Our One Year Old

Holly's birthday was August 15th. She & I spent the day at home together. We went out to breakfast where she ate a pancake, bacon, eggs & toast. At her exact birth time of 0949 one year after her birth our baby girl was wearing a birthday gift playing in the front yard. This is so her. Happy, almost always smiling, sassy & just darn cute. After her doctor's appt where we found out she weighed 18lbs 4oz (10%) & was 28.5 (25%) we went home to take her official one year photos in her new princess dress & then after naptime we spent some time playing in the backyard in the water. This month she started walking instead of crawling, chattering nonstop but still only saying mama & dada. She discovered a love for the water. The water table, the sprinklers, the beach & the tub. She is one of the happiest babies I have ever seen. Everyone she meets tells us how lovely she is & she makes them as happy as he makes us. Happy Birthday Holly Moon! We love you!

Our Last 1st Birthday Party

I'm full of emotions as I write this post. Excited for Holly Moon to enter the world of being a toddler & sad that we will no longer have a baby in our house. We celebrated our baby girl's 1st birthday party with a princess castle, a pretty pink & purple cake, pink balloons, good food & lots of friends. Holly had a wonderful day. She wandered around the party all day in her little princess tutu smiling at all her new friends & guests. She was such a big girl. She never cried & enjoyed all the attention. Once everyone ate lunch it was time for birthday cake. After the birthday song Holly just stared at her cake. She timidly touched  the cake at first but after that first bite we couldn't stop her. She loved the cake! She just kept shoving it into her mouth. Her brothers were there to help her out too & Johnnie even showed her that she could just use her mouth instead of her hands. Our baby girl was covered in cake & only stopped eating because she got cake in her eyes. And the last photo of her cake explains why they call it a smash cake.

After a wardrobe change to get her out of her cake covered dress it was time for a few more photos & the passing out of favors which included this princess wand that Holly wouldn't let go of.  Our friends were so generous. I don't think we will have to buy clothes for our baby girl for the entire year & she loved her little pink purse, phone, new owl jammies, her books & her ride on toy. And so did Jimmy.

Thank you friends for making our girl's day so special!

Beach Day

It has been really hot here lately. Perfect summer weather. So we took the kids to the beach this past weekend.It was a wonderful day for us, the kids & our friends. Johnnie immediately loved the water & stayed in it all day except the moments he was digging for sand crabs with Kelsea.

 

Joey took some coaxing but after a few hours we couldn't get him out of the water. Jimmy barely ventured off the beach towels but he did have a good time playing with trucks & making sand castles with Lorelei.

Rick spent the day being tackled by children & ocean waves. And baby Holly visited the beach for the first time. At first she stayed under the umbrella with her bestie Whitney. But then she ventured down to the beach with Auntie Kim. And when she found the water she loved it so much that we had to take turns trying to keep her from throwing herself in it. It was a great day & hopefully there are lots more left because I love seeing the kids so happy!

Connecticut

The Olympics has taken a toll on my blogging. I find myself staring at the television for hours on end while my computer sits buzzing on my lap. But tonight I'm back to share photos from our trip back East. For 2 weeks in July we traveled with all our children to visit gramma & grandpa Joe in Connecticut. It was the first time we took all the children on the airplane & surprisingly enough they did wonderful. And once we arrived the children had 10 days to build wonderful memories with their East coast family. Johnnie had so much fun spending one on one time with gramma. Drawing, playing outside with airplanes, going on walks to the pond alone with gramma & with his brothers. 

 

It was so warm our entire visit which allowed for lots of hours spent outside enjoying a mini pool (a first for Holly) & the slip & slide which was a first for the boys. Johnnie also had the chance to play Badminton & he LOVED it.

We also made time for cuddles, naps, first steps, first meetings with papa, a family bbq, time with cousin Isobel & a best man job in a wedding which is the main reason we ventured back East in the first place.

Our last day was bittersweet. We had a wonderful visit. The kids loved all their special moments with their grandparents & right before we got in the car to drive away we made sure to take some last photos & then poor Jimmy asked gramma to go on one last walk to the pond but she had to say no because it was time to go. Our little guy fell apart & cried as we drove away while the other boys just sat silent in their seats. And that's how we knew the boys had as much fun as we did. We can't wait for our next visit. But I imagine even though we have been gone for 3 weeks they finally just recovered from the visit because these kids may be cute but they are loud & a handful including the 6'4" kid.