Thursday, March 25, 2010

Avery Island

Do you know where Avery Island is? Well I will be the first to admit that a week ago I didn't. But I am happy to report that it is located in Louisiana. Do you know what is made and manufactured in Avery Island, LA? I will give you a hint...
Yep that is right Tabasco sauce is made in Louisiana. If you had asked me where I thought Tabasco sauce was made I would have said Mexico. But wow I was off. While we were in Louisiana for a wedding we had a day to do some touristy stuff so we went on the Tabasco factory tour. It was free, it was short, it was perfect!
These are the rejects that didn't get labeled properly.
Lenna had a fun time just watching the people.Look at all those tiny bottles!
The workers liked Lenna they kept smiling and waving to her and she smiled and waved back.
Jared thought this was funny that there was an opera about Tabasco or something like that.
We all thought it was awesome that to make Tabasco sauce it has to cure for 3 years. They use old Jack Daniel wooden barrels to do that curing.
Here we all are at the Tabasco plant.
Lenna enjoyed playing with the spoon while we enjoyed the Tabasco samples of Hot and Spicy ice cream, chili, and all the different types of Tabasco.
It was a great adventure to start off our vacation!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Lenna Turns 1

I had to do some editing on the picture above not on my normal photo editing computer so I lost the wild font I was using, but the O.N.E. pictures are what we used on her birthday party invitations. They turned out really nice.

Lenna was a very happy girl for her birthday. I think she loved the attention! Her G. Princess got her a onesie that said 'Birthday Girl' on it and that was her attire for the day.
We placed her high chair where our piano normally goes and she thought it was super cool to be somewhere new. We also got her 2 balloons. Growing up my mom always got us balloons for our birthdays so I want to continue this tradition with Lenna. So she got 1 balloon for turning one and an extra one to grow on.
Hank our watch dinosaur wanted to wish Lenna Happy Birthday too! He is such a good watch dino!
Lenna was just so happy and busy the whole day but I am glad we got a few pictures of her all dolled up for church.
We had a very small party for Lenna. Our house is not large and the weather in March is not predictable enough to have an party outside so we kept it at you either had to see Lenna once a week out side of normally planned events like church and play group, or you had to ask me about Lenna more than once a week via email or phone. The later was so that my parents would fit the requirements =)

We had Hawaiian haystacks. And you can see Lenna's awesome cake in the middle.
We made rolls which were loved by the adults all the way down to the littlest guest. Leah loved it so much she shoved the whole roll in her mouth. What a silly cute girl she is!
Our numbers were a little smaller than planned since colds were going around, but I think everyone who came had a great time.
Lenna loved having a huge cake to herself.
She was however very unsure how to get it to her mouth since it was larger than the normal cupcakes we had given her all week long.
But luckily for her she has an awesome dad who helped her get chunks so she could enjoy the sweet treat.
YUMMY!
Everyone else got 'wild thing' cupcakes.
Another awesome shot of Lenna and her cake. If she could have figured out how to put the whole thing in her mouth she totally would have.
Then she got to open presents. I think the older kids were more excited about this then Lenna. But she got so really cool toys from two bubble makers (she is going to be the coolest kid this summer with a pool and two bubble makers), a pretty purple purse to learn to be girly, a fun book, a pink car that is like the car she rides in, and tons of other fun things. What a spoiled little girl we have. Thank you to all the friends and family who sent up gifts. You are all so thoughtful!
She loved the other balloons that were for her friends to take home.
We gave her sunglasses.
And a ball popper. Lenna is actually kind of afraid of the ball popper. Jen I had to put this picture up because you look SOOO excited hopefully you don't mind ;)
The classic Leah and Lenna and their daddy's. I think our camera had dust on it because I keep getting little speckle on pictures.
Later after everyone left we opened G. Princess and G. Stud's gift. Lenna loves her new rattles and toys.
Overall it was a great day and we are glad some of Lenna's closest friends could come celebrate with her. I still can't believe she is 1. The last few weeks I have kind of thought about things I have learned every month. So for your reading pleasure or for a good laugh here is my month to month list.

