Visiting Arkansas

The last week of October Lucy and I went home to Bentonville, Arkansas for one quick week to see my best friend get married. The trip was great and Lucy amazed me at how well she did on the flights. It's all about that bassinet seat!! We were also lucky to have an empty seat next to us on almost every flight. By the way, I kept track of how many individual flights Lucy was on in her first year and the grand total is 26. So hopefully that translates to a baby who is used to traveling?? I can only hope.

This is a bit of a random post, but I pulled out some videos of me from when I was a baby to see what I looked like. These are screenshots from the video of when I was 9 months old. Definitely some similarities, but I still think she's a really good mix of Duke and I.

we went for lots of walks on the pretty walking trails. Lucy was a bit tired here.

 

My mom asked me to take some Sr pictures for my little brother. I'm most definitely not even close to professional, but it was actually kind of fun to try. Isn't he handsome?? ;)

 I realllllllly wanted to take Lucy to a pumpkin patch because they do not exist in Okinawa. We didn't have time to go to a real one, but there was a church that sells some and so we stopped and took some pictures. Close enough I guess.

I can't wait till we can fix her little lazy eyelid (we have to wait till she's 5) but she's still cute :)

 Grandma & Lucy!

ok, now it's mom/lucy/pumpkin overload time...

 ^They recently relocated a Frank Lloyd Wright house to Bentonville. It wasn't open yet, but we walked by.

 Lucy's birthday was the last day we were home so we had to have a  little celebration on the real day! Some of my friends came and we just had some cake and sang to her. And she got to wear her crown again. win/win.

Classic Lucy face right now. Duke does an impression of her, I'll have to post a side by side of one these day.

 Hanging on the square with my friend Stacy-the one who got married. I'll do another post with pictures from that beautiful day.

 bestie since 9th grade!

Three generations right here. Can you tell we're related?? ;)

Lucy's 1st Birthday Party!

I threw Lucy a "twinkle twinkle little star" themed birthday party a few days before we left for the states. I decided I wanted to go big for her first birthday; it was a big milestone for me as well as her. I spent a lot of time working on all the stuff for it and stressed myself out, but it was all worth it in the end! My blogging friend Mindy took all the pictures (she's great if you're looking for a photog in Oki!) and my friend Carolyn frosted both the cakes. Fair warning--there are lots of pictures ahead!!

pb&j star-shaped sandwiches!

birthday girl!

 still can't believe she is one. whatt?!

 i think we can all agree this picture^ is the best.

 took her a while to get into the cake. she poked it for a while, then i put some frosting in her mouth, which she did not appreciate. Then she got going. 

 Aftermath-not bad!

 some of our friends who came to celebrate!

 I don't really feel like 1 year olds need gifts, but thanks to those who brought some. It was very thoughtful.

 one of our friends got her a book in japanese & translated it using google translate. I laugh every time i read it.

 ^This picture is SO Lucy. She always has her mouth open, usually has something in her hand she's dragging around, and she's ready to get her scoot on. 

 All tuckered out.

Love this picture of my two babies sitting outside the kitchen door.

Thanks to everyone who came. We missed those who couldn't. It was a blast to celebrate our little Lucy!