First Birthday Party

We had Julia's first birthday party last week.  We decided to make it a Minnie Mouse themed party, since she loves Minnie Mouse.  Our families came to visit.  We got to see Grammy, Pup-Pup, Grandma, Pap-Pap, Uncle Joe, Aunt Molly, Aunt Karen, and Grandma Farm.  We also had some friends at the party too.  We didn't play any games or do any special activities.  Julia had cake and opened her presents.  She loved the cake!  She also figured out how to open her presents by herself.  The party was simple, but it was a lot of fun.  I can't believe my baby is already one.

Now for the pictures of the first birthday bash!

All dressed up for the party!

I love Minnie Mouse!

I love my brother!

Special cake.

Mommy took my clothes off.  What is going on?

This looks interesting.

What is this?

I'm not sure...

The other kids were not interested.

Somebody decided that I needed a hat too.

I tasted the cake.

It was good.

I really like it!

I'm digging in.

I'm going to keep going.

So good!

More please!

Daisy would like some too!

I opened this one all by myself!  Thanks B family!

More presents.

I love my Minnie Mouse bank.

This care is nice, but I like Minnie better.

Happy Birthday Julia!

Happy first birthday Julia!  It is so hard to remember what it was like without you in our lives.  You are the sweetest little girl who loves to laugh and smile.  You are tough and you put up with your crazy big brother really well.  You love the dog and her name, Daisy, was your first word.  You love to eat anything, especially macaroni and cheese.  You easily eat as much as a 5 year old child.  You still won't walk, even though I know that you are ready.  You want to crawl and hold onto things as you walk.  I think that you are afraid to let go.  You are super sensitive too and will cry if we tell you no to something.  Right now, you are wearing 18 month clothes, but I think that you are either losing weight or maintaining at the moment.  You are still nursing once every night, but that is stopping tonight.  It makes me very sad, but I know that you have to grow up.  You still won't drink anything but water out of a cup, so we will see what the doctor has to say about that.   We had a big birthday party for you this past weekend.  I'll post about that on a different date. We really love you and can't believe that you are already a year old.  Time really does fly.

Pirate Party

Alexander turns 4 on Wednesday. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.  This weekend, we had his birthday party.  It was a lot of fun.  He is really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so we had a pirate themed birthday party.  The kids got to make real pirate hats and pirate flags for their pretend pirate ships.  My son, however, thought that he was really going on a pirate ship.  I guess, I didn't make that clear to him.  Oops!

Then, after we finished our crafts, we had a special Jake cake.  It was extra special, because it was the first birthday cake that Alexander was able to eat from a real bakery.  He was very excited.  He didn't actually eat the cake though.  I think he only ate the icing.  Oh well, it was his birthday.

Then the kids played together for a little bit.  They may have had more fun driving the cars, firetrucks, and garbage trucks around than doing the crafts.

Lastly, we opened presents.  His friends were very generous and he got a lot of special presents.  It really was a great day.  Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

Four Years Old

Four years ago today, I gave birth to the most precious beautiful little boy.  I still remember every detail of that wonderful day.  We were truly blessed with the greatest gift when Alexander was born.

Now he is four years old and it is really hard to believe.  Where did the time go?  He is already a big boy.  He has the most wonderful vocabulary and loves to find out what words mean.  He isn't afraid to ask questions and is very friendly with everyone.  He is also a really big flirt.  Now, believe me, he isn't perfect and he can be quite the stinker at times, but he is my little boy and I love him so much.

Right now, he knows most of his letters and can write them.  He is working on learning his numbers.  He always wants to work on his school work and he has an awesome memory for facts.  I wish that I could remember things the way that he can.  He is ready to go to preschool next year.

This year was a big challenge for Alexander.  He became a big brother 8 days after his third birthday.  He has really tried hard to be a good big brother and we work on it every day.  He truly loves Julia and wants her to be happy most of the time.  Sharing things with her has been difficult, but we are working on it.

