Malcolm is 1!

Can you believe that a year ago I was in the hospital awaiting this little man's arrival?  Today we celebrate the best baby known in history.  Here is some of my favorite things about Malcolm:

~He is a good sleeper!  Takes perfect naps and has slept through the night since 9 weeks old!  Seriously I don't really have "Bad Nap Days" with Malcolm.  He is wonderful.

~His kisses!  He like to smother me in kisses.  Mainly me too.  He sometimes gives daddy kisses and occasionally Grandma or Grandpa.  But mainly me.  Even his blowing a kiss is so special. 

~His unbelievable smile.  He is such a happy boy.  He smiles all the time and when out in public he flirts with all the ladies.  People LOVE it.  I love it.  He can brighten your day like THAT! (I just snapped through the computer)

~ His love for his family.  I love how he laughs at Kaylee and loves watching her do pretty much anything.  I also just love his laugh.  I love how he can't decide who he wants holding him sometimes because he just loves everyone so much!

~ How he loves to have something in his mouth at all times.  Whether it is food (which he loves) or a sock he loves to just hold something in his mouth sans hands.  It is hilarious.

Malcolm has brightened up all of our lives and I am SO grateful to have him here.

Somethings Malcolm can do now (I know I haven't written a monthly post in about 3-4 months oops!):

~Say "Up" "Mama" and "Dada"
~Stand by pulling up on something and/or no hands
~Cruise
~Crawl like a mad man
~Laugh
~play with toys usually the right way too.  How they were intended to be played with. examples: Rock on a rocking horse, put a ball in the hole so it can go down all the little tunnels it needs to, shake rattles, honk horns, etc. The boy is a pro!
~Talking about toys, he can throw a ball and then crawls after it and throws it again.  Like I said, Pro.

He is probably pretty close to walking.  But he like to take his time.  He now has 8 teeth the 8th one just came in 2 nights ago.  I can even feel the molars under the gum so that will be happening soon!

Ok now for the pictures! We had a family close friends (might as well be family) party for him May 4th and today May 7th is his actual birthday.  I thought I had more pictures but these will do!

 We made one 3 layer funfetti cake for everyone and one funfetti smash cake for Malcolm.  He LOVED it!

 His Aunt Manda was there!  Also his Uncle Michael was there!! 

 Above: Uncle Bob, Grandpa Connors, and Aunt Claudia!

Below: Aunt Ree, Aunt Claudia and in the way back Grandma Connors and Laurie Smith!

 I was REALLY proud of my decoration picks.  All dollar store and target "dollar section!  I have better pictures I will hopefully post later! I also got red, white and green streamers put up (like the Mexican flag)  His party was cinco de Mayo themed since his birthday is so close to the 5th of May. :-)

 Birthday DAY!!  I made him a birthday beakfast of Birthday chocolate chip pancakes because he is just that awesome!!  He was happy and I washed off all the choclatey goodness off his belly, legs, arms, and face later!  :-)

And here are some fun videos of his party.  Ignore the fact that I had no clue my undershirt was falling out of the sleeves on my shirt.  Yes I pointed it out and thus will be noticed but I had to let you know it was totally not what I though was going on.  I was going for festive not sloppy boppy.  lol

Life. is. Good.

Still working on a few more posts.  Need to add pictures and stuff.  But I thought I'd write a general this is how we are doing post.

Kaylee at Mast Park

Mom and Malcolm at Mast Park

Kevin is doing great.  I am so proud of him.  Right now he is working at his new job in downtown San Diego!!  He has been there for a few months now.  He loves it and we hope that they officially hire him on as an employee instead of a contractor (temp) soon.  Our insurance sucks but it is insurance which I am grateful to have!  Not having insurance is horible.  He taught a class at my cousin's music school last session and he did SUCH a good job.  It is an advanced vocal class.  He has some really tallented people in it.  He will be teaching next session too.  He also helps out with the choir there where I help on piano.  He misses his family (as do I) but he loves it here.

