Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Wow! What a crazy year it has been. Can't believe in a week, we will have been in Montreal for a year. I will be doing a full year in review post next week, but for now I wanted to wish our family and friends a Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

Eliana's Milk and Cookies First Birthday!

I know, I know...once again I've been slacking on the posts. A few days after Eliana's birthday party, we all were really sick. Then it was sewing, sewing and more sewing for our Halloween costumes!

So here you go, the birthday pictures! I will be doing another post with Eliana's official 1st birthday photos and 12 month update.

I had made a bib each month for monthly pictures I did with Eliana. At the party I had printed out each picture with her wearing the bib and hung the pictures with the matching bib around the dining room.

Her "cookies & milk" cake was one of my favorite parts. It turned out amazing! I made the fondant using the marshmallow fondant recipe that is floating around the web. Super easy! I had one of my friends help me to make the cake itself. She did such a great job.

Eliana had fallen asleep at some point in her party. We ended up waking her up to sing her happy birthday and open presents. She was not very happy about that. Reminded me of Parker's first birthday. You can read about his first birthday party here.

We are so lucky to be able to relocate with other families from AZ. This was the first birthday for our kids, that no members of our extended family members were able to attend. I'm glad that mine and Nolan's parents were able to call in or FaceTime and see the celebration, but it's not the same as seeing them in person. I'm happy and thankful that we have all these "relocated" families...our friends, be able to come and celebrate this birthday milestone with us.

It was an amazing day. Happy First Birthday our lil' princess.

Cake Smash!! Eliana's 1st birthday invitations

It has been awhile since I have struggled with insomnia, but here it rears it's ugly head tonight. Of course, it would be a night Eliana is sleeping as she should, like a baby. Since I can't sleep I decided to write a post.

We decided to have a pre-birthday "cake smash" for Eliana so I could use the pictures for her birthday announcement/invitation.

 

The whole photo shoot came out so cute, very messy, but cute.  Here are a few of my favorites from that day and a sneek peak of her little invitation.  I'm really late at mailing out the invites...more like announcements for out extended family, but I haven't forgotten. They are addressed and headed for the mailbox tomorrow.

It took her a few minutes to want to touch the cake, but once she had a taste of the cake she was thrilled and started making some of the cutest faces.

After I was finished taking all the photos I needed we set loose Mr. Parker to join her in eating the cake. He'd been waiting so patiently in the background and was very excited to be able to join in the fun....of course by the look of Eliana's face, she wasn't thrilled about having to share.

Gotta love those baby toes! 

Here is the finished invite. I love how it turned out! 

Come back in a couple weeks for all the details on her Milk and Cookies 1st birthday! Can't believe Eliana is almost 1

Parker is 3!

I can't believe my little Prince is three! I've been blogging about Parker since before he was born. That is crazy for me to think about.  

Current stats: 

Weight: approx 28lbs (10th percentile) 

 Height:  36" long (10-25th percentile) 

Clothing size: Wears 3T
Shoe size: 10

Diapers: Underwear!! 100% potty trained

 

At 3 years old;

... is officially potty trained!! No diapers at night or when we are out of the house. I'm so proud of him. Parker had been using the potty since before our move to Montreal, as long as he was nekkid. He always struggled with telling us when he was wearing underwear. When I finally said to my hubby that we are doing this, we are going to get him fully trained. We picked out regular underwear, some stickers, made a "train" chart and Parker was fully trained within the month. I'm so proud of him and how well he has done since.

...can say his ABC's and counts to 15 in English and counts to 5 in French

...can say quite a few french phrases like, "my name is__," " I'm sorry," " please and thank you,"hello" and "goodbye."

...starting to recognize some letters of the alphabet when you show him in books and also recognize numbers
...recognizes most shapes and colors
...working on tracing letters, shapes and numbers.
...learning to use his scissors to cut shapes.

Parker also has a wonderful imagination. I blogged about his imagination in a recent post about him last month. Though, I think our whole family has been blessed with an overactive imagination. Evenings at our dinner table can become quite interesting, and I love it!

Parker is such a smart little guy, on top of that he is a ladies man! He is always flirting with girls and seems to always have a girl around him when we go to the park. One time he had 3 girls around the age of 6/7 walking him all around the park. Taking him down the slides, swinging him in the swings and building sand castles with him. Just before his birthday we were riding on the bus and I looked over to see him holding hands with a random lady on the bus. Her boyfriend was chuckling. It's kinda odd and cute at the same time. Nolan and I always joke about it. I guess we will be keeping a very close eye on him as he gets older.

Happy Birthday Parker! We love you so much :)

Eliana is 11 months old!

We missed a monthly update! :( August was a crazy busy month. Parker turned 3, school started for Vanessa, in laws were in town visiting and a scary trip to the ER.

Current stats: 

Weight: 19lbs 2oz (25th percentile) 

 Height:  27.50" long (10th-25th percentile) 

Clothing size: Wears 9mo & 6-12 months

 Shoe size: doesn't like wearing them, but she fits in a size 4 or 12-18 months 

At 11 months Eliana;

...took her first steps at exactly 10 months (8.11.13)

...started walking officially on 9.1.2013

... has 6 teeth, no new teeth since around 9 months old

...still barely eats any sort of solid foods. We offer her food at meal times, but she eats only a few bites.

 

...her hair is starting to grow in thick. It's hard to tell, but it looks like it might have a little curl to it. 

...her eyes are starting to shift to more of a blue/green color. She has this beautiful brown band in her eye color too. 

...walking has made her so much more independent. It's a nice break for me during the day because Parker and Eliana play so great together. As long as Eliana doesn't try to touch Parker's trains, lol.

 ...she talks a lot too! She mimics her brother at all times. Sometimes, especially dinner time, that can be slightly frustrating. 

...says; "mama," "dada," "Parpa(Parker)," "sisa (sister or Vanessa)" and "kitty,"

We are working on getting her birthday party together. Her theme will be, "Milk and Cookies." I'm obviously more excited about it than her, but it will be fun. How has it almost been a year already?

We love you so much little miss! Happy 11 months :)

31-ish days of Parker: Imagination

Sometimes I have to remember that when I don't have much to say, my pictures can speak for themselves.

Parker's imagination knows no bounds. From playing airplane to trains or crawling around the house being a kitty. He can make a plain ole' boring hat something amazing! A blank piece of paper becomes a ticket to ride the Polar Express or a ticket to visit a chocolate factory. A red rug into a lava pit and the only "safe" areas are the couches. I just love it!

31-ish days of Parker: First year favorites!

I just couldn't resist going back to Parker's first year and posting some of my favorite pictures! It was so much fun to see how much he changed.


 Parker 1st month:
 

Parker's 2 month:

 Parker had a HUGE growth spurt his first month!

Parker's 3rd month:

Parker's 4th month:

Parker's 5th month:

Parker's 6th month:

Parker's 7th month:

Parker's 8th month:

Parker's 9th month:

Parker's 10th month:

Parker's 11th month:

1 year old!!