Ariana turns 1!!

Ari turned 1 on January 26th!! I can't believe a year has gone so fast! On her actual birthday we went to the play place at Rosedale mall and went to Panera for dinner. She was a happy girl!!

We had a big party for her the weekend of the 29th. Her nickname is "bug" so we had a ladybug themed party for her. My godmother and I made ladybug invites, I found a ladybug dress from Gymboree, and made a ladybug cake and cupcakes...

I'm terrible...

It's been forever since I've posted anything on here so here are a few things that have happened in our 2011 so far....

We rang in the new year in Milwaukee with the Shoup side of Jordan's family. It was great to see every one again and introduce them to Ariana. On the way home I was nice enough to contribute $250.90 into the Wisconsin State Patrol's pension fund...

In mid January Jordan and I went to Las Vegas with our friends Tim & Lindsay and Alex & Bonnie. We were there just over 4 days and had an awesome time! We visited Hoover Dam (very cool), watched the sunset at the top of the Statosphere, had dinner at the Wynn buffet, walked...and walked...and walked through just about every Casino there, lost...and then found...a $100 poker chip at the Gold Nugget!! It was a great trip to get away with friends. Ari stayed behind with Grandpa & Grandma James - she had fun too. :)



Inside the Hoover Dam

On top of the Stratosphere - it was beautiful!!

$100 poker chip lost...and found 14 hours later in the best steak house in Vegas

December 18/19 ~ First round of Christmas!

We have a big extended family and are close with them all so we usually have multiple family Christmases each year. It takes a lot of planning to be able to make sure we can hit them all! It adds a little more stress to the holiday season, but seeing and spending time with our family makes it worth the hassle.

The blizzard a few weekends ago forced us to miss our first family Christmas with my Dad's side of the family and we had to reschedule for after the 1st of the year. But last weekend (12/18 & 12/19) we did my mom's extended family (aunts, uncles, etc) Christmas on Saturday and immediate family (siblings) Christmas on Sunday. It was a great time and we ate a lot of great food!

 Aris pillow pet from Laura - at first she was more interested in the tag on the head

 Getting ready to demolish presents

opening a present from Grandma B - a photo cube!

All our Christmas cookies!

Ari with Uncle Matt & Aunt Mahlory

December - Christmas photo op!

Since we've never had a professional family picture taken, we decided to do one for our Christmas card. We had been referred to an amazing photographer for Ari's 9 month pictures so we booked an appointment with her and couldn't be happier with the results! Her name is Aleah Clements and her photography business is called "Created by Me Photography" - we highly recommend her!