Playing Catch-up: Annie's Birthday

Annie had her birthday in April....It's hard to believe that my Annie-Bear is already 9 years old. But, she is....and I think she had a fabulous day!!

I may be a little biased...but I think she's beautiful!! :)

Connor is 4

Presents in the morning, followed by his favorite breakfast (rice pudding) and playing with all of his new Batman toys!...

After church was spent building his new Lego's with Dad!...

Followed by his favorite dinner (grilled hotdogs & cheetos) and some tasty cake!

We hope you had a great day, Connor!! You are such an amazing little boy who has blessed our lives so very much!! I love your smile, I love to see how much you love to play with all your Batman toys, and I love watching you being a good helper around the house!! Happy Birthday, Connor-man! We love you!!

One Year Ago Today...

...our beautiful little lady joined our family. Allie has been the perfect addition, too! Allie is absolutely adored by her two big sisters, she gets smothered in kisses regularly from her two big brothers, she has a Daddy that thinks she is the prettiest thing around, and a Mommy who feels so blessed to have this sweet little girl as part of our family!

Allie has grown so much....like all babies during the first year. But, some of her "big" accomplishments are: walking (not all the time, but she can take about 5-6 steps before falling, while giggling her head off!), she has 10 teeth, including her top 2 molars that just grew in, she has been sleeping through the night since she was 2 1/2 months old, she has the cutest crawl in the entire world (if you've seen her crawl, you know exactly what I'm talking about), she loves to babble & can mimic "mama" and "baba" (bottle). Allie also loves to blow raspberries, loves to eat mac & cheese, applesauce, yogurt, bagels, diced pears, and any type of noodle, really.

We are so glad our Allie-cat is part of our family! Happy 1st Birthday, little lady!! We love you more than you will ever know!!!

Another Birthday Boy!

Parker is 5!! Yesterday was his birthday, and he mentioned to me a few different times that, "This is my best birthday ever!"

We started off the day by opening presents....he picked the gift from Grandma Judy & Grandpa Bill....a set of Star Wars Lego's! Last week when Grandma C was here, she also got Parker a set, so he's having a blast with them all!

Next...a few new books....3 Scooby-Doo adventures!....the kid is totally into all the old Scooby-Doo shows & I've read these new books to both the boys a few times already!

Nothin' exciting about a much needed shirt for church...but, he'll sure look handsome in it!

Then, he got some Crayola Star Wars coloring pages...these have been a big hit too (when he isn't playing with the Legos)!!!

And...one more set of Legos (a Castle set this time), from Mom & Dad! A pretty big hit too!

At the end of the day, after going out to dinner (Parker picked Primo's...an all-you-can-eat Pizza place) we came back home for some cupcakes....

Making a wish & blowing out the candles!!

Hope you had a fantastic day, Parks! We love you!!!

We Have a Birthday Boy!

Today Connor is THREE YEARS OLD! He woke up this morning, came into our room & let me know, "Mom, today's my birthday!" After giving him birthday hugs & kisses and then getting a phone call to be sung "Happy Birthday" to from Grandma Judy, Nate, Sharyn & Shannon, we headed downstairs for Connor-man to open his gifts!!...

Some "Handy Manny" books...some of his favorite!

A "Handy Manny Fix It Phone" from Grandma Judy & Grandpa Bill...

And a new bike from Mom & Dad, along with a helmet & knee pads!
After opening gifts, we all got ready and headed off to Krispy Kreme for breakfast (Connor's choice, that he's been telling us for the last few months!).

At lunch time, I called, "Connor-man, come for lunch!" and he responded by saying, "I'm not Connor-man today, I'm Birthday Boy!" Too cute! I think he's having a good day....we'll finish it off tonight with some cupcakes for everybody! I sure am blessed to have this cute boy in my life!

Abbie Turned Ten!

I can hardly believe that my "little ladybug" (what we called her as a baby) is now 10 years old! She has grown up so beautifully! She loves to read, have friends over, is a great helper & is starting to get the baby-sitting bug (she's done little stints here-and-there for me)!

