Halloween (better late than never! ;)

Halloween was so fun with Mia this year! To start the day off Nick and I went to her school for a 'Parade of Costumes' The kids were adorable in all their little costumes. Following the parade the kids went from classroom to classroom to participate in different games and activities followed by a pot luck lunch where Mia brought Mommy's homemade mashed potatoes! After picking Mia up from school we went straight to Sissy and Hondo's for some Trick or Treating fun! Mia had such a great time riding in her wagon with her super cute cousin Mackenzie! Since she was having such a great time riding, we could not get her out to go to the doors so we had to pull the wagon to a few doors so the girls could get some loot! Here are some pics of the day!! Oh, and yes, Mia was just the most adorable little Minnie Mouse ever!

New York Trip

So Mia made her second trip to NY a few weeks ago, yes I am very behind in blogging, is anyone surprised? LOL We went up for Heather and Patrick's wedding (Heather is my cousin and Heather and Pat are Mia's Godparents). We ALL went, even the dogs, since Heather and Pat are their babysitters if we go out of town, so this means we had to drive! Yikes, I know, we must be crazy!! It really was not that bad, Nick and I have always loved 'road trips' but we were worried about Mia and the dogs, well, they did great! Mia was perfect she did better than I did! I whined and just wanted to get there, she just took it all in stride. She probably slept I would say about 85% of the drive there and back and when awake she would just play or eat. James, Joanne, Josh and Nadia flew in for the first few days, which was a lot of fun! Nick took them to Niagara Falls and they enjoyed seeing our 'small town' and drinking Scott's homemade brew (He is this years #1 home beer brewer for NY State!! Very Exciting)

While in NY we did not get to do as much as we planned or see all the friends we would have liked to because the first few days we were there Mia was sick with a ear infection and the moment she bounced back I got some sort of stomach virus and was sick for the second half of the visit! But other than that, the wedding was perfect! So beautiful! Nick and I were in it so Mia hung with her Grandma and Grandpa and she had a great time, she really shook her groove thing at the reception, she LOVED dancing, it was so cute! Not to mention she looked pretty darn cute too! We had a tutu outfit made for her to match the wedding party, we ordered it from Fuzzy Me Tutu's and they were awesome, the owner was so great to work with and I will FOR SURE order more stuff from them and I would HIGHLY recommend them to any of you out there with little girls! Check out their adorable Halloween sets that they are selling right now!!

Even though a lot of the two weeks were sick days, we still squeezed in a lot of fun! We had a picnic at Aunt Sheila's for the 4th of July. We also spent an evening at 'Camp Caldwell' at Roger and Tina's house where we played games, rode the 4 wheeler (which Mia LOVED! she said weeeeee weeeeee the WHOLE time!) and had a camp fire complete with S'mores!!

We really enjoyed all the family time and we miss everybody already! Here are some pictures from the trip!

Do these dogs know how to travel or what? :)

Grandma was so happy to see her Mia!

Corn is Mia's favorite so you know she was

enjoying that good fresh sweet corn on the cob!

(that you don't get in Texas!)

One of our trips to the Ice Cream Shop, after

Uncle Wes's softball game.

We discovered that Mia LOVES these shopping

cart 'cars' Good luck getting her out though!

Mia was picking all of Grandma's flowers

off of the front porch so we put one in her

hair, she is ready for Hawaii!

Here are some pictures of the 4th of July:

Mia had so much fun with her shopping cart buddy Olivia!

she is my cousin Donnie and his wife Tammy's little girl.

Mia with my cousin Janessa's little Veronica, they

LOVE each other so much!

With the Bride to be!

Having fun with Grandpa Scott on the 4th!

July 5th 2008 the wedding of Heather and Patrick Burchard!!

Mommy and Daddy all dolled up!

My little brother Wesley

Joanne caught the bouquet, that means she is

next, ahem....James! LOL

Congratulations to the bride and groom!