Kaylee and Malcolm are hilarious.  Sometimes annoyingly so.  Malcolm loves the word "Up" so much that he says it randomly and a lot of the time. So we get comversations like this.

(In the morning when they wake up Malcolm still in his crib)

Malcolm: Up

Kaylee: Don't say up! (Oh yea did I mention that she gets jealous of Malcolm saying up?  Yea that is why it is all hilarious)

Malcolm: Up Up Up

Kaylee: Malcolm!  You DON'T say Up to my bed!  You don't get my bed this is my bed!

Malcolm: Up!

HAHA or while sitting at the table eating lunch or dinner or breakfast or anytime they are sitting at the table-

Malcolm: Up!

Kaylee: Malcolm!  You DON'T say up to my food!  Don't get my food!  This is MY food!

So we are trying to get her to say "Down"  when Malcolm says "Up"  so it is more like a game.  It is also a ton better but it is slightly hilarious.  I have to get after he though and hide my smile as yelling at your brother for something he can't do and isn't doing is totally inappropriate.  Another similar thing she does is this:

Malcolm : Ba Bla Ba Bla

Kaylee: You don't say Ba Bla Ba Bla to my food!

Like what?!  Where is she getting this? 

It's funny.  Something to remember and bring up in the teenage years to embarrass her. 

I'm doing good.  I love teaching piano to my students at Staump Music school.  Just being a part of that place makes me happy.  I also love being a mom and doing fun things in this beautiful city with wonderful weather most of the time.  My parents got us Sea World passes for Kevin's birthday which is SO cool.  I have got at least once a week ever since we got the passes.  We also used the passes to get a huge discount on a season pass to aquatica the Sea World water park that opens this summer.  It used to be Knott's Soak city so we are excited to use those and go VERY often.  There are fun parks that I have discovered and re discovered.  I love going to the many malls here to walk and shop.  Life. is. Good. :-)

Meeting Great Grandma Burroughs

In February (see I told you I'm behind!) we had the oportunity to go visit Kevin's grandma and introduce Malcolm to Great Grandma Burroughs.  It was SO fun and she is seriously one of the best ladies ever!  Both of the kids loved her. I think it is safe to say she loved our kids too.  We want to go back really soon.  She only lives about 3 hours away from us.  It is definately one of the reasons we moved out west.  It was cool because Kevin's Uncle Jim was there as wel so we got to get to know him better too.  Now, I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

 Grandma feeding Malcolm Cheerios!

 Grandma taught us this yummy trick while we are there.  You stick a candy cane (blueberry in this case) into a lemon and suck the lemon juice through the candy cane.  YUMMY!!!

 Uncle Jim!!

We're still here!

I haven't posted in awhile!  But I am going to start updating you with some posts soon!  We have been really sick this month and so I have been dedicated to my little babes and getting ourselves all healthy.  But it is time to get everyone back up to date with us.  So sorry!!

Some quick news, in case I haven't said it before I have 2 nephews are on the way SOON!  My brother in law Allen and his beautiful wife Britany are expecting a son next month and my brother in law Rodney and his beautiful wife are expecting a son sometime in the next 10 weeks!!  I'm so excited but I also wish I could go see them both in the hospital and meet them.  It is so fun to see my nieces and nephews grow up and I am excited to get more! My family rocks.

Claudia and Julio got engaged!

Being that my sister has been my best friend since BIRTH, I have long awaited this day!  December 23rd Julio proposed to my sister Claudia!  Seriously, so awesome.

