Talan's first birthday pictures

I'm a little late (for me)... we finally took Talan today to get his 1 year pictures taken. I was going back and forth trying to decided whether I should take him to Target (where I have always gone for Trey's yearly birthday pictures) or Picture People (where I have had quite a few bad experiences but an awesome turn out the last time I took the boys). Javi and I decided Picture People since #1 I had a really good coupon and #2 you get the pictures right away there. At Target you have to go back and pick up the pictures 2 weeks later....and seeing as how I am already way late (for me :)) we decided to go for the convenience of Picture People. I was all excited bc I had requested the same photographer who did such an amazing job last time...and she was actually there today. But when we sat down to view and choose the pictures, Javi and I were both a little disappointed. We really wanted a better selection of pictures that emphasized that it was his FIRST BIRTHDAY and we only got this one that was semi good.... I wish he had a better smile in this one.

I think that she did a great job considering Talan was so quick to crawl right off the photo backdrop...I had to keep picking him up and carrying him back on the white back drop thingy. She did get some cute pictures...I love this one...typical "Talan" face!

and this one is cute bc it will remind us of his "commando" style army crawl...he was actually crawling off the set, she had to snap this one quick!

I just wish we got a REALLY good one with the number one in it!

talking to NANA

Talan was talking to Nana (Javi's mom) on the phone the other night...it was so cute so of course I took pictures of him. He is such a happy baby everything makes him laugh!

he prefers to hold the phone upside down...

little dancer

The other night Javi was watching one of the Micheal Jackson tribute shows that he recorded on the DVR. He got this great video of Trey dancing to "Rock With You". I guess Trey didn't realize Javi was recording him bc at the end of the video you can hear him say to Javi, "are you taking a picture of me?" Javi tried to record Talan dancing too, but of course he wasn't cooperating. Talan is quite the little dancer!

I'm so excited!!!

I haven't used a dishwasher in about 7 years...when it was just Javi and I we really didn't need one and our dishwasher always ended up being a storage place for our pots and pans...we never used it! Then Javi bought me a wine fridge for Christmas in 2005 and we took out our dishwasher and put the wine fridge in its place. Well....now that I have 2 kids and live in a neighborhood where we always have people over our house...I started thinking how nice it would be to have a dishwasher again to actually use! In March (for my birthday party) my friend Nikki was over with her husband Steve and we got to talking about us not having a dishwasher. Steve does that kind of work and said it would be really easy to cut half of my cabinets out next to the refrigerator to move the wine fridge over there and have the space open again to put a dishwasher back in. I had been thinking about it ever since and finally.....

Today he came over and did it for me!!! YAY!!! I have a dishwasher again! I am so excited about it mostly bc I just can't get the boys sippy cups clean inside the lids by hand. I already have a load of sippy cups, lids and valves ready to go in dishwasher! :)

The wine fridge looks great in it's new spot. Steve did a very professional job (there used to be double cabinets and drawers here)...I am really happy!!!! I think I have said "I'm so excited" at least 100 times today!

shine your sink

Last night Kandi and I talked on the phone for about an hour and a half catching up...just like old times :) She told me about this website that she has been following and how much she is loving it...it's called FLYLADY.NET. It's a website that was created to help you organize, clean and declutter your house in easy steps. While we were on the phone together last night she was helping me navigate through the site and telling me a little about how it works. The first chore that it wants you to start with is "shinning your kitchen sink"....of course me being so anal about everything, I wanted to get up and shine my sink right then and there. Kandi told me not to be so ridiculous and that I could start tomorrow. So of course, all day long I thought about coming home and shinning my sink. I told you Kandi I have a sickness! LOL!!!

I made a list of all the things I needed (and wanted to get done tonight) and I really didn't think I was going to ever get to shine my sink....but.....

I did it!!! I shined my kitchen sink! First I had to fill it to the top with hot water and one cup of bleach and let it soak for an hour (I only did about 45 mins) then I scrubbed it with comet and also around the faucets, then I rinsed and dried it, then I wiped it down with Windex....and now VIOLA! My squeaky clean shiny kitchen sink!!!

Thanks Kandi for a great new website to follow....I'm so excited! I will try not to be overwhelmed and let it stress me out...after all the site is designed to help simplify things not make life more stressful. It was great talking to my old friend too! :)

birthday bear

Trey got to make a build a bear on his 4th birthday (in Disneyland) and the bear sings the build a bear Happy Birthday song...which I think is so cute bc we will always remember that Trey actually made that bear on his birthday. So for Talan's 1st birthday we thought it would be fun for Trey to make a bear for his little brother. Here's a funny little story...when I told trey we were gonna take him to build a bear so he could make Talan a birthday bear just like his, he said to me with with a huge gasp of excitement, "we are going to Disneyland???" The only build a bear Trey remembers is the one we took him to while we were in Disneyland for HIS birthday. I felt like this fun thing that I had planned for Trey is turning out to be a disappointment for him bc we now we aren't going to Disneyland...we're just going to the boring old mall!Even though it wasn't Disneyland, Trey was really excited. We let him pick everything out himself...well...kinda. He did a great job too...he even picked the birthday t shirt for Talan's bear. His favorite accessory for the bear...the sketcher sneakers.

So Talan has his bear in his crib and he has figured out how to push the button in his hand so I every morning when he wakes up, the first thing I hear on the baby monitor is the build a bear happy birthday song! "From the birthday bear, happy birthday, Happy birthday to you! It's a special day just for you cuz today's the day the world gave us you! Happy Birthday Happy Birthday......." you get the idea! It's a catchy little birthday song that's for sure....especially when you hear it every morning! :)

my baby is ONE!!!

I can't believe that Talan (my little baby) is already ONE YEAR OLD!!! We had a "baseball" birthday party for him on Saturday at our house. It turned out to be a great (very hot) day for the pool! Here are some of the decorations (these are baseball clappers that say "Talan's first birthday"here is his adorable cake that matched the plates exactly....and I made baseball cupcakesI had this shirt made for Talan...it turned out so cute!

Talan got to eat lots of yummy goodies during his party....that's what birthday parties are for though right?

Talan with his Nina Erica...cute picture!

Javi's mom made the pinata....Talan went first (with some help from Mommy of course)Trey was up next and he tooks some pretty good "whacks" at itNext we sang happy birthday. I think everybody gathered in front of Talan singing to him freaked him out a little bit. I have been singing Happy Birthday to him for weeks now and he always laughs but with 50 people in front of him...I guess he didn't think it was so funny...either that or he just laughs at me bc I am such a terrible singer! Talan wasn't too sure about the cupcake at first....

(that's javi's Nana next to him)

but after he tasted it...it was all over!after that everyone pretty much just hung out and swam in the pool...the guys played beer pong...a few of them maybe a little too much beer pong...I won't mention any names....Pablo! :)We have never had so many people in the pool at one time...

as a result the pool was quite cloudy that night and the next day...Javi has been working hard to get the water clear again. I want to think that it was all the sunblock that the kids were wearing....bc the other thought just totally grosses me out!

Talan was so exhausted from all the birthday excitement and swimming that he went to sleep without opening his presents. So we did that when everyone woke up on Sunday!