Birthday Time! :)

Our little Mia turned one last Thursday.  We had Zeus's brother Danny and his family come into town on Wednesday and stay through the weekend to help us celebrate.  Hooray for family celebrations!  :)

Cousins Carlos, DJ, Dahnia and Mia

Mia (12 months) and Dahnia (9 months) in their matching "snug as a bug" pajamas.

On Mia's actual birthday, we woke up to pink and purple streamers decorating the kitchen - in case you didn't guess it, the Birthday Fairy decorated the kitchen the night before for Mia's birthday.  It's a fun tradition that my family had that I LOVED growing up, so I decided to institute that tradition with our family.  Zeus had two responses to the Birthday Fairy's decorating - 1) I LOVE it! and 2) Why didn't the Birthday Fairy decorate for MY birthday.  The Birthday Fairy felt duly chastised and will be decorating for his birthday as well from here on out.  :)  

Mia in her "1" outfit on her birthday.  Such a little cutie pie!  :)

After breakfast we went birthday party shopping to stock up on things for the party where I realized that we were going to end up BBQing  for Mia's birthday in addition to the snacks and cake and swimming that I'd been anticipating.  I wanted it to be a quick and simple and stress-less so didn't particularly want to BBQ, just to have snacking food that could be put out and be done with type of thing.  Apparently the first birthday in the Hispanic culture is a pretty big deal and includes BBQing and major feeding of guests, so I was overruled and decided to just go with it, especially as it's a family tradition on his side.

Lunch at Terra Burger which had a playground and splash pad, prior to shopping at Costco across the parking lot - Mia and Paulina playing in the water.

Uncle Danny and Aunt Hilda were such sweeties and got a small Tres Leches cake for all of us to share to celebrate the actual day of her birthday along with a little balloon that said Happy Birthday on it.  We sang Happy Birthday to Mia and she enjoyed the yummy birthday cake!

DJ giving Mia her balloon.

Mia was enthralled by the lit birthday candle!  :)

Mmmmm.... birthday cake - yummy!!!

The next day we headed to Sea World with Danny and Hilda and their family as well as with Paulina who I'm watching this summer.  I was torn between staying to get the house and food ready for Mia's birthday party the next day and going with the family, but was glad that we all went.  We had a fun time hanging out in the water park.  Dahnia and Mia especially loved the shallow pool bordering the front of the wave pool that they could crawl around in and sit and splash in.  We came home happily exhausted and ready for a nap!  :)  I could shoot myself that we didn't think to take any group shots or any shots of us playing at the water park at Sea World!

Zeus took this one when we first got there and were waiting on Danny and his family to get their passes.

I got this last minute one of Carlos, Hilda, Dahnia and DJ as we were leaving the park.

Needless to say, the morning of Mia's party was a mad rush on the part of Hilda and I to get the breakfast dishes cleaned up (why oh why did we do a big breakfast on party day?!?), clear off the counters and island, and get all the birthday food out and ready while Zeus and Danny ran to get the cake and balloons.  Everything came together (thankfully) just in time for people to start showing up.  At one point I was in a mad panic because I'd poured the punch into the drink fountain, turned it on, and the light came on but the fountain part didn't work.  After plugging and unplugging it numerous times, as well as sending up multiple prayers on the fountain's behalf, low and behold it started working - thank goodness!!!  I didn't have time to frost the cupcakes or mini smash cake for Mia, but other than that, everything else was done and ready and I just decided to skip the smash cake and just give her a piece of the yummy Costco cake we'd gotten.  :)

Hailey and Mia - yes, that dark little one is Mia, sporting a tan.  :)

Valorie, Ammon, Hailey and Mia getting ready to get their bday grub on.  :)

The darling twins I tutor Shelby and Taylor and their mom Rachel.

Savannah, the twins' older sister with Mia and Shelby.  :)  Sweetest girls ever!

The infamous birthday fountain with Tio Danny, Tio Carlos, and cousin Carlos grubbin'.  :)

Mia and I with Carolyn and Maddie (who was born with the same kind of clefting as Mia) who's only one month old and so precious and tiny!  She's the same size Mia was when she was born - man how a year changes things!

A very happy Birthday Girl and her favorite mama of all time!  :)

Family photo!  :)

Mia was enthralled with the birthday flame.

So I got distracted by the camera and Mia's excitement over the candle and TOTALLY spaced and skipped the "Happy Birthday" singing to Mia.  Sadness!!!

Chocolate birthday cake - YUM!

A whole fist full of chocolaty Y U M M I N E S S !

What?  Do I have something on my face?

Good to eat AND fun to finger paint with - bonus!

A beautiful day for a pool party!  Playing with Papa and Tio Carlos, with Amali and Michelle in the background.

The Rodriguez family - Amali, Michelle and Mauro

Stephanie, Mia, Leah, and I - Mia is one week older than neighbor friend Leah.

The family that plays together stays together...  :)  

I had a BLAST at the pool with my family and friends!!!

Friends and family playing at the pool.

A VERY happy birthday girl at the pool!

