Dad's Birthday!

Scott's dad has a birthday BBQ and it was so much fun to see everyone. Scott's sister and her two kids were there as well as his grandparents. It was definitely a good time. Keira's cousin is only 6 weeks older so it was fun to see them play together. It was also fun to see how cute Dillan, Kelly's older daughter, was with Keira when they were "chatting" together. The shish kabobs were also quite amazing as was the ice cream cake.Dillan and Keira chatting and playing

Just hanging out!Dillan stole Keira's Sophie!Connor and Dillan wrestling! The big guy seems to be winning.Keira shoving her foot in Connor's face. You can't see the next part where he is actually sucking on her foot. Ha ha!

Eating solids!

So, the little lady is getting so big now that she's already had her first solids. Photos and pics are below. We definitely need to teach her some manners as she tends to talk while eating. It's pretty adorable.

So excited for our first solids!

Of course she has to be a helperDoesn't want to let go. She wants more!Still a big helper!Just let me do it by myself. The end result was that we had to strip her down and bathe her.

One downside to real food...real poop! This may be TMI but seriously it's gross and now it smells. Yuck! If I could never feed her solids till she's potty trained I would totally do it.

Greer!

So, Scott's parents invited us to Greer for the weekend and it was definitely a welcome getaway from the heat. However, I did not realize Greer was so darn far. It took us 5 hours to get there. And since Keira just loves her car seat the trip was just a delight. Luckily she slept for some of it, but I do have to give her a little reprieve as she did have her 4 month shots that morning.

Chillin' in her bumbo on the counter with her new ASU hat from Nani & Papi

We didn't know this beforehand, but the weekend we went up there turned out to be their first annual Greer Days, which was postponed due to the fires in early June. In all honesty, hearing about it I thought it'd be this huge festival where hundreds of people came in to check out with great live bands and activities. Nope. Not so much. Plus, some of the bands were horrendous, but when it's on a volunteer basis it is what it is. There was the one band though which was great. I wish I could remember the name, but I can't right now.

Quite the fashion diva sporting her cute boots to dinner

Just another morning with Papi

Standing and eating her playmat like the big girl she is!

Overall it was a really fun weekend and we really enjoyed it. It was nice and relaxing. We really didn't do much, which is just what I needed after working so many hours since coming back from leave. Seriously though...I'm working like 11/12 hour days but things are starting to get back on track a bit and at least I get to work from home so that helps a bit.

4 months old!

Time is going by so quickly! Keira is now 4 months old and just had her doctor's checkup. She had some more shots and was quite the trooper. She is a whopping 11.7 pounds (25th percentile). She's a little one but the doctor says she's on track for her growth and is a healthy girl. She's still in her 0-3 month clothes which I'm loving since she's getting so much use out of them, but I'm anticipating her wearing her 3-6 month clothes because they are ridiculously cute. Plus if she's so little she ain't gonna fit in any of the winter gear she has until it's too late.

16 Weeks!

The little lady is getting so big. Here are some pics.

Crazy girl making faces!Twinsies!Daddy taught her to put her pacifier in. This time she put it in upside down.Very intrigued by her cartoonsLoving the water!Swimming with Roxy!

Road Trip!

We went back to our old stomping grounds and favorite place to visit over 4th of July weekend. Manhattan Beach!! We left around 4:30A so Keira would sleep for at least the first half of the drive. She's been so active lately and after she gets up from a long night's sleep she just wants to play. Plus she hates being in the carseat so we wanted to get a jumpstart on the day. The first part of the trip to Blythe was great. Second part...not so great. We had a couple meltdowns and had to pull over a couple times with the remaining part of the trip being Scott leaning over from the passenger seat to put her pacifier back in so she wouldn't cry. Then we got to hear her protest behind her pacifier until she spit it out. It was a good time!

It's always so great to see our friends in CA and catch up with everyone. Our first day we had to go to my favorite lunch place Rascals where I also got to catch up with my old manager and great friend, Erin. Then we checked into our hotel and got ready for the beach! My friend, Sounia, met us at the beach (which was crazy busy) and it was always fun to chat with her. Keira loved her too, of course. Auntie Souns is going to make sure Keira is fluent in French.

