Milo's First Birthday

In case you didn't already know, Milo and her daddy share the same birthday. When I first got pregnant, JR joked that the baby would be born on his birthday.....with a due date of 9 days before his birthday, I thought it was unlikely. But Milo decided she would hold out. (you can read about the birth story here) 

I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by. I mean, CRAZY. We've had so many changes. Gaining a baby, Losing a dog, Moving from hawaii, Moving to London... and those are just the major ones.....but here we are and we are so happy and blessed. 

Milo is a completely different baby. I mean she's not a baby anymore. I got an baby update email the other day except it must have been sent to the wrong person because it was titled: "Your Toddler this Week." ummm... excuse me but my child is not a toddler....(DENIAL) 

yes that is my lip gloss...

So enough mommy blubbering about my ONE YEAR OLD... have a look at these pictures while I grab a kleenex.

This was a big year. JR turned 30 and Milo turned 1.... I love that my husband is older and responsible. It makes me feel young and crazy....Which is nice because I was never the crazy type. Ok, Maybe I was crazy... but what I mean is that I was never a wild and crazy youngster. 

JR got the cake he wanted, thanks to all our family back home that have been sending me necessities. Like Jiffy corn muffin mix, Yellow cake mix, Chocolate pudding, Chocolate chips, Kodiak Cakes Pancake mix, White Almond Bark, Graham Crackers, and all kinds of other things that are bound to make me fat.  But hey, I love them and they don't have them here in the UK. It's nice to have a taste of home occasionally.  

I thought about putting something other than icing on Milo's cake...like whipped cream. But then I thought, it's her birthday....and it's not like she's going to eat it every day.... so I let her have the full sweet sugary chocolaty goodness. 

We didn't have a huge thing because, well we went to Paris for their Bdays, but we don't know too many people and it was a week night. But our neighbors came over and sang and had cupcakes. I'm glad they were there because it would have been pretty awful if I was the only one singing happy birthday. 

Here are Milo's Cake eating pictures. I can't even comment on them because they are so cute. Enjoy!

And there you have it. After dinner, Milo opened her presents....

Then she got a sleepy and we all sang, "It's my party, I can cry if I want to....." 

The next day I tried to get some shots of the ONE YEAR OLD! I must say that it's like a million times harder to get photos once they start walking. She is too busy doing what she's doing to stop and pose. So I had to follow her around and snap like a million pictures...just hoping to get a few good ones. 

This is her serious look. 

I Love our current house.....besides the fact that it is 3 stories...it's great. It's so open and has great natural light. 

Milo is a practical joker. She likes to put toys and blocks down in your shoes to surprise you when you try to put them on. She also hides things from us...phones, thermometers....pretty much anything she can get her hands on. Yesterday, I found the baby monitor in the dirty clothes basket. True story. 

Well, I'm off. Milo is under the weather with a UTI....which has included Fever, Vomiting, Crankiness, Exhaustion (for us all), and lethargy..... she's got some antibiotics but spits it out or gags when I give them to her. I'm making some applesauce now in hopes that she'll take it if its mixed in. Any tricks from those experienced moms/nurses out there? 

Notre Dame and Sacré Coeur

This is Part 3 of our Paris weekend get away....the final part.... I know you are getting tired of seeing pictures of Paris (if that's even possible). But don't worry. You will get to see Milo's Birthday pictures soon! On to the photos. 

So, I promise we didn't wear the same thing every day. We did change our clothes. It was just so unexpectedly cold that we wore our warm gear every day.... and one thing we've learned about traveling is: Pack light. 

Ever try taking a picture of yourself with an SLR? I'm always terrified that I'm going to drop it. 

Inside the cathedral was beautiful. The way the colors from the stained glass speckled the wall.... beautiful. The high ceilings and dark crevices gave it a secretive flare. I felt like I was going to trip over a loose stone in the floor that led to an unknown crypt where I would find beautiful jewels...A gift from the king to his mistress. Hidden away for hundreds of years... I have an active imagination. 

Some of my favorite movies are Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and the Davinci Code. Living in Europe where everything is so old really makes it feel possible. 

that night we moseyed on over to the eiffel tower again. 

on the hour it lights up....twinkling. 

again, it was freezing!

my poor little baby's cheeks were wind chapped. 

Up bright and early to head to Montmartre.... to see Sacré Coeur. 

poor Milo always gets cut out of the shot. 

amazing view of the city from the top

 so to give you some background of this next picture...When we first got to Paris at the train station, A young asian woman came up to JR and asked him (in broken english) if he spoke english... he said yes and she started pointing to this piece of paper in her hand. He assumed that she needed help reading the english. It said something about the deaf and mute community something.... it was a petition or something. She wanted JR to sign it. He did. Then she asked if he wanted to make a donation. He pulled the change out of his pocket and was trying to look through it to decide what to give. She grabbed the coins from his hand and told him he needed more because it was a minimum donation of like 8 euros... we said no thanks and she left, but JR realized he was duped. She was talking so fast and just grabbed his money. It was confusing and all happened so quickly that she left you in a whirl.... they do it on purpose. 

We saw them at several other places.... and tried to warn their poor future victims. It was like a pack of wolves...they would just all flurry around their prey. This group above was surrounding 2 people. Yes, the rest are these awful con artists. Word to the Wise.

headed down to the Moulin Rouge and passed a little bakery with these beauties...

Tah-Dah! 

That's all folks :)