Pages

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Playdates and Pigtails

0 comments

Yesterday our Tuesday playgroup stayed here in Kingwood and went to play in the fountain by Sharky's! The kids had tons of fun playing in the water and running around. Afterward, we all went to lunch at Sharky's. Our poor waitress was very patient with us and our herd of children. Bonus: we actually made it through lunch without any of the kids having pre-nap meltdowns :)

However, the real news of the day was that Charlotte wore pigtails for the first time! It was so cute I could hardly stand it. I still can't believe I was able to get her to hold still long enough for me to put them in. I owe her one :)

gearing up to play, but pondering hanging out in her coverup with her water :)
seriously love those pigtails
the always stylish Charlotte ready to play!
5 out of the 7 kiddos playing
checking the fountain out
the group at lunch minus Rachel who took the photo :)


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Charlotte's Baptism

1 comments

We had Charlotte baptized the day after her 1st Birthday party. It was easiest to do it this way since our families were already in town :) Our dear friends Ben Trammell, Seann Duffin and Elizabeth Duffin performed the baptism. It was incredibly meaningful to have these three pastors preside. They will not only know Charlotte for most of her life, but they will be with us every step of the way in our child-rearing through their presence and prayers. What a gift it is to have friends who love our child so much!

Here is a video of the baptism: (if you can't see it, click HERE to view it!)

And here are a few photos :)








Charlotte's First Birthday Party

3 comments

I'm about a month behind in my blogging! Stay tuned for a blog on Charlotte's baptism and on her first pigtails! Very exciting stuff :)

Charlotte's first birthday was so much fun! A HUGE thank you to all of our family and sweet friends who joined us to celebrate her first year of life :) The party was in the morning from 10 am- 12 noon because Matt had a wedding to get to later in the afternoon. It ended up working out great because all the kiddos were in happy moods and everyone was still able to enjoy their Saturdays with their families. Most importantly, Charlotte had a great time. I should mention that she was NOT a fan of the cake. Be sure to check out the pictures at the bottom of this post :)

This blog entry will mainly be about the party details, so if that's not your thing you can stop reading here :) (Ahem, men in my life!)

Instead of a theme I decided to go with more of a color concept :) Charlotte's party dress served as a jumping off point (yes, I bought the dress first!) We used blues, yellows, pinks and greens! I wanted it to feel very springy. I picked out blank invitation stationary from Paper Source and printed our own invites (click here to see the stationary) The mums made me very happy :)

Keeping with the colors and the feeling of spring I decided to make pinwheels for the fireplace garland, table decorations, favors and floral arrangements. For this I just bought inexpensive scrapbooking paper from Hobby Lobby and used a spray adhesive to join two sheets together to create double-sided paper. Super easy and cost effective! I found a pinwheel tutorial online and got to crafting! I was able to spread the work over a few weeks so it wasn't too much of a hassle.

Since it was a morning party, the food-side of things was very simple. I just wanted to have a few snacks and drinks. We served pigs-in-a-blanket, goldfish (served from a punch bowl for fun!), flower and butterfly shaped sandwiches (just used a cookie cutter for this), cream cheese pinwheels (made by my mother-in-law), and fruit! For drinks we had apple juice, water, lemonade and Dublin Dr.Peppers for the adults (my father-in-law brought these!). One of my favorite things were the paper straws I ordered from Etsy. These were set out in mason jars with lime green decorative balls in the bottom (I stole this idea from my sweet friend McKenna who did this at her wedding!) I also ordered our cupcake liners from this store.

For favors I kept it simple and baked sugar cookies and decorated them with a "1" and wrapped them up in cellophane with a mini pinwheel attached to a mini clothespin :)

I'm so glad we kept it low-key and were able to really enjoy the day and our sweet girl! Before you know it we'll be planning Jackson's first birthday party! Here are a few pictures of the day and details:

the birthday girl in her party dress!
the birthday girl playing in the kitchen
Favor table by door
close up of the sign
close up of the cookies
food spread :)
Close-up of a pinwheel
Pinwheel garland
Cupcakes
drink table
yummy dr.peppers
not so sure about her smash cake...
the one finger test, our girl doesn't really believe in smashing :)
not a fan
REALLY not a fan
OK, She's so over it.
one of the floral arrangements

Sunday, May 1, 2011

One Year Old

5 comments

It's hard to put into words what this year this has been. It's been challenging, wonderful and (obviously) life-changing. Charlotte is my most tangible joy. Being her mother is beyond a gift. Beyond a blessing. It is the thing that my life was meant for. It's such an honor to raise her and watch her grow every day. I think I would maybe feel a little heartbroken about Charlotte no longer being a baby and entering her toddler years if I didn't know another baby was on his way :) But at the same time, each stage with her has been more fun than the last.

Enough rambling and onward to her ONE YEAR UPDATE!

- Said her first word..."WOW!" I think this is a pretty fantastic first word, and SO her :) She makes lots of sounds that are close to words, but this was the first intentional word
- All about opening and closing doors
- Still a dancing machine
- Understands what 'no' means, but doesn't really have an interest in obeying ;)
- Has basically cut out her morning nap, although she will occasionally want one...This has made her afternoon nap a lot longer, so I can deal with the change :)
- SUPER in love with her stuffed bunny. I'm so glad we made the decision early on to have it be a crib toy only. Otherwise, that bunny would have been lost long ago!
- Phased out her bottle all on her own. I didn't really have to do anything, it just sort of happened. I'll miss feeding her, it was the one time during the day she would sit still with me!
- has 8 teeth and working on some more
- likes to carry objects around the house and make a lap...she'll grab a hair brush and walk around and around. It's pretty funny to watch, especially when she's dragging around something awkwardly big for her, like Matt's suit jacket :)
- Loves to play by herself during the day, which has been such a blessing as I get more and more pregnant...If she can see me, she's happy :)
- Has become SUCH a daddy's girl...it's just about the sweetest thing

I'll leave you with a picture from each month of Charlotte's first year:


Days before she was born

The day she was born

1 month old

2 Months old

3 Months old

4 Months old

5 Months old

6 Months old

7 Months old

8 Months old

9 Months old

10 Months old

11 Months old

ONE YEAR!
This was taken at the zoo the day after her birthday...she was SUPER excited about the carousel