Chinese Lantern Festival

I was looking through my camera at the photos for our Seattle trip and found all of these... plus 100 more from New Year's Day. We went with some friends to the Chinese Lantern Festival in Fair Park.
It was amazing! It was also freezing but we bundled that baby up and headed out.

We started off at Angry Dog where I did indeed have said dog. Tasty. Then back in the car to hit the park. A friend had posted the groupon offer on Facebook so we had pre-purchased tickets at half off but honestly, it was so worth it at full price. A few days earlier we had seen the Chiluly exhibit at the arboretum for the evening tour and it was really disappointing. This exceeded my expectations. Highly, highly recommend it.

This dragon is made of dishes. Incredible!

Little cutie mixing her animals here. Last minute Target purchase for a good hat with her panda coat also a Target purchase when she was still in utero. She also had gloves not pictured since this was actually us packing it in not heading out.

He should guard our house. Loved the Foo dogs.

Heading in and a very well bundled baby as promised.

Sophy and Daddy ready to head back home.

Super cute, and mittened, baby waving to her fans.

Warning: adorableness overload with this cutie! Seriously, she is this cute all the time. It makes my heartache.

I took a gazillion photos trying to get just the right shot of the Cotton Bowl. This was my favorite.

I think the longhorns and lotus flowers sort of sum it up.

Fantastic! Honestly, I still rave about it, you know 4 months later so that's a pretty big endorsement.

Next up Seattle! I promise!

Back in the routine

Or at least working on it. We went on a quick trip to Seattle for an early birthday. The weather and the food were fantastic and the Chiluly experience was incredible. It may have been my favorite place on the trip. It deserves its own post for sure.

The downside was missing my little chickadee. Her grump face sums it up. She had an awesome time with Granny and Aunt Anita while Mommy missed her like crazy. I like to think she's been especially snugly.

Dedicated Seattle post soon but I do have to publicly confess to finally watching the final Twilight movie for the plane ride. Solid "not bad" with a side of "coulda been worse". Kind of perfect in flight entertainment.

Baby Mermaid

Last week was another busy week but we managed to get in a swimming lesson, her first, on Saturday. There's not much teaching going on but it's awesome to see that she's as much of a water baby as I was/am. She's a brave little girl who loves it all and was more than willing to try anything. The only thing she didn't like was learning how to climb out. Go figure.

Cutest little water baby ever.

This shot is one of my new all time favorite pics. Rolland took the initial photo and I made it all pretty and fancy via Picfx.

Sidenote: Photostream is fantastic and we'll never be able to get rid of apple now. They are fiendish in their sucking you in.

Anyway, Picfx is my new favorite app that adds all kinds of super cool effects. My goto's are Marshmallow, Bokeh hearts and the vignette framing. I end up layering about 9 of them and start losing track. Given how my days have been going, I need this bit of artistic accomplishment as a sign of great achievement.

Tasty BBQ Goodness

A couple of weekends ago we ventured down to Bishop Arts on a beautiful early spring Sunday. We got some tasty goodness and enjoyed strolling with people lookey looing. Sophy enjoyed it lots.

First Birthday Bash

We had Sophy's first birthday party on Saturday and it was fantastic. Lovely and sweet with kids playing and laughing. Adults able to catch up while keeping an eye on the little guys. Kind of perfect. I wish we had family closer that could have celebrated but I'm happy we've made friends that are family too. Awesome day for everyone.

Except for the cake. The cake was gorgeous and I couldn't have been happier. Everyone thought it was yummy and sooo adorable but the birthday girl wasn't having it. She was happier with her guacamole and olives on her actual birthday followed by a cheese plate. I can't say that I'm too unhappy she isn't a fan of the sugar. We've got that sugar fiend business ahead of us and for now, I'm happy to provide a cake of of the guac and olives. Black. Sliced not whole.

Can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Happy Birthday Baby!

One year ago this little bundle of love came to our family. We've had some rough moments but mostly it's been incredible with out little cutie bear. She's almost always happy and loves everybody. She's always had her own personality but it's fantastic to watch as she gets more opinionated. Sophy throws fits when she doesn't get her way and almost immediately snaps out of it as she gets distracted by something new asking "What's that? Who's that?"

For her birthday today she's started walking on her own. Running towards  us giggling when we call with her arms open wide. I hope that's how she always goes through life.

We love you Sophy bear. I couldn't imagine life without you and can't wait to see what you do next.

Love,
Mommy

Ugh

Sick. Again.

I have no idea what the problem is but it's exhausting and frustrating. I have several updates but I'm going to take a scalding bath, benadryl and hope for a better morning.

Last Saturday: What was for dinner...

And this is what we had for dinner last Saturday but I forgot to post! Oy!

Anyway, we hit the road early to make sure we got to the bakery early to get all the good stuff. Turns out we got there a little too early as they were still putting everything out 20 minutes after opening. This kind of thing drives me crazy because a) I'm crazy and b) I'm a control freak. We were having some friends over for dinner paying homage to The Barefoot Contessa.

But we did procure some tasty bread and croissants. Yum.


For once I did do some actual planning and set the table before everyone arrived so it was pretty cute with several small vases of tulips and my super cute Jonathan Adler pig butter dish. My congratulatory new job gift from my hubby last June. And yes, it was perfect for me because I'm a weirdo.  So here's the before shot...

After, with beef bourginon which was pretty tasty. You can also see the lovely bread from fancy bakery. Photo was provided by my friend Randall as I was super tired and ready to eat by then. There had been a fancy cheese platter breakage incident that had me off my game timing wise.

With spring coming in any minute, we've got some cookouts in the future. Rolland mans the grill and makes a fantastic salmon and grilled burgers. Can't wait. I'm trying to take my laissez faire approach to summer that served me well the last two years. Burgers, maxi dresses and baseball. It's the only way to get through a Texas summer.