Happy 1st Birthday Cara

Posing in her birthday suit after her bath the other night, she is hugging her stuffed animal Lulu

Sharing her most recent professional pictures which we had taken for her 1st birthday

One year ago today, at 5:53 pm our lives were touched by the most wonderful gift there is in the world. The gift of new life, one that needs molded and shaped by those around her. She has touched our lives and our hearts in more ways than I could put into words. She is very lucky to have 2 sets of grandparents very active in her life. She also has aunts, uncles and cousins who adore her as much as we do. It is amazing watching the changes firsthand in the first year of life. She went from such a dependent tiny baby to the adventurous explorer who has no fear. She is babbling away, we are just waiting for those babbles and her few words to turn into sentences. She does amazing things everyday, and we are just in awe of what she knows already. Thank you for following our blog this past year, we are so happy to share our bundle of joy with the world.

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Cara

Happy Birthday to YOU!!

Cara's Birthday Party

Cara being fed dinner by Grandma A, sitting with her Great Aunt Linda, Great Grandma E, and Vince, Charlotte, Dillon and Oscar are also at the table

Mommy is helping Cara open her presents

Cara tries out her new rocking chair

Grandma F made these Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls

Cara's birthday cake, her party theme was Care Bears

This is about as messy as Cara got with the cake, we were hoping for some massive face stuffing with cake but she was not really into it, but she enjoyed a few bites

On Saturday we celebrated Cara's first birthday with a party for family and friends. We invited everyone for a cookout of hamburgers, hotdogs and brats, and had all the typical side dishes. Cara was overwhelmed with presents. She got so many new clothes, her closet is definitely not lacking for fall or winter wear anymore. She got puzzles, books, activity cubes, stuffed animals, and other toys. Grandma and Grandpa F got her an oak rocking chair and Grandma F made her a Raggedy Ann and Andy doll set and clothes. Grandpa and Grandma A got her a collectible birthday Mickey Mouse, adorable clothes (especially a Minnie Mouse denim outfit), and her very own collectible coin set. Her aunts and uncles all spoiled her too! She definitely got a lot of great gifts, everyone was so generous. We had friends and family come from near and far all to celebrate the birthday of our wonderful daughter. Cake and ice cream were enjoyed by everyone to top off the evening. Scott recently made a video of her life in pictures from in utero to present, set to music, which we showed at the party. Cara had a wonderful first birthday party and we know someday she will love looking at the pictures and want to hear the stories about her party.

Chicago Trip

All of us in the hotel suite (it was really nice, had 2 bedrooms and slept 6 people)

Cara enjoyed playing in the new box from Daddy's shoes

Playing in the Crown fountain at Millenium park

Cara is loving playing in the water

Looking into the Cloud Gate sculpture at Millenium park, this is made up of stainless steel that reflects the image all around, Cara loves looking into mirrors and enjoys seeing a baby looking at her

In front of the cloud gate sculpture

All of us looking into the sculpture for a picture


We headed up to Chicago this week and met up with Grandma A (Grandpa A is at a conference out of town), Cyndi and Dan. We enjoyed some shopping time, eating out, and a visit to Millenium Park. They have a very large water fountain in which people could play in the water, lucky for Cara we had an extra outfit in the diaper bag (acutally 2), so we were able to let her have a ball and crawl around and play. She loved it. It was fun for all of us to watch her excitement in crawling around in the water and watching the bigger kids play. We also enjoyed the Cloud gate sculpture which has some amazing effects to it. There is also a very large auditorium with outdoor seating at Millenium park and a local Chicago Jazz orchestra was rehearsing.

It was a fun trip, although Miss Cara was afraid she might miss something so good naps were out of the question. But considering her lack of sleep she handled it all really well. We took Cara on her first Subway ride to get to Millenium park. She was able to stay in her stroller and get right on the subway (of course the locals commuting for work were not amused to have a stroller in the way). The weather held out for us, despite being a bit humid and warm at least it was not raining. We had a really good time and it was fun to share it with the family (sorry Grandpa).

Cara and Panther

Cara and Panther are becoming close friends! At least he does not run away from her the moment she gets near him anymore. She loves to use him as a pillow. It is so cute when he lays there letting her.

