Kyah-Lynn is 1!

My sweet little lady is now a 1-year-old!

10/29/11

 I love this little girl, she's a rare breed. I told Jason I would describe her as the greatest blessing and the greatest trial of my life, bundled into one. Now that I think about it, I'm sure a lot of parents could describe their children the same way, but Eli has always been such a piece of cake, that this little one really threw me off my game! She is the most unbelievably sweet, gentle, hilarious, adorable, and perfect little girl by day. Yet, so incredibly stubborn, loud, angry and frustrating at night. I don't really even think that's an accurate description of her, I don't know how to describe her, she is just very unique, marches to the beat of her own drum, I suppose? We just say she's crazy. That's the only way we know how to describe her, just crazy. And we love her more than anything (except for Eli of course, who we love the same). Anyway, it's been a roller coaster of a year with this one. 

For her big day, Jason had school, so we met him downtown for lunch at Taziki's. At night, we ate pizza, opened presents and had chocolate frosted funfetti cake. Here are the pictures:

Presents! I feel bad for not getting her anything too special, but she plays with all of Eli's toys and I had just bought her a doll a few weeks before this. So she mostly just got books, which she really enjoys eating. I mean reading ; )

Eli was so funny on Kyah's birthday! When I told him it was her birthday, he thought we were going to ride the "choo choo train" and eat "fire engine truck birthday cake," since that's what we did for his birthday. All day long he kept begging to ride the train and eat cake, it was pretty funny. I felt kind of bad that he didn't get to ride a train, but at least he got cake!

We got The Lorax for Kyah and it's now Eli's favorite movie. I guess she's not really to a movie-watching age yet. 

More presents!

 

The best part, cake!

Kyah's what we call "an eater." She's hungry all the time and eats outrageous amounts of food on a continuous basis all throughout the day. She easily out-eats Eli, possibly even Jason and me! Just kidding. Anyway, needless to say, she made us proud with this cake!

Eli gettin' in on the action!

Awwww, I just love her so much. At her 1-year apoointment she weighed 17 pounds and was 27 inches. She grew 12 pounds and 8 inches in her first year. Also, probably too much information, but I feel kind of proud to say that I made it the full year that is recommended to breastfeed! Go me! For some reason I feel like I deserve a metal.

 A couple days after Kyah's birthday was Halloween!!! My favorite holiday! And, since Jason and I were still in the hospital last year (Kyah was born on the 29th), this was Eli's first time trick-or-treating! I'm not even exaggerating when I say it was one of the best experiences I've had since becoming a mother! Eli had so much fun! We went over to our friends Joni and Rockys' house, where their neighborhood had a block party with tons of food to kick off the night. My other friend, Bridget, came too, we all have 2-year-olds who are "great buds." And by that I mean they hit, push, bite, scream and cry every time they're around each other. But on this miraculous occasion, they were all so entranced by the candy, that they didn't fight at all! They just obediently went from one house to the next, saying "trick-or-treat," collecting their candy, being ridiculously cute, etc. it was the best! Everyone loved them. 

Also, in Alabama everyone sits out on their porch on Halloween so you don't have to ring the doorbell and wait for them to come. And, the weather is actually kind of warm. it was amazing! In Colorado I would always be freezing to death. Anyway, this night was awesome. Jason had class but he met up with us towards the end of the night, with just enough time to hit up Chipotle before they closed, using our kids' costumes to cash in on our $2 BOOritos! What better way to end a great day? 

Pictures:

Eli's friends, James and Finley.

Eli was Lightening McQueen. I wanted a cooler costume, but after searching extensively online, the only way to get a great Lightening McQueen costume, is to make it. I didn't have time, so this was the best I could get. Another costume wasn't really an option because Eli is obsessed with Cars. He has probably watched it once a day since we got the movie about 10 months ago. That doesn't make me look like a good parent, but he doesn't really sit there the whole time, he plays and watches it intermittently while I make dinner. It's not that bad, don't judge me!

 I had a hard imte getting them to pose for a picture in their costumes, this was the best I could get.

 Trying to figure out the stroller situation. I had taken my double stroller out of my car for Trunk or Treat and forgot to put it back in, which made it kind of hard to push all of our kids.

 Ready to go!

As long as Eli had his sucker, he was content!

 Block party! It had a lot of yummy food. 

He didn't really smile much or act very excited at first, he had to get the hang of it and then he was in some sort of candy-collecting "zone."

Kyah didn't enjoy Halloween too much, but that's because when the sun goes down she hates everything. But holy moly, she was the cutest little lady bug! It seemed like everyone dressed their baby girls up as ladybugs this year. Sometimes I call her my little lady bug, and Jason calls her his bug, so I thought the costume was fitting, plus it looked warm. 

That's all! I wish I could have gotten some better pictures, I think my camera is on its way out : (

Oh and once a week we go to playgroup with a bunch of kids from church, here is the picture from our Halloween-themed playgroup:

Eli is kind of tucked back behind the girl in the witch hat. 

Eli still asks me on a regular basis if we can go trick-or-treating again. We can't wait until next year! Oh and the best part of all, Eli only wanted to eat the suckers, which means all the chocolate was left to me! And Jason, but I ate it all before he got to it : /

Ummm, and here's a random picture I found of a praying mantis we saw one day:

It was huge.

Eli's trying to converse with it.

Ok, now that's all!