperatures were a bit lower {Images are linked to Pinterest,  click on the image  on Pinterest and it will tell you the source of all the items below}:

Do you ever identify your style with a Celebrity? Currently I am loving Jessica Albas classic style. How cute is she?? If only we all could look this put together!

A Christmas Party {appetizers}

I'm hosting a Christmas party tomorrow night for my husbands work partners and spouses. I searched high and low to come up with a good menu of what to serve. I felt like I had the hardest time coming up with some new appetizers. My sister in-law has this great spinach artichoke dip that came from A Cozy Kitchen. After searching some more on that website I found some other great appetizers.

Baked Coconut Shrimp with Spicy Honey Drizzle

Fresh Tomato Bruschetta

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Tuscan Beans on Toast

Garlic Parmesan Top Knots

Now if I can just decide what I want to make!