1 year

The day has come...my baby girl is 1! How can time go so fast? In NO WAY does it seem like she should be 1 yet. :( I always like to go back and read about my babies on their last birthday, so today I went back and read Reese's birth story. So glad that I have documented it so I can remember all the details. I totally forgot that Chad got so sick the night Reese was born...that'll teach him for eating all the food in front of me when I was STARVING. :)

When we got Reese up this morning the girls and I sang Happy Birthday to her and she got this huge smile on her face and bopped up and down. Like she knew exactly that today was her day. Tonight we had cupcakes to celebrate her birthday as a family. Lucky girl has been celebrating all week. She has her 1 year checkup next week. I'm excited to see how big she is getting.

At 1 year Reese is:

• a SUPER fast crawler
• loves to climb - especially stairs
• has taken a few steps on her own, not long before she's walking
• has 3 teeth - with several more just at the surface ready to break through
• a GREAT sleeper - almost 12 hours at night and 2 naps during the day
• LOVES her sisters - squeals when they talk to her
• likes Queenie almost as much as her sisters
• is starting to give kisses when asked
• waves hello and goodbye and will occasionally say "hi"
• says "mama" and "dada"
• likes to be outside - will stand at the door and whine until we take her out
• doesn't like to touch grass
• favorite food is meat sticks (yuck!)

Looking forward to getting away this weekend together as a family. We are taking our first camping trip of the season. Hopefully the clouds have run out of rain... :)

daycare party

Today Reese was able to celebrate her 1st birthday with her daycare friends at Mawmaw's house. A big thanks to Mom B. for starting the party (gift opening) a little later than normal so I could run there on my lunch break to watch Reese open her gifts.

Reese looked like a pro opening presents. Dove right in and pulled out the tissue paper, then the gifts, then looked back in the bags to make sure she didn't miss anything. :)

What great friends she has at daycare. So many cute outfits and fun toys. When they sang Happy Birthday to her, she smiled and bopped up and down dancing away. :)

1st Party

What a great day we had on Saturday celebrating Reese's 1st birthday. Except for the wind, it was just about perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, just a tad windy. ;)

We had great family...Lots of great gifts... Reese even enjoyed the paper. In fact, she wasn't happy when Daddy told her she couldn't just play (read eat) the paper. Daddy got scolded.Of course there was cake...Reese is the 1st of my girls to actually get her hands in the cake and dig in. The other girls just basically poked the cake and ate off their pointer fingers. Reese threw her arms up, squealed and dove in. Even though she grabbed handfuls, she was still a lady about it. She didn't make too much of a mess. :)And of course there was lots of playing outside.

T.Y.D.T.W.D.

Presley was able to come and spend the afternoon at my school last week for "Take Your Daughter to Work Day."
She had lots of fun with my kids. My kids had lots of fun with her as well. I found this picture on my phone tonight. I had taken it with my phone and sent it to Chad. Chad wanted Presley to go to his classroom upstairs, but I don't blame her for not wanting to go. Would you pick recess or math? Center time or seat work? Seriously, he has nothing on my class. ;) He did eventually come down and convince her to go up to his class with the promise of a story. Next year maybe I'll attempt to have both Presley and Addison come....maybe.

p.s. I'm still working on going through Reese's birthday pictures. Hopefully I'll get them up soon. In the meantime, my sister Jenny put some here that you can take a look at. Tonight I was busy making cupcakes for Reese's daycare party tomorrow. The fun continues!

cupcake

Today we celebrated this little cupcakes 1st Birthday just a few days early. So hard for me to believe it's been a year already (almost). Great weather. Great family to celebrate with. I'm exhausted. Is it just me who creates more work when cleaning up to have people over? Instead of just putting laundry away, I decided to change out the girls' winter clothes with their summer clothes. It seems I always find something like this when picking up to have people over. What should take just a little bit of time, takes so much longer. I'll post more pictures later, I have lots....I'm off to bed now. Thanks everyone for helping Reese celebrate today. She crashed tonight. I'm pretty sure that means she had a GREAT day! ;)

