Mr. E update

I don't think I've really done an "official" post on some of the mile stones Mr. E has hit. It's crazy to see just how fast these little ones grow up.
Mr. E is growing by the minute. He's hilarious, smart, stubborn, sweet, vocal (without the use of real words), and just melts my heart with all of this little characteristics he's picking up.
He knows how to blow kisses and give kisses (loves), when I say "doh!" he puts his hands over his eyes, when I ask him where his nose is he takes my finger and puts it up to his nose, he loves his blankie, he knows how to do his nightly routine all by himself now, he loves to cuddle stuffed animals, he blows on something if we say "hot", he knocks on a door when he wants it opened, he shakes his head "no" when he doesn't want something, and the list goes on, but it's probably all stuff that no one else really cares about besides his mom :)
 But I just adore this kid. He's so cute and I'm obsessed. And I just have to share his night time (bed time) routine. He goes into his room and grabs his blankie and binki. He then walks over to his daddy, pulls his binki out, and gives daddy a kiss. He puts his binki back in, then waves "nigh nigh" to daddy and heads back to the room. He shuts the door and then waits for me to pick him up to turn off the lights and turn the fan on. It's just the cutest thing. I think I'm really going to miss these little things when he grows up...now for the pictures

 Loving his blankie

 Oh yeah, sometimes I dress him up

 He LOVES bubbles

 His dad must be proud...playing with an old game boy

 A little family hike (that did not last long)

 He went from quickly being happy...

 to terrified ha.

Shirtless, and cuddling one of his favorite stuffed animals

And life would not be complete without a little stop at Pirate O's for some delicious (European) goodies

Happy 4th of July!

What 2 posts in one day? Is that even real? Well, yes. I'm on a roll and don't want to lose my groove, so I may even do a 3rd post? What? I know.

Anyways, our holiday was spent at my parent's condo, at the pool. And it was great. Mr. E loves to swim...well, I take that back. He likes to get in the pool and then get out, and then get back in, and then get out and repeat about 50 times. In between getting out and getting in, he likes to run around and steal all the other kids toys. I'm now that mom that has a kid that just grabs stuff that's not theirs and doesn't do a dang thing about it. In my defense, it's toys that are just laying around and not being played with. So that's not that bad, right?

Happy 4th!

Baby boy is getting down with his bad self

 Cool stick, or wand, or sword, or whatever you want it to be

What happened to June?

Is it really already July? How did that even happen?!

A recap of June. The hubby and his family left for South Africa for 3 weeks...Yes you read that right, THREE WEEKS!!! Baby and I stayed behind because the thought of traveling to another country that involved over 24 hours of traveling sounded like a big ol' head ache and a lot of stress. While my hub was off gallivanting across seas, we headed out west to stay at my parents house. Who happened to also be on the continent of Africa at the same time for 2 weeks. So that awesome. I'll admit this, it was lonely, sucky, and I hated it but I am so grateful and lucky to have an amazing sister-in-law who took us under her wing and played with us practically everyday. Mr. E loved playing with his cousins and actually didn't cry when my brother approached him! He loved being around him, it was super cute. Mr. E was in some serious need of male bonding.
Our adventure back home wasn't too adventurous though. We didn't even make it the beach once...gasp! We did spend time at the pool (well the Crockett's pool) and plenty of time at Target and Trader Joe's. I mean, you can't go wrong spending time there right :)
I was also able to spend time with a few of my best friends. It was great to catch up and act like it was just like old times...only we're older and have babies.
And I totally slacked and barely took any pictures but here's what I did capture, with some help from my talented photographer sister-in-law, Carly.

Not the greatest, but one of the very few pictures I have of us recently

Pool time

 Enjoying his first ice cream cone with his cousins...

little did we know, he would be EVERYWHERE!!

 

 Love, love, love, love, love this one (thanks Carly)

 And I found my most favorite flowers at Trader Joe's and just had to buy them for my mommy

 

Exactly 3 weeks later, the hubbster picked us up from the airport and was so so so excited to see his little man. I'd like to say Mr. E was just as excited but it was hard to tell. He wouldn't look at him for like an hour. It was actually pretty funny, well for me at least :) It was so sweet to see them reunited again. They've become even more best of buds since we've been back.

Thai Peanut Pasta

Check out my latest post over here for a yummy dinner dish!

Almost a quarter of a century

That's right. I am less than a year away from hitting 25. Scary!!! I feel like when I was "younger" time it took forever to turn a new age. Like hitting 16, felt like a century. But now, I'm freaking out a little bit that I am getting older, and I'm going to keep on getting older, and older, and older. Shoot. What can you do? Not much, so I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride.
This post comes a few days late, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm super lazy when it comes to updating. And to be honest, the thing that pushed me to write this was seeing my sisters blog updated almost every week and she has 2 very active kids under the age of 4. So surely I could handle one update a month with just one one year old right?
I guess I should also mention that earlier this month (the 12th), the hubby and I hit our 4 year mark of being married. That's like repeating high school again? 4 years? Man, time is flying by! Next thing I know we'll be celebrating 10,20,30,40,50 maybe even 60 years? Holy crap. At least I get to spend it with a great guy :)
Now back to me getting old. The day started off with me waking myself up at 7:45 and it was awesome. The hubby then took me and Mr.E to get crepes at this cute little crepe restaurant called The Roll Up. And it was so yummy! We'll definitely be going there again...real soon...like maybe right now :) The rest of the day was mellow, I had a friends baby shower to go to and then we went to another fantastic restaurant for dinner, La Jolla Groves. And again, it was super yummy. I gained 2lbs over the weekend so I guess you can look at that as a success or a downfall. Either way, it was great. Great family, great food, great entertainment. Couldn't have asked for a better day.

The Roll Up

Mr.E loves sticking straws in his mouth, and I think it's hilarious. He even got his dad to follow along

And he's learning how to get his groove on. He's quite the head banger

And for dinner...

Mr. E loooooves his food

And for dessert I made this delicious cake, just left off the coconut this time to make it vanilla.

My sweet dad also sent me flowers. He's the greatest!

And a few "non birthday" events, a day at the park with this cute guy

And he's got this new way of walking that is too funny. We call it his zombie walk. He usually walks with his arms straight above his head, but now he'll do that and then flick them in front of him and throw his back (looking like a zombie)

Anyways, getting old is scary, but if I get to celebrate all my years with my great family, I guess it can't be too bad.

Let's have a party

We ended up celebrating Mr.E's birthday a day early because his actual birthday fell on conference weekend. It just made it too complicated to try to do it between sessions, so we had an unofficial/official birthday party on the 30th.
The party turned out great. We had tons of family and friends there to support us which was awesome. We're so grateful to be surrounded by people who love us and our son :)
The menu: tomato soup with mini grilled cheese, pinwheels, fruit, 3 layer coconut cake, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, lemon crinkle cookies and lemonade. Let's just say, my friends and I had a very busy baking day.
All in all, it turned out to be better than expected.
Happy birthday baby boy! We love you very much!
Now prepare for a TON of pictures. They're in no order because I'm too exhausted and lazy to organize them. But hopefully you'll get the gist of it.