Month 1 - I was so sleep deprived and my body was in so much pain from such a quick labor that all I knew was that Lenna was always hungry and often fussy. I was afraid to go out in public because I couldn't comforter her because I couldn't even really hold her with out my body hurting.

Month 2 - Lenna learned to roll over at 6 weeks and started smiling. I started to adjust to being a mom, and Lenna started to learn how to spit up like no one's business.

Month 3 - We figured out if we put Lenna to bed way early she slept really well and we started to get more sleep. She still spit up a ton!

Month 4 - I got use to the idea that I had a fussy kid that liked to whine and had an attitude. I learned to just deal with it. We got an excersaucer and when Lenna was awake she lived in that thing. She loved it!

Month 5 - More excersaucer and more spit up. We moved her to rice cereal. That didn't stop the spitting up but she was learning to eat solids.

Month 6 - Lenna's first trip to Disneyland. She loved it. Oh and Lenna's hair was still standing straight up at this point in time. I learned that Lenna really loves people and really loves to be out and about.

Month 7- Lenna learned to sit up all on her own. She was eating cheerios like a pro. She still spit up.

Month 8 - Lenna tried and tried to crawl but just couldn't figure it out. She was still spitting up but her personality was coming out.

Month 9 - Lenna learned to crawl. She got good at it really fast.

Month 10 - I think this is when Lenna started to slow down in spitting up THANKFULLY! I can not tell you how much I appreciate not having to carry around bibs and burp clothes all the time.

Month 11 - She was crawling super fast and cruising along furniture while standing. She can clap and blow kisses and wave. She still loves people and loves to watch them.

Month 12 and on I can't wait to see what life brings and what kind of young lady she will become as she grows up. I know this year went by so fast and I am sure it will be the same for every year from here on out.

Happy 1st birthday Lenna Jean. We love you -Mom and Dad

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The Sculpture Park

The Saturday while G. Princess was in town was a big preparation day for Lenna's birthday. But since it wasn't raining we needed to have some fun too. So we headed downtown to the sculpture park. It was really windy down by the water and Lenna didn't like the wind in her face.
But she enjoyed having grandma time!
I also tried to get her 1 year pictures with her chair, but Lenna didn't want to sit still.
She thought the rocks on the path were much more exciting then staying seated in her chair and smiling for me.We tried to lure her into being happy by giving her things out of grandma Princess' purse but that didn't work. In having her sit still. We also tried to get a picture with Lenna at the Space Needle. Lenna tried to dive off one end of her chair.

And then the other end of her chair.Needle(ss) to say you are seeing the best pictures. (ha-ha)She is just one to busy of a girl to sit still. We love her anyway. She is getting so grown up. She is now 100% on whole milk we have finished with bottles completely and they are all packed away now. We also gave her a pillow for her crib. She sometimes loves the pillow and sometimes wants nothing to do with it. Next up on blog posts is Lenna's 1st birthday stay tuned!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Cherry Blossoms

Grandma Princess came to town this weekend to celebrate Lenna's 1st birthday. We did so many fun things this weekend and the days flew by so fast I can't believe it is already Monday night. The day Grandma Princess arrived she read books to Lenna and Lenna LOVED it! She was not afraid of G. Princess at all.
The next day we headed up north to go to the Bunnies by the Bay store. Lenna enjoyed looking at all the stuff in the store, but was more excited to have lunch since she was hungry! Notice the pig tails. Oh she looks so grown up with pig tails.After coming back down to Seattle we headed to the Baby Legs warehouse sale. We got a ton of baby legs all for under 3 bucks a pair! Lenna will never have cold legs or arm again and I am excited to be able to keep a pair in the diaper bag in case she ever needs them. It was really hard to find the Baby Legs head quarters and we had to do a few turns around the block but we were excited to find it and it was near the water.
After doing some more house hunting we headed to UW to check out the cherry blossoms. They were in full bloom and beautiful. It was so nostalgic walking into the Quad. I remember finals weeks and loving the blossoms, and giving tours in the quad with my student job, and taking engagement pictures all in this beautiful spot. I am so glad I got to go to school at UW I just loved it. So finally Lenna got her turn to see the blossoms and she had a great time.










More to come about Lenna's 1st birthday weekend but right now I gotta get some chores done that I have been neglecting.