Happy 1st Birthday Molly!!!!!!

Our little girl turned 1 today! I am still in awe at how quickly this last year has gone by and all the changes and adventure our family has had... wow it went by fast. Little Miss Molly as we like to call her is such a joy and just what our family needed #3 to be. The older two still have their moments where they aren't so sure they like having her around, but they love her anyway. She has been crawling since she was 5 months old and can move quite quickly. One minute she's here, next minute she's up the stairs and in the back of the house. Last week she figured out how to come down the stairs and get out of her crib. The last couple days she has been taking a few steps here and there. Everytime I try to get a video of it though, she sits down and won't do it again. Tonight she went from one side of the living room to the other just as I was turning my camera off.... darn it!!!! She has her own little personality coming through and is very opinionated already... yikes.... we're all in trouble.

We had a fun night with Kaitlyn and her mom and dad. Some pizza, some cupcakes and a whole lot of mess....



"happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, miss molly, happy birthday to you!"


oh...that's good....


just another taste....





yum!


now I'm getting the hang of this....


mmm..... messy!


now we're done... off to the sink for a bath!

Presents....

Here are some pictures of Molly opening some of her presents. We had a really, REALLY, hard afternoon with the older two kids, so you may notice that they are no where to be seen in any of the birthday pics.... they were sound asleep! It was kind of nice though to let Molly and Kaitlyn have their own little party with no one trying to boss them around. We saved some presents for Nicholas and Caroline to give to Molly tomorrow and we also saved some cake :)

a little doll that Kaitlyn gave to Molly along with a stroller to push her around in and some things for her wall in her room...


a wooden turtle toy from Grandpa Paul.....


a cute little outfit from Aunt Katie and Uncle Ryan....


a couple cute outfits from the Laybourn's... gotta try it on.....


okay.. now I think we've had enough... Kaityln stole Molly's chair and she was NOT happy about it!

when it rains.... IT POURS!!!!

and in true TX style... everything is big.. so when it rains the drops are huge and it starts to flood in an instant! this is our back yard about 1 minute after it started down pouring... you can see al the mud coming through the retaining wall....




this is the street in front of our house.. it turns light brown quickly!


just a mini-river flowing in front of our house... poor guy on the corner! (sad too.. we had another storm earlier today and he was out in front of his house with a street broom pushing all of the rocks and left over mud out of the way... guess he'll be out there later today again!)

Where's Molly??

here she is....


I was trying to post other pics of her and her climbing skills, but the computer isn't cooperating with me at the moment. Molly LOVES to climb! and found her way into Caroline's suitcase. At one point she even tried to close the lid down on herself. I think she was looking for a little peace and quiet.

Hal...

Hal Bell came down for a quick visit this weekend.. It was nice to see a familiar face and the kids had a great time goofing around with him.....

Happy Birthday Twins!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Madeline and Emma!!!! Caroline and Nicholas made you some ladybug cupcakes since they can't be there to celebrate. Hope you girls have a wonderful birthday. We miss you a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Brady!

Brady ~ we hope you have a wonderful birthday! Nicholas and Caroline made you a rudolph chocolate cake to celebrate with you... they can't wait to cut into it! Wish we were there! Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!

Wild Safari... Texas Style

Grandma came down for a quick visit and took the kids to a "drive-through" Safari. They absolutely loved it....not sure I'd do okay with wild animals sticking their heads in my car, but the kids were happy!

Nicholas doesn't look too sure about the whole thing.

Don't fall out!

Well, hello Mr. Zebra....

okay, fine, we'll give you some food!

nice, zebra... don't bite my fingers off!

When the cat's away....

the mice will play!

I escaped last weekend to meet the Laybourn's, Reagan's, Cross/Wiltbank's and Buys in Sunriver for Becky's 30th birthday and to do my first 10k. and left Nicholas and Caroline at home with Joe and his sister Katie.... they had a good time!

I guess Caroline found some of my make-up and thought it would be fun to put it on Nicholas. She seems to think that eye-shadow goes on your eyebrows...


They went to the bounce house place and had a great time playing.


Eating popcicles on the porch


at the swimming pool


Saying good-bye to Aunt Katie.. we were all sad to see her go :(

Joe's Birthday

Couldn't quite fit 38 candles on the cake, so we improvised....


Caroline showing off the cupcakes she helped to make.


too bad the kids blew the candles out before joe got around to it!


as my mom always said "the messier, the better!"





Some Super Hero pj pants for our super hero!

Happy Birthday Joe!!!

Today is Joe's birthday... the big 38! And to think he was only 30 when we met! Where has all the time gone??? yikes!

On Monday we went to the mall and there was a play area for the kids... It was kind of like pump-it-up but most of the bounce houses were cartoon characters. the kids had fun running around and wearing themselves out. It was a good escape from the heat!

Who needs a pool when you have a big tub of water. I think Caroline kept calling it her "hot tub".

Little miss playing in her favorite spot...

I guess a hairbrush makes a pretty good chew toy when you don't have any hair to comb!

hi!

Molly

Here's a little clip of Molly doing her favorite thing these days... climbing in and out of the little rocking chair we have...