I was completely surprised by a knock on the door and the delivery of a beautiful bouquet of pink roses!

The very next Sunday was Mother’s day in the states! We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Olive Garden with GG to celebrate her and myself (again!).

Daddy and Annelise picked out some beautiful figurines of Mother’s with their babes from Willow Tree to add to my collection.
Although, spending the whole weekend with my family couldn’t have been a better gift! I’m so grateful to have been given the chance to become a Mommy and being Annelise’s Mommy is for sure the best thing I’ve ever done! Happy Mother’s Day!!

Grandpa and G-mom at the first outlook!

A little windy, but we didn’t blow away! Our family.

We were on the lookout for fossils and found a rock full!

In case you were wondering our exact coordinates…thank you, Daddy.

Me and my girl. This might be one of the last times she is carried like this…it doesn’t happen often, but she’s getting heavy (20lbs)!

My self portrait of my family…gotta love em!

Daddy blazed the trail for us all!

We made it down by the river and walked riverside for awhile.

Until we stumbled upon a butterfly garden along this pathway!

We waited patiently until…

Butterflies were everywhere!

It was beautiful, peaceful and just plain lovely. Butterflies are a sign of new life, perfect for all the changes going on in our families (job changes, marriages, retirement and moving countries-phew!)

There was a small patch of bluebonnets near the parking lot, but it was wide spread and didn’t come out too well in the pictures. I just couldn’t let the Grandparents get away without bluebonnet pics with their Texas grandbaby!

Annelise and her Grandparents!

Annelise played with some wildflowers!

She seemed to enjoy! Or was simply humoring her Mommy for a picture!

Our “happy” little family! hehe

Here is what my sweet girl normally looks like! Having fun playing with her Daddy!

It was pretty bright, so Abuelo lent Annelise his sunglasses…

Oops, no worries, Abuelo has you covered!

The ladies waited in the shade while the men went to pick up the cars. It just so happened there were bluebonnets right there! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for pics with my little Texan girl in the bluebonnets!

Abuela jumping in for a pic, too!

And Tia Leslie! hehe, Annelise looked like she was losing patience for picture taking…

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to hike on any trails. We love the outdoors and need to make more time to enjoy and appreciate the beauty that is so close by (at least, until summer creeps up…)!

Me and my girl. Ask for a kiss and this is what I get. I love it.

My girl and her Daddy. She loves her Daddy.

Getting kisses from her bff Chloe!

Then she had to get approval on her outfit, Mommy-made cupcake!

She welcomed her Tios Javier and Amy!

Some wonderful friends, Mr (HT1) and Mrs Tewes! We were so glad to see you guys! Extra points if you find me…

We are lucky to be surrounded by so much family! Grandparents, great Grandma and great Aunt Wanda and Uncle Joe! Our party of mostly adults humored me and Annelise by wearing our first birthday hats! What’s a kids party without hats?!

And more family, Abuelos, Bisabuelo and primos Arturo, Yoyis, Arturito and Mariana! This room was the welcoming room fitted with hats, wait, where are your birthday hats?!? Annelise’s baby book was filled out for everyone to read and the picture frame with her newborn, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 12 month pics to show her growth!

Then Annelise saw Jackie and had to get some cuddles!! Too sweet!

Chloe had a super special present for Annelise and helped her open it. Annelise [and Daddy] thought it was pretty cool!

Annelise is set with all the perfect crafting things her little heart could desire!!

We are so glad you guys could make it, Racsa family! We love you all!!

Cake time…and she’s ready for her smash cake!

This little girl is a ham…

Here’s why…all eyes on her!

And more eyes, lucky little girl!

And more eyes…

So she enjoyed being sung Happy Birthday to!!

Uh, Mom, are you sure about this?

I mean, are you really sure?

She had a little help blowing out the one candle, because I’m pretty sure she had other plans for the pretty little light…

She wasn’t too interested in eating the cake, so I tried to spark her interest.

That didn’t seem to work, so her Daddy tried his hand in it…

That’s a little better, but my sweet baby girl is definitely a girly girl. She does not like being messy. She would take chunks from my hand to eat.

And then her icing covered hands met the hair bow…and the fun was over pretty quickly…

She was willing to explore the smash cake on her own terms, in little pinches!

What is this stuff?!

What a lucky, loved little girl we have! Hiram and I both had our cupcakes on, to go with the theme, his a badge and mine a cupcake and pearl necklace made by yours truly!

She was spoiled rotten by her family and friends! We can’t thank you all enough!

This just might be her favorite birthday gift…she loves this baby-maybe its recognizing that she has a face, or the paci. She loves to give this baby hugs and kisses!

She also likes to steal the pacifier…

Annelise noticed her primo Arturo taking pics and wanted to make sure everything was going ok…so she took a few, or about ten, by herself…of herself.

Here is almost our whole group! We love you all!! Thank you for helping us celebrate our sweet little girl on her first birthday! Annelise had a wonderful evening filled with family, friends and total fun! (Note her birthday banner in the background, loved it! Couldn’t have done it without Annelise’s Tias Amy and Leslie!!)

