Little O's BIG day

It's hard to believe my little St. Patty's day baby is a year old already, but it's true. And since we can't turn back the clock, we decided it was time to celebrate!

It was a great party with great friends, a gorgeous professional grade cake (thanks Kara), good food (thanks Bryce), and plenty of smiling Irish eyes. Check out the pics, and the little video of an adorable Little O, and a little bit of The Snack as well.

(side note: Bryce's 30th B-day was the day after Little O's, so we surprised him with a candle on the cake too) :)

Good morning little walker!

It's hard to believe our Baby O is walking! But it's official...she chooses walking over crawling, so I guess we can call her "Toddler O."

They keep growing and growing and...

These kids are growing so fast I have to be careful not to blink, so I figured it must be time for another update so the grandma's and the grandpa's etc. etc. can keep up with us!

Sir Snackie is my energizer bunny these days. He goes and goes and never seems to loose the wiggles. We enjoyed a slight cool down out here and started getting outside on some walks again so he's been enjoying some "cruisin' fun" on his "motorcycle." He's my biggest helper around the house - helping clean tubs and "fold" laundry, and my best helper with Baby O - always watching out for her safety and making sure she's happy. He tolerates her pulling his hair and loves it when she "hugs" him, always calling out to me, "she loves me mommy, she loves me!" His sense of humor is also developing quite well, he loves to quote, "There are no spices, where are the chips" (Nacho Libre) when I hand him his lunch, and it seems he is destined for greatness musically, "playing" his guitar and learning new songs with Bryce all the time.

Baby O is my little angel. A sweet little girl who only needs the simple things in life to make her happy (too bad some of those "simple" things are needed at odd hours of the night like 2am and 4am). She is not at all interested in any form of spoon feeding yet (she reacts to a spoon coming toward her like a pencil headed for her eye) but she is very interested in "going places." She gets around in a variety of ways, her latest skill is getting up on all fours and rocking back-and-forth then sort of face planting it - which gets her a few inches forward - then going at it again. Bryce loves to place toys just out of her reach to see her work at getting them, and of course we all cheer and chant for her as she struggles...and eventually achieves her goal! She's turning out to be a very social, smart and inquisitive little girl, happiest when there are people around to squeal at with delight, and always interested in studying new things very carefully...before chewing on them!

It's Baby O time!

Some long overdue pics of this sweet face

Blessed...

Our lives are blessed...

• Bryce gave Baby O the most beautiful blessing last Sunday - words from his heart for our beautiful baby girl.



• She is healthy, happy, and brings joy into our lives daily.



• Grandma Lilon & Grandpa Jim drove many, many hours to be here this week and to share the special day with us.



• Baby O wore the same blessing dress I (and my sisters) wore when we were blessed, thanks to my mother's labor of love in restoring it.

Best kept secrets...

Believe it or not my friends, but I can keep a "secret." This was a particularly hard secret to keep especially with so many of my blogging friends having babies...but I did it! I suppose it helps that I have a paranoid sort of fear of sharing TMI via blogs, but none-the-less, here's the latest...I HAD A BABY!

It's hard to believe it actually happened. The labor was...not fun...but surprisingly a heck of a lot easier than with my first...is that standard procedure? After my 16 hours of labor (a full hour of just pushing) with The Snack I was in bad shape, but this time, in comparison, it was a piece of cake (if we can ever refer to labor in that way) only 7 hours (with an epidural) and 3 pushes and there she was. I was so happy when she came so quickly that I was like laughing when I was done...I was truly ecstatic!

This is a pic from a couple hours after delivery. The Snack loves "Baby O" and is so excited that she is finally here. Bryce did a really good job preparing The Snack to be a good big brother, so we've been blessed not to have to deal with jealousy...so far! I wish I could say we've also been "blessed" with no sleep deprivation...but I guess we'll have to work on that one!