Caitlyn is 1!

Ok, so this is also a little late, but ... Caitlyn is 1 year old! I don't know how it happened! I'm pretty sure we just brought her home from the hospital yesterday, right?
We had her birthday cake at the Sitthichai family reunion at the Temple Hill campground in Manti the last weekend in July. It was a week before her birthday but we decided to do it then since my whole family was together. I couldn't bring myself to set a big, hardcore sugary cake in front of her when she's still such a little baby (I know, I know, people have been doing it for years). I even considered not having a cake, but then I realized I shouldn't let my fanatacism suck ALL the fun out of Caitlyn's life. My ultimate solution was to bake a homemade carrot cake with wholesome ingredients and then use plain whipping cream with no sugar added for the frosting (her first intro to cows milk). I did add pink sprinkles though, so that's kind of fun, right?

I made a doll cake and it turned out pretty good! Growing up, my mom used to make us whatever kind, shape, theme, etc. we wanted for our birthday cake and we loved it, so I want to continue that tradition.
Caitlyn played the part of birthday girl very well. I had to encourage her at first when we put the cake in front of her, but once she realized that we WANTED her to dig in and were not going to stop her at all, she had a total feast! I actually had to stop her a couple of times from shoving a bite bigger than her fist into her mouth. She was pretty much in cake-heaven. (Incidentally, see that little finger-swipe mark in the front of the cake? Apparently that is Kayla's signature for the cakes in our life -- it just occurred to me that she put an identical swipe mark in our wedding cake before anyone could stop her!)

On Caitlyn's actual birthday we were here in Virginia and in the middle of moving into our apartment. We decided to buy her a push toy (having suddenly realized that her two grandmas have done such an excellent job of supplying her with great toys that we've never actually bought her a toy!) to help her gain confidence walking without holding our hands. It's a pretty sweet toy -- an "Alphabet Train."

Happy Birthday Caitlyn! You are the light of your mommy and daddy's lives!

Caitlyn's First 5K

So this is a little late, but we were at my mom and dad's in Utah for the 24th of July and they have a "Milk Run" every year in Monroe--the little farm town next to our even littler farm town. So Caitlyn and I decided to do it! I went at 6am to register while Caitlyn was still asleep and when I got back my mom was all dressed and said she wanted to come with me and cheer me on. I was so happy! It made my whole day that she wanted to come with me. (Quinn was in Idaho cheering his sister April on at her graduation from BYU-I -- a journey that I decided to let Caitlyn not take after all the traveling she'd just been doing). It was a little chilly at 7am so I bundled her up and off we went. Even though we'll probably never live in a town as small as that, running there in the morning made me miss it. I loved breathing in the clean, fresh country air. Our time was 29:30. Not as good as my last time, but not too bad considering I was pushing the jogging stroller and hadn't been running since we left for our trip to Thailand.


Getting ready to run!


After we crossed the finish line -- she looks exhausted, that was a tough race for her. :)

After the race we went to the parade and then to the celebration at the Monroe City Park, as is tradition. Here is Caitlyn's little 4th of July outfit that Nana gave her. Since we weren't here for the 4th Caitlyn wore it for the 24th.