2011

At the end of each year, it's nice to flip through my old posts and reflect on what the year brought us. Here are my highlights:

On January 5th I got to announce to the blog world that I was pregnant! I was about 14 weeks along and pretty dang excited.

In February there was the Suggestivism show with Jeff's mockingbird piano on display, and we found out Elsa was a girl!

March was a big month. We took our first big family vacation to Maui, Jeff became famous, and the garage to studio conversion got underway! 

April was my sad month. We lost our beloved Lily Mae. I'm still choked up over it. I also started my third trimester, we celebrated one year of owning our happy home, and Jeff's bird piece went on display at the LB Museum (prints are still available here!). 

In May, Mandy and I (as We Like Flowers) did one of our biggest weddings yet, and it turned out FABULOUS!! I was also thrown an amazing baby shower up in San Jose by our moms, we chose and announced Elsa's name, and I had another 4D ultrasound which looking back at shocks the crap out of me at how exact those pictures were to what she looks like. 

{photo by EP Love}

In June we were thrown a second amazing baby shower (thanks Kim, Karen and Mandy!) which included a horrifying awesome fetus cake, Jeff and I celebrated three years of marriage, our dear friends Jerod and Karen brought their sweet baby Jude into this world (!!), and I finished Elsa's nursery.

July. The biggest and most important month of my life. My precious little Elsa was born healthy, pink, and safe. That's everything. We also found out she had hip dysplasia and got her fitted with her little parachute harness. 

In August we settled in to being parents to a newborn, Elsa had her first smile, and we took more pictures than we've ever taken in our lives.

In September we adopted the boys!! Our family became complete. Elsa also got her harness off for the first time, allowing us to give her the first bath. 

In October we took Elsa on her first trip up north to meet the rest of the family, Jeff and I got our new iPhone 4S's (yes, life changing), and Elsa met Mickey for the first time. 

In November, tummy time was big, I started a YouTube channel for Elsa's videos, Elsa had her first solid food, we hosted Thanksgiving, and I turned 32 and celebrated with babies. 

And December of course our first Christmas as a full family. 

All in all, 2011 was pretty amazing for us. We are SO freaking thankful.

A Holiday Re-cap

We were back home up north for Christmas and spent a week eating, sleeping in, and passing off the baby to some very open arms. It was an awesome holiday and made us feel pretty dang blessed with all that we received. Pictures will tell it best...

Elsa was SO good the whole week, sleeping in until 9:30 and hamming it up for everyone (and then promptly turned into a whiny little beast that doesn't sleep as soon as we got home! What's up with that??). She was an angel with the great grandmothers, they loved holding her.

I think my dad clocked in the most minutes spent nuzzling the baby. I'm surprised she still has skin on the back of her neck from all the mustache rubbing that went on back there.

See? Everyone loves to sniff a baby. Except Jan. He doesn't get the appeal.

My mom crocheted Elsa some holiday hats, as if she didn't look Elvish enough to begin with. Super cute.

My mom also crocheted these Rasta hats/dreads for the boys. Not as cute as Elf baby.

These were the two hits, the MamaRoo and the American baby doll. The MamaRoo was passed on to us from family friends (thanks Monica and Bob!) and is a high-tech piece of baby happiness making machinery. Grammie got Elsa the doll and she lights up every time she sees it. I think she thinks it's another real baby. Big hit.

It looks like she's spanking the doll here. She was just excited.

4 generations!!!

Huh, just realized Jeff didn't make it into this one. Ah well.

Oh there he is.

And home sweet home! Andy and Kim took care of our boys while we were away and we swear Thor put on some weight. I think ditching that infected fang did him a world of good. He's back to being show cat quality. They seem happy to have us home and we certainly missed him.

If Jeff stays out with the baby long enough, I'll put together a 2011 recap post, because those are always fun.

Where's the baby!?

I've done quite a few non-baby posts lately... the grandparents must be going through withdrawals. Good thing they get to see her in the flesh soon!