First time with her feet in the sand. The fist is more exciting though.

First time with her feet in the water. Didn't faze her because that fist is so darn tasty!

That first night we went to a BBQ at Muna's place and it was tasty. Johnny cha cha'd with Keira and it was so fabulous to see everyone else at the party that we haven't seen in over a year!

The next morning we headed down to Huntington Beach so Scott could surf and we could meet up with some friends. While Scott surfed Keira and I took a stroll. She was so cute in her stroller but of course she wasn't having any of that and needed to be out looking around. So I had to carry her and push the stroller about 80% of the walk. After our walk we had breakfast at Sugar Shack with Scott's college roommate, Brian, and his fiancee. It was so wonderful to see them and after we left we realized we didn't get any photos with them. We'll have to make it out there again soon to rectify that.

After breakfast we went to see our friends, Victor and Gen, who just had a baby two weeks before. She was totally adorable and is the spitting image of her daddy. Saturday was definitely a busy day as we then went to our friends, Pawel and Jiyoung's, house for another BBQ. They always cook delicious food and it lived up to expectations this time as well. They have the most adorable 2 1/2 year old daughter who is so darn smart. She definitely wore Scott out as he ran around and played with her for about 75% of the time we were there. They were playing on the swingset, going down the slide (yes, Scott was too), hanging in the "fort" on the playground, and blowing bubbles. Plus there were monkeys chasing them so they had to run around! Overall it was such a great weekend! It was jam packed, but so worth it as we got to see so many people we care about. Can't wait to do it again soon!

Father's Day Fun!

It was Scott's first Father's Day and we had a fabulous day! We actually went down to his parents house in Casa Grande. Of course they had to play with his Dad's new toy...the tree trimmer. First, they had to figure out how to get it to work.

NKOTBSB!

Oh yeah, that's right...Scott and I went to the New Kids On The Block Backstreet Boys concert on June 30th at US Airways Arena. Scott's parents got us the tickets for my birthday (thank you, thank you) much to Scott's delight! I think deep down he was really excited because he and his friends used to sing "I want it that way" by BSB in Spanish back in the day.

I was super excited to go because NKOTB was my first ever concert when I was 10 years old. I couldn't wait to see them in concert again and to see my beloved Joey again. Oh, how I had a crush on him. I know a lot of people were all about Jordan, but it was all Joey all the time for me. I actually used to sing a song called "Bobby's Girl" around my house when I was 10 but I would replace Bobby with Joey. "I wanna be Joey's girl. I wanna be Joey's girl. That's the most important thing to me. And if I was Joey's girl, and if I was Joey's girl, what a thankful girl I'd be." You get the idea.

We went to a fabulous dinner at this pizza place downtown before...Cibo Pizzeria...and it was seriously delicious. Then we went to the concert and I had to pump in the car. Gotta bring the milk home to the little lady! :o) We missed the first opening act, Ashlyne Huff, but we don't know who she is so we didn't really care. We did get to see Jordin Sparks who, in all honesty, was kind of boring and her two dancers sucked. When the main attraction started though the noise level in the arena was out of this world! There are some die-hards out there. I truly think my ears are still ringing. By the way, my love for Joey disappeared quite fast when he came out wearing a sleeveless vest type thing and knee high boots over his jeans! Um...no thank you!

All in all, it was a great concert (Scott would likely disagree) but not as good as my Tim McGraw!

Before the concert started

Whoo hoo! It's starting!

And this was Scott when it was starting! It was loud!

4th of July

Every year since we moved to CA we would go watch fireworks on the beach. When we moved back to AZ in late 2009 we didn't want that new tradition to change so we went back for fireworks last year and we did the same this year. We had to move from our normal spot because they cut the fireworks show in Marina del Rey due to budget cuts, but we still got to see a great show in Manhattan Beach (watching the Redondo Beach fireworks) and had great company in our friend, Sounia. Plus, when we were driving back to our hotel and when we got into our hotel we could still see fireworks going off in several places. It was so beautiful!

Also, during the day we went to our favorite breakfast joint, Local Yolk, and of course we spent some time at the beach.