Lorelei's First Birthday

We loved celebrating Lorelei's first birthday in Gainesville. The theme of Strawberry Shortcake was beyond cute, just like the little birthday girl! Here's just a few photos from the party:

Monkey Bars Man

Rocco is finally big enough to climb the monkey bar things at a local playground - how did that happen? He's getting too big too fast!

I *Heart* U

Happy Valentine's Day!  I love you too Rocco!

Best Buds!

Seriously, how cute are these two pals? They played so well together! Well, for two year olds anyways. There were some sharing issues, but that's to be expected. For the most part they just loved hanging out, sharing goldfish, and being silly boys. 

Also, Alexander *needs* to be a child model - look at that hair and those stylish clothes!

Great Explorations!

This weekend we took a weekend trip to Tampa to visit our friends Lindsay and Theresa and their families.  We had a great time catching up, but a highlight for Rocco I think was our outing to Great Explorations, a children's museum close to Lindsay's house.  It was the first time we have ever taken Rocco to something like this and he had a ball (both literally and figuratively)!

Balls of fun!

Having fun shopping at the play grocery store

Max practicing walking with his shopping cart

Checking out!

Milking a cow, because why not?

Hawaii!

What do you do when you are turning 30, it's time to ring in the New Year, and you're expecting a new baby? Why of course, you go on a kid-free 30th Birthday/New Year's Eve/Babymoon Extravaganza to the wonderful state of Hawaii! We were there from Dec 27 through Jan 7, and while I missed Rocco terribly, I greatly enjoyed our first 'real' vacation in over two years. I will be making my typical 'vacation photo album' (yes, photos printed! on real paper! inside a real book! I might be the only person my age who still does this!) but here are some random highlights for those who have no intentions of looking through my book once it's done (which is everyone, but hey, I make the vacation books for myself so whatever):

Oahu:

Kauai:

The 'Big Island':

 

2014 New Year's Resolutions

Here's my 2014 New Year's Resolutions - let's check back in 364 days and see how I do :)

1. Take monthly photos of Pepper (something like the calendar ones I did for Rocco) and at least one 'lifestyle' photo of both Pepper and Rocco every week. I really want to try to get my camera out more this year!
2. Lose the baby weight by the end of the year. And if I am really successful, lose some more on top of that to get back to my 'wedding weight'. However that might be unrealistic depending on what the final number is I will have to lose just to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight first.
3. Do the whole breastfeeding/pumping thing for Pepper's whole first year of life. I did it for Rocco, hopefully I can do it again!

Good luck to everyone else with their resolutions, whatever they may be!