The Excitement Continues

As I said in the last post, Meili's birthday party was this Saturday. Even though it was November 5th (because that worked the best as far as scheduling), I still wanted to do a Halloween party. Our house was super crowded, because Josh and I both have big families now and there were lots of rowdy kids, and the whole thing was a little bit chaotic. But I still thought it was super fun, and we're very grateful for everyone who came and was a good sport about all the chaos.

(I always forget to take pictures of the decorations before the party, so this was after the fact. But you can still see them.) My sister, mom and I made these pumpkins a few years ago as Thanksgiving decorations, and my mom let me borrow them for the event. I still love them!

I made the banner and am hoping that it will hold up for a few years, so I can get my money's worth out of it. Scrapbook paper is more expensive than it was the last time I bought single sheets! I also made the cupcakes-which was quite a fiasco. We had pumpkin (against Josh's wishes), chocolate, and funfetti (because I LOVE funfetti!)

The night started with some kids games, including face painting. Two of my friends from work were nice enough to agree to do the face painting (even though they wanted everyone to know that they are not pro.) I thought they did a great job, and the kids loved it! Thanks Jen and Jillian.

I'm sure Bren (and Jillian) would like me to let everyone know that this is a snake and not a worm!

Alex and his spider.

Alex and Bren came back later for bats too!

This is the best picture I got of Meili in her bee costume. Even though she hates costumes she did pretty well with this one throughout the night. I think there was so much going on, that she forgot she was wearing it.

Look who came to Meili's party! It's Dwight and Jim from the office! (Hee Hee Hee) My sister-in-law Sarah, prepped us for Shasta's costume by saying how excited she was, and what a good costume it was. I was not expecting this!! She even has her stuff in jello with her!

What a good sport! I'm sure she'll get revenge on them later for dressing her up like this!

Here's another example of parent's torturing their kids when they have no say. Wynn was such a cute little stinker. Everytime I saw him, he was still smiling, even though his parents are so mean!!

Chloe the cat, and Gigi the cheerleader. (My very talented mom made both their costumes!)

Audrey as none other than Fancy Nancy!

My sister Bethany with Kennedy...

...who is obviously Pebbles

Yes, it was Meili's birthday, but I think the skunk was Josh's highlight. While Meili was opening presents, Josh got a little sidetracked taking pictures.

Get me out of here!

Meili opening shoes from Grandma and Grandpa

An Aggie outfit from Jake

I added this picture because it shows the stroller that we got for Meili (which I was super excited about), and it does a little bit of justice for the chaos that was Meili's party.

Here's Meili just getting going with her cake. She started out by taking the spiders off. Then she picked all the little purple dots off and ate them. Then she dug her fingers in through the spider web. When she really got going, and started getting messy, she dropped the cake on the floor. I think she enjoyed herself.

I was trying to get a picture of her messy face, and she was distracted, so when I tried to get her attention, I startled her and she started crying. It's sad, but I kind of like this picture.

What a fun family Meili has! Thanks everyone for coming, and for all your love for Meili. She is so lucky!

Too Excited to Sleep

There was a Disneyland commercial when I was younger, where a family was getting ready to go to Disneyland, and she went into her parents room in the middle of the night and told them that she was too excited to sleep. I totally know the feeling.

I told Josh and my mom in the last couple of weeks that I have never been so excited for a birthday in my life. (Granted, my sisters disagree. They think I was probably more excited for my own birthday when I was 5, 8, or 10 (Inside joke)). In the last month, I can think of at least a few nights that I couldn't sleep because I was planning for Meili's birthday. The funny thing is, I knew exactly how it was going to go: she would have no idea that her birthday was any different than any other day. I would go to work and she would go to daycare. She would take a few naps, we'd try to get her to eat food. Then we'd try to get her to open presents, and she'd wonder why we were making her go through so much work to see clothes that look like everything else that's already in her closet. Yes, not much would change on that day, but I was still so excited.

This wasn't actually on her birthday. When Josh bought seeds for our garden, he bought pumpkin seeds, because he said that Meili would need a pumpkin since her birthday is on Halloween. We planted 4 plants, and got this one tiny pumpkin. Lucky for us, it's just the right size for Meili and she loved it.

I love this picture. It totally looks like she's posing. Because Meili's birthday is on Halloween, and we were having her party this weekend, the only "birthday stuff" that we did on her birthday, was open presents. I also didn't make her actually dress up for Halloween, since she would have to wear her costume at her party, and she doesn't particularly like costumes.

Don't you just love that picture!

I've shopped for presents for Meili all month (well actually for a few months.) and I might as well have just stopped with this ball. It was her favorite! I took A LOT of pictures with the ball, but they're all blurry because she was moving too fast cause she was so excited. (I also could have gotten her a camera, because rather than opening presents, she just wanted to play with my camera.)

I thought she would like this car the most. (I feel like these cars are kind of a standard one-year old present.) She doesn't like it so much. She hasn't even touched it since her birthday, and we've stopped trying to get her to play with it. (And we got it for super cheap which is why it looks like a boy car.)

New developments this month:

-Meili tried really hard to get some teeth out before her first birthday-but with little success. We can see them barely under her gums, so any day now.

-I also had a glimmer of hope that she would start walking before her birthday, but no such luck. She took 3 steps on the 22nd, but now, even though I think she could walk, she chickens out. She's kind of regressed, so now I don't know if she will even before Thanksgiving.

-We've started transitioning from bottles. I really think Meili couldn't care less. She's never been much of a food girl anyway. Josh and I are just having a hard time cause bottles are so convenient.

-She's pretty much transitioned to whole milk, and didn't mind that change either.

-Her chattering just gets more fun everyday.

-And, no matter how hard I try, I can't get her to keep shoes on for anything.

At her doctor's appointment on Friday, she weighed 17 lbs. even (with a full diaper no less). Which puts her barely below the chart (in the 2nd percentile). Can you believe that? She's gained one pound in 3 months! I do think it's funny that she was exactly 8 lbs. when she was born, and exactly 17 at her 12 month appointment. She was also 29 1/2 inches which is the 63 percentile. So at least her weight can be a little more evenly distributed in her body.

Happy Birthday Big Girl!