Claire's 1st Birthday AKA "Cake Smash Fail"

Okay SERIOUSLY?! How in the world is she already one. I thought it went by fast with Lydia, but I feel like we moved to warp speed. Even thought it has gone fast, I also can't imagine our home without her. She lights up our house and she is Lydia's little sister. We just love her to pieces.

Because her birthday is in December I didn't take one year photos. I take a lot of photos anyways and we had just gotten family pictures taken not too long ago. I will be getting some new "posed" and traditional photos in the spring/summer!

I REALLY wanted to do a cake smash on the floor with her. She LOVES food and I thought she would be totally game. I made her a cute little cake with some yummy whipped cream frosting and bought a few accessories for her to wear! WELL, that's not what happened. I got everything set up on the floor and she just was NOT having it. Oh well... at least my effort was documented :)

It quickly went from THIS

to THIS in a matter of seconds.

So we tried taking off the hat and got her to take a little taste.

That helped a little, but it wasn't long before she had just had enough!

So we decided this was going to be a no go and cleaned her up and gave it a rest for a bit. Then we decided to just put her in her high chair with ONE piece and then we gave her the whole cake. Not what I had in mind, but she did enjoy this better :)

AND that was Claire's birthday party that she won't even remember haha. I'm glad she came around and at least enjoyed her cake because it was REALLY good.

Her are also her stats from her 12 month check up!

Weight: 18.2 lbs (22%)
Height: 29.5" (58%)

She has 8 teeth and LOVES food, but only if she can feed it to herself.
She pulls herself up to things, but isn't walking quite yet.
She crawls and rolls everywhere.
She is a needy momma's girl!

Love you Claire Bear! Life wouldn't be the same without you.

AND then one last thing that happened that same weekend was Lydia had her very FIRST dance recital! Most of the pictures/videos were taken on my phone ( I need a better zoom ) so I just have the one photo. She looked so grown up and was the CUTEST one on stage for sure (not biased).

They did a tap dance to the Fixer Upper song from Frozen. She even got to wear a full face of makeup for the very first time and needless to say she LOVED that.

A Little Bit of This...A Little Bit of That.

(If you can name the song from my title I'll give you some brownie points!)

All of these things have nothing to do with each other. They are just little tidbits and pictures I've been wanting to post. SO here it goes :)

First, when I went to Idaho Falls a few weeks ago I snapped a picture of a B-EU-tiful sunset.

Next, I made my very FIRST apple pie. I sliced the apples and everything :) Although, I didn't make the crust from scratch, (thank you Pillsbury) I DID make a fancy design which I am pretty impressed with. Pies intimidate me so I'm glad I finally made one! I usually prefer to photograph people over food, but this pie was so pretty it was just asking to be photographed :)

Then, on one of the last warmish fall days I took Lydia to the park. She thought it was pretty fun to be on top of the picnic table.

And last, I did another family portrait session here in Ogden a little while ago.

As usual you can go HERE to my photo blog to see more from this session. I also did a little redesign so you should go check it out anyways. Leave me a comment if you stop by!

Sunday Afternoon

Having church at one on Sundays takes up the majority of the day so we don't get to do much else.

Luckily, we have nice little park in the neighborhood our apartment complex is in and it's only 2 blocks away. The weather has finally warmed up so Sunday evening we decided to hang out in the park for a little while. Lydia loves to run around outside and they have a basketball hoop for Adam to shoot around with. 

I like this picture because Lydia looks so tiny next to Adam

At the moment our air conditioner isn't working. We are waiting for a part so they can fix it.
Good timing on the hottest weekend so far right?
I really wanted to make brownie chunk and chocolate chip cookies found here I saw awhile ago. I even made brownies a few nights before JUST so I could have the leftover brownies chunks I needed.
My hesitation was it would make our apartment too hot to have the oven on long enough to make a few dozen cookies, but I decided to do it anyways.
Yes our apartment got pretty warm the rest of the evening, but they were definitely worth it!
You really need to try them!
I didn't use her chocolate chip cookie recipe (no unsalted butter)
I just used my favorite recipe.

