1 year old

My baby turned a year old! Crazy! And since I have millions of pictures, I'll use as few words as I can. We had 2 parties - one with each side of the family. With my family her birthday celebration was combined with mine and my dad's. Her party with the Webb's was combined with Mr. Webb's birthday and Mother's Day. She had tons of fun, and got lots of awesome presents, including a baby swing set for our backyard and a toy keyboard, which she loves!

At her first party, we had funfetti cupcakes with white frosting. At her second, they were lemon blackberry - the same recipe as the lemon raspberry from a few days ago, but in the frosting I used blackberry jam instead of raspberry.

My dad blowing out the candles on his sour cream lemon pie

she knew exactly what to do with her presents!

she had a mini cupcake because she was a little sick, but
she probably would have eaten a big one!

we got her a water bottle, because she kept stealing her dad's
and drinking out of it. I was surprised she figured out
how to drink out of the straw so quickly!

the most delicious cupcakes ever

A few weeks ago, my ward had a fundraiser for the Young Women organization. They auctioned off a bunch of stuff, including some cupcakes made by yours truly. And they were amazing! So, so delicious!

I decided to make chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes and raspberry lemonade cupcakes. Both were super, super yummy! I did a few things different from the linked recipes. For the chocolate strawberry cupcakes, instead of using ganache, I just dipped the cooled cupcakes in melted chocolate before frosting them. I also just frosted them with strawberry cream cheese frosting instead of doing a twist. With the raspberry lemonade cupcakes, I followed the recipe, but added candied/curled lemon zest and a cute striped straw as decorations.

I had some leftover cupcakes, so I found these cute cupcake boxes at the craft store and took them to the ladies I visit teach.

11 months

I can't believe that my baby is almost a year old. I'm going to have to stop calling her baby. Any ideas on a blog name for her? I'm so bad at making up names for my blog. Obviously.

Some of my favorite things she does:

-Takes a few steps on her own
-Gets excited when daddy asks her if she wants to check the mail; opens the mailbox by herself
-Leans her head against you when you ask her for a hug
-Claps
-Gets excited when you say "go for a walk" or "outside"
-Brings me books to read to her when I'm not paying enough attention (according to her)
-Makes an ugly face when you say "no." I'm just glad it's not a cute face, or I'd feel bad. :)

Anyway, here are some of her 11 month old pictures.

what helps me be more productive

I just need to come right out and admit it. I'm pretty lazy. I'd rather sit on the couch and read a book than be productive. So I've found a few things that help me get my day started and increase my productivity.

1. Get dressed as soon as I get out of bed. I don't usually take a shower until about 11 AM, and I used to just stay in my pajamas until then. But I've found that if I actually put some real clothes on, I don't feel so lazy, and I can actually get a few things done before baby naps and I shower.
2. Have a short goal list. I used to make huge, long lists of things I needed to get done. I would take one look at it and get so discouraged. So I made a sticky note goal list. It's just a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper with 9 sticky notes on it. I write one goal on each sticky note. Some goals are fun (plan a baby blanket for my daughter) and some are not as fun (deep clean my laundry nook). But it feels so good to get something done, take the sticky note off, and throw it in the garbage!
3. Be active. Whether it's walking with my mom in the morning, or doing Zumba or playing Just Dance on the Wii while baby naps in the morning, I find that when I do something active in the morning, I get more done the rest of the day.
4. Have a schedule. For me it's a cleaning schedule. I do laundry on Thursday and Friday. I clean the bathrooms on Thursday. I weed the garden on Saturday. You get the picture. I also gave myself a day off. On Wednesday, my only chore is to go grocery shopping. I don't know why, but grocery shopping makes me exhausted by the time I get home (which is usually 10 AM). So I give myself the rest of the day to do what I want. I still do the dishes and all that, but I work on projects or read books. It gives me a day to look forward to, and I like that it's the middle of the week so it gives me a nice break in the middle of my cleaning.
5. Do as much as I can while baby is awake. I know not everyone's baby is like mine, but my baby actually likes to watch me work. She especially loves laundry day. She hands me hangers while I hang up clothes. So I try to do as much cleaning as I can while she's awake, and that way I can have some downtime while she's napping.

What tips do you have that help you stay motivated and be productive? I'd love to hear them!

family activities (lots of pictures)

First, some big news! Baby took about 4 steps to her daddy on Monday! She is about to take off running! :)

In March, my sister and her husband and baby flew out and blessed their baby out here. He is such a handsome little thing! Here are the cousins on my side of the family:

She loves her only girl cousin!

My mom helped me whip up some crib rail covers, because baby started gnawing on them and taking off the paint. Then the next day I got a very little sewing machine and made a purse!

Baby turned 10 months old:

And finally, we celebrated Easter with the Webb family. She absolutely adores her Webb cousins!

Here are a couple movies for your viewing pleasure. :) The first is her laughing while I was feeding her lunch. The second is my brother (aka her favorite toy) pulling her in a box, which she loved! I keep trying to get a better video of her laughing, because she has such a funny laugh, but no success so far. Someday I'll get one!