Cuteness!

No exciting news in this post (except for the cupcake part)....it is pretty much just some random recent pictures....We will call it a Mia fix for some New Yorkers....like for example, Grandma Debbie and Aunt Hollie, and I am sure a few more! LOL

The pics are from the NASA Chili Cookoff, Chuck E. Cheese, and Mia enjoying Sprinkles Cupcakes that mommy made! In random order. By the way, for anyone who cares...they sell Sprinkles Cupcakes mix at Williams Sonoma, which I am so excited about, and even more exciting...they will soon be opening a Sprinkles Cupcakes in Houston!! Wahooo! Sprinkles Cupcakes originated in Beverly Hills, CA and they are Sooooooo good!

She was loving sitting in the car with Chuck E.....

until that sucker started moving! LOL

A Memorable Mother's Day

First of all, Happy Mother's Day (a day late) to all the Mother's reading this! I hope you all had a wonderful day! We spent our day BBQ'ing at Nick's Parents house, and that is where I received one of my best gifts of all, seeing Mia take her first steps! It was so exciting. I was so afraid I would miss this special moment and that it would happen in day care, but no, it happened on Mother's day and lucky me...my camera was right next to me!! YAY, yes, I caught it on camera! At first I was so in shock of what I saw that I froze and Nick calmly said (so that it would not startle her and make her stop) "GET THE CAMERA!!!!" and I jerked out of my frozen state and snapped the best I could! LOL It was a great mother's day gift! Here are the pics, and some of the day too.



Mia's 1st steps!







Playing with Grandpa Frank




Hanging out with Cousins

Sitting pretty

They said "I Do"

Our good friends Yvonne and David were married on April 19th. It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful day! Mommy had bridesmaid duties so Daddy had Mia duties, she was a perfect angel. Mia lasted through the entire ceremony, which was Catholic, which means longer than normal and she did not make a peep! At the reception she was a dancing queen! SO CUTE! Mia LOVES to dance! It was a perfect wedding and we could not be happier for Yvonne and David, they are a perfect couple! We love you guys!! Congratulations! Here are a few pictures of the lovely day!

Happy Birthday Baby!

So on March 20th Mia officially turned one year old! I felt like we had been celebrating since her party on the 16th....5 day celebration! So for her actual birthday we took her to the zoo with lots of family and friends in tow! It was a great way to celebrate her birthday! Mia loves the zoo!! It was a beautiful day and we all had so much fun. Mia got to sport her super cool new wagon (thanks to Godparents Lupe and Stacy) She LOVES riding in this thing and she really loved having her cousin Veronica riding with her.

I can not believe that a whole year has passed since my little Angel has arrived! It really feels like just yesterday that we were in the hospital and enduring 24hrs of labor, anxiously waiting her arrival! I remember meeting her for the first time and it still makes my heart skip a beat when I think about it. She has brought so much joy to my life and she inspires me everyday...she inspires me to be a better person, to enjoy every moment, and not to sweat the small stuff. I can not imagine life without her!

Mia seems to learn something new everyday. She is not walking yet, but should be soon. She started daycare on March 24th and is still adjusting, but doing fine. It is a great school and she will learn so much from there. She is signing for "more" and learning other signs as well. She says "mama" "dada" "apple" and my mom and I know for sure we heard her say "elmo" when she was handed an Elmo book, but she has not said it since :) She eats EVERYTHING as long as it is big people food, no more baby food for her, and you can not fool her either! LOL She is pretty much done with her bottle too, she only has one bottle a day (at bedtime) and she could probably even be without that one but it is mommy's way of getting a few more ounces of milk in her that she does not get from her sippy cup. She will drink everything from her sippy, except milk, for some reason. She is a true joy and an all around happy kid! She loves her mommy and daddy very much and it makes my day to see her face light up when she sees us!

Here are a few pics from her Birthday Celebration at the Houston Zoo: