Happy 1st Birthday Hailey Sophia!

WOW....just wow. I cannot believe my baby girl is 1 yr old already. This past year has flown by! Hailey is such a sweet baby girl and loves to come cuddle with me. She is very much a mama's girl. She is funny when it comes to people that are strangers to her. Sometimes she will be fine and be their friend but most of the time if they so much as look at her she will start bawling. With the exception of my friend next door. She loves her and is always actually happy to see her! The girl didn't start getting mobile til she was around 10 months old. That was when she started crawling. Then she took a few steps on her first birthday but waited for a few days to really try again. Now, she is full on walking and it is too cute. She has a small vocabulary. The words she can say are mama, da (for dada), mma (for Emma), lijah (for Eli), lala (for Kayla), no no, hi, dat (for that). She will point to everything and say "dat" so we find ourselves explaining everything in sight. She now has 9 teeth and her favorite food to chew with those teeth is cheese. Any form and kind of cheese.

We decided not to have a birthday party for her this year because there was too much going on around that same time. So we just celebrated as a family with pizza and cake. Kayla baked and decorated Hailey's cake and it was yummy! My dad, step-mom and little brother came over for a bit to give Hailey her present and watch her open it. So in all it was a pretty relaxed day for all of us.

Happy 9th Birthday Elijah!

Holy cow...I cannot believe he is already 9 yrs old! How did that happen?! Time flies when raising kids. It seems like just yesterday I was changing his diapers. Oh wait, that must have been Hailey. :)

We celebrated as a family at home by cooking Eli cheeseburgers. The kid ate a double cheeseburger...it was huge! Then he got to open his presents and we had ice cream cake to end the night. Yummy!

He got a couple DS games (the ones we got him for Christmas were too hard), a new Nerf gun with an extra set of "bullets" for his big Nerf and some money. One of the games he got is Transformers and the kid is breezing through it. He is quite funny with it because he talks to us about the game as though we will understand all the lingo. He also got Mario Kart and I think we all like playing that one!

(I have no idea what I did to this post so sorry for the funky layout!)

Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is my mom's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is because a lady never tells. :) Of course, we didn't get to do anything with her because she spent the day traveling to CA to go celebrate my uncles retirement. But we all got to wish her a happy birthday on the phone this evening. We will just have to do something nice for her when she gets back next week!

Thirty-one

Wow. It's official. I am IN my 30's now. No longer just 30. I can remember when I was Eli and Kayla's age thinking that 30 was ancient! Like life stopped at 30. Man. Thank God that isn't true! In some ways, I feel like life is only just beginning! I can certainly say that I never thought I would have 4 kids by the time I turned 31!

The day was very low key which is what I like anymore. The kids and I spent the day together just hanging out and cleaning up. Then JR and I went out for dinner in the evening. While we were out, his dad and step-mom came and sat with the kids. Of course, Emma is painfully shy but she did eventually open up to Connie. She still wouldn't totally open up with grandpa! JR got me an ice cream cake...yumm! And he and the kids gave me money to go shopping for badly needed post-pregnancy clothes! I also got a Shark hand-vac from my mom; New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn from my dad (completed my collection); a Starbucks gift card from mother-in-law. Good stuff!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma!

Today was Emma's 2nd birthday! I cannot believe it has been 2 yrs already! At times it seems like she has always been here and at times she seems so new! I have loved watching all of her growth over this last year. Really developing a rather large vocabulary for one. I don't know that there is a word out there that she can't say! The funny thing is how soft spoken she can be. You would think that being in such a large family you would learn to speak up to be heard but instead she goes the other direction. And sometimes, when you ask her what she said, she will say it even lower the next time! She does know how to get what she wants though! She is one tough cookie and isn't afraid to fight her poor brother for anything! She very much looks up to Kayla and would be fine spending every waking hour with her. And Hailey, she does love her and wants to hold her alot but is also ok with Hailey sleeping and Emma getting all the attention. When she wants to hold Hailey she will ask "Can I hoed her?". She can't say hold so it comes out hoed. And whenever she says something like spoon or snake it comes out as sa-poon or sa-nake. Love it! Of course, we have to be aware of not talking like her so she can learn how to say the word the right way. And more importantly, so we don't walk around talking like Emma at work or school!


So for her birthday we decided not to have a party and we would just have family over. Well geez, when there are 4 sets of grandparents plus aunts and uncles....that ends up being a party! We ended up having 5 grandparents, 1 surrogate grandma (my step-sister and step-brothers mom Rhonda), an aunt, and an uncle here. Plus my giant family! A couple of the grandparents weren't able to come because of already scheduled plans. So we had cake and ice cream and let Emma open her presents. Emma is so shy that it is kind of funny. She was hiding behind this little half wall when my dad was coming to the door and then wouldn't look at anyone but Rhonda. She sat on her lap for quite some time before it was time to open presents. She did finally decide it would be ok to hug everyone though by the time they were leaving.


We gave her one of her presents in the morning, then she went to Nana's house and got more presents there, then she had the ones everyone brought to her. But she still enjoyed opening every last one of them! And now imagine how confusing it must be for her to wake up on the 26th and there are no presents and people aren't telling you happy birthday (whatever that means) and treating you special! 1 of the big gifts we got for her was a Dora bed set for her "big girl" bed so that she can transition from her crib to a twin daybed. Wish us luck with that one!

Before the madness.....

You can't see Emma but it sums up the evening!

After presents we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake. She was too cute while we were singing to her. She was facing away from everybody because of where her chair was (and no I didn't think to move it!). When everyone started to sing, a smile very slowly crept up on her face until it was full blown and she was looking around at everyone. Her expression kind of said "hey...this is cool that they are all singing to ME!".

Happy Birthday Lorie!

