Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sydney's First Birthday!

We had a little birthday party/get together for Sydney's birthday on Sunday night. I know a lot of people go all out for their baby's first birthdays, but we wanted to keep it pretty small. I did make a cake and a cute sign, and she had plenty of presents, so it was a successful, fun night. Sydney really enjoyed pretty much everything about her birthday. It was a night of many firsts for her, which she loved. We can't believe that we have such a big girl! It sure has been a great year!

Licking the frosting off the beater...

Wearing her birthday hat, which didn't stay on long!

The sign I made, and the many unopened presents!

Sydney loved unwrapping the presents and playing with the wrapping paper and bows!

Reading a book she got...

We made a coloring book for Sydney to go along with her first crayons...

Sydney's huge pile of opened presents...

My first attempt at making a cake & it turned out pretty well!



Sydney getting ready to eat her cake!


All done!

Sydney has many people who love her. Thank you everyone for the presents and for spending some of this special day with us and Sydney! We all had fun!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Birthday Girl

I absolutely can not believe that a year has gone by since Sydney was born! It is amazing to me how time truly does fly. All day today, I kept thinking, last year at this time I was doing this...like going into labor, arriving at the hospital, pushing, seeing Sydney for the first time, visiting with family, etc. Sydney has been the most beautiful blessing of my life. Matt and I are so blessed to have her sweet spirit in our family. It has been so fun to watch her grow and learn this past year, and even though it may seem a little overboard, I would love to capture that process in one place. So, here are my favorite pictures of Sydney from this past year.

November






December

January



February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September

October

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

3 Years!

3 years ago today, Matt and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple! It is amazing to think how much time has gone by. We have had many adventures, and hope to have many more. I love you Matt! Thanks for all that you do!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Sydney's First Halloween

Halloween was Sydney's last "first" holiday. Although there are still many "firsts" to come in her life, it is weird to think that her first year, with so many monumental "firsts", is coming to a close. I truly can not believe that it has been a year since she was born.

We had a fun Halloween! As my family has gotten older Halloween has become less exciting, and we have adopted new traditions like sitting around talking to each other and having Taco Soup. Taco Soup is by far my favorite Halloween tradition. I even carried it on in college, making it for my roommates and friends on Halloween. It was one of the few recipes that I contributed to the many greats of Kelli, Chelsey, and Stacie's. Needless to say, Taco Soup was available this Halloween.

Halloween was a bit more exciting for me this year because I got to dress Sydney up! We dressed her up as a puppy dog. Brett actually wore the costume as a baby, and I borrowed it from my mom. Sydney is fascinated by dogs, so we were excited that she could be a puppy for Halloween. Every time she sees a dog, she says, "oooh, ooohf" in a deep dog like voice (at least deep for her little voice) imitating their bark. It is so funny! She even loves dogs that do not like her. The dog at the house I tutor at, does not like her, and will growl at her, and she just loves her. It is very funny. Anyway, we taught Sydney to say "ooohf, ooohf" when we ask her what a puppy says. She says it, without fail, every time, unless someone is watching, or we are video taping it. Typical I guess. So, she was very prepared to be a puppy, but of course, never said "oooh, ooohf" when she was actually wearing the costume. Even without the bark, she was an adorable puppy!

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins with Allie and Brett at our house. Sydney enjoyed touching the pumkins and exploring them. It was fun, but did take a long time. . . pictures follow of our night and our masterpieces.







Notice the Yankees pumpkin...we have one every year!


On Halloween, Matt got off early, and we visited his grandparents and Jonne at their house. They got to see Sydney walk a little bit, but she is pretty shy and doesn't perform tricks very willingly, which is why we don't have any video of the "oooh, ooohf." Then we went to my parents house, hung out a little, had Taco Soup, made cupcakes, took Sydney trick-or-treating, and took lots of pictures. We only took Sydney to one house, just to say she went trick-or-treating, and she picked out a couple of suckers. So she had her first sucker and loved it! It sure was a sticky, drippy, drooly mess! She enjoyed carrying it around, along with her bone, and actually loved wearing the puppy costume! It was a fun night!



Friday, October 24, 2008

Bakin' Cookies

Well, now that it is a new weekend, I am finally catching up with putting my pictures up from last weekend. On Monday, Allie and Brett didn't have school, so they slept at our house on Sunday night. We played games and watched a movie at our house, then headed over to their house to bake fall/Halloween cookies. Brett always complains that they "never do anything" so my mom went and bought a bunch of stuff to make cookies, and we made an activity out of it. It was really fun to decorate the cookies, and to have Sydney sit there with us. She loved to look at them, and point while saying, "oooh." She must have approved, thinking they were nice and colorful. It will be fun when she can help out more someday!





Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Pumpkin Patch!

Last summer my family moved back to Utah from Arizona. When they moved back, they moved to West Jordan. When I was done with student teaching last year, I spent a lot of time at their house, because I didn't have much to do besides prepare for the baby to come and wait. When I would drive to their house, I would pass a pumpkin patch. I remember driving by the pumpkin patch and watching all the families and little kids picking out their pumpkins. I would tell Matt every time how much I wanted to do that next year with our little baby girl. So, this year we went to the pumpkin patch! It was so fun! It was actually my first time going to a pumpkin patch, and I loved being able to walk around and pick out the perfect pumpkin. Sydney loved to look at the pumpkins, and play in the dirt. The weather was nice, warm actually, so we were able to enjoy it and spend some time there. We went with Matt's old mission companion, Matt Appel, his wife Jen, and his son Colton. Colton and Sydney have a pretty fun time playing together- she loves to follow him around. All in all, I think it will be a tradition that we will try to keep!












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