Leila's Birthday Part Dos

I love that Leila's birthday falls in the middle of Summer, summer birthdays are always the best because the weather is great and you can play outside...which is exactly what we did. This was my first time hosting a party and we celebrated at Mt. Timponogos Park. Everything worked out perfectly...except that in all the hurrying I forgot some of the food at home and didn't realize it until party time but luckily my dad and Ashlee came to the rescue and our friends and family were very patient...oh and I didn't have time to put an ounce of makeup on so that's why I'm wearing my glasses most of the party.

About a week before Leila's big day, she started wanting to take her naps at noon which was the time of the celebration. We tried to put her down before but she wasn't ready so she was a little exhausted during her party but was still a champ and we could tell she had a ball.

In Mexico, the 1st birthday is a huge celebration! They go all out, not only because it's a birthday, but because of what this birthday represents. The 1st birthday is so important because your child has overcame the first year of life where so many things can go wrong. Well Leila is a happy and healthy little girl so we have a reason to have a celebration! My family wanted to celebrate this special event didn't want to miss it for the world so my parents, sister, and niece all drove up from California to party it up with Leila. This meant the world to me and made this day so much more special for us.

Aside from my family, Eric's family came from out of town for the festivities as well. Kimberly came from Colorado and Aunt Janelle was in town from Texas. We also had our closest friends and Leila's play date buddies.

I think we can all tell who the birthday girl is. Yes, the hat is a little over the top but I love it.

Eric was the grilling master and spent most of the party keeping lemon-chicken and veggie kabobs hot off the grill for the gyros. He was so busy at the grill he isn't in very many pictures.

Time to hit the pinata! It's not a party without a pinata and we will always have one at our parties. Ashlee and my mom were in Mexico a week before Leila's birthday and lovingly brought it back from Mexico just for her.

My nephew Samuel broke the pinata so we could all eat the melted chocolate.

Time to eat cake! The second I put the cake down on her tray, Leila grabbed it and started going to town! She was not shy at all and probably could've killed the entire thing if we let her. Yup, that's our girl.

She actually didn't get as messy as I thought...time for birthday outfit #2.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Leila loves giving kisses and loves her abuelo.

Thanks to our friends and family, Leila has toys and books coming out of her ears. She'll be entertained until her 2nd birthday.

Manuel takes care of the park and keeps it looking beautiful. We got chatting when I went to scope out the pavilion for decorations a couple weeks back. Glad we made friends because he helped us out a ton. Let's just say the walk from the parking lot to the pavillion isn't short and he put everything in his cart and drove us back and forth in that thing and saved a million trips to and from the car. Such a nice guy. 

We were all pooped by the end of the party and were ready for some R&R, especially the birthday girl.

A BIG THANKS to all our wonderful friends and family who helped in celebrating this special day with us. We love you all!

Leila's 1st Birthday

When people say not to blink because before you know it your little baby will be all grown up, well it's a very  true statement. It feels like just yesterday we were pregnant and now my baby girl is ONE...a full blown toddler. Crazy thing is, it feels like we've always had her in our lives and we love her to pieces.

We celebrated her birthday two days early. It had rained the entire week before the celebration and rain was on the forecast for the party. We didn't have a backup plan and luckily we didn't need one because there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day. Glad I can't always trust Mr. Weatherman. Looks like everyone else listened to him because every single pavilion was rented out for that day...and we had the whole park to ourselves.

Here are the little details of the party. More pics to come (it will be picture overload).

4th of July

Happy birthday America...we love this country, this holiday, and what it represents! 

Freedom, fireworks, good company, BBQ's, parades, what isn't there to love? 

It was a nice change to celebrate the 4th in a small town. We had a yummy breakfast at the local high school and found the perfect spot to post up camp for the parade.

Leila was pretty much all better by this point was still out of it and not her smiley self.

After the parade we headed over to the freedom festival where they had crawling and running races up to age 5. We tried to convince Eric and Danny to get dunked in cold water but they weren't all about it.

It was a good time visiting Danny and Cathy...all we did was play all day and laze around at night.

We bonded and learned lots about each other (known these kids for 5+ years but don't spend more than a day together once a year - if that). It's crazy how similar our lives match up..got married 3 weeks apart and had a baby 5 weeks apart.

I'm more of a big city girl but I could get used to this small town/easy living.

Oh, and the nice thing about being on the road during the 4th of July is you get to catch all the cities firework show right off the freeway...we saw about 10 firework shows from Nephi to Orem.

