A quick Birthday Post! More to come...

Mama baked me this pretty cake to smash! It was her first cake decorating, and I think it came it cute and yummy! Note the #1 shape. It's a family tradition. Cousins Tyler, Tori, Ben, Abby & Taylin all had smash caked cooked in that pan.


Mommy blinged out my highchair! It's so pretty for the princess... I love to touch the shimmery skirt!


More baking by mama... she went baking loco! I think it was just the fun decorating part that made her do it. See all the cute little bugs and butterflies on the cake.


These are the cute bumble socks that cousin Nicole knit for me. Aren't they sooo cute!!


Whey are all these people singing to me... I think it scares me a little...


Mom, are you sure it's ok to eat this thing?


Yum... tasty


Auntie Shelli... do you want to try my cake? It's your fave... Cherry Chip!!


I'm gonna get you with my cakey hands!!! Kinda like the cake monster!


Watchout cake... I'm gonna eat you


OK... all full


Present time!



Se my new pretty pretty shoes... I think mom likes them even more than I do. I get so many compliments when I wear them and the best part is that they squeak when I walk!

Almost Birthday Time!

We are in FULL birthday party mode here in Vancouver. Jane has been a busy bee working on decorations, cake ideas, and anything else related to a 1st birthday party. I am fully confident that Sofia will have amazing birthday parties the rest of her life based on what Jane is putting together for her 1st.

We are planning to drive Thursday after work to Eugene. We will work on decorating Friday night and Saturday morning. We hope to finish everything up by midday Saturday. That will allow Jane and Sofia so much needed rest and I can stroll over to Autzen Stadium (QUACK).

We plan to take 1 million photos and hours worth of video. I am joking. But, we do plan to document the occasion and will hope to get it on the blog shortly after Saturday.

Some Weekend Pics!

Hi all,
We've had a great weekend and here are the pictures to prove it!

So all last week, my big plan for Saturday was to find a playground that had baby swings. I figured Sofia would love that. I mean, she loves the wind and what is not to like about a swing. So we hopped in the car and took off to find a playground. We both wondered if playgrounds even had swings anymore. We figured maybe they have become too much of a liability for lawsuits.

Well, we were in luck as park #1 had baby swings. Guess how long Sofia lasted on the swing? Less than 1 minute. It didn't take long to figure out she did not like the swings for right now.

We decided our mission was not over and we went searching for a see-saw, to see if she would like that better than the swing. At park #2, we did not find any see-saws, but there were some swings. And we confirmed Sofia still did not like the baby swing. She did however, enjoy the adult swing, while sitting on Jane's lap.

All in all, it was a great weekend. The grandparents had a good time and brought some nice birthday gifts. The Ducks and Sooners won!! We had a few surprise showings on the house today and Jane got closer to finishing her design for the birthday cupcakes.

A quick hello

We have had two good days with the grandparents from San Francisco. We are hoping for some good weather on Saturday to hit up the playground to find a swing set for Sofia to play on. Sofia had had 2 straight nights out at dinner and been more than fabulous. She was getting a bit anxious tonight, as we had some poor service and was there for quite a while. Overall, she is just a joy to take out. We seem to get compliments all the time of how pretty she is and that is great to hear. She is getting cuter by the day.

The highlight of her day was getting to roam all over my parent's hotel room. She got quite a workout while exploring the entire room. It is funny how a new place can be so interesting and endlessly fascinating. We got a few picture before the camera died.

Birthday Bash

The big day is getting closer. We are moments away from the BIG 1 year birthday.
It is slightly tarnished on year 1, as I have to be gone for her actual birthday on Tuesday October 2nd.

In case you have been wondering, the birthday party plans are being confirmed as I type this.

On Saturday September 29th, we will be having her Eugene party. Jane is already in full party mode. She is working on decorations, cupcake sampling, and different theme ideas.
The following Saturday October 6th, we will have another party in Vancouver with our family and friends there.

So for those of you in the area, we would love to see you at either. It is hard to believe that we only came home 5 months ago and now we are talking about her turning 1.

I can guarantee you will see a good amount of birthday party pics on the blog!

More Costumes and the Weekend Wrapup

We got back yesterday from another 2 night trip to Eugene. We a great time with Linda and Bruce (one set of Sofia's many grandparents), while Sofia kept herself busy watching the 4 crazy dogs play. She was great for each of the 2 hour car rides we had and slept most of the way. It's adds a whole new dimension to travel and is fun to strategize as to when we should leave for a car ride of that length. It worked out well and had each leg of the trip coincide with her nap time.

As I write this, Sofia is "singing" herself to sleep. This singing or moaning is a mixture of baby babbling and high pitched noises humming.

In other news, Mo and Lucille (another set Grandparents) are making their way up from San Francisco this week for a Thursday arrival. They have not seen her since mid July, so that will be a fun time.

Jane got out Sofia's alternate costumes the other day and we had a blast trying them on. She really enjoyed each of them, but I think the princess won out over the cat by a narrow margin, but the witch is still in the lead.


Sofia sitting in her toy bin at Grandma's house!


Sofia in her pincess costume and holding the tiara.


In the car with my cute bow.


All smiles in the princess dress!


I make a really cute kitty... can you see my bow?

Random Pictures

It has been a pretty quiet week for us. Sofia is getting close to walking, but still loves to crawl around. I haven't taken any pictures this week, so I will share a few I got from Jane's camera phone. I'm not sure how many people actually read what I write here, as opposed to just checking out the pictures. But I have been urged to have a bit more text. Sofia is getting larger by the minute as she nears her 1st birthday.

That is the crazy part--SHE IS ALMOST 1 YEAR OLD. We still cannot believe that she is a fe weeks away from smashing her face in cake. I had planned that that would be her 1st taste of real sweet sugar. But that never was going to happen as she has tasted all sorts of sweets over the last few months. That is too fun to feed her new flavors,textures that she has never experienced and see her facial reactions. It does not get old and I'm not sure that it ever will.

She is going to a have a few 1st birthday celebrations starting with 9/22 when her grandparents visit. They will be blown away by how big and mobile she is now. The last time they saw her was mid-July and ALOT has happened since.

Giving grandpa Bruce some love
Killing time on the trip to Eugene


Next to a cranberry bog (don't worry if you don't know what that is)
Up at the office with the girls




SnackTime--the girl likes to eat



Shopping with Mom