Hollyn is Twelve Months (AKA 1 YEAR) Today!!!

Hollyn is ONE YEAR old today!!! {July 19, 2012} (Late post as usual... or at least my new usual!)

Let's see what you've been up to...

At your one year check up you weighed 19.7lbs, were 30in longs, and your head was 43cm around.

You sign so much! The video is of you signing for milk but you also sign eat, help, all done, more, please and you blow kisses and do prayer hands (melts my heart).

You love to drink big peoples drinks.

A little Jamba Juice with Aunt Kristy

We celebrated your first 4th of July at the Boyds house with our friends (unfortunately, this is the best pic I got).

You started saying "there it is!" You actually look for your toys in different places and when you find what you are looking for you exclaim "there it is!" Crack us up! (Aunt Kristy got this video of you repeating her) You also say "Here you go" and you started saying cracker but it has evolved into "ba-ba."

We celebrated Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a with our friends (and free food ;)

The calves

Your friend, Harrison, had a cow that you desperately wanted (not to mention the torture of the bazillion cows hanging from the ceiling, so Aunt Kristy bought you your own :)

 

Mommy and her moo cow

You love to run around in your walker and you loved to be chased! (You also started cruising along the furniture this month).

We threw you a frill-tastic first birthday party! (A blog post to come soon)

I edited the last line of the invite in order to not share my personal info so it doesn't look perfect but the original is perfect. I ordered Hollyn's invites from the sweetpeababy Etsy shop and had the best experience! I would highly recommend this shop :)

Your first reaction to your cake! "Hands only slow me down."

Presents!!!

You like to "smell" things. Technically, you do more of a blowing action but so cute!

Aunt Kristy let you ride on the mechanical horse at Babies R Us. You loved it! This video if actually of your second ride, after you refused to get off, lol!

A couple days before your actual birthday we took a special trip to the Galleria with Aunt Kristy to spend some birthday money at The Disney Store. The sweet lady at The Disney Store gave you a "fireworks show" and had everyone sing you Happy Birthday!

You and your new Disney princesses.

On your actual birthday we enjoyed a lunch with our besties at La Brisa.

Who doesn't love a good Mexican restaurant chip?!?!

The best part??? Free ice cream!

Yummm!

For dinner, we had chicken spaghetti with the family.

"Hmm... what is this messy stuff???"

"Tastes pretty good."

"Mmm! Really good!"

"And fun to wear!"

 After dinner (and a little banana pudding for dessert) it was time for presents!

Opening presents is hard work.

A giant bucket full of Little People! (Including the dollhouse and farm)

A Hollyn-sized chair

Perfect fit!

You got an Aquadoodle with some of your birthday money and you like to draw. You learned to say "circle" while I was trying to teach you to draw one.

Your first piece of art!

To my absolutely beautiful one year old princess, it is so hard to believe you are a whole YEAR old! As difficult as it is to watch you transform from a baby to a toddler, it has also been ridiculously fun and rewarding! Just when I think you couldn't be more fun you prove me wrong! You are a miracle and the most amazing blessing! Your Daddy and I love you with all of our hearts and have thoroughly enjoyed watching you grow this year!

Out-takes! (Do you know how hard it is to get a one year old NOT to grab the sign???)

Now, just look at the camera...

Almost! Just move your hand...

Ok Dad, hold the toy behind the camera lady ;)

Ah! Finally :)

First Family Vaca - Destin, FL

(A really late post about our trip to Destin)

We decided to take our first family vacation to Destin, Florida to visit our good friend, Robbie and enjoy some beautiful clear water and white sand. Now, to be completely honest, I'm not the biggest fan of vacations *gasp*... yes, I know, I am weird. There's just something about preparing for them that tends to stress me out. Since my hubby LOVES vacations, we've definitely taken quite a few and I had become a better vacationer. But after having Hollyn the idea of a vacation REALLY started to freak me out! What if she doesn't do well? What if I forget something important? What if...? What if...? What if...? So somehow I had managed no vacations for the first 11 months of Hollyn's life. And considering the craziness that was our life before Hollyn, it had been almost 2 years since our last vacation and, well, Jeff NEEDED a vacay!

Because my hubby is CRAZY sporadic (opposites attract???) He upped our leaving date by a couple of days (decided the day of!). So we loaded up the car and headed to Destin! We left pretty late at night so Hollyn would be asleep for most of the time. Since it was so late we ended up stopping a little over half way at a hotel just to catch some sleep. (Of course the transition woke Hollyn up and it took her a couple of hours to calm down and go back to sleep so I'm pretty sure I got like 4 hours of sleep! Ha!) Anyways, we hit up the continental breakfast in the morning and then we were back on the road.

Kisses from Baton Rouge!

A few hours later we were there!

Eating dinner with Uncle Robbie at the Fishermen's Warf

The next day we headed to the beach.

Absolutely beautiful!

Ahhhh!

A little fun in the sand.

The boys snorkeling.

Doesn't it look like I'm standing in a pool or something??? Amazing!

We had a delicious dinner at The Boathouse. Not a bad view either.

We ate the best hush puppies I've ever had in my life... dipped in strawberry butter! It is making my mouth water just thinking about them!

Smooches for Daddy!

The next day we went shopping at an outlet mall but Jeff had the start of a nasty cold so we ended up at a little clinic to try to get some quick meds in his system so he wasn't miserable the rest of the trip.

Apparently Hollyn has been watching Mommy too much!

In the evening we went on a sunset dolphin tour! It was one of the funnest things we did on the trip!

We probably saw hundreds of dolphins! The tour guides said that it was the best they had seen! The dolphins would surf the waves and then jump over them. So stinkin' cool!

That speck is a dolphin fin.

It was really hard to capture a good picture with the camera we were using so you'll have to take my word for it.

The next day we took Hollyn to the Gulfarium to see all the sea animals.

watching the dolphin show under water

Checking out the seals with Daddy.

Looking at the sting rays with Uncle Robbie.

That afternoon we went for a swim in the bay. (Not as pretty as the beach but no waves so Hollyn was able to swim better).

And she sure loved swimming! I love to watch those little frog legs go!

Hollyn had her first taste of a snow cone... wedding cake flavor... of course she loved it!

Hollyn discovered how fun it is to ride on Daddy's shoulders.

The last meal we ate before leaving was at Tucker Dukes and Jeff and Robbie both got this burger... and yes, it is sandwiched between two grilled cheeses! Heart attack on a plate! But their food was AMAZING!

After stuffing our faces, we said good-bye to our good friend and beautiful Destin and headed home. I'm so thankful for this family vacation! We made memories that will last a life time!