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 :)

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!

Sun-kissed skin so hot it'll melt your popsicle...

Ok, the title has nothing to do with the post, but somehow that song got stuck in my head this morning. What's bizarre is I'm absolutely positive I didn't hear it. How do you come up with a line like that anyway? It doesn't rhyme with anything and it's actually a really weird mental picture. -Jus' sayin' Katy Perry.

Ok, now back to more important things, starting with the kitchen. Phase 1 is complete! The cabinets, counters, and floors are complete, and for the first time in two months, we have a fully functional kitchen! It feels awesome. It's so hot it'll melt your popsicle.

Behold...




Notice I called it phase 1. There is still work to be done. Phase 2 consists of installing the green subway tile backsplash and pendant lights on either side of the hood. But for now, phase 1 will have to do. The kitchen is quite enjoyable as is.

In other insanely awesome news, the family is coming to visit! And when I say the family, I don't mean just my parents, or just my sister. We're talking mom, dad, Tali, Cliff, and....Dahlia!

Tali and my birthday is six days apart, and this is a big one (the big 3-0) for her, so what better way to celebrate? This is also the first time that the whole family (even pre-D) have come to visit at the same time. Just a couple weeks away!!!

To tide you over...

The granite goes in today and I am over the moon! The kitchen is almost complete! To tide you over until I have some new kitchen photos, here are a few pictures from Tali's recent photo shoot of Dahlia. Can you believe she's almost four months old? I shiriously have the cutest niece in the world. I'm not biased or anything...



And lastly, this one. It's my favorite photo of Dahlia and I. She was a month and a half when this was taken (not sure who captured this), at my mom's 60th birthday party. -Dahlia with her everlasting cuteness, and me with my bangs that are now already a sweep because I can't stand styling them everyday...

The Doting Aunt and another hiatus

I'm an Aunt!!! It's official! And I'll admit, it's turned me into a monster. All of those annoying people that have a new family member born and insist on showing everyone baby pictures, yeah, that's me. I can't help it though! She is honestly the cutest baby I've ever seen!

Her name is Dahlia Jane, and she was born last Weds, 4/7 at 6:02PM. Believe it or not, Dahlia came out of an online Anagram finder when Tali and Cliff entered my name, my mom's name, and Cliff's mom and sister's names. How cool is that?! And to make it even cooler, when Cliff googled "Dahlia Wildman," they discovered that the "Wildman" is actually a type of Dahlia!

Ok, you get it, I'm smitten, and I frankly have been insaaaaanely busy, and will continue to be, so I leave you with photos. Pretty much everyone who reads my blog has already seen photos, because, yeah, I'm that aunt. Remember?

I'll try to be back soon with some house (*ehem* baby) updates. :)

spending time with mommy

spending time with Auntie