Happy Birthday Dear Molly

I wanted to post about all the activities and people we've seen in the last month but I just couldn't get around to it and didn't want to put off sharing Molly's birthday any longer...Molly turned 1 year old on September 17th. We did her 1 year dr's appt. early so that we could do it with our dr. in Kirkland, WA...her stats: 19lbs 6 oz (25th percentile), 29 inches long (75th percentile). So long and lean. She's got so much personality right now....I love this age for that reason, their personalities start to pop! We're DONE nursing, thank the lord for that!! So she has become a little less clingy to me, just a little though. When she's hungry, she crawls to her highchair and tries to climb in. She follows big brother, everywhere and always has to do what he's doing. She loves to be outside, we have to be careful leaving the backdoor open, cause she'll be out there in no time. She climbs the slide, but still needs help getting down and LOVES the radio flyer wagon, she climbs in and out and likes to be pulled around. She goes up and down the stairs, we taught her to turn around and slide down the stairs on her tummy. She does this with anything she has to climb down or out of. She's such a fast learner, show her how to do something once and she's got it. And my goodness, she's FINALLY got teeth, only 2 and a 1/2 though. :-) The first came at 11 months, the second at 11 1/2 and the third just a day or two ago. But none of them are fully in yet, so if you put the three together, they might equal one tooth, so helarious. She's not walking yet, but loves to pull herself up to trucks/wagons/strollers and push them along, she gets stuck pretty often though b/c she can't turn yet. She's still just the happiest, smileyest girl out there. We've got a ton of nicknames for her: Molly Sofia, Molleroo, Mol (Wills favorite), Sissy, Missy (my favorite) and of course Punkin. Happy Birthday, Punkin!Here's to sharing her big day with all of you!!! There's a ton of pictures so I will let them do most of the talking.
HUGE hugs and kisses to my mom for flying down to see us just to spend Molly's birthday with her...even though she'd just been here a week earlier. We love you, Mom, thanks for loving your grandkids so much!

I found these awesome yard stakes at a boutique store in Gig Harbor while shopping with my step-mom, Karen. Thanks for taking me, Karen, we are sooo going back to that store! :-)

This was our dry run with Molly's hat to see if she would wear it...it's a go!

Mommy, Daddy and Molly in her birthday outfit, a pink tutu and a shirt that says, "I'm the birthday girl, now gimme some cake."

Molly loves her brother's "shaker" cars, she actually giggles when they rev-up, so I found a pink one for her!

This was pretty much how present opening went, Will starting and Molly saying, "hey, give me that!"

Our sweet sweet Sissy.

So, we also got Molly a pink "Toddler Tunes" car, and we hid it from Will b/c we knew he would go ba-serk for it if he saw it...well, he and Grandma were playing in the garage and let's just say the cat was let out of the bag. So Will was DYING to drive this thing to Molly as her "one more present." Here he is coming out of our not so good hiding spot.

And comin' around the corner, here he comes.

Will was soooo excited about this car, he's about to lift her in himself!

I LOVE this picture, Will is saying, "TA-DA!"

Gimme some of that cake!!

Giving Daddy a yummy cake kiss.

Aaahhh...this is the life.

(Notice Will has conviscated the car already. :-)) Happy Birthday Molly!

We've been here a week!

So we've officially been Californians for a week...so I thought I should give everyone a little update on how we are doing...I don't have any pictures uploaded on my computer yet, but I will get to that soon. My mom, me, Will and Molly flew down to our new house last Sunday (a week ago) after my brother's wedding (stay tuned for pics, simple and beautiful!). We walked in to the house and there were boxes everywhere! EVERYWHERE! Our bedroom closet and bathtub were full of boxes, the kitchen wasn't even usable b/c it was piled with boxes. THANK GOODNESS my mom came with me...she helped me soooooo much, I would never be as settled as we are (and we are NOT that settled) if it weren't for all her unpacking and organizing help. And she was such a trooper, she worked her little butt off....on her birthday!!! I'm such a great daughter, here Mom, here's 300 hundred boxes, unpack 'em will you? :-) And yes it was 300, 397 actually. The movers have to use little stickers to keep track of it all, not all of it was boxes of course, but there were still, hundreds. Now a week later, we can get to our kitchen, we can even walk in our closet, and our bathroom. Although the bathroom still has two boxes in it...and we can even use the tub...I did, last night. I really really needed some quiet down time, it was very nice. Our living room is good and the front room is unpacked, but I can't stand it, it looks like a flea market. See we have 1200 less square feet, including no play room. So all the furniture that doesn't fit somewhere, goes in the front room...with all, ALL the toys. I hate the front room. But I've decided I LOVE the backyard, although it is much much smaller than our last yard, I love it. It's quaint and cozy and pretty and relaxing. I love sitting on the patio watching and listening to the water fountain. Our neighborhood is wonderful. We have met sooooo many people, many many more than we ever met in the 5 years we lived in Snohomish. Lots of young kids. We've been swimming, to one park and to the beach. Will was very excited to fly his airplane kite from Papa and Nana.
I think the hardest part is remembering that "normal life" HAS to go on for the kids, they still need breakfast, play time, nap time, lunch, play time, nap time, well you get. They still need to do their "thing." So you can't just unpack, unpack, unpack...b/c as soon as you open a box, one of them needs something and the box is forgotten about. I am proud of us that our house actually looks somewhat like a house, I have a dr's appt set for Molly's one year AND we're going to visit 2 preschools for Will...oh, and I've actually managed to plan a little something for Molly's birthday, nothing like I'm used to, but I'm happy she'll at least have a cake. :-)
No matter how wonderful it may be here, or how busy, or exhausted I am trying to get moved in, I think about all of you every day...and miss you!! It will take us a long time to get used to not seeing all of our friends and family on a daily basis.