Birthday Month

We celebrated two big birthdays last month--Lydia's first and Matt's 30th!
We had fun celebrating Lydia's birthday.  I sure enjoyed looking for all things red, white and blue.  I hope she doesn't get tired of patriotic birthday parties.  How does red, white, blue and pink sound? Uncle Sam meets the Disney Princesses?

This year we hosted a barbecue and had a few friends come over.

The kids helped me get ready with a little dollar store DIY making these patriotic window boxes for the playhouse.  They are just so cute, I had to share a lot of pictures.

 At the party everyone had fun playing outside

 Lydia was very dainty with her cake, she just picked at the berries on top.  Even after I cut it open for her, she just picked up little pieces. This is as messy as she got!

Here's her cute little cake before:

 We had lots of patriotic and picnic goodies:

Later that evening we let Lydia (or rather Owen) open her presents.

We spent Matt's birthday at home with just our family.

I asked Owen what we should do for Daddy's birthday, and his suggestion was donuts, so that's what we did!

 My chocolate faced boy

For this milestone birthday, I gathered 30 gifts. Some were big, some small, some silly, some sentimental.

 Owen, once again, was a good helper at opening them all.

Happy Birthday, Matt! We love you!

Yay for summer birthdays!

Lydia-12 months

Lydia is 1!  We sure love this little lady.

Stats:

Weight: 20lbs, 8oz-61st percentile
Height 30 in-78th percetile
Head Circumference: 46.5cm--88th percentile

Lydia is so close to walking!  For a while she was taking a few steps at a time, but she has gotten so good and fast at her funny monkey crawl that she has sort of given up on it.  She continues to delight us with her sweet affectionate nature.  She still doesn't have any teeth, but I love her gummy smile. She is good at giving snuggles, hugs, and kisses.  She's starting to learn a few "tricks"--identifying body parts and some animal noises.  When you ask her where her eyes are, she squints.  It's so cute.  See her here.  She also loves music.  This girl's got moves!  We have a little toy that plays music and she and Owen love to push it over and over and have dance parties.  Cheese and strawberries are her two favorite foods and she loves feeding herself.

Owen at 1 year.

Oregon Trip

We decided to take a break from the Texas heat and visit Saint Helens. It's been a while since we've been there, so it was nice to visit. Get ready for a lot of pictures!

Our flight was delayed, so it was nice the airport had this little play area to hang out it.  The flight itself was really long, but went smoothly. Technology for the win!  Owen was so cute with his headphones.  He's been on many flights before, but was very nervous about it. He kept wanting to open his window "just a little bit," and then close it again right away.

Sweet Lydia absolutely loved this chair and kept climbing up in it. This chair has history--it has had several paint colors and she is the 3rd generation to enjoy it.

A little bit of grandma story time 

We also took a trip to the Portland Zoo, but I forgot to take any pictures!

We spent one morning playing at McCormick Park (side note--this is where Matt purposed :) ) and the kids loved splashing in the creek. It was a beautiful, sunny, not-too-hot day.

 We eventually gave up and let her sit down and splash.

And there were plenty of sticks, so Owen was happy.

My parents rented an amazing beach house and we had fun relaxing for a few days.  Owen loves water and sand!

Owen really wanted to join in the badminton game. Love the double racket action.

  

 Sandy bum :)

Lydia napped through most of this beach trip

Lydia's monkey crawl in action

 Checking out this sand stuff...

 Adults building a sandcastle.  It's still weird to call my little brothers adults. :)

 Four generations of girls

All the girls--Owen was a little confused about "Amy" and "other one Amy."  We need to figure out a better system!

The next day was a lot warmer!

 It was fun seeing Uncle David, who just got back from his mission!

 

"I'm sharing some sand with Lydia!"  Just in case she couldn't find any herself.

We had a few more days back in St. Helens before heading back home.

 Owen was swimming in the backyard when he got distracted by the watering can. How 'Portland' is this little naked gardner?

Sweet boy picking flowers

We also had a little few-days-early birthday celebration for Lydia!

Until next time!