Happy Birthday, Valerie Joy!

Our baby girl is ONE YEAR OLD today!

What a blessing she has been to our family.

(We're busy unpacking from a fun weekend at the cabin and getting ready for a small celebration tonight, but I'll be back soon with more pictures of this sweet little munchkin.)

Speed Flying

This afternoon we drove out on Warm Springs Ave. past Barber Park to watch Chuck do his speed flying thing. We have watched him sky dive a couple of times, but this was a first for us. Here's a 40 second clip of what we saw. (Pardon my squawking!)

If you think that this is crazy, you should see his videos from earlier this week when he was BASE jumping from the Perrine Bridge in Twin Falls. (The only bridge in the U.S. which is open for jumping all year without a permit!)

He's insane!

Blueberries for Val

Are you familiar with this Robert McCloskey classic?
Well, I'm going to rewrite it for my own little girl who L.O.V.E.S. blueberries!!! Here are some illustrations for my new classic entitled Blueberries for Val.

Kissing Cousins

Poor Riley has to put up with a lot from his adoring older cousin Valerie. We caught this little kissing exchange during Grandma's birthday celebration last weekend. These two little ones were sharing time on Grandpa's lap when Valerie just couldn't contain herself any more. She started rubbing his soft head and covering him with kisses. These pictures are going to be great blackmail someday.

Future Tennis Pro

Move on over Anna Kournikova - there's a new tennis star on the horizon!

Uncle Steve and Aunt Kim bought the girls a Wii last summer and the tennis game is by far Sierra's favorite. You can see why we enjoy it too!

Fangs

I am a little concerned.

Valerie's teeth are coming in - OUT OF ORDER!!! (Her mommy likes order.) She has had one tooth on the bottom jaw for several weeks. This week two of her top teeth have finally pushed though. But not the two in the middle. The two on each side. YIKES! My poor, beautiful baby is going to look like a vampire if the others don't come through very soon. Thankfully they are all still very small so no one can tell. Have you ever heard of this happening?!

By the way - I think that I forgot to mention that SHE'S WALKING!!! She started taking steps on her own just before she got so sick a couple of weeks ago. Now she can go anywhere and she loves to be on her feet. Here's a very brief video of some of her first real solo steps:



Last night she was pacing the hallways at church and drawing a lot of attention to herself. She just looks too small to be cruising around on her own. She will be 11 months old on Sunday. Time to plan that birthday party! Maybe I'll make it a "Twilight" theme. (Wink to Julie.) JUST KIDDING!!!

Family Time

After a week of the icky sickies, Spring Break was WONDERFUL! In spite of the snow, sleet, hail and rain, we packed a LOT into the nine days off. Marc got a new camera half way through the week, so we took way too many pictures. I couldn't decide which ones to display, so you can see the best ones here.

Back to reality tomorrow morning...