We got to celebrate Lorie's birthday with her this year since she was in town. Her birthday is July 5th but we did cake on the 4th since we were all together. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

Emma being very shy of Grandpa Patty (my father)

A good portion of the group (several people missing like my mom and step-dad and my brother-in-law)

Lorie dishing out her own cake! Geez we are mean!

Happy 12th Birthday Kayla!

Wednesday the 12th was Kayla's "Golden Birthday"....12 on the 12th. I am still processing the fact that I have a 12 yr old.....and will soon have a newborn! :)

Kayla had the joy of CSAP's for her birthday this year! And then we took her to dinner at Fargo's Pizza (the same place we took Eli) which was her choice. Then we came home and had ice cream cake. Yummy! We got her a gift card for her favorite store Aeropostale so I took her shopping too.

These three pictures are all in the arcade....the kids playing a driving game.

The really exciting stuff will be happening this weekend. She will have 6 girls coming over tomorrow and we will be taking them to the movies. This is a big step for Kayla because it's the first time she will do anything without JR or I being there with her! She is super excited for that. Then all of those giggly girls will be spending the night here. Yes we are aware that there are only 3 candles on the cake....we didn't have 12 on hand so we improvised....1 and 2 to make the number 12!

Happy 8th Birthday Eli!

Today was Eli's 8th birthday. He got donuts for breakfast as a special treat. JR had to go plow (we got a surprise snow sometime between 5-8am) so Eli got to go do his last property with him. Then he got to open his gifts.

He got running pants and shorts from Emma

And a long sleeved Denver Broncos t-shirt from Kayla to go with the pants

And an mp3 player from JR and I.

Then we took him to a place called Fargo's Pizza. It is set in the 20's but is a fun place for kids. You get a number when you order and that number comes up on mirrors placed all throughout the 2 story building when your food is ready. There is an obnoxious piano playing in the background. And there is an arcade downstairs. The funny part is that we sent Kayla and Eli down to the arcade after dinner with only $4 to split between the 2 of them. I did that figuring they would check in sooner rather than later. Well I can proudly say that we are teaching our children well when it comes to money and morals.....they found a racing game that was the only "non-vulgar" (their words) game there and the game cost 50 cents so each would put in 25 cents and then one would push the gas while the other worked the wheel. Talk about making your money stretch! Too funny!

Then it was home for cake. Kayla baked it and frosted it while JR and Eli were out plowing and it turned out really cute. Nana gave her a Betty Crocker cake decorating kit (I'm sure most of you have seen the info-mercial on TV) so Kayla put it to the test today.

Here is Kayla's artwork...the things in each corner are light sabers

This is while we were singing Happy Birthday to him

Blowing out his candles

The big 3-0

Yesterday was my 30th birthday - yep you read that right I am ONLY 30 - and I was asked to post a blog about it....so don't think I am THAT full of myself! :)

Anyways, I had dreaded this age for so many years that by the time I got to it...it was nothing! I welcome it!

My entire family wished me a happy birthday in the morning before work/school, I got to work to a happy bday email from my mom (JR is the one that drops Emma off so I don't typically talk to her until after school/work), got a call from several people throughout the day, a card from my coworkers welcoming me to the "30" club (heehee I was one of the last!). My mom watched the kids while JR and I went out to dinner. The funny part about that was we went at 4:30 but we went to Texas Roadhouse which is impossible to get in at any other time of day! Then the family did cake and presents for me. Sorry but I only got a picture of the cake...I am usually the one behind the camera! Then after all that I went and hung out with a couple of friends for the evening! Overall a good day and was treated wonderfully! Naturally! :)



Here is my cake that Kayla made while she was at Nana's house. That should give you an idea of just how crazy this week has been....that was seriously the only time to do it!

We didn't have 30 candles...nor did we think it would be such a great idea...so I only had to blow out 1!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Yesterday was Emma's actual birthday. I cannot believe that baby is 1 already! My how time flies! She ended up having a pretty busy day yesterday. Nana brought her to my work so everyone could see how big she is and see her walking. Well to also help me out since Emma had her well baby check-up...kept me from having to go from one side of town to the other! And of course Emma loves to have people stare at her so she was in her element at work! One of the guys I work with let her play with a toy car, which she drove on the floor a bit. She has learned from her brother how to make car noises, so she make a car sound when she plays with them. It is quite cute hearing it come out of her mouth. The Val gave her a picture of Morgan to carry around.....she gave her some kisses and tried to get Nana to stuff her in her purse for later.



First we had to go get Eli from school. He found it a bit strange to have Emma in the car because we usually go get her from Nana's house together while we wait for Kayla to finish track practice.

Then we headed off to her appointment....found out she weighs 24lbs 12oz and is 30.5" long. So she is right around the average size for height and just over average for weight. She's a healthy girl! We got there a bit early and didn't get in until after the scheduled time so we spent lots of time in the waiting room.

After we got home we ate some dinner and then tried the birthday cake thing again. (see earlier post for previous issues) I am guessing she just didn't like the first cake because she tore into this one! Finally have one kid that is willing to get a bit dirty! And then we did family presents....yep more to add to the bulging toybox! Here are the pictures from that.

Getting ready to blow out the candle

Uh-oh here we go again.....

Yummmmm

And she's done with it....she has already learned to take advantage of having a dog....when you are done with it...throw it over the high chair and the dog will be there to catch it!

Kayla set up this "throne" for her to open her presents

Bath toys from Kayla because she gives her a bath alot

A little people SUV from Eli...naturally

A baby doll from daddy (she smells really good too)

And a set of soft balls from Momma

As you can see, we have had enough of the loud, flashy toys so we opted for things that don't make noise or make soft noises! And the girl is set for the next year at least!