Family wedding in Toledo

The 3 of us at the wedding

Erin and Nick after lighting the unity candle, she was a glowing bride

Cara and I sitting on a bench after the ceremony

The 3 of us pose for pictures

Cyndi and Dan

As the couple left the church the crowd waved these streamers, Cara enjoyed hers

This past weekend we headed to Toledo to celebrate the wedding of Erin (Scott's cousin) and Nick. This was the first time the whole family had been together since we were in Italy for Cyndi and Dan's wedding two years ago. The wedding was just beautiful and what a fun reception. We had to make an early night of it because of Cara, but we all had a great time at the reception. Cara and her Grandpa A danced to "Moon River", her grandma A normally lays claim to this song to dance with Grandpa, but shared this time with Cara. Cara was such a good baby during the whole days festivities. Everyone complimented us on such a well behaved [and cute :)] baby. We had terrific weather all weekend. On Sunday we went to the bride's parents for lunch and the gift opening. It was a nice opportunity to visit with family and friends. It was also Grandma A's birthday that day. A dinner celebration at Outback completed our day before heading back to the hotel. It was wonderful to visit with all the relatives over the weekend. For some it was the first time they met Cara, for others it had been months since they had seen her. She has really changed and was great to share our little wonder with them. She was very chatty this weekend, and everyone enjoyed hearing her "talk".

10 Years

10 years ago today we became husband and wife. In front of family and friends we pledged our love to each other. It was such a special day for us, one that seems like just yesterday in one aspect and seems like a very long time ago in another. Happy Anniversary to us!!

Family

Cyndi and Cara

On the left Grandpa A, Emily, Cara, and Scott, on the right Grandma A, Great Grandma A, Cyndi, and Danilo

Cyndi and Danilo safely landed Monday night after a very long day of travelling! A dinner at Outback was followed by an early bedtime for the weary couple! Tuesday brought the arrival of Great Grandma A from Florida. We all enjoyed lunch at our house, then headed to get family pictures taken of all of us. The first ones to include everyone now that Cara has arrived! We then headed downtown to enjoy dinner at St Elmo's where the above picture was taken. We took advantage of Devour Downtown (for more details see indyrestuarantweek.com, they are having an awesome deal right now), and enjoyed a delicious meal just in time for me to head off to work for the night! Scott and Cara headed home and everyone else headed up north to Grandma and Grandpa A's house. We will meet up with them soon and then we are all headed to Toledo for the wedding of Erin and Nick.

Happy 7-7-07

What a neat day for a posting! We are anxiously awaiting our visitors who will be here in 2 short days! Cara has been under the weather the past couple of days and a trip to the doctor on Friday revealed an ear infection. We are now on antibiotics and hope to be fully recovered in time for Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Danilo's arrival on Monday. Grandma and Grandpa A will also be down here, so we need a healthy Cara to keep up with all the company. Then Cara's great grandma A will be here on Tuesday! So I am sure we will have lots to blog about next week!

Symphony on the Prairie

Cara and Mommy at Conner Prairie for Symphony on the Prairie

The 3 of us after eating waiting for the Symphony to start

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

Our Lil firecracker!

Cara watching the fireworks, immediately after this picture she put her head on my shoulder and was asleep within seconds while the fireworks were still booming.

We headed out to Conner Prairie for our annual Symphony on the Prairie picnic. The family affair included Grandma and Grandpa F, Mike, Lisa, Dillon, Oscar, Joe, Amy, Vince and Charlotte. We had perfect weather to enjoy our picnic, a wonderful concert and firework display. We had a great evening with the family enjoying good food and fun!

11 Months

11 months old already! Wow! We have a big first birthday coming up real soon. We have a very fun festive July with our annual visit to Symphony on the Prairie for the 4th of July with Emily's family, Uncle Danilo and Aunt Cyndi visiting, an out of town trip for cousin Erin's wedding to Nick, an overnight trip to Chicago, and the month concluding with our baby girl turning one year old.

Cara can say a few words (usually in the correct context) including dada, mama, cat, ball, and duck. She is learning to walk with her walker toy, loves to stand up, and never hesitates to crawl if she needs to get somewhere quickly. We wonder if she will be walking on her own by her birthday. We'll keep you posted!