Lucy's First Birthday!

Lucy, I can't believe you are a whole year old! We had a lot of fun planning and celebrating this milestone with you.

I have been thinking about your party for months now. I had ordered your dress in late September, scoped out Arne's for party supplies in early October, and had been thinking about pinwheel related food since August. I decided on the pinwheel theme when I saw how fascinated you were with a pinwheel Grandpa brought to the Trussell family reunion in June. Seemed like it would be the perfect theme for an outdoor party with lots of kids! Unfortunately no one sells pinwheels around here in October, but that's ok because your Aunt Jessica is so very crafty and she was able to come a few days early to help me make them. Here are a few pictures of you and Aunt Jess:

We went shopping at Arne's for party supplies and you got reeeeeeeally comfortable!

 Jessica was supposed to feed you lunch and put you down for a nap while I ran some errands. You fell asleep before she could take you upstairs!

Friday night Grandma and Grandpa Trussell, Babka and Popco, and Nate arrived. You had already gone to bed so there are no pictures of their arrival (since apparently we now only take pictures that you can be in!) The next morning we were busy getting ready for the party! Unfortunately we didn't realize that you had decided you only needed one nap, so we spent two hours trying to get you to go to sleep. Eventually you did take a nap, and we were able to go on with party prep.

This was supposed to be several bunches of smaller balloons... but it was so windy they tangled on the walk to the park!

I loved how all the decorations turned out! We made pinwheels out of scrapbook paper, attached them to straws, then put them in the cupcakes and baby food jars filled with salt (I stole this idea from the internet!)

We made favor bags for all the kids filled with sidewalk chalk, fun sunglasses, bubbles, and a pinwheel that actually spins! This made for some fun party activities and a colorful sidewalk!

The food turned out really yummy: We had spice cake cupcakes, apple nachos, chex mix (Babka's special recipe!) and tortilla/creamcheese pinwheel snacks. And of course, raspberry sherbet punch!

Lucy had fun on the slide with Popco, and then we aren't sure why but she decided to tackle the neighbor, Brandon. She knocked him clear to the ground. The poor kid was just trying to play with the balloons!

Lucy figured out how to drink from a straw a couple days before her party! If she hadn't, she would have missed out on her punch!

I think it's safe to say that Lucy liked her cake! I had to feed her a bite before she understood what it was, and then there was no stopping her!

Two hands are better than one :) I loved the cute kids behind her cheering her on!

Lucy LOVED dancing with Aunt Jessica.

Here are a few pictures of the party guests enjoying themselves. Unfortunately I didn't think to line up all the kids to try to get them all in one picture, but 7 in one shot is pretty good!

 I can't make a post about Lucy's Birthday weekend without congratulating Nate on his new status of "Revokable Membership" in the family. Congrats, Nate!

 After we got back to the house Lucy opened up her presents. She was so excited! She made this face a lot:

There was a little confusion with the ribbon on this package:

Of course the only thing more fun than opening new presents is pushing around the new presents on the kitchen chairs!

 The next morning we all walked to Black Walnut Cafe for breakfast. Lucy was completely tuckered out by the time we got home!

Lucy and Jessica really enjoyed sticking our their tongues at each other!

This was just the beginning. Stay tuned for pictures from Part 2--Lucy's actual birthday!

The Great Kansas Adventure of 2012

Since I'm not publishing this blog yet, I'm going to write a few posts about our fun trips this summer after-the-fact.  We can all pretend they were posted in a timely manner :)

We drove to Kansas to spend two weeks hanging out with family in June. Travis had to fly home to work at the end of the first week, but was able to fly back to help me drive home.

The drive up was relatively easy. We left when Travis got off work and stayed with a friend in Dallas. The hardest part of the drive was definitely the first 30 minutes trying to get out of Houston in the hardest rain we'd had in months! Lucy did great and only fussed when she was hungry (not unlike me or Travis!) We made it to KS in time for bbq Friday afternoon.

My favorite part of the whole two weeks happened right when we arrived at Travis' parents' house. Lucy looked around like it was a whole new world! Then--she saw their miniature schnauzer, Samson. She LOVED Samson! She squealed and laughed and thought he was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. I hate that we didn't get pictures/video of this moment. Here's a picture of them interacting later on in the week:

On Sunday evening we drove to the Chancy farm to kick off the annual Trussell Family Reunion. It was a beautiful evening and the field across from my aunt and uncle's house was being harvested as we arrived! I was so happy we made it in time to see this.

Lucy had fun seeing Grandpa on the farm!

Even though Lucy had met her cousins before, she was only 8 weeks old and we didn't expect her to remember them. She loved meeting cousin Jenny again:

And cousin Milla:

Of course no trip to the farm is complete without a wagon ride:

But don't worry, no one was hurt when the wagon busted apart a few minutes later.

I love that my birthday always falls during the reunion. You can't beat getting to celebrate with cousins, aunts, uncles, and all the kids!

Yes that is a dollop of whipped cream on my nose. It's tradition in the Mexican restaurant in Concordia KS. What? You aren't familiar with this tradition? Sounds like you need to take a trip to Concordia KS for your birthday then! Later that day we had delicious hamburgers, and angel food cake with fresh strawberries for dessert. A perfect birthday!

I love this picture of the Trussell/Chancy ladies:

Jenny made everyone a delicious brie and mushroom quiche for breakfast one morning. We carted it out to "Jenny's Joint" for a lovely breakfast overlooking the pond.

Lucy was a little fussy right before this picture was taken. Grandma said "Give her to me. I've held a lot of babies." Lucy calmed right down!

Step on up for some FRIED CHICKEN!

Lucy enjoyed playing with mashed potatoes for the first time:

We spent our second week in KS cruising around Manhattan and catching up with old friends and new friends, like Sonder and Clara Crane:

We capped off the trip by attending the benefit Trivia game at Auntie Mae's for Shwan Alkhatib. It was a lot of fun and we look forward to going back next year--both for the reunion and the trivia game!

My first post!

Hi!

Welcome to my new blog!


I started this blog to share pictures and stories of my beautiful daughter, Lucy, as well as some of the adventures our family takes.

First, a little about myself:

I'm 29 and originally hail from Manhattan, KS. Yes we call ourselves "The Little Apple." Manhattan was a fabulous place to grow up and it's where I met my high-school-sweetheart husband. We started dating my senior year and ended up in the Chemical Engineering program at Kansas State University together. We married August 6, 2005, then graduated and moved to Houston, TX in 2006 after accepting jobs with Chevron Phillips Chemical. 5 years later we were blessed to add little Lucy Ellen to our family! I went back to work after my 12 week maternity leave, and after 3 months of dropping Lucy off at daycare, commuting to the Woodlands, madly trying to work a nine hour day and still get back to Houston in time to pick Lucy up, decided the best thing for our family was for me to quit working and stay at home. We feel incredibly blessed to be in a position to make this decision, and while it has had it's challenges, I have not regretted it for a second.

Stay tuned for cute pictures of Lucy and some photos and stories from our summer travels!

Jeanette