Then back to the house to eat BBQ and blow out the candle one more time (with the friends who showed up later) - this time we remembered to sing Happy Birthday!  :)

Dahnia, Carlos, Tio Danny and Tia Hilda 

Carlos and DJ are ready to help Mia and her papa open presents at the end of the day.  :)

I guess after two cakes, some streamers and balloons, some party food and a few times through of singing happy birthday, our little Mia is officially ONE!!!

Oh Me, Oh My!

First off, I need to do a big birthday shout out to my little niece Sara who turns FIVE today!!!  Happy Birthday my sweet Sara Bella!!!  I'm not on my computer right now, but I'll have to post some Sara photos in honor of her special day later tonight from my laptop.  It seems like just yesterday you were born and I got to snuggle you and sing you songs, and today after I sang you Happy Birthday on Skype, you and your sister Sofia sang songs for MY little baby girl.  Love you and Happy Birthday Sara!!!

Me snuggling my niece - baby Sara Bella.

Me holding the toddling Sara Bella.

Sara and I with Halloween candy fun along with our little skeleton Mia.

Other fun news - we landed safe and sound in Utah last night.  Mia is loving exploring all the new spaces in grandma and grandpa's house as well as getting oohed and awed over by everyone.  Not only are grandma and grandpa here, but Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Kevin (my youngest siblings) and my cousin Kara.  We also get to see my sister-in-law Brienne's mother who will be staying the night tonight and then my Uncle Harold (my dad's brother) is coming into town Thursday through Saturday.  So much family to see HOORAY!  I just couldn't resist adding this last photo:

My sweet little Mia LOVED looking out the window as we took off.

Marvelous March - recap and photo overload

Last month had so many marvelous things going on that I didn't get to post the half of it.  So, I decided to to a Marvelous March recap.  :)

Zeus had Spring Break and didn't even work his second job a few of those days so we were able to have some fun as a family and Zeus got a little break from the rat race for a few days.  On the 11th, Zeus's brother Danny and his family came into town for the weekend.  We always have such a great time when we see them and wish they lived closer than 6+ hours away!

We had planned on going camping, but decided to do fun things around town instead last minute.  It was such a fun weekend!  On Saturday we went to Rodeo Austin with them.  Zeus's sister Bertha had sent some early Easter clothes for Mia and had bought similar sets for her cousin Dahnia.  We dressed them in matching outfits when we went to the rodeo and they looked so cute!

Dahnia on the left and Mia on the right - Mia looks so bald compared to her cousin who's three months younger!!!

DJ and Carlos (far right) had a BLAST on the rides!

Mia thought the tractor was very interesting...

... but was NOT such a fan of the wagon/trailer attached TO the tractor!

After a long, but fun day out in the sun at the Rodeo, we ended up accompanying their little family to Sea World in San Antonio the next day.  Can you say "glutton for punishment"?  A huge thank you to Danny and Hilda for the Sea World tickets and a wonderfully fun day hanging out at Sea World.  Thanks to sleeping in and daylight savings, we got there a little later than we would have liked so we weren't there as long as we could have been, but had a grand time with them!

Mia and I with Danny and Hilda - love you guys!

What is it that's so fascinating about these majestic beasts?  Sadness that they don't swim with them anymore though.

Mia watching the Shamu show and clapping right along with the crowd.  Cute little Dahnia can be seen in between us in the background.

Hitching a ride with DJ and Carlos.  I couldn't believe all the rides they had at Sea World!

Cousins Rule!!!  DJ, Carlos, Mia and Dahnia

Mama, Mia and Shamu

The following Friday night Zeus and Mia and I went to Mia's first concert.  It was part of the South By Southwest concert series (aka SXSW).  We'd gotten Mia's hot pink head phones that day.  I was WAY excited, because that meant Mia and I got to go!  We heard the bands Bowling for Soup and Blue October and had a wonderful evening of music against the downtown lights with family and friends.  I already posted a few shots of this, but found some more on our other camera.

Papa and Mia watching the opening band Bowling for Soup.

Mia, I and her "Uncle Crush" - Tio Carlos.  :)

Mia and her pretty Tia Bertha.

The concert lights against the city light back drop - so pretty!

Mia and I watching the cool fireworks after the shows.

Pretty fireworks.

Zeus is the person in the middle - he decided we could get out of the parking garage faster if he directed traffic.  Eunice and I stood by and watched and laughed with Mia.  He was right though.  :)

