Easter Weekend Part 3

First, the bunny left the kids each a basket full of goodies....their favorite item??? A silly straw.

Then it was time for the hunt.....

If you ever lose anything, Ava is not the girl to call to help find it.....

The Loot....

Easter Weekend Part 2

The traditional family pictures...everyone wearing something new. (I love that about Easter!) Got the girl's dresses on ebay and bought Levi's shirt before he was born.

Easter Weekend Part 1

We are hit and miss on dying easter eggs from year to year. Some years, I'm gung-ho and some years I just don't feel like it. I'm pretty sure that from here on out, we'll dye them every year because the girls are getting old enough to care. We had a great time just sitting around the table and coloring all kinds of designs on the eggs. They were absolutely amazed after pulling each one out of the dye! They did look really great and we've figured out that if you use a bright crayon and then dye them in dark dye, it almost has a blacklite effect. Very cool!

12 months

This is officially the last "month" post that I'll do. After this, it gets too confusing and tedious to go by the month! We took Biggie to the dr today for his 12 month well check and shots as well as to see how his weight and height were looking. A few months back, he fell completely off the growth chart and was no longer growing at a healthy rate. The dr. decided to give him until his first birthday before she began running tests to see if he had something wrong. We have been working diligently since then to get him chubby and longer. Well, the verdict is in....he's HEALTHY! He finally came back up on the growth chart! He is 18 lb 4 oz and 28.5 inches long. To put it in perspective, Elle was 17.6 lbs and 29.25 and Ava was 18.7 lbs and 30.5 inches so he's right in the middle and he was my smallest baby too. I'm very pleased with where he's at, even though he has about 35 pairs of pants that won't fit him for a long time and he mostly wears the same pair of jeans that he's worn since he was about 4 months old. Anyway, I am thrilled that he proved himself today and feel like we can all move on now from this little nagging issue. I am feeling sad and happy at this point. I miss the sweet still baby part, but all the milestones coming up are so much fun. I am excited for him to walk soon hopefully. He is my only baby that I'm totally fine with not walking for a while. I would love for him to be walking pretty good by camp so that's my goal I guess. He can crawl really fast at this point. He lights up when he sees his sisters and especially when he sees his Daddy. It is wonderful! He hates having his diaper changed and loves his bottle. He takes 2 naps a day and sleeps around 3 hours at each nap!! At night he sleeps from about 8:30ish to 7:40. I love this about him :) He loves to go outside and will stare out the back window in hopes that I'll take him out. He loves just about all food but has a very sensitive gag reflex which means if he doesn't like it, he's going to puke. It's very annoying but we've gotten good at being proactive with that! He can now say Mama, Dada, Eyye (Elle), Aba (Ava), Bibu (Bible), Bye Bye, Baba (Baby), Ba (Ball) and Ah Don (all done). Oh and I could swear he said "NO!" to Ava the other day. lol He has four teeth so we are able to get into more solids now. He is our family's free entertainment and we all love him so much!

Seven, the Perfect Number

*** UPDATE: If you are on facebook, I put an album up of each of their birthday parties with more pictures than I had time to put on this blog so go check out all the others!

My FIRST baby turned seven on Sunday and since we had Levi's party on Friday, we took advantage of the fact that all of the family was in, and had her party on Saturday. Months and months ago, she very confidently stated that she wanted a hula party. My eyes lit up. Not only do I love that she picked an noncommercialized theme, but for my 30th bday, my friends threw a Hawaiian themed party for me and then gave me all the decorations! I was SO excited!!! The party went perfectly and was a lot of fun!

Me, My mom, and My sis and her baby bump...she's due in August!

I will cherish this picture forever!

The cake Shawn saved the day! I made a CD of Hula music and it wouldn't play on the CD player. He used his laptop and it played and the girls were so excited. They did a lot of hula dancing!

Make a wish!

Cake; Day 2

Junie B; First Grader Aloha Ha Ha This is her first chapter book that she actually wants to read. She is reading it and actually telling me about what is happening! Yeah!!!

Matching shirts :) Thanks for going to Goodwill at the last minute and buying a shirt Shawn, just because you knew it was important to me :D

And here's the birthday girl with a big ol' bowl of lima beans. She said she loved them a few days before her birthday so I tested that theory at the party. She truly does seem to like them! Quirky girl!

Oh how I love to dress up!

The Big Day Finally Arrived!

First, let me say this is my 800th post and wow! I still love blogging! Okay onto important matters. Friday was Levi's 1st birthday and subsequently his party. It was downright painful to pick out just a few pictures (there were almost 300!) that give my perspective of the day. It was wonderful! Everything went just as I hoped it would. Thank you so much to all the family and friends that took time out of your busy lives and spent money getting here, just to show how much you love us :) It truly was a day to celebrate!

The theme was alligators...why? Because I felt like it. I saw invites months and months ago that I liked and they had an alligator on them, so the rest was history!

Closer look at Levi's cupcake

His birthday banner. Took the longest of all three kids, but love it so much!!!

First, he started with a one finger touch---so gentle and unsure....

...this fairly quickly precipitated into this!

...and this,

and this, where he's admiring his work,

....and ended in this. Oh he did love his cupcake :)

Yes, I am one and I'll even show you with my short, chubby little finger.

The End.

1st Haircut

Levi received his first haircut today. I wanted to get him all spiffied up for his big day tomorrow. I contemplated taking him somewhere but was just too nervous plus I knew it would be way too expensive for what he needed done. So I did what I always do...googled it. I watched a video and looked at step-by-step instructions and felt confident enough to attempt it. Of course I wasn't really doing anything real advanced, but it was kind of high pressure to me! One mistake and it's in pictures for the rest of his life! Anyway, here's the pictures Shawn took. I think he looks MUCH better and is somehow even cuter than before!

Shaggy boy

He really didn't care at all that he was getting a haircut. As long as Shawn kept giving him his favorite snack, he was perfect!

This freaks me out. I went to take the "after" picture and without any prodding, this is the pose he struck. How in the world did he happen to do the thumbs up sign. Another child prodigy in the making...and with a nice free haircut to boot!

Welcome

Made this for the front door today. I am by NO means a wreath-maker at all and the idea of doing one gives me hives and panic attacks, but the budget said either I DIY or I have nothing for the front door. I think it turned out pretty good. I might tweek it a little bit more, but here it is ready to welcome anyone heading our way. Now I want to paint my door black to match the wreath. hmmm... Oh and the two reddish colors don't totally match, but that's the perfectionist in me speaking up.

Similarities

Am I the only one that sees the similarities in my 1st and 3rd babies?

Texas Tradition

Only 6 Bluebonnets were harmed in the making of these photos.