Christmas Pictures

After having the most adorable Christmas pictures in the world last year (and no, I'm not biased; many people who are not related to Mia said the same thing) we decided to go back to Portrait Innovations to try for some more great pictures this year. Let me just say that taking an 18 month old is WAY more difficult than taking a 6 month old to get pictures taken. She would not sit still!! We still managed to get some pretty cute pictures though. So, enjoy...

For those of you that didn't get to see last year's pictures, here's a little look back. I can't believe how much she has grown up!!

My Little 50's Girl

We had so much fun on Halloween. I'm sure it had something to do with how dang cute Mia looked in her costume. I just wanted to eat her up, she was so cute!!!! My mother-in-law made her costume along with my nephew's costume. She's good isn't she. Hope she's prepared to make costumes every year. I just don't think the store bought ones will do from now on. Anyway, we went to my sister-in-law, Christie's house and went trick-or-treating through her neighborhood. Mia lasted a lot longer than I thought she would. She wouldn't say trick-or-treat but she would walk right up and wait for her candy. If they had a dog, which a lot of houses did, then she was especially happy. She adores dogs and loves it when they give her big kisses right on the mouth!! Here are a few pictures from the night. Unfortunately none of them are really great because she wouldn't look at the camera and actually smile. There was just too much going on to pose for a picture I guess.

Don't you love the way William is looking at her in this picture. I'm not sure he quite knew what to do.

Isn't she the cutest little 50's girl you have ever seen!!

Taking a little break

Look at all that candy. Too bad she won't be enjoying most of it. She does, however, love m&m's and reece's cups.

Pictures!!

It's been a while since I've posted anything, so here are a few recent pictures of Mia that are pretty cute.

Mia's first ice cream come at Chick-Fil-A

I found Mia sitting at the computer admiring the cute baby on the monitor.

She LOVES sliding these days. We spent the evening playing at the beach and although this isn't a great picture, it definitely captures her love of the slide. She walks around saying, "I side, I side."

I think she was trying to figure out how she could catch one of the many birds on the beach.
Don't you just love this picture! The two greatest loves of my life, walking off into the sunset. It doesn't get much better than this.

Happy 30th Birthday

It's been awhile since I've given any updates or posted any pictures, so I thought I'd share a little before I head off to bed.

Erik's 30th birthday was Friday. Unfortunately we didn't get to do too much to celebrate. I had been sick all week and still wasn't feeling up to venturing out of the house yet. So, his family came over and we had dinner and cheesecake and key lime pie (which I was sure Erik would be excited about since they are his favorites...apparently he just wanted plain old birthday cake) for dessert. I couldn't pass up the "Over the Hill" candle that I found at Publix. I have been teasing him quite a bit about being OLD now!! No offense to all of you who are in your 30's or older. (I don't really think 30 is old, but don't tell Erik.) I figure I can make fun of him for another year and 2 months before I turn 30 and then 40 will be the new old. He did get to celebrate by heading to Miami this weekend for a fishing trip with his friend Matt. He got all kinds of new fishing gear with the gift cards and cash so hopefully he'll have some success while he's there. Apparently when you hit a big milestone birthday, like 30, you get to buy yourself a NICE gift. He bought himself a new fly rod and reel, which if you're a fisherman/woman, you can appreciate the nice price tag attached. Can't wait until my 30th!!!!

I've also attached some pictures of Mia. She has become quite the monkey as of late. If she can find a way to climb on it, she will! Just the other day, I was in the living room and she wandered into the kitchen. After a few minutes of her being very quiet, I went in to see what she was doing and she was sitting on top of the kitchen table with a very proud grin on her face. She loves the end table, that is her favorite place to be. She loves to climb up there and dive onto the couch. Maybe she'll be a gymnast or an acrobat!! She has also started talking a lot more. She tried to say lots of words, but usually only gets the beginning sound, so it is still really hard to understand anything she is saying. But she will definitely talk your ear off. She loves to pretend everything is a phone and she holds it up to her ear and says, "hewa." I am sure it will only be a matter of months before she's talking up a storm and finally making some sense.

He was thinking about all the fishing gear he was going to buy. It's the only thing that could possibly make him smile so big!

Mia on the end table, playing with the monitor.