The following week Mia and I were suppose to fly out of town to Utah to visit grandma and grandpa and other friends and family.  Mia'd come down with a double ear infection the Thursday before.  She had been on an antibiotic since then and was doing better, but on Tuesday morning - the day we were suppose to fly out - she woke up sad and wouldn't eat and had a crusty nose.  I was worried that we might have to go into the doctor and switch medicines, and since she was still clingy and sad and not eating as it got close to head to the air port time, we decided to postpone the trip.  Thank goodness we had tickets through Southwest where you can reschedule without loosing your money or getting charged any kind of fee.  It ended up working out better than we could have expected.  Mia started feeling better by that evening thankfully!  It also worked out great because my parents ended up having to make an emergency trip to So. California to deal with some family issues and it made it so that Mia and I were able to be in town when we got a visit from part of Zeus's family that I'd never met before - Ramon and Rebeca and their family.  Zeus's cousins from Mexico (Rebeca) happened to marry one of his team mates (Ramon) that Zeus had played college ball with back in the day.  The funny thing is that they didn't realize they were cousins until after Rebeca and Ramon were already together.  Rebeca's mom came along as well as their darling boys Rodrigo and Cato.  We had SUCH a good time with them!  Unfortunately Zeus was already back at work, but luckily Mia and I were able to spend time with them.  Mia totally adored Rebeca and her mom and equally adored and was adored by Rodrigo and Cato. The boys were so cute with Mia and seemed to be amazed by our crawling, clapping, happy little girl.

Cato, Rodrigo and Mia - they had so much fun crawling around after each other!

Rodrigo, Cato and Mia

On Thursday their little family headed to Sea World.  Mia was still on the last day of antibiotics from her double ear infection and'd had a rough night previously, so we decided to stay home that day and instead go with them the following day to San Antonio to the Alamo and Riverwalk.  While at Sea World, Cato decided to use some of his personal money to buy Mia a little hot pink purse with a little stuffed Shamu in it.  Those boys are SO thoughtful.

Rodrigo and his Shamu puppet, Rebeca's sweet mom, Rebeca, Mia and Cato with Mia's hand on his eye.  Man, the things those boys let Mia do to them!  lol

One of their favorite things was to have their mom or Rebeca's mom hold Mia and then they'd sit in front of them on the floor.  Mia would grab handfuls of their hair and pull their heads back so that she could see their faces.  The boys would laugh and laugh!  :)  She would then pat their faces and/or grab their noses.  lol

Mia tearfully crawling after (and up) Rodrigo, in order to convince him that he really wanted to pick her up!  He was an easy sell.  :)

Friday morning after the boys ironed their own shirts (I was SO impressed!) we headed we all piled in their huge truck and headed down to San Antonio.

Cato, Rodrigo and Mia right before we headed out.

Cato pushed Mia first, then Rodrigo got a turn which led to me getting a rare break from pushing the stroller!

Cute story about this one - I took Rebeca's camera to get a photo of their family outside the Alamo with the infamous Six Flags that few over Texas.  Mia was next to me in the stroller and just as I was going to take the photo, Cato hollered, "Wait!" and ran over to get Mia and zoom her back to be in the photo with them.

We walked through the Alamo and it's grounds and then headed to the Riverwalk to take a scenic walk and go on a boat tour before heading to the mall and then to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack.

Handsome Ramon, Stunning Rebeca and little Mia on the boat tour - she loved Rebeca's necklace ALMOST as much as she loved Rebeca.  :)

My big girl enjoying the view from the boat!

Rodrigo, Cato, and Mia on the boat tour.

In the mall, there was this cool baby and toddler area that was so cool.  It was carpeted, but was super padded and had all these cool San Antonio features in it that were large and spongy that the kids could crawl on and around.  Mia enjoyed a break from the stroller to crawl around for a few minutes.  She wasn't too sure about it at first until I put her on one side of a bridge and then quickly crawled through it.  Let me tell you that adult bodies were NOT meant to crawl through those suckers!  I BARELY made it under the bridge because the distance from my hands to my shoulders as I tried to make it through was longer than the highest part of the arch!

Mia under the bridge that mirrored a bridge along the actual Riverwalk - you can see the "river" trail in the carpet.

My silly goose (with her tongue hanging out) crawling through a building that I could only think might be a replica of city hall.

Mia crawling past the Alamo.

Mia crawling past the boat (from the river tour) and the large tree.

My little "big girl" sitting on the boat all by herself.  :)

She would NOT hold still on the flowers...

...and wanted mom and did NOT like being put down on a walled thing with an armadillo.

When we met back up with Rebeca, I had her get a photo of Mia and I through the Alamo.  :)

Rebeca's mom, Rodrigo, me, Mia and Cato at Joe's Crab Shack.

Mia getting and giving snuggles to Rebeca's mom.  :)

We had such a fun trip to San Antonio!  The next day, this wild and crazy family headed out to Fiesta Texas Six Flags while Mia and I stayed home to get her back on schedule.  When they got back, we made cookies even though it was late. 

Cookie fun - they were so proud of the snicker doodle cookies they made.  :)  So cute in their matching jammies.

It was such a delight having them come and visit and we had such fun.  I was hoping we could bribe them into staying longer, but they had to get back to work and school.  Sadness!

Cato and Rodrigo gave us a card when they left that was the most thoughtful thing.  Rodrigo wrote as part of his note "and thank you for letting us meet Mia for the first time."  Cato ended his note by saying, "See you this summer.  And don't forget to bring Mia!"  Love those dear boys!!!  I almost cried as I watched them drive off in their big black truck and I can not even tell you how lonely and sadly quiet the house was when they left.  Looking forward already to seeing them this summer - and it makes that 8+ hour drive to El Paso seem a little more palatable!  :)