One birthday tradition that I've carried on from when I was a little girl was making a birthday sign for each of the kids on their birthday...it's not especially fancy, but I think they like it! On the night before her birthday, Abbie asked if I was going to make one (she hadn't seen me working on it) and I told her "if I had time"....of course, I was going to have time!! :)

Here's some pictures from Abbie opening her gifts...she wanted some "mystery games"...

She also asked for an Ipod...(you can't tell that's what she got, but it's in there)...
And also a new pair of shoes...
For her birthday cake, she had asked for Peach Dessert! YUM!!! (For some reason, our pictures from blowing out her candles were either blurry or too dark to see what was happening...so, this is the best ya get, sorry!)

After the boys were in bed, I gave her a pedicure...she felt pretty special!
This is the finished product!!...pink & purple with little silver flowers on her big toes!Happy Birthday, Abbie! We are so glad you are part of our family & such a terrific big sister to Annie, Parker & Connor! I know they love you tons, just like Daddy & I!!! I hope you had a good day!!!

Annie is 7!

Annie's birthday was on Sunday!! We love birthdays & try to make them as special as we can!! This year, we tried to do a lot of our Easter activities on Saturday (pictures will come later from that) and celebrate Annie's birthday on Sunday. Our church starts at 9am, so we had to get going early so that she'd be able to open birthday gifts before we had to leave.

Annie got a cute outfit from Grandpa & Gramma C....she put it on after we got home from church!

Annie didn't seem to mind Parker helping her out with opening the gifts...LOL!


A new pair of shoes!!...


Posing in the dress she got from Grandma Judy & Grandpa Bill!

And...blowing out the candle....Annie requested Cinnomon Rolls instead of a cake!...

Happy Birthday, Annie-Bear! We hope you had a fabulous day & we especially hope you know how much we love you & love having you in our family!!

Party Pictures!

So....here's, just a few little shots from Connor's birthday on Friday night. I'm pretty sure he had a good time!! :)

This is Connor waiting to open the first present...I don't think he wanted to wait to have his picture taken...LOL!

This is how he spent the rest of the evening....riding his 4 wheeler, holding onto his bulldozer & motorcycle (I think he didn't want to even give Parker a chance to "steal" them from him!)!

Connor took just enough time to blow out the candles on his Yellow Cupcakes (what he had been asking for the last week)....

But then he was right back on his 4 wheeler to drive around the kitchen...(I don't think he even took a bite out of the cupcake)!

And...a new stunt he had learned by Saturday morning....I think he's pretty proud of himself!! :)

Happy Birthday Connor-Man!!

Today my Connor-Man turns two years old...I can hardly believe that 2 years have passed since he joined our family...it seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital having our little guy. Since the day he arrived, Connor has been the sweetest, most easy-going baby, ever! He has some of the best smiles & just wraps my heart around his little hand when he climbs up onto my lap for a little snuggle. Every morning he wakes up & comes into our bed to snuggle with us for just a few minutes before he gets on with his busy day! He loves motorcycles, his camo jammies, playing at the park, "coloring," and his Pooh Bear and "ninknie" (blankie). He puts up with a lot of flack from his big brother but is 100% loved and adored by all of us!!!

Here's a few pictures from the last 2 years....

The day he was born....our biggest baby at 7 lbs. 15 oz! It was an easy labor & delivery (so quick the dr. didn't make it in time)! He arrived at 12:23pm.

On his Blessing Day!!....April 29, 2007...at Grandma Judy's & Grandpa Bill's house.

At about 6 months old..not sure why he's wearing the bath towel, or chewing on the bowl...but it's a dang cute picture!

I love this picture!!!

This was last year at about this time....he rarely fell asleep in the high chair, but I guess this day he was plain tuckered out!

This is from last summer....see what I mean about how darn cute his smiles are?!!?

This is how he likes to "color"....his favorite is random pieces of papers, a pen & sitting on the counter!!

Eating up his yummy breakfast of rice pudding...his all time favorite breakfast is hot cereal!

This one is from just a few weeks ago (sitting on the counter, again!)!

Cute & all bundled up for some sledding!!

WE LOVE YOU CONNOR-MAN!! Happy Birthday Big Boy!!