184/365

Who knew Parowan was so beautiful? We've driven through this tiny town of 2,645 people on our way Las Vegas countless times. I didn't think much it because I never knew what lied in its backyard...a lush green forest, ski resort, red rock formations, and hieroglyphics. This town is so friendly and quaint. It's random but cool to see everyone riding around in their 4 wheeler's or golf carts. 

We went on a hike and Leila did surprisingly well in the backpack...she slept for half the hike.

We walked into this meadow and it was insanely pretty. This is gonna sound so corny but it reminded me of the meadow from Twilight. Of course I read the books and loved them...but I hated the movies and don't care to see them all. 

Leila and Ashlynn became such good friends. Though Leila wasn't her normal happy self and didn't give us too many smiles during our trip, she still loved playing with Ashlynn.

After our hike we drove about 10 minutes to Cedar Breaks. Love that my point and shoot can do panoramic shots...check out the views.

Leila's got a huge fascination with glasses.

I can't get over how cute they are holding each others hands. It was a busy day and they were exhausted. We put them down for bed, made homemade BBQ chicken pizza, dutch oven peach cobbler, and played cards on their fabulous wrap around deck. I dream of having a home with a wrap around deck.

Day one was a success.

183/365

It's Saturday and Leila's improving but still not 100%, so we decided to take the doctors advice and visit our pediatrician, but mostly to get a second opinion on her throat. Dr. B said he sees this all the time and it's bacteria but nothing to be too concerned about. He said she probably got it from sharing toys with other babies. I'm a germiphobe and am usually wiping off toys and highchairs but have become a little more lax, guess it's time to step my game back up.

Dr. B said it wasn't yeast and recommended that we stop taking the medicine the other doctor gave - good because Leila hated it. I asked him if we could take her swimming or hiking this weekend due to the holiday, he gave us the green light and said she should be feeling better by next week.

With that said we called the Kendall's to see if they were still down to take us even though we were a day late and they were stoked! We packed the car and an hour later are on the road to the small town of Parowan.

Teething and then some

We've called the pediatrician a handful of times this week because her desire to eat hasn't gotten any better. The nurse said it's more important that she drink fluids (water, juice, pedialyte) than to eat food. We are supposed to monitor Leila for signs of dehydration and make sure she's having wet diapers.

It's still been a struggle to get Leila to eat or drink anything at all and we are very concerned parents. String cheese, yogurt, and water are all that seem to interest her at the moment - the nurse said as long as she's eating something and drinking that's all that matters. But my motherly instincts are telling me that teething might not be the only thing that's wrong with her. I called the Dr. before we were getting ready to put her to bed last night because it'd been a couple hours since she drank anything and she absolutely refused to drink water before we put her down. This isn't right and after explaining her situation to the after hours nurse they asked that we bring her in to check out her weight and see if there's something else going on, maybe an ear infection. Wonderful, this will make me feel better before we head to Parowan tomorrow.

We decided to cancel our plans to Moab for this weekend and eat the deposit for the cabin. If Leila's borderline dehydrated then we don't want to make it worse by being in 100 degree weather. Since we have a 3 day weekend we decided to still get out of town and visit Danny and Cathy in Parowan - still only 3 hours away. They were going to meet us in Moab anyway but Parowan is cooler and will be better for the little ones...and Zion's National Park is only an hour away so we can still get in some hiking and break in our new Deuter backpack.  

Leila weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz so she's good there and no ear infection. Yay. But the Dr. did find white spots on her tonsils. He said it looked like yeast but he's never seen anything quite like it. What? Really? Oh wonderful. Then he used the word "unusual", something you never want to hear a doctor say! Well this would explain why she woke up this morning sounding hoarse, and maybe it hurts to swallow. My poor baby! He gave us a treatment for yeast to see if that helps because he doesn't know exactly what it is and told us to come in by Saturday morning if she doesn't get better. The good news is she's not dehydrated but she may be borderline, the doctor wasn't too worried about that and more worried about her throat. He said even if she gets a couple sips of water, that's good enough. I was so shocked to hear that she didn't need to drink or eat very much, a little bit of water every 30 minutes will do. 

We told the Dr. of our plans for this weekend and he said we should cancel them and stay home, at least until she starts feeling better. Since he doesn't know if what she has is contagious we don't want to risk getting little Ashlynn sick so we'll stay in this weekend, I feel better about that. I don't want to be running around dragging Leila along when she's not feeling well. Not ideal for the 4th of July weekend but we want our little Leila to get better soon...after all we have grand plans for next weekend and she needs to be 100% better. 

All Leila wants to do is be held...and I'm fine with that.