Birthday Extravaganza

We are now officially parents of a one-year-old.  It's hard to believe that a year has flown by!  Since Brielle's birthday was on Sunday this year, we took Saturday and played with her.  We went to the Downtown Aquarium to look at the fish and ride some rides.  It was a really fun place.  They even have a train ride that takes you through the middle of a shark tank.  Here are some highlights of our outing:

 

Outside the Aquarium

Looking at the fish

 The Diver's Mask

 White Tigers.  Yeah.  At at an aquarium.  Weird...

 On the Shark Train

 In the Shark Tank

 On the Carousel - Brielle's favorite ride

 On the Ferris Wheel

Back the the Carousel for one more ride

Sunday was full of presents and cake:

 Showing off her poodle and BYU cheerleader outfit

Sorry the video is a little long, but the dance at the end is worth it!

Singing Happy Birthday.  Notice how NOT impressed she is.

 Digging into her cupcake

 Loving the mess!

 Hi Mom!  My cupcake was delicious!!

Brielle also had her 12 month checkup today.  Her stats are as follows:

Height:  31 inches (95%)

Weight:  23 lbs. (80%)

At 12 months, Brielle can do LOTS of new things!  She says mama and daddy, often walks around the house calling for Daddy when he's at work.  She can understand when you ask her to bring you a ball, stuffed animal, diaper, or most anything else, usually with a big "Ohhhhhh" while she goes in pursuit of whatever you asked for.  She loves to dance, and we often find her dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or her new farm toy.  She loves to be pretty, and puts her stacking rings on her arm as bracelets.  She also loves to carry her purse around the house.

We love our little Briellie Bellie, and are SO glad that she came to us!  Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie!!

Labor Day

Instead of traveling on Labor Day weekend, we decided to actually labor.  Our kitchen went from this (focus on the walls, not the people):

to this:

I have some decorating to do, but I think I like the color.

Mark also did some yard work while Brielle watched from the window.  She can watch her daddy mow the whole back yard without moving from the window once!  Here she is waving from the window.

Pesto Presto

The one crop that really took off from our garden this year was my basil.  Last year I just let it all die, but this year I decided to make Pesto.  I found a great recipe here.  Then, because Pesto is only used in small quantities, I put it in ice cube trays and froze it.  The ice cube trays are perfect for individual portions of Pesto, and it was super easy to get the cubes of Pesto out once they were frozen.  I transferred the Pesto cubes to a freezer container, and now I can add Pesto to whatever I want in just a minute of defrosting in the microwave.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my pesto, but here is a picture I found that looks exactly like mine did:

So tonight I grabbed 2 cubes of my frozen pesto, some chicken, cheese, bread, tomatoes (from our garden - yum!), spinach, bacon, and our George Forman.  I grilled the chicken breasts on the George Forman and cut it into strips.  Then I slathered my defrosted pesto on 2 slices of bread (one for each sandwich), layered my chicken, cooked bacon, and cheese, topped with another slice of bread, and panini-ed the sandwiches on the George Forman.  After taking them off the grill, I opened them up and added the tomatoes and the spinach.  Easy peasy dinner and so delicious!  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my paninis either.  Sigh.  One day maybe I'll remember to grab my camera.

I love easy, delicious dinners like this.  And I love that I hand-made that Pesto.  Like from scratch.  :)