Party time!

My baby girl is no longer a baby anymore, she is now 1 and officially a toddler!!  And I'm surprisingly okay with it.  I think it's so fun watching her grow and learn new things and discover more about the world around her.  I love that she can walk and get around quickly now.  We call her my little shadow because wherever I go she follows.  It's kind of cute but sometimes it gets a little annoying. :)

Here are some pictures from her birthday party we had on Saturday...

This is Trey's classmate Emily who is Lucy's friend.  She babysits Luce for us every now and then.  Luce was in love with all the balloons.  This was right before everyone started showing up and the craziness began.  We packed about 20 people in our little apartment.

 The Pocoyo cake that I stayed up until 2am decorating the night before...ugh.

 The Banbeezees being cheesy (just try and say that 5 times fast!)

 We all sang to Luce and then tried to get her to blow out the candle...she was fascinated by the fire and wanted to touch it so Trey hurried and blew it out for her before she got to it.  Next year she'll probably get the blowing concept a little more.

 We set down the cake and let her have at it and this is what she did...

Got him right in the eye!

 ...and that was about it.  I was surprised because she loves to get super messy with her food.  It could have been the fact that the cake looked like Pocoyo and she didn't want to eat him.  I don't blame her.  Pocoyo is her favorite, hence why we had a Pocoyo party for her.
After Luce had her moment, we served cake to the kids and cheesecake cake to the adults.  We then watched an episode of Pocoyo because no one has heard of it.

 Here are some of the party peeps.  Luce was hanging out with Fred, another one of Trey's classmates.

 The kiddies just loved the singing duck.  Lucy's blocking it with her head.  It's a duck that sings "Splish Splash" and dances.  It was a hit.

Here's Luce opening a present.  She loved this thing!  We tried to hide it so she would open up the rest of her presents but she cried and went and found it.  Little stinker!

Chase wanted to play with it but Lucy boxed him out.

 This was all the damage that was done.  Pocoyo was still very much in tact. 

This was after it was all over.  I wanted to get a pic of the decor before I tore it down.  We handed out Silly Bandz to all the kids and adults as party favors.  Yep, Lucy's cool like that.

Hopefully the little monkey enjoyed herself.  We had a good time hanging out with all our friends and the little kiddos.

That evening we saw some people in our ward out by the playground so we went and chatted with them for awhile and let Lucy run wild (her favorite thing to do, especially outside).  She discovered how much fun sand was and started dumping it all over her and having herself a time.  We let her live it up since it was still her birthday.  She got sand EVERYWHERE.  It was pretty funny.  Here she is getting a good bath after all her sandy fun.

Thanks so much to everyone who came to Lucy's party and thanks for the gifts too.  Lucy is loving all the new things to play with & cute clothes to wear.

P.S. Forward facing car seats are the bees-nees!  We are all big fans.

a trip to the zoo

We took the lil' miss to the Maryland Zoo yesterday for her birthday.  We stayed with our favorites, the Niehoffs, and had a grand old time celebrating Tessa's graduation from hikes school.  We went to her baccalaureate the night before and then went out to a japanese hibachi restaurant for dinner.  Trey & I have never had the hibachi experience before, it was so much fun!  And delicious!

Trey photo-bombing it up...nice. 

 The Banburys are ready for a hot day at the zoo!

 Here is Luce anticipating all the fun she is going to have in t-minus 32 minutes...

 This was the first animal we saw and he was my favorite.  A little mini owl.  I could have fit him in my pocket.

 We also saw giraffes...

 penguins...

 elephants (check out the cute baby elly!)...

 a very friendly snapping turtle...

 a little lu turtle...

a huuuge python (named lucy) that they had out on the grass (I was surprised how close I got to it because I do not like snakes.  The zoo worker told us not to let lucy get too close...yikes!)...

...and much more!
After 4 hours of zoo fun, we decided to call it a day.
I think miss luce liked it....either that or she was just really happy to be in the air-conditioned car.  It was a balmy 92 degrees out there!

 And then a little while after that I looked back to see this...

Awwww!

Next item on the list of fun:  Lucy's birthday party on Saturday!  My little girly is turning 1!!!  I can't believe it!  How did this happen??  And where was I??  I guess I need to go figure out how I'm going to make a cake shaped like Pocoyo.  Wish me luck!

Hello Summer!!

1 year down, and many more to go! Trey is now officially a "2nd Year". He had his last test a week ago so we've just been having our self a time ever since then.
On Friday, we went out to dinner with some of the other couples in Trey's class and Aaron (who's wife had to work so he was the 7th wheel). We went to Passage to India in H-burg, I give that place two enthusiastic thumbs up. And their naan...oohh boy...just fabulous. No pics but I do have some cute ones of Lucy Goosey that my friend Amber took. We dropped Lucy off at her friend Sawyer's house to play while we went out. Thanks Amber! :)

This girl loves doggies...as you can see. She gets so giddy. And check out that long hair in the back! It's coming in thick in the back so she's got a nice mullet going on at the moment.

