First Birthday Party

I'm so excited to share the details of Eloise's Birthday. I wanted this day to be all about spending time with our loved ones and focusing on our little girl. We waited to open cards and gift so we could catch up with everybody since we don't visit WA very often. 

 We took a whirlwind trip, flying in Thursday night and back to CA on Sunday morning. We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on the actual day, and Eloise had her party on the actual day as well... so it was a pretty special weekend. There were over 300 photos from this day, so I'm only sharing a handful! It was the most beautiful day and a little over the top, but you only turn ONE once :)

4 generations // we do have 5 alive in our family, my great grandma couldn't make it :)

Eloise is ONE

Happy Birthday Eloise! 
I can't believe I have a ONE year old! It's so crazy how fast time goes by. Everybody told me that time speeds up when you have a child and it really does. One whole year ago, we welcomed this sweet angel into our world. She has grown so much, learned so much and taught us more than we thought was possible. We are so excited to watch her grow even more this year!

↠ Weighs 22 pounds and is 31.5 tall 
↠ Is wearing 9-12 month clothes, size 4 diapers
↠ Sleeps through the night with 2 naps a day
↠ She is still crawling, not really trying to walk yet! She is pulling up on everything and walking along the furniture. And she climbs the stairs really well!
↠ Has 6 teeth, the 7th just poked through
↠ Thinks her dad is the coolest, loves his flashlight, wallet, sun glasses, his hat.... and the way she looks at him makes me melt every.single.time
↠ Yodels-- have you seen the videos on instagram? I can't handle it. 
↠ Loves all dogs. She gets so excited when she sees one, and barks when she hears them during the day
↠ Is obsessed with her lovies. She can find her little owl and can "who who" to it when I ask her to. And when we say "snuggle" she hold them tight and tilts her head
↠ Hates: french fries, all vegetables (I keep trying!), and getting her diaper or clothes changed
↠ Favorite foods: blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cheese, avocados, bananas, turkey, bread with hummus  
↠ Signs "eat" and "milk"
↠ Loves playing at the park and on the swings
↠ Can bark "Baaa" and shake her head "no"
↠ Would sit outside all day and just watch if we let her
↠ Can say: mama, dada, hi, ni ni (which we have learned is no no... like she will go up to something she knows she can't touch and yell NI NI NI), baba, and sometimes dog and owl. She nods her head yes and no, but doesn't understand what she's doing yet, she just does it for fun. 

Family Photo Session

I am so excited to share our gallery from our family session with Alexis Ralston Photography. We went to a beautiful spot in the Morongo Canyon Preserve. If you haven't been following along with Eloise's chair picture updates (you can find all of the updates here) we take weekly pictures of her on a rocking chair to show how much she has grown each month. The rocking chair has been in my family for a long time. It was my Grandma's mother's and she passed it down to my grandma, who passed it down to me, and I will pass it down to Eloise to rock her children in some day. It's beautiful, heavy and nick was amazing for carrying it to our photo spot. It was actually my photographer's idea and I am so happy we ended up using it! 

Disney Half Marathon

I did it! I ran 13.1 miles!!! 13.1!!!  and then walked over a mile back to our hotel :) We had the best weekend and Nick took such good care of Eloise so I could focus on my race and now she likes him better than me because he's the cool, fun parent.

I signed up for a half marathon before I could even run a mile without stopping. That definitely motivated me to train, and it's so amazing to see what your body can do with some hard work and dedication. I was NOT thinking about the timeline, which I ended up training through the summer in the desert where all of my runs were in over 100 degree heat. But I made it happen and pushed through. My goal was 2 hrs 30 min but the first 4 miles we were shuffling through thousands of other runners through Disneyland and CA adventure, I stopped for the bathroom and a few pictures in the park, and ended up with a final time of 2:34 which I am so proud of! I ran almost the entire race and accomplished something I thought was not possible.

Now onto the next half marathon in 6 weeks!!