busy, busy, busy

Life just never seems to slow down for us here. We've been doing some deep cleaning - cleaning out/organizing basement, sorting kid's clothes, baby things, getting garage sale stuff around on top of our every day/week stuff. Plus we had such a great weekend weather wise that we were able to work outside also. Saturday we took advantage of the great weather and took our first trip to the zoo for the year. We met up with cousins Reagan and Reilly and A.Hildy for the last little bit. Sunday Presley sang with her pre-school friends at the church she goes to pre-school at. Reese has been busy working on her 3rd tooth. She got her first two teeth early and then has taken forever to get her next one. She's been extra drooly with a runny nose on top of that, but thankfully it has popped through. The good thing is, she doesn't seem to be too bothered by them. I do see another one about to pop through as well. I'm hoping that doesn't bother her either. Monday was the start of "TV Turn Off Week". These are the shirts the teachers wore for the kick-off. Addy loved looking at Wilbur and Charlotte.Chad picked up his 4th job on Monday. He worked at McDonald's for McTeacher's night. Just as we were pulling into the parking lot to pick him up after his shift and eat dinner, Reese got sick. So unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. (I think Reese just kind of gagged on her runny nose, because thankfully she's was fine right after and has been great today.) So instead of eating at McDonald's we went through the drive-through and took it home. We've been trying to keep the kids busy at night with other things than TV. Thankfully we don't watch a whole lot anyways, but it's been a little harder with the rainy weather. We normally are outside most of the evenings, but with the rain we've been playing lots of Leapster, princess, and Barbies. I think both Presley and Addison could play with their Leapsters for an hour or more. They love them. Another thing we did to keep the girls busy was giving them haircuts. I cut both Presley's and Addison's hair the other night. It takes me quite awhile, but I think it looks pretty cute.

And if you haven't noticed, we also picked up Addy's new glasses!

Aren't they just the cutest! I LOVE them. Of course we had to video conference with Nana and Papa and Skype with Mawmaw and Pawpaw to show them the new specs. I can't stop looking at her. So cute! The only thing is, they make her look so big to me now. I think it's the new hair-cut, the glasses and oh, I don't think I've mentioned, but the big girl panties she's been sporting for the last month or so. We started potty training her and within the first week she had only had 3 accidents all week! We didn't even go to pull-ups. Straight to big girl panties and only 3 accidents for the whole week! :) And since that first week, we've been smooth sailing. Not a single accident. So proud of her.

Tonight is the first night we are trying panties at night. We'll see how it goes. She is dry almost every morning when she wakes up, but I haven't been brave enough to try them at night yet. Hopefully we will have a big celebration tomorrow morning.

Edited to add: We have had TWO wonderful celebrations in the morning with Addison! I think she's trained. :) So happy for her (and us too, no more diapers.) Unfortunately, I think we waited a little too long with Presley. She has gotten used to the diapers at night, and still wakes up wet. The Dr. said not to push her, she would just do it on her own when she was ready. But I think I'M READY! Maybe seeing her little sister do it, will help her want to stay dry too.

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! What a great reason we have to celebrate today! HE is risen! I just love the sunshine today. That was the cherry on top of such a great day. (This is a pretty good picture considering we had the camera on a tripod and on a timer, huh?)

After opening baskets at our house and going to church we went to Mawmaw and Pawpaw's for lunch with U.Ben, A.Cindy, & co.

I LOVE this picture of Addy. Shows exactly who she is. I can just hear her giggle when I look at this picture.

LOVE it.Love them too!

What stinkers I have. They sure make us work hard for a picture. :)

The Easter Bunny stopped over at Mawmaw's house too. He sure is smart. He knew just what to get Presley.And Addy too.

He didn't forget Reese, either.

After they opened their baskets from Mawmaw and Pawpaw they went outside to hunt for their eggs.

With cousin Gabi.

egg hunt

Yesterday we took the kids to church for the egg hunt/petting zoo/puppet show. Reese wasn't that interested. (Is the fake/cheesey smile thing starting already?)Addy was ready to find some eggs.After the egg hunt we went with R&R, U.Matt, A.Jenny, & A.Hildy for lunch and a walk around campus. We also got some family pics. Thanks A.Jenny. We traditionally have gone out to breakfast Easter morning, but this year with Reese's morning naptime, it just would not have worked, so we decided to get together early.

Opening eggs Easter morning...As soon as Presley woke up Easter morning she came in our room and said, "Mom, I think I heard the bunnies footsteps." :)

" Seriously Mom, How many pictures do you need? Can't I just open my basket yet?"

Reesey-peesey

The girls lucked out again with their baskets. They got some new Minnie-mouse p.j.'s (to hype up our summer Disney trip) , the movie Bolt, a new baby (for Reese) and of course a little bit of candy.

eggs

We decided to try out our egg-coloring kit last night. The kids were super-excited, Addison especially. Even Reese. Although to be honest, I think she was thrilled just to be sitting in her seat having some fruit for a snack. ;)

Presley was excited to get started. All she could muster was a fake-smile for me.

Then the wait time got to long for Addison... "You mean we have to take turns?"

Presley's turn.

Ok, now it was Addy's turn.

See, fake smile again?

The finished product. They were supposed to be tie-dyed...I don't think they turned out exactly right, but the girls didn't seem to mind.