11 Months

Hands down, fastest year of our life. Michael and I find ourselves saying that a lot these days. As Carmen's first birthday approaches, we can barely seem to keep up with the changes and developments she's going through.

Our girl can walk now. She's super cute on her feet. Time to buy some shoes I guess. Can you believe she's almost 1 and I still haven't bought a pair of shoes for her? Aunt Heather, you might have a cow.

She's got 6 teeth. We've added brushing her teeth to our bedtime routine...and morning when I remember.

She babbles the sweetest little words and loves to say "mama" and "dada" but usually in triples: "mamama and  dadada." Carmen also says "woof woof woof" when you mention doggy or puppy.

Why is her favorite thing in the world dogs?! I NEVER trained her to like them. She can't get enough of them. She wants to chase them, pet them, ride them, hug them, feed her hands to them. Gross. I don't know what to do with it. Although, I generally bark every time we're out walking and we see a dog on a leash - maybe that's why?

Her favorite toy is her pillow pet. Her cocker spaniel pillow pet, of course. She wakes up and first thing, "woof woof woof." She is a major snuggler! Give her any stuffed animal and she will cuddle that poor thing until there's nothing left. I love it.

She loves a good beat. Music is front and center in her daily life. She pauses to dance a little jig whenever she hears music. Now that's my girl.

She jumps and climbs. I'll have to capture it on camera soon.

She can wear hair clips (!!!) now and only pulls them out when she reaches to twirl her hair and finds one.

We are so thankful for her. She is the best.

A Must See

I know a lot of you have seen this on Facebook already, but if not, it's definitely worth 55 seconds of your time. Carmen was so funny driving this boat:  

First Beach Trip with Baby

Last month we joined my parents and siblings for a short week at the beach. Michael was able to join us for most of the time even though it was a wonderfully busy week at work. Carmen loved the beach. The sand, the water, the kiddie pool - she's definitely a beach girl. She and I didn't spend much time on the beach this trip but when she did, her gorgeous skin soaked up those rays just like her daddy! 

Aunt Heather and Uncle Matt took most of the great pictures from this trip....maybe some day she'll send me some? But here's my little goose on her first beach day:

Doing What We Can

Somehow we've gotten to be involved in a couple Romney Campaign activities. It's been pretty cool actually. Michael is always inspirational when it comes to being involved with politics so I blame him for sharing that excitement with us.

Carmen and I got to be in a campaign commercial they are producing. I can't tell you much more about it because I haven't actually seen it nor do I know when and where I would see it. But we were selected by some agency in New York who liked our head shots...I mean, we all know Carmen's a winner.

Then we got to host and participate in a press conference. Yep. A real live press conference in our home. Former Congressman Artur Davis, Alex Schriver the National Chairman of the College Republican National Committee and yours truly all gave statements regarding the national debt crisis. It was really cool to see how they work - reporters, questions, campaign managers and all.

We'll see what else we end up doing to help with the presidential campaign this year. I know we'll at least vote in November! Carmen is already such a good citizen.

4th of July

 Happy Birthday America!!

While Michael is at work today, Carmen and I are preparing for our 4th of July Celebrations. I hope she learns to love this holiday as much as I do. I've got big plans for the years to come!

Last night our little family drove to Waterford, VA for their big fireworks show. It stormed 30 minutes before the start time so we ended up parking our car in a lot and watching from the front seat. It was actually perfect because we had the comfort of our car and the noise was a little buffered making it much less alarming for Carmen. Carmen loved the fireworks - a girl after my own heart!

Today we are celebrating with our fabulous neighbors who we are loving more and more every time we get together with them. We just threw together a BYO block party real quick and we'll meet at the playground pavilion right next to our homes. Should be fun and simple! (The above picture is my controlled attempt at decorating. It was really hard not to go all out and throw together a themed party, but again, big plans for the future.)

Tomorrow we are participating in something totally random and pretty cool so I need to go prepare for that. I'll write more about it later on!

I love America. Best Country Ever. 

Mommy-Daughter Days

With Michael being gone all last week, Carmen and I had lots of Mommy & Daughter dates. I tried to make the best of it and do lots of things to keep the days interesting for the both of us. We made a shopping trip to Reston Town Center on one of the gorgeous 70 something degree days last week. We walked around and shopped for her birthday party. It was so pleasant and Carmen was such a trooper. 

We spent time at the pool with Aunt Ashleigh and Devin:

We had a morning coffee and playdate with Colston, Ashby and Emery - Carmen always loves that time!

 I also took Carmen to the princess night at a local Chick-Fil-A. We were a bit bored and knowing that she loves to be around other people I thought that it would be a great night out. She loved it! There were little girls everywhere. Most of them had on princess dresses, there were horse and carriage rides around the parking lot, a real princess was walking around the store, they were setting up for a princess movie on the lawn - it was so festive. AND I gave her the very first taste of chicken! She loved that even more than the tiny princesses around her. 

Windy night

So the moment I post pictures of the patio we get a nasty storm that pretty much completely rearranged the outdoors. The above picture is even after I took the furniture down from being piled on the AC unit. The winds swept all that furniture, picked up the wheelbarrow and threw that elsewhere and obviously blew away the grill cover. During the storm I had heard banging on our front door step and turns out the mat was blowing around because it left it upside down. I thought that was hilarious - only after the fact though. I was scared when the storm was passing through. Of course Michael was out of town (recall the little tornado last summer that Michael was not home for either) and I was alone with my tiny sleeping baby. Our location as an end unit town home and up on a hill is particularly windy under normal circumstances, so when the 80mph winds struck, the walls were literally shaking. I was shaking too and trying to pack a bag because our power was flickering. I wasn't sure how long we would have electricity so I wanted to pack a bag in case we needed to sleep elsewhere. BUT we are so fortunate and did not lose power and currently have a nice, cool, air-conditioned home. Thank you Jesus!