Here is cute Sawyer and Luce going for an evening stroll. Isn't he the cutest little boy ever?!

Aww, it looks like Luce is reading to Sawyer. I think these two will become good buddies.

Our next adventure: the Baltimore Zoo! I'm pretty sure Luce is going to flip when she sees all the different animals. It should be a good time.

Don't you just love free stuff?!

I found this on dealnews today.  Get a FREE NeilMed Neti Pot if you become a fan on facebook!  We've always wanted to try one of these strange things out, now we don't have the excuse of it not really being a necessity.  Free is definitely in the budget!
Our friends the Fraziers swear by these.  If you need a good laugh, google "neti pot" and click on images.  It looks pretty ridiculous...I can't wait to get mine and try it out. :)  Yay for free stuff! 

Happy Friday peeps!!

a load of fresh pics

I have a bunch of Lucy pictures to post.  Are you surprised?  Yeah, you shouldn't be by now.  It's funny how obsessed I am with my daughter, she is just so darn cute I can't get enough of her.  I'm sure all parents feel the same about their kiddos too.  I just love sharing her silliness/cuteness with everyone, she is a hoot.
Oh, so I'll post a little about what's been going on with us first.  Then the slew of pictures will follow.  First of all, Friday is Trey's last test of his first year of med school!!!  Huzzah!!  We made it!!  I guess I shouldn't be celebrating that much but I think it's just great!  Trey will be one step closer to becoming a real doctor man.  Actually we do have cause for great celebration because Trey gets his whole summer off!!  We are going to enjoy this summer to the fullest because this is the only time that he will get a summer vacay.  We're going to be in Hershey for half of the summer and Utah for the other half.  I feel like it's been YEARS since I've been home and seen my family and friends.  But at the same time this past year has gone by so fast!  Strange how that happens, right?
Anyway, we have a bunch of fun activities planned for the next month that we're in Hershey.  For example:

• Family bike rides (as soon as we get Lucy a bike seat or trailer...come on craigslist, show me some love!)
• Tennis
• Camping at Rickets Glen
• Hiking in the "mountains" (really they are more like hills)
• Gettysburg
• DC Temple
• Baltimore Zoo
• Mount Gretna
• Whatever else we can pack in!

Oh we have some other fun news!  We are moving into a 3-bedroom apartment in our same complex so this means we'll have an extra bedroom for guests and a lot more space!  Hopefully this will entice you people to visit! :)  The only downer is that we have to move all our stuff...ugh!  Good thing it's just a hundred yards away.
We also ran in a 5K as a family last weekend.  It was super fun!  Our time was 31 minutes, not bad for me being in not that great of shape and us pushing a jogging stroller with a little 21 lb. Lucy in it.  The Niehoffs came up because Kate was one of the organizers of the race so we got to hang out with them for the day.  They are pretty much our east coast family.  Miss Betsy and White Mike are our surrogate parents.  They always take care of us and make sure we're well fed.  They just love Lucy to pieces, especially Miss Bev (Kate's grandma).  We're so lucky to have such an awesome 2nd family out here while we're so far away from ours.
Now to the pictures of our stinker pinker.  She is walking all over the place these days, I seriously cannot keep up with her.  A few more weeks and she'll be 1!  The Pocoyo party planning is underway, I've already made some pretty awesome decor.  I just need to figure out how I'm going to do the cake.  Wish me luck!

  Trying out her new car seat, it makes her look tiny!  

I think she likes it.

Is it just me or does she look like she has Asian eyes in this picture?

 Tackling her crazy singing duck.

 Oh monkey...

 

  Playing pass with mom & dad.  This usually ends up being our activity after FHE every week.  She loves it!

 This is her favorite corner.  She clears off her bookshelf and scatters her books everywhere.

Those teeth kill me! 

 She loves playing in the pillows on mom & dad's bed.

 I gave her a bowl of noodles and walked away for a second and I came back to see this...ha ha ha, I had to snap a photo or two...or ten. :)

We usually put a blanket out on our front lawn and play in the shade if it's a really hot day.  Luce loves to watch me blow bubbles.

 Trying on mom's hat.

 

 She loves playing with my stinky sandals.  They usually end up in her mouth (gross I know!)

 Oh girl...hahaha

 Hahaha, that is one big cheeser!

Chillin with Nibbles.  She loves that dog.  I found him brand new at a garage sale for a buck!

 Luce and mom playing photobooth.  One of our favorite activities.

Lately Lucy loves to play pass with her ball, giggle and get so excited when she sees a dog (which are everywhere around here), play with her weiner dog "Nibbles", and swing at the playground.

I forgot to mention that Trey has been playing intermurals a lot this whole year.  He and another classmate of his are in charge of organizing the intermurals for the next year.  They just finished ulimate frisbee.  Luce and I were the cheerleaders/photographers.  Here are a few shots of the team.  Don't you love how green it is here already?!  I'm a fan.

I'll try to remember to bring our camera along on all our adventures this summer so I can document it.  I can't wait!!! :)