Lip gloss changes everything! Annelise is in the stage where imitation is so much fun!

Annelise’s birthday party was planned for a week after her actual birthday so all grandparents could attend! But she had received a few presents in the mail from Aunts, Uncles and Great Aunts and Uncles. We set these all out, including a gift from us.

Her Uncle David sent a Korean style first birthday gift. It included things from different areas of occupation; an infant first aid kit signifying health care, a bathtub basketball hoop signifying sports, a toy car signifying travel, coloring pencils signifying artistic and a baby doll for good measure! In Korea, whichever toy the child is drawn to first implys what she will become as an adult. I am proud to say she went for the first aid kit first! Go healthcare!

She still does her “ooh” face. Its super cute and looks like she is so interested in what she is doing! Even if its looking at the backside of her new puzzle!

We got her bathtime books, playtime books and finally filled out her baby book. Its hard to believe we haven’t had time to put anything in her baby book yet, but I think it will be a tradition for our kiddos’ first birthdays to make sure that baby book is filled out. Such a great memory keeper.

And as that last picture hinted, we were heading out to the zoo!! Annelise had been before for a playdate, but was too young and didn’t really care to look at animals. Now that she’s a bit older, she seemed to really enjoy looking at the animals. She also loved looking at all the other kids. She will wave at any and every kid that we pass, no matter where we are. No worries, plenty of adults get waves, too. We say hi to people almost everywhere we are. I love to encourage this, its really sweet and we seem to make friends where ever we are!

(We did stop for a quick photo shoot before going to the zoo, but I’m saving those pics for their own post…)

Its important to be prepared for a day in the sun. Sunscreen and sunglasses are a must, even if they don’t last long!

It was a little hard to see the animals from so low in the stroller…

We saw deer.

And lots of fish!

Ooohh!

My pretty girl.

She [gently] pet her first snake.

The turtles didn’t move fast enough for Annelise to really take notice. I tried.

So we had her ride on one…

Love my girl.

Of course, we could not pass up a photo opp.

She found a kangaroo, hopefully we will get to visit Uncle Daniel down under and see a real one up close!

We saw some penguins.

We found a cemetary in the zoo and tried to do a serious pose, but Annelise thought it was funny…

And another random shot-me and my girl in a stagecoach!

We decided to take a little break and rock in the rocking chairs.

When did my sweet little baby grow up into this beautiful little girl?!

My 1 year old, my baby and I.

She had to check out the large alligator.

Yikes!!

She had a lot of fun watching otters swim by in the circle window.

It was a warm day, so we stopped for an ice cream break!

Give Annelise a spoonful of ice cream and she’ll want the whole scoop!

Of course, she would need to rinse off the ice cream… Daddy took her for a run through the water fountain.

All cleaned up, she was ready for her very first carousel ride!

Or was she…?

She probably wasn’t. She spent most of the ride trying to get to Mommy!

Annelise noticed the elephants…

And giraffes…

Before we decided that we had had enough for one day!

We made it home quickly enough to endulge in a family nap! Then enjoyed a dinner at a local catfish restaurant, Catfish Sams, with Annelise’s Abuelos and Tios! A wonderful day all around! I’m not sure Annelise understood that it was her first birthday, but she did tell us many times that she was 1 year old by pointing her index finger when asked how old she was!

Annelise was pretty quick to check everything out. Peeps, books, stickers, a bunny made by G-Mom and chocolate!

She loved sharing the chocolate w/ Mommy and Daddy! She looked so pretty in her dress from her great Tia Imelda!

The eggs were fun! The easter bunny knew just what to fill them with (goldfish and cheerios) so they sounded like shakers, but were yummy, too!

We enjoyed a small Easter celebration at home, church as a family and then Daddy and Marcos went off to work and Mommy, Annelise and Nancy relaxed the rest of the day! It was wonderful! Hope you all had a beautiful Easter!

We started doing crafts that involved a little bit of baking. We made fingerprint pendants of Annelise’s pointer finger the day after her birthday. We made enough pendants for Mommy, Daddy, Grandparents and Grandpas and gave them as party favors at her first birthday party! I got the idea from pinterest… Oh pinterest…my new favorite place.

Annelise and I were able to arrange a playdate with a couple of her very favorite friends, Chloe and Max! Seriously, she just wants to kiss on them every time we see them! After playing for a bit to wake up from naps, we headed out on the beautiful day for a walk with the wagon. Chloe did not want to share her favorite toy…

Books are Annelise’s favorite, but she didn’t quite understand why she couldn’t play with Chloe’s toy… teehee.

Sharing isn’t all its cracked up to be. Annelise typically shares well, but does expect things right back! I’m sure we’ll be in the no sharing phase soon, too. The girls did enjoy the beautiful day, though!

This picture isn’t super clear because Annelise was on a mission. We discovered that she LOVES chocolate chex. She became very angry when she could not reach the bowl…and she was not even hungry. Chloe was sharing her chex very sweetly!!

