Family 4th!

cleaning clams with Aunt Christy

At Jamie's graduation party

Getting tickeled by Tata

For as long as I can remember excluding sometime in the 80's when I was a lot younger we have spent the 4th of July at our cabin on the Hood Canal. I decided to take a few much needed days off last week and Westyn and I headed to the canal a day before Troy to spend some time with my parents until the maddness began. We had several Baggo tournaments, several margaritas and I think we went through about 15 bottles of wine - this was spread out around many days and people though. Every night, especially the 4th, we were treated to a fireworks display unlike any you have ever seen. Up and down and across the canal we could see incredible fireworks, huge parties, bonfires where people were sure to be roasting Reeses Smores as this is the new thing - who said we were in a recession?? I can't believe how much people must have spent. One can't really explan the awesomeness of the canal on the 4th unless you have been there.

Lake Kachess with the Phipp's and crew

On another note, June was a crazy month packed full of fun get-togethers; my cousins's graduation, celebrating the birthday of a pretty cool guy at their amazing cabin/huge house at Lake Kachess, spending time with my Grandma who will start her bone marrow transplant at Fred Hutch in a few weeks and the list goes on. July is sure to be even better especially because I get to see some awesome people in a few days and celebrate Jen's 30th birthday with her. The only downfall of July is that my brother and his family leave for their 2-year Cornell journey at the end of the month and we will obviously miss him terribly - I think my Mom will begin having withdrawls....

Westyn in transforming into this little girl and is trying way to hard to grow up faster than she should and that I should allow. She refuses to have anybody feed her but herself and has had a pretty hefty diet these days. She literally gets a black eye, bruise, scrape every single day since she is so active but keeps on mobbing along so I can't hold her back. She is now walking up the stairs, not crawling but full blown walking and has her own special language that vaguely sounds like Chinese. Her vocabulary is pretty incredible and will mimmick anything that Troy and I say - even though it doesn't come out perfect she's still trying so hard.

As people may notice my posts are few and far between; time these days is pretty lacking and I haven't had 2 seconds to sit and write a post and post pictures which we all know is a pain in the a@#. Juggling all of my roles as a Mom, wife, career woman has proven to be quite challenging but I think I'm hanging in there as best as I can... without having to self-medicate...

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy!

Yesterday marks Troy's 2nd Father's Day and he has really found his niche in being a Dad. He is definitely Westyn's little hero and they have a blast together rough-housing around but also reading books and playing in her little princess castle. Whoever said Daddy's can't play rough with little girls never had a little girl. They are a priceless pair the two of them and it makes me so proud to see the Dad that Troy has become.

We kicked off the season early and we kicked it off right

The Hood canal season that is. The season of sun, campfires & smores with Reeses peanut butter cups, drinking too much wine, waterskiing, swimming, spending time with our incredible family, margaritas at noon while floating in the water, playing baggo until dark and enjoying my beautiful little family. Our season doesn't usually start until Memorial Weekend but since my Grandma was able to get a few weeks off from chemo and come home for 10 days we all spent the weekend together with her. We started a new tradition of "buckets" this weekend. My Aunt Sally was able to talk her neighbors (they own a local restaurant chain) into giving her the recipe of a very special drink - you are only allowed 2 of these at the restaurant....now we know why. So if one was to walk by our place on the beach they would have seen about a dozen people walking around drinking out of buckets being quite loud.

We even came home with a bit of a tan, Westyn included, even though she was covered in SPF 50, I think she was blessed with Troy's ability to get a great tan.

Having an evening drink together

This is what we get to look at every evening

My incredible Dad

Discovering sea life

What has Westyn been up to for a few weeks....?

Momma tried out some pig tails on me.....
I gave Kenai some kisses as I do everyday...

I snuck in some Starbucks...

Played at Grasslawn park with my cousin Campbell...

Gave some kisses to a very large frog......

Got myself a girly blackeye.....

But man I still look good... even with pieces of scrambled egg on my face..

I watched Daddy fertilize our grass....

And celebrated my cousin Campbell's 2nd Birthday.... Isn't she pretty....

She looks just like her Daddy, my Mommy's brother, Uncle Brandon.....I'm really going to miss them when they all move to New York.

I even had my turn at the pinata. I told Daddy I could take care of it myself but he insisted on helping. Whatever!

Oops - I got caught stealing the top to my Mommy's water bottle... I mean Daddy gave it to me.

And last but not least I decided to have a chat with Mommy last night. It went a little like this... "Momma, these last 13 1/2 months have been wonderful and I thank you so much for letting me get some good good milk from your boobies but I think I'm ready to call it quits. I'm ready to be a big girl now if you wouldn't mind." And that was that. No more breastfeeding.

