Daddy's Day

So it is hard to believe that Chad is celebrating his third Father's Day already (see 2012 and 2013 for adorable daddy and baby pictures and a walk down memory lane).

Unfortunately, he had to work today but that didn't keep us from having some fun this weekend.

On Friday, he went to her school for watermelon snack. They haven't posted pictures yet but he said it was fun. She thought it was fantastic and told me about it when she got home ("daddy" "whatter...melon"). She seemed a little miffed that I wasn't there, too, though. Friday afternoon, we made it back over to the OSU Botanical Gardens, which was a lot of fun. This was the first time that she's walked the whole garden. She kept asking to see a bunny (there weren't any) but she did get to see a cat chasing a mouse. 

This morning, A gave Chad his present (a desk organizer with a picture of them together) and cards. When he got home from work tonight, we went to a food truck gathering and tried the new Sicilian pizza truck. We had fun and the new truck was pretty good. Baby A wore a special shirt for Daddy. 

Here are some favorite shots of baby A and Daddy over the last year (and doing this always reminds me that we need to take pictures and videos with her more often!):

We love you, Chad!!

Summer sunshine

This summer we've done a lot of getting outside. Not as much as I would like (it's hot and I am easily hot and uninspired) but we are making progress.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to an OSU Summer on the Plaza event which was fun. They had lots of water toys, bounce houses, a water bounce slide, live music, and concessions.

We walked to Fuzzy's Tacos after for dinner.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Alaina is really developing a love for books which makes Chad and I very happy.

We also try to give her opportunities for creative and pretend play (yay pinterest for easy ideas with household objects).

She is so funny.

 I just love this face.

This weekend she took baby for a walk down to the neighborhood park.

She learned a lot of things that all new mothers learn--that umbrella strollers don't always go the direction you wish them to go.

And that, of course, babies don't always wish to stay in their strollers their entire walk.

That you'll worry your baby is too small for playground equipment.

And that it's hard to let your baby go down the slide for the first time by herself.

 But it can also be exhilarating.

Anniversaries and Organizing

We celebrated our 11th anniversary this year which is a little hard to believe!

Chad and I went to see the new x-men movie on his Friday off. I made his new favorite dinner (sesame beef) on Saturday and picked up cupcakes from Cake Crazy bakery.

On Sunday, Chad dropped A off with Kris & Neil. With his new work schedule, there is literally no time in the day when I am not at work or with A. It gets hard to get anything done or have time to relax. He wanted me to take a nap and have a relaxing day but I haven't been able to relax, knowing what lurked in her closet.

As I've mentioned before, we are beyond fortunate and so incredibly grateful to have been given an entire wardrobe to clothe A since before she was even born. Most of what A wears was previously worn by her cousin Avery, Lana's sweet daughter Grace, or Ricki's adorable niece Jaylah. We've also received tons of gifts from family members and were given clothes by friends from Nana's church, my friend Lori's daughter and niece and from a little girl my wonderful cousin used to nanny. There are no words for how grateful we are. I have been so overwhelmed with it all though, I just never knew the best way to organize it. So we had boxes of clothes on one side of the closet that she hadn't grown into and boxes on another side that she had outgrown. 

Until I couldn't fit another box in the closet. I tried to tackle it over Christmas break but didn't get very far at all before having to go back to school.

I can't imagine why.

So, that was my goal for the day off. I thought I might work on her closet, clean a few other things out, and finish some work before maybe taking a nap and catching up on DVR. Ha...

This is the progress I made in December and what her closet looked like when Chad left.

It took me awhile just to pull all of the boxes out of the closet.

These are the boxes and bags full of clothes that are either too big or that she can wear this winter.

 And these are all of the clothes that are just too small. Sad face. :(

It's a lot.

Just seeing the pictures again makes me anxious.

I will never wait 2 years to purge her closet again. I promise.

Six and a half hours later, here is her closet.

I saved 99% of her clothes on the off-chance that we, or someone close to us, ever has another little girl.

Again, just for comparison.

And, I moved a storage cube organizer into her closet to try to prevent this from ever happening again. :) So no worries if you have a tub or bag of clothes to send our way. We can find a place for them and have a cute little girl who loves to try on new clothes (seriously, she has more daily wardrobe changes than Lady Gaga). 

Thanks again to my awesome sister for giving me the time to work on it!