Annelise also discovered stickers!! She hasn’t really had the opportunity to play with stickers until this playdate. Chloe was putting stickers on Annelise’s arm and Annelise was in turn taking the stickers and placing them on Max’s head. Max was not too impressed. I’m pretty sure the girls will have to be on the lookout for retaliation in a few months…

We loved our playdate! I enjoyed some Mommy conversation and Annelise loved playing with her friends.

Over the next few days, we endulged a little more… Mani/Pedis!! This means a quick clip for Annelise’s nails and clipping, filing, and painting Mommy’s nails! Annelise seemed to enjoy!

Ready for the summer weather coming our way!

We did some light reading.

Played with some accessories…accessories do make the outfit, afterall!

It wasn’t all fun and games…we made sure our puppies were taken care of…

And definitely did our share of housework. Yuck, who likes housework?!

Just kidding, it wasn’t that bad. Our house was ready to welcome Daddy home and G-mom and Grandpa for their visit! Us girls were well rested, recharged and ready for what was to come…(a sweet little someone’s first birthday party)!

I side strongly with caution. Annelise is still in her infant car seat because it offers the most support. Soon we will switch to a convertible-I will post on different carseats as we grow, always facing backwards until 2 years of age. When she was first born, we used the headrest padding and the upside-down U padding inside of that to really cushion and support her head-however, it is not recommended to use any padding that did not come with the carseat, so don’t do as I did! I used the infant padding that came with the carseat until recently when Kelly in the comments below notified me that it was not safe after 11 lbs. I could not find anywhere that said it was not safe, but at 18lbs, she was over the recommended weight limit and when removed she still looked pretty comfortable in her carseat. All the pics taken show her with the infant padding that should be removed after they reach 11 lbs. Here is the type of infant car seat that I am referring to.

Annelise gave me about 2 mins, wondering why she was in her carseat and we weren’t heading out the door!

The 5 point harness system is the strapping system all infant carseats use. Here is a close up of how the 5 point harness should look. The belts are all snug and secure coming over her shoulders, across and between her legs. The belts also need to be straight (not twisted). The chest plate (the black snap together) is across the middle of her chest, about nipple line. We have the thin shoulder pads simply for comfort. Here is a close up of the straps and their appropriate positions. Its also important to remember in chilly weather that coats should not be worn in the carseat. The padding in coats can compress and leave more space than it should between baby and belts if a large force is applied (such as in an accident) and should be put on after arriving at your destination. Blankets can be used to keep baby warm by placing on top of the baby already strapped in.

My sweet girl started to get a little frustrated… She wanted to get out, but notice she didn’t really move-thanks to secure strapping in!

Just for good measure, here is what I see that frustrates me. Typically, its very loose straps and the chest snap is no where near as high as it should be. And obviously, Annelise is not happy with this unsecure strapping in…

Should a baby be involved in a car crash while loosely strapped in, the chances are much higher for that baby to slide right out of the carseat. If the chest plate is too low, the chances are higher for the baby to slide up and out of the carseat. If the bottom latch (red button) is not latched, the baby could slide out the bottom of the carseat.

Please, please make sure your babies are safely and securely strapped into their infant car seats everytime they ride in a vehicle.

So my sweet baby girl, dressed in her “little black dress” to meet family, my baby that never even spits up on herself, totally blew out of her diaper. And when I mean totally, I mean she had a BATH in a public restroom sink. Luckily, a kind hearted mother of 5 noticed me questioning my next move when I realized this was more than wipes could handle. She helped me bathe my child and went on her way. Thank God for the kindness of strangers. Just that morning I had added an extra outfit to Annelise’s diaper bag…
So much for her cute outfit. Anyway, we finally arrived in Vegas and went to meet my Aunts and cousins! Annelise was a little tired, but loved meeting them and was completely spoiled!

The next day, us girls relaxed in the hotel to catch up on our lives and such. It was a wonderful time and we were so sad to say goodbye!

We stayed at the MGM grand on what happened to be the birthday weekend for Muhammed Ali the boxer. So we stuck around for him to cut his cake. He has a strong presence even at 70.

We didn’t have too much down time, but between classes, I tried to find fun things for Annelise. She didn’t mind posing on a couch for a minute…

Especially because she was then allowed to climb around and play in the mirror!!

While hanging out in the hotel room, Annelise did a little bit of light climbing…

She did a whole lot of napping…Vegas can be overwhelming.

She hung out while we wandered the streets on a photoshoot!

</a
She fell asleep, though.

We had our picture taken with an M&M!

Sleepy Annelise.

Planet Hollywood brings back memories of the opening in Dubai…

And, where I’d like to take Annelise for real one day.

There are so many beautiful things in Vegas, but I could not pass up this chandelier.

Annelise wasn’t too interested. She was just chilling in her ride.

Virtual library? Very cool.

We enjoyed a busy week learning more, eating yummy food and enjoying some time with friends! Until next time, Vegas.