Our little "Bucket Head." She likes to put the block bucket on her head and walk around bumping into things. It's pretty funny.

Mia eating blueberry waffles this morning. Don't you love the bedhead?? She refuses to eat anything that she can't eat with a fork. And, it has to be a big person fork, baby forks just won't do.

Tropical Storms and Binkies

Well after one day back to school, we got a day off!! Even Erik had the day off as well. Tropical Storm Fay decided to visit southwest Florida, leaving us a bit drenched. Luckily the storm was minor, although we live in one of the areas that got the worst of the storm. We chose not to put our hurricane shutters up and I'm glad we didn't. They are such a pain! The windows rattled and the lights flickered a few times but luckily we never lost power. There were about 3,000 homes in out area who weren't so lucky. We spent the day at home and never even got out of our pajamas!! What a great day!! Here are some pictures from our lazy day.

Mia having her first bite of an Oreo cookie. Just like her mommy and daddy, she enjoyed them quite a bit!! Good thing we went shopping for some tropical storm treats!!

When she was all finished, there was chocolate everywhere!!




Mia loves to steal things out of her changing table, hence the wipes refill. She also LOVES her princess chair. She carries it all around the house and then has a nice little place to take a rest when she feels the need.

Playing peek-a-boo through the door of her discovery home.

A full day with Daddy is rare, and she definitely enjoyed his company!

Mia is way into the dogs these days. We are so thankful that Sophia will let her climb and love all over her (actually, I'm pretty sure she enjoys the attention). Stewart isn't quite as cooperative, although he is getting better. Here is a cute picture of Mia giving Sophia a big hug.

Another thing Mia LOVES, LOVES, LOVES are her binkies!! I have no idea how in the world we are ever going to break the habit. I'm not too concerned with it yet though. I know some people take them away by the time they turn 1, but I figure I still need my sanity, so I'll wait a while. She normally only has one in the car or in bed, but she managed to steal these out of her crib. Of course, one is not enough, so she has one in her mouth, and 3 in her hands. We keep a gazillion in her bed because she likes to throw them out at night and then wake us up crying because she doesn't have a binky.

Playing peek-a-boo behind the glider (with all 4 binkies of course). By the way, she is missing her shirt because she had pasta for dinner and rather than try to get spaghetti sauce stains out, Gram was smart enough to just ditch the shirt.

1 year pictures

I forgot to add any of Mia's 1 year pictures to the slideshow. So, here are a few of my favorites.

So cute...

Well, I officially head back to work on Monday and I am soooooooo dreading it!! I have had so much fun with Mia this summer that I wish there was some way I could stay home full time. However, since neither Erik or myself make enough money for that to happen, it's back to the classroom for another long year. I was looking back at some of the pictures from this summer and decided that some were definitely blog worthy. Mia has taken a liking to her stuffed animals lately, particularly her ducky, bear, and bunny. She carries tham all around the house and gives them hugs and kisses all day. She especially likes to hand them to Mommy and Daddy for an occassional hug and kiss. Last week Mia discovered her bag of swim diapers in her changing table and decided to get into them. She brought one to me and started whining (I'll be so glad when she can tell me what she wants, right now she assumes whining will get the job done). I couldn't figure out what she wanted, so I treid several different things before finally putting it on over her pajamas. She got the biggest grin on her face and off she went. A few minutes later she came back with another swim diaper, whining again. So, for about 2 hours, until her next diaper change, she walked, no waddled around with 2 swim diapers on. Too cute!!

Here goes....

Okay, I am officially entering the world of the bloggers. I have kept up on several blogs of friends and family and have decided, after much nagging, that it is time to start one of my own. This isn't really my type of thing, but I figure with family and friends far away, it would be nice to give them the opportunity to see pictures of Mia and find out what's new in her little life on a more regular basis. I know some of you post quite frequently; I can't promise that I will be that diligent, but I will do my best to post all of the important and exciting things that we are experiencing down here in Ft. Myers. So, to start, I am just going to add a slide show of pictures (it is super long, but trying to narrow down a year's worth of pictutres was really tough!!!) to catch everybody up on our life since Mia has entered our family and to show you how much she has grown. I can't believe she's already 1!! Click on the slideshow to make the pictures larger.