Sunshine, fruit kabobs, and rainbows everywhere

While we were in Austin a couple of weeks ago, Tali and Cliff hosted Dahlia's first birthday party. It was no small feat! There were about 40 attendees including the kids. Tali really went all out with the rainbow theme. There was rainbow food, colorful photo backdrops, and Dahlia even wore a rainbow dress!

Here are some photos captured by Tali, Francis and a few other guests.

The rainbow food spread included fruit kabobs, skittles, baked mac n' cheese cups, rainbow cupcakes, veggies, and more!

Dahlia is asking for her cupcake!

she approves :)

photo bomb

rainbow love

isn't she the cutest? Dahlia's pretty cute too :)

In case you didn't know we were engaged...

Here are a few photos that prove it! ...Actually they totally don't, but they're engagement photos.

Both our wedding photographer Francis Joseph and Tali collaborated on our engagement photo shoot on Saturday.

Mark and I had a blast. We started at the Dripping Springs Founders Day Fair, and then navigated our way deeper into the country and found a nice field.

We are dying to see all of the photos, but Francis and Tali were kind enough to share a few teasers to tide us over.

(c) Tali Wildman

(c) Francis Joseph

(c) Francis Joseph

(c) Tali Wildman

One.

A year ago yesterday, something awesome happened. My beautiful niece Dahlia was brought into the world.
I can't even begin to express how happy she has made me. Yes, we may have 1500 miles between us, but the iPhone 4 is awesome, and I get to see her at least a couple of times a week.

Yesterday Tali, Cliff, and the folks celebrated with Dahlia, and she got her first dose of cake!

And her first tutu...

Mark and I are headed to Austin next week for Passover, engagement photos, and most importantly, Dahlia's first birthday party.

I can't wait!

It's not like I hate blogging...

Really, I don't, and now that my readership consists solely of people who have googled a paint color and my parents, I figure an entry is in order... To entertain all two of you.

I haven't even been that busy to tell you the truth. I just plain haven't felt like it, and by golly, sometimes The Real Housewives take precedent. (Mark is cringing right now, if he by chance is still part of the readership, which would make three in that case.)

A lot has changed with the house though -namely the backyard. We finally bit the bullet and got some landscaping! I'd love to claim we did it ourselves, but then I'd be lying, and no one likes that. We had sod put in, along with 3 trees, flowers, plants and some gravel. All in all it is way cool. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

One of the biggest pluses about having grass, is the dogs don't come inside muddy any more. grass+dogs=clean floors+happy Shiri

Another thing we (Mark) did was put down some cobble stone in the front where there was uneven dirt. This serves as a great place for all of our potted plants. We plan to eventually do it on the other side of the front door too and create a quazi-front porch.


So there you have it folks. I don't hate blogging, I'm just too busy thinking about what I should be doing for the wedding. :)