Lizzie's First Birthday Videos

Here she is in the morning getting her cake:

Here she is checking out the giraffes:

Lizzie - You Are One!!

Dearest Lizzie.  You had a wonderful first birthday (I believe) on Friday, February 23, 2012.  When you woke up that morning we sang you happy birthday and brought you a birthday cake (banana bread) with whipped cream on top and a #1 candle.  You looked pretty happy about that and dug right in.

Your Mami Vicki and Opi in Colorado got to see you on Skype and sing to you as well and you kept on waving to them.  It was so cute.  We kissed and hugged on you and gave you some presents.  Bye the way, how handsome is your daddy?  Pretty ruggedly handsome, huh?

You then took a nap and when you woke up, we took you to the zoo to be with all of your friends and family.  You got to hang out with your aunts and tons of cousins and Grandma McAllister and your parents and we couldn't help but dress you up all cute for the event.  A tutu dress!!  You weren't too happy when I placed you in Aunt Jenny's arms for a bit though.

So we put you back on your daddy's shoulders where you are always happy.

You had a blast hanging out with your cousins.

We took you to see the giraffes and you couldn't get over how tall they were and you got to hang out with our friends Arriana and Kendrick.

You had the cutest ruffle bums in the world on the whole time.  I had to get a picture.  You also ran into another cute girl who turned one the same day!  But you were pretty focused on looking at the animals to pay much attention to her. 

 We then gathered around you and sang you happy birthday and all ate cookies together.  Good times.

You totally missed your afternoon nap but didn't seem to mind too much.  You were pretty jazzed so we took you to check out the new City Creek Center which just opened downtown.  It's a sight to behold.  

We were quite taken with it and especially excited that it borders the temple and will really bring a touch of class to the whole downtown area.  What else are you up to these days?  Well, you say "Dada" when you see your dad and you say "Moooo" when I ask you what the cow says and you are a laughing happy girl and we love you big bunches.  What a fast year this has been and how marvelous too!  Thank you for coming into our lives, my darling.  We will love you for eternity Elisabeth.

Having a good life

"If I didn't have you I'd have nothing," and I just quoted Paul saying this to me tonight.  Just another testification of how wonderful my life is.  We had a great Sunday today.  We took my friend Arianna and her cute boy Kendrick to church with us and I am really happy with how it went.  Here I am with Arianna.

She is so sweet and Kendrick and Lizzie are now besties.

She likes to eat his hand.  Lol.  And in other news, we are getting sooo excited about moving to Heber.  We don't even dare to think about how nice with will be.  We are so very blessed and I must give thanks to the Lord.  In the meantime, we are looking forward to Lizzie's first birthday party.  We are taking her to the zoo for it but it's gonna be a laid back event for sure.  Our little baby cakes is almost 1.  Sniffles!!

Enjoying our baby

I've decided that 11 months is a wonderful and delightsome age for a baby.  She makes the most adorable googley sounds and little laughs and is really becoming a little person.  It's amazing to witness and behold.  Also, she is growing up so quickly.  We definitely want to have another cutie like here asap.

What else is new, you ask?  You know, I think of blog topics on the go and then I forget.  I know I want to eventually do a blog post on "lessons learned."  Another one is "lessons from my childhood which I want to remember so that I don't put my kids in a spot."  (e.g. don't bundle them up all the time, it's the worst feeling to be a little kid with no say in the world.  Paul especially feels that way.  So remember that, these posts will be coming soon.

In the meantime, some newsy updates:  Paul is getting trunkie for school and for Salt Lake.  He can't wait to graduate and move and be a mountain-biking machine.  I am happy for him that he is almost done.  I am working on Sterling Scholars at work but am looking forward to new jobs coming up too.  I am in a casserole-making phase, which Paul loves.  Yummy.  He just returned from a work trip to Washington D.C. which he really enjoyed.  This year is the year of the missionary for me so I have been working hard on that and making some inroads and I am thrilled and terrified at the same time because you must constantly keep a prayer in your heart that you are saying the right thing to your interested-in-the-gospel friends.  I'll keep you posted.

With her Mami Vicki on the white piano at home