ANYWAYS I'll get off my soap box about those cookies.
Next post is about Lydia's one year check up AND a really funny video I've been meaning to post for a week or two!

This Really Happened...

I said in my last post I wanted to make a heart shaped pizza.

I wasn't kidding.

I really made one.

SEE??!

And let me tell you, heart-shaped pizzas are more delicious than regular round ones.

Trust me on this one.

And I'm loving this 60 degree weather we've been having the past few days. I've got spring-fever BAD.
Sadly, it's going to be winter again the next day or two. I better keep the flip-flops in the back of my closet for a few more weeks.

Unproductive

Adam and I have had some laughs trying to feed Lydia this week. She just still doesn't think food is so impressive yet. She got her first taste of green beans....the pictures pretty much explain themselves. 

That's how I feel about green beans too..

This video was taken tonight. I was just trying to feed her rice cereal, but she wouldn't stop talking and putting her hands in her mouth. It's pretty cute even though the majority of the cereal ended up on her face and hands. 

Big Girl

I ordered this really cute high chair online and Lydia thinks she is such a big girl. She can't sit up herself yet, but it's supportive enough that she can still sit in it just fine. 

I gave her a sippy cup with some water in it. She's always grabbing at my drinks so I decided it's time for her own.

She mostly just chews on it and very little water actually goes down...it usually just dribbles down her chin and her shirt gets soaked, but she thinks it's fun.

She also grabs at everything I try to eat and so we gave her a little bit of rice cereal for the first time...I'm not sure if she's too impressed with it yet.

'

Trying to be Productive

So...I'm pretty bored at the moment so I thought I'd add another little post. The area that Adam is working in this week and last week has been in Pennsylvania, which is like an hour and a half away. They all haven't gotten licenses for Maryland of DC yet so they've been having to go that far. Usually he's been getting home about 10:30, but tonight it's like 11:15 now and probably won't be home for another 30 minutes. It was for a good reason though. He was in the middle of getting a sale! Also today they had an incentive for whoever got the last sale, which was Adam. He gets an extra $100 from his manager too..so i guess it's okay he's late :)

Anyways, today was my first day of work at the Gap! I love my managers. The two main ones are boys probably in their thirties that aren't married, but they are SOOO nice. I already feel pretty comfortable being around them. Another exciting thing is I got offered ANOTHER job! I had an interview at Victoria's secret too while looking for a job and they called me a few days after I got the job at Gap and offered me a position, so I took it! I definitely won't have a problem keeping busy. I'm really excited to work at both places. I get 50% off at the Gap and Banana Republic plus 25% at Old Navy too. I guess this could be a good AND a bad thing for me :) I'm not sure what the discount is at Victoria's Secret yet. I don't start until Sunday. I told them I wasn't available to work that day, but it's the best day for most of the other people for the orientation. It's right during our church so I guess I won't be going this Sunday. Since I new I wasn't going to be going to church I decided to go to the temple by myself one afternoon this week. It was only my second time even being in that temple so I was pretty happy i found my way around ok. Speaking of the temple...I couldn't believe how pretty the ground around it looks right now. They have TONS of tulips blooming everywhere. I took some pictures but it looked ten times better in person. I could have sat there gazing at it all afternoon!

There were three huge circles of tulips in the middle

This is the view coming out from the temple

Well off to another topic! I have come to really enjoy cooking. (I really shouldn't be surprised looking at my grandmother, mother, and sister) I've had a lot of time on my hands lately and have tried a lot of new things! I've made nearly everything from scratch. I like having a nice dinner made for Adam when he gets home late cause it will kind of give him something to look forward to after a long day and he is usually starving. I try to help out every way I can to take the stress away because I know he is working so hard and I am so proud of him. He's starting out better than he did last year. One of the things I made was last Sunday. I'd been craving a key lime pie for a long time and i found a recipe in one of my cookbooks. It had meringue on it. I have never made meringue before and i've never actually paid attention to how it was even made. I was pretty amazed that 3 egg whites turned into this huge bowl of fluff! Anywho...here's a picture :) The inside was lime green...i thought it turned our pretty!
Adam approved and had two pieces the first time around :) It was pretty and it tasted good :)