Do all parents think their kids are geniuses?

Its seems that time has been moving at light speed and Westyn is going to be 15 before we know it. She is talking now - she tries to say I love you (her way is I-I-I in 3 syllables), she says Hi all the time with the cheesiest grin, she recites E-I-E-I-O at random and we just figured out what she was saying yesterday, she says eye and points to her eye, says Uh-Oh every chance she gets, and the list goes on and on. I'm sure all 1-year-olds are advanced in their own special way but Troy and I are enjoying our 5 minutes of fame thinking that she is the smartest baby that ever lived. A few days ago she started playing soccer. Yes thats right, soccer! Last week she was into tossing the ball back and forth with her hands but that was so yesterday; now she prefers to use her feet. And when we ask her to kick the soccer ball, she puts it on the ground and starts kicking it (Jen, I think Mark would appreciate this) - see... genius. She is at such a fun age and I can tell it's only going to get better.

To sum up the last couple of weeks (since it has been that long since I last posted), we initiated Spring by celebrating Westyn's Birthday on a perfect Saturday afternoon with friends and family. On Easter we went to Newcastle Golf Club for brunch and Westyn was able to meet the Easter bunny for the first time (last Easter she was only weeks old). And today we spent a few hours in downtown Kirkland looking at the ducks, getting the old eyebrows waxed (me not her), running around in the grass staining our pants, and looking at some crazies tossing fireballs. All in all the last 3 weeks have been wonderful, how could they not be when we have a little perfect being to share our days and nights with.

Oh one more thing before I start the horribly long task of uploading some pictures - here are her 1-year stats.

Weight: 24 lbs 11 oz - over 90%

Height: 32 1/2" - over 97%

Head: BIG!!! 47 1/2 - 95% She takes after her Daddy, I know most would think me but my heads' deceiving, I just have loads of hair. At least her head is consistantly getting larger with the rest of her body - right?

I gave birth to a cheeseball

Westyn and Chloe enjoying an afternoon snack at her birthday party - on a side note, I have given up breastfeeding during the day (she drinks whole milk at every meal) but still nurse in the mornings and at night. It's nice to have the freedom throughout the day but I'm having a hard time giving it up completely

Westyn enjoying her Birthday cupcake from JOAT's cupcakes - they were hands down the best cupcakes I have ever had and were decorated to perfection. She even came and set them up at my house! I will be ordering these in the future and I know several of Westyn's guests will also.

Figuring out what to do with her and Daddy's Easter basket

My little family in our Sunday best - It was very windy, hence the 80's do

Not a baby anymore - such a funny shirt though.

on a mission in her cute little yoga pants and converse

My little peanut turned 1 today!

Eating her first bite of cake. Of course it was carrot cake from Hoffmans - but thats how we roll

It still hasn't hit me that Westyn turned 1 today. To think that 1 year ago we welcomed this little human into our lives is unfathomable to me. It has been the most amazing year of our lives and I will always keep this year close to my heart as it was the year that I think I finally grew up. You always think that you're going to be a Mom someday but when you really become one you actually take a step back and think My God, what am I doing, somebody help me, I have to be responsible! But without Westyn in my life, well, I don't even know that life anymore. She has made me a complete being - being a Mom has been such a blessing and I can't wait for the upcoming years with this perfect little girl.

We celebrated today by going to the park with her cousins and spending time with Grandma and Tata. Then we had family over for dinner and the infamous 1-year old cake extravaganza. This weekend is her party so we will hopefully have some fun pictures to show come Sunday.

This little girl makes my heart melt.

Our happy place

on top of Blackcomb


at the Peak of Whistler with Black Tusk in the background



The symbol of the Olympics - the Inukshuk. Just in case you were wondering what this symbol means - it is a traditional structure of the Inuit people of Canada and it stands for generosity, hope & friendship; a perfect trifecta of the meaning of the Olympics. Troy and I were educated on the peak chair.



The best day we have ever had in the 20 years I have been going to Whistler.

Our little snowbaby walking around the village.

This last weekend Troy and I headed to Whistler (without Westyn for a day) and had the best 4-day weekend we could have asked for. We had all Friday to ourselves to roam the village and have a fun dinner and then Saturday morning we were treated to bright blue skies and perfect snow. My parents got there Saturday early evening (with Westyn) and we were able to show her the amazingness of Whistler. My family has been vacationing there for about 20 years now so of course Troy and I were so excited to experience it with Westyn, especially 6 days after the Olympics ended and the village was still in full force.