This year, he also was able to drink milk and eat eggs for the first time.  He isn't too sure about the dairy products, but he always tries something before saying that he doesn't like it.  He has been a real trooper with the eggs too and now he loves poached eggs on toast.

All in all, three was a very exciting year, but I am really looking forward to what the age of four will bring.  Keep on growing and stay healthy little boy.  Know that Daddy and I love you more than anything!

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve - before church (Isn't it a great picture!)

This year, Christmas was really exciting!  Alexander totally understood what was happening and he was super excited on Christmas morning.  He had even asked Santa for 3 things for himself, a helicopter, motorcycles, and a bike.  He also made sure to ask Santa for Minnie Mouse for Julia.  So, of course, Santa  had to make sure to bring those 4 things to our house.  He was very surprised when he got other things from Santa as well.  He kept saying that he didn't ask for certain things.  He definitely liked them though.  Santa knew that Alexander is totally into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so he brought him a Jake dress up kit.  He dressed as Jake for the whole morning.  It was pretty funny.  He also had to ride his new bike.  Luckily that weather was decent and he got to ride outside. 

New bike!

Julia really didn't care about the presents.

There is the helicopter!

Motorcycles!

Santa remembered to bring Minnie!

He also brought Julia a house.

Alexander dressed as Jake.  He is a real pirate now!

Both kids love the house.

Daisy loves opening presents too!

First bike ride.

Then at around 1:00, we packed up the car and headed to Pennsylvania to visit our families, so we thought.  We arrived at Nathan's parents' house that evening.  Julia wasn't feeling well.  We thought she just had a cold, so we didn't worry about it too much.  We opened more presents when we got there and had a fun evening.

Opening presents at Grandma and Pap Pap's house.

More presents!

The next morning, we got an ice storm.  Our plans for that day involved visiting both of Nathan's grandmas and other relatives.  That didn't happen because of the ice.  So we spent that day hanging out in the house.

The next day, we traveled to my parents' house.  By this time, Julia really wasn't feeling well and Alexander was starting to exhibit the cold symptoms.  We persevered though because we had traveled to see our families.  We opened more presents there and then relaxed.  We were supposed to visit with the extended family on Friday. (You can see where this is going, can't you.)

Daisy is worn out!

Playing games on Mommy's new kindle. Uncle Joe gave him the pajamas.  He says they are his favorite gift.

Sick baby.

Julia and Pup Pup.

All the kids.

Grammy and Alexander singing Christmas carols.

On Friday, Julia developed a fever and Alexander was not feeling well either.  I didn't feel great as well.  My brother and his girlfriend had come down with the stomach flu and my one aunt was getting bronchitis.  Because of this, we cancelled our family get together.  So, we essentially traveled to Pennsylvania to see our parents, who we see all the time.  Oh well, hopefully we can see everybody else soon, when we are all healthy.

The kids are starting to feel better now.  Julia's fever was gone today and her cough sounded better.  Alexander sounds a lot better.  It was definitely a Christmas that we will remember!

10 Months Old

Julia turned 10 months old on the 24th of this month.  We've been super busy, so I didn't have time to write about it.  She is growing so fast!  I think she weighs a little over 21 pounds.  I don't know how long she is right now, but my guess is that she is close to 30 inches.  I feel like she has grown longer in the last couple of weeks.  Nathan and I both feel like she is really looking like a toddler.  She is really close to being able to walk now too.  She is standing on her own and has tried to take a couple of steps.  I'm really not ready for her to be walking, but it exciting too. 

She is the happiest baby.  She loves all of us and isn't really shy around strangers.  She has the cutest smile too, with her eight teeth popping out.  We're pretty sure that she can say about 5 words, when she wants too.  She says da da and means it.  She says ma ma.  Her first word was definitely Daisy.  She loves to talk to the dog.  She has said more and no.  This week, she has started to copy me when I say uh uh uh.

She loves her toys and can play by herself for a long time.  I really can't believe that she will be a year in less than 2 months.  Where did the time go?