Summer Fun part 1

A fun visit to Grandpa's

Watch out!

I always think spaghetti pics are cute, this was her first taste. She liked it this time.

The kids and I went down to see Aunt Ellie's new house Thursday-Friday. They had a blast playing at the fun new house with their super fun cousins!

Behind them is a driving range (hence the big nets you may not even be able to see).

Their neighbors have a trampoline they let everyone on, Max sure had fun!

Ali even got a turn:)

We were going to go to the big pool but the kids thought the little one and bubbles was more fun!

I loved when Emma and Luke got their goggles out, wonder what they saw with the goggles they couldn't see without them???

LOTS of bubbles!

And goofy faces!

And the blanket "train"

Aliyah was expecting a call on her new phone...

Not my doing of course...

Saturday night we had dinner with friends. They were eating their dessert. Kate told them to give her a thumbs up so this is what Max did....

Had just a little fun on the 4 wheeler!

Happy 4th of July!!! Dress from Aunt Wendy & Uncle Kris

Picnic at Uncle Jim's

We bring our own pool...

I think he liked the tractor a little:)

And got a ride on the gator

Party!

My birthday princess with her daddy:) Even though I cut back the list since Max's we still ended up with nearly 50 people there; there just happen to be many more babies in the crew in the last 2 years! All the kids got to decorate a pot and plant a flower in it. Max carried his around for a while...

Soooo glad we could be outside this time!!!

It took her a while to taste it, she mused it for a while. She doesn't like to self feed soft foods but once she somehow got a taste it was gone! We actually had to hose down the high chair. Outfit #2 didn't last too long (her cute party dress wasn't warm or practical enough for outside play:))

Outfit #3.... after everyone left she opened her gift from Max that he picked out himself. Sometimes he even lets her play with it...

Actual birthday was the next day Sunday, she got to open the rest of her gifts, with a little help, when Grandma and Grandpa came over for leftovers.

He was VERY into what she got!

More cake, didn't take her quite as long to eat it this time.

Cake should ALWAYS be eaten outside if its your first try!

For 15 minutes at the beginning of the party it was drizzling and there were half a dozen kids around the sand box. This is what happened! It got dumped later this night and Nate put dry sand on one side and water on the other, gross!

ONE

I can't believe my baby is ONE!

She loves to hold up one finger and show everyone. We've been practicing for weeks and Max has been helping to show her.

I don't have stats yet, we go in 2 weeks to the Dr. I feel like she was big at 9 months but hasn't grown much since.

She is in all 12 month clothing now. She is on the move. She can take some steps but still uses crawling as her main mode of transportation. She can say Hi and Bye now along with mama and dada. She still only has her two bottom teeth but she's getting better at small pieces of food. She doesn't like mushy stuff but her new favorite is grilled cheese (which Max eats just about every day for lunch).

I had exactly enough bags of frozen breast milk (just like I did with Max!) to last until her 1st birthday. (She has had formula also as a supplement). However, she does still nurse in the am and before bed. We'll start by dropping her mid morning bottle and then work on dropping the afternoon one (side note because its been a few days but she is NOT happy about this and does NOT want milk in a sippy cup instead of a bottle:)).

She is so sweet most of the time but she has a mean temper and lets you know when she's mad for sure. Max has some really sweet days with her and others where they are at each other ALL day long (and it does go both ways now). She still takes the morning nap at 9:30am (she first wakes up in the morning around 6:45am or 7am) and then her afternoon nap around 2pm.

She is loving being outside and swinging in her swing and playing in the sand or pool.

Its just so funny that she is becoming a little person. I really can't believe I have a 1 and 2 year old. I miss my babies but its so fun to be moving on to new stages and kinda glad I don't have to go back to that. Even now just working between 2 naps and all our meals and snacks its a crazy schedule and I do look forward to be moving on from here to be more flexible.

My big boy!

So tonight I crossed off one of the milestones I wanted to reach this summer. We were going to convert his crib into a toddler bed with a side railing so I went out and bought him cool new car/train/rocket sheets.... not to outdo me Nate brings home a free fire truck bed! He got it from a co-worker and we couldn't pass it up. I'm not sure a kid ever loved a crib more than my son but all day he was excited to sleep in a big boy bed and he sure was. I'm guessing its more of a love for beds in general which again, the sleep thing comes rather naturally to our family:) I'm happy to say there were NO tears on his part but there were on mine. I got really sad when I got him up from his nap this afternoon too. He hung out in there for a long time after Ali and I came in. I even let him eat his fishies and drink his juice in there. He's never anxious to get up for a while after he wakes and I knew it would be the last time I'd see him "behind bars".

When Nate brought this home he was SOOO excited. It only made it to the porch and he was already "working" on it. The new favorite toy in our house!

He just couldn't wait to get a bath and while he sat with me to read and pray he literally jumped out of my lap to get in there. He laid right down and as I closely watch the video monitor, he is finally asleep. I'm so proud he did so well. Just hoping he loves it enough not to get out until I go in to get him in the morning:)

This was Aliyah's first trip in the big sand box. She loves it. This was the greatest thing daddy ever built, hours of fun. If it ever stops raining (9 days in a row) they can get back out in there!

Ellie photo shoot

I only did most of them small for the blog book. I couldn't narrow it down with so many good pics! What an awesome job as usual, Aunt Ellie is very talented!