PARTY!

I've been planning her first birthday party for quite a while now, and I settled on Minnie Mouse as the theme -- not only because we love Minnie, but it coincides with our first family vacation that we'll be taking three days after her first birthday!

So..

Birthday outfit? Check.
Birthday invitations? Decided upon but not ordered!

...And that's about as far as I've gotten!

We do know that it will be a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs - how cute and fun will Mickey head-shaped cheese be?! I've decided to make her birthday cake, and I'm pretty petrified of it. I've never worked with fondant or buttercream, and I highly doubt my skills. All I really know at this point is that I want a Mickey head on top with a bow. And the cake will either be white with red polka dots or red with white polka dots.

Scary.

Decorations? Well, my sister is making her birthday banner. And me.. well, I've decided to attempt Martha Stewart's tissue paper pom poms:

How adorable are those?! Cheap, cute decorations! Hopefully I can pull those off too!

I am thrilled to death for this party. I think we might even rent the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse "Halloween" DVD and play it at the end of the party. The only thing that would make this party perfect is the presence of my three nephews. I so, so wish they could be a part of her celebration!

Her party is in 40 days, and I can't wait!

my 10-month old!

Smack-dab in the middle of hurricane Irene is a great time to blog, right? Right!

Oh, I'll save the bit about me being a terrible blogger. Cause you know by now that I am. I used to have so much to say. And now? Now that I'm happier than ever, have so much going on, and am so busy, I have lost all creativity. It's just gone.

But here we are, and Adalyn is now 10 months old.

Ad, you're more social than ever. You wave and say "hi" (verbally) to everyone you see in the stores. You especially love waving to other kids, and it's downright adorable. You'll let anyone hold you, and you're always full of smiles.

Last month, you learned how to crawl. In just a few days, she went from immobile to FLYING around the house! You love to go anywhere where you shouldn't. Your favorite spots: the family room and kitchen. Your new loves are the animal magnets on our refrigerator and Piper's leashes & poochie bell on our back door.

You love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the freaky pirates, Sharkey & Bones, on the Disney Channel. You love to pull Piper's hair. You love balls and puzzles and any toy that makes noise. You love eating adult food, and you've already had your own little chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-A. You're already self-weaning, and we nurse as you're waking up, twice during the day, and I nurse you to bed. Oh, and you like to snack all night long.

You're a terrible sleeper, by the way :)

You love to talk, and just today you learned to say baby. You know how to give kisses and hugs to your baby dolls, and you LOVE to hold babies!

You are Miss Independent, and you are one determined baby. I can already tell that as you grow, you will go after what you want and you will get it. You still think I'm the best thing ever, and sometimes I'm lucky enough to get snuggles from you - though they are few and far between! I love you, my little Ad :)

I wasn't kidding.

yep.

:)

A couple weeks ago, our dog jumped on our (open) laptop and broke our Alt key. I can't fix it. And now there's a missing key and it's driving me insane. Luckily, there are 2 Alt keys, and I never really use an Alt key. But still. Ugh.

Adalyn still isn't crawling, but what she can do is scoot around, do full 360's, and crawl backwards. And she's also a pro at getting on her stomach and getting annoyed.

Her specialty these days is finding the smallest amounts of lint ever and picking it up and examining it. This girl is destined to be a neat freak and cleaner extraordinaire, because she loves finding the teeniest bits of dirt! She now knows not to eat them, but I've had to say NO! one too many times this week as I catch her trying to put a piece of lint in her mouth.

Ew, child!

We're in-between Mark coming home from a TDY (that's military lingo for a business trip) and him leaving on another. We hate TDY's, and we're already dreading the one coming up and looking forward to it being done! He has to eat MRE's on these TDY's, which are meals ready to eat, and I enjoy hearing about the gross-ness (and yummy-ness) of them! He brought some home to show me how they work - you basically add water to a pouch of food and it miraculously becomes a meal. Or should I say it disgustingly becomes a meal. I'm pretty sure one of them is pork ribs? Uh, ew? Ribs should never be in a pouch!

Things I'm looking forward to:
going to the aquarium this weekend
Ad's photoshoot with The Picture People this weekend
venturing to Water Country soon!
taking Adalyn to the base housing pool for the first time
our cruise - coming up in 2.5 months!
planing her first birthday party
getting completely unpacked from our move
the day Adalyn discovers how to crawl forward


!!!!