I'm already loving every bit I get to help with the wedding!  Here is how i described the day on their website (I may embelish later):

Julio set up a romatic date at a hotel right by La Jolla Cove.  After arriving at their beautiful room, Julio told Claudia he had to do an errand before they went on a walk on the beach.  Not long after a knock came at the door.  Claudia opened it and found her brother in law Kevin with a ballon and the first line of the song "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney.  One of Claudia's favorite songs.  (Claudia had no clue what Julio was up to UNTIL she saw Kevin with the balloon and sign).  Kevin then led her to the next person her sister Cindy with her neice and nephew with balloons and signs.  Claudia was led from person to person both from her own life and Julio's life all with a balloon and a sign with the next lyric to the song.  The end of the line was her parents who gave her more balloons and lyrics.  Then they helped her over a small wall onto a small cliff overlooking the ocean.  The group of loved ones then starting singing the first verse of the song.  Julio then walked out through the group of people over the wall to the Claudia who was now holding a LOT of balloons, holding a sign that read: "WIll you be my Ellie? (Hint: Will you marry me?)" Claudia of course said "YES!" and there were many hugs and kisses!  Julio dropped to his knee and gave her the ring.  More hugs and kisses.  Everyone cheered and are so excited for the two love birds!

 

I am so excited to help with the wedding! So far it has been amazing and it just gets better! I love my sister and her future hubby!!

 

 

Charlie and Andrea's Wedding

So my little brother got married December 22nd, 2012!  Can you believe it?  That little middle schooler I left behind when I graduated High School somehow is married.  Is that legal?  I guess because it happened.  :-)  Charlie was married to his love Andrea in the morning at the San Diego temple.  It was a beautiful temple marriage and there was some people squirting some tears.  Kaylee was so cute as flower girl.  The curls only last half the day but she has curly hair with a cute sparkle headband and a handmade pink dress (made by my mom).  The dress is absolutley gorgeous!

Talking about dresses, Andrea looked beautiful too!  We are happy that she makes Charlie so happy and we are excited that she is in our family now!

The luncheon I would have to say was delish.  I made the soup and the pasta salad.  The sandwhiches were from the Grinder which was yummy.

The reception was also very beautiful.  THe dinner was yummy, the decorations were beautiful (handmade by the couple), the cake was both yummy and pretty, and it was just very fun.  :-)

Congrats to you both Charlie and Andrea!  I hope you guys find marriage to be a wonderful and happy adventure!

8 Months

Our Malcolm boy is 8 months old now!  He is moving around SO much now.  It is crazy the differences in Kaylee in Malcolm and when they hit milestones and what comes first!  Malcolm has 2 teeth now!  Talking about teeth, he is now switched to formula feeding.  My milk supply plummeted and he was just not interested in helping me get it back.  Plus he bites.  :-/  Good news though, we are approved for WIC so it won't be as expensive as it would be otherwise.  Malcolm says "Mama!"  He doesn't refer to ME as mama yet but hey, Kaylee said "Dada" first so this is a wonderful surprise!  He can basically crawl.  I mean he is close enough.  Army crawling, rocking back in forth in the crawling position and he often does yoga/downward facing dog!  HAHA  he remembers the move from the womb I guess when I did all that prenatal yoga.  :-)  I swear he actually crawls now and then.  But he is very mobile and we kind of love it.

Kaylee loves Malcolm.  To the point where she is super anxious to actually rough house and wrestle NOW.  I have to remind her all the time to be gentle.  She especially wants to give him higs and kisses all the time and declare, "I LOVE MALCOLM!" or Mal Mal.  It's cute but dangerous.  Like her personality!  Dangerously cute.

Oh!  When we went to see if we qualify for WIC they weighed Malcolm!!  He is 18lbs 8oz and __ in tall.  So he is ok.  Healthy as he should be. Also the thrush is gone.  Thankfully!

Another difference I notice in Malcolm vs. Kaylee is Malcolm just started eating a finger food.  Those baby puffs in the baby isle.  He is starting to like them more and more.  I only give him a few here and there to try.  Kaylee started eating finger food at 7 months and I believe around 8-9 months was fed almost exclusively finger food rather than purees.  Malcolm is still loving on the purees which is great.  He isn't ready for anything more than what I have given to him.  It also probably has to do with the fact that he got his teeth almost a month after Kaylee did.

We are so grateful to have this little man in our life.  His smiley face brings joy to everyone he sees.  :-)