Birthday Girl!

I am still revelling that our sweet Caroline turned one on yesterday. This past weekend was so much fun. We celebrated her first birthday with a fun party with family and friends. On yesterday, her birthday, we took her for her 12 month checkup, then off to McDonald's so she could eat her first happy meal, and then on the zoo! I have lots of pictures to post but for now here's our sweet Caroline!

I'm a Big Girl Now!

March 24th!

Here she is playing outside at Ms. Leah's!

Once upon a time she was so small that Leah

and Caroline's older friends would push her

in a stroller at outside play time! Caroline

also loves sitting outside at Ms. Leah's Little Tykes table

while eating her snack (a cracker) and drinking apple

juice from a sippy cup!

Pretty Girl and Too Much Fun!

I couldn't resist taking this picture (March 12th)!

She's so cute I could just eat her up!

We love our princess and how much joy she brings

into our lives!

Full of personality! This little one wanted to play

"in" her toys instead of with them! The funniest part

was how she got out of the basket! She did a lot

of grunting but was successful nonetheless!

My best play day yet!

Look closely! I'm filthy dirty! This is about the

dirtiest I have ever seen Caroline when I picked her

up from Leah's! She must have enjoyed playing

outside with her friends! She crawled around

outside and even tried eating a leaf and a

pine cone (yikes)! After this picture was taken

she was headed straight for the bathtub!

I call it... "Turning of Age"! (I think)

Funny how the memories of celebrations seem to come back around much faster as one gets older. When I was a teenager I wondered what it would be like to be "18" and then when I was 18 I wondered what my life would be like when I turned "21". I had some assumptions like I'll be older age wise, I'll look older, I'll be, etc, etc. Then I turned 25 and thought aw I have lots of years left in my twenties granted I was considered by then to be in my "late" twenties. Now that I'm the big 3-0 I'm not still wondering what I'll be doing at any certain age but now thinking how it seems like yesterday that I was celebrating those "can't wait until I'm that age" milestones all while celebrating life's joys along the way. So much has happened in my twenties! I graduated from college twice, began my first professional job, got engaged then married, bought big commodities like a car and a home, and at the last year of being a twenty something I had our first sweet baby girl. As I look back over my twenties I'm thinking that this decade was probably the most important for growth. I've learned a lot especially about the importance of a loving family and good friends! I can say that those previous "pre-age" thoughts are true...I am older age wise, I look older (maybe not mature), and I might can add now that I think I'm growing more wise. I'm really not looking forward to being out of my twenties (everyone dreads beginning a new "age" decade), but I am looking forwarding to all of the memories that my thirties (YIKES) will bring!

Mom and I celebrating my 29th birthday!

Melissa and Sam!

My sweet and very dear best friends Raven and Heather!

These gals have always made my birthdays fun!

Heather, I'm still remembering how you always

decorated my side of the room and door at college!

This is how I celebrated my 30th birthday!

She was the best birthday present last year and I

love how our birthdays are in the same month (six days apart)!

I celebrated my birthday at my mom and

stepdad's with my little family, along with

Rhonda, Darren, Courtney, and Kelsey!

The Girls! Courtney, Caroline, and Kelsey!

Splishin' and a Slashin'

After all that playing, my Aunt Rhonda gave me a bath which I loved!

I loved being in the big tub!

This was what I looked like when I saw my Uncle D!

Fun Tub Times!

Spring Time Fun!

Little girl had so much fun spending the afternoon with her Courtney and Kelsey! The weather was perfect for some outside fun! I think Courtney and Kelsey enjoyed it as much as Caroline! We  are looking forward to more warm days like this so we can play outside and stroll C in her little red wagon!

A hat to shade my head!

Some sunshine on my face!

My Courtney to love on me!

And to take funny pictures with me!

My Kelsey to make me laugh!

What a fun day with my girls!

This teapot is my favorite toy right now! I carry

it everywhere I go. It's hard to crawl with the

teapot in tow but I make it work! Oh, and I love the

sound it makes when I open the top! I could

do it all day long!

Once Upon a Time...

It's hard to imagine that this still,

little baby, once upon a time looked like....

this, so small and new (three days old)!

This picture and hundreds just like it brings to mind so many memories of Caroline as an itty bitty baby. It also brings back excitment, joy, worries and fears (I still have worries and fears). As soon as she was born I felt blessed beyond measure. We were chosen to be her parents. We were chosen to tell her about Jesus and how much He loves her and how to follow and trust Him all the days of her life. We were chosen to show and tell her that putting others above self is one of life's greatest fulfillments (I already have a service project planned out for us when she's older)! I know it sounds crazy!

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about how much of a gift we've been given and I even try to think how I could thank God even more for her! I pray each day that He will supply us with all that we need so that we can be what He needs us to be for her! Blessed. We are truly blessed!

On March 3rd, Caroline learned to play peek-a-boo with her daddy! Sam showed her only once what to do with her towel after a bath one night and then she was able to repeat it! Now all we do is tell Caroline to "Go Hide" and she'll cover up her face!

 

Look! I'm hiding from daddy, mama!

I think they played "Go Hide" for about 30 minutes!

I played too!

WOW!

Almost a year ago I looked like this!

Now almost a year later she looks like this!

She began walking behind this walk behind

toy the Friday after she had tubes! Our

little girl is getting so big! She's already big.

Here's the rest of some of Sam's birthday pictures. Caroline had the best time celebrating her daddy's birthday for the first time! This was the first time she tasted birthday cake and we think she liked it however she wouldn't eat very much.

Look at that smile!

Say cute girl!

Our little family!

Yum! Yum!

Sam really liked his cake!

I have to say its true that the Lord allows certain people's paths to cross! I believe this is true with every new person that we have the opportunity of meeting and I especially belive it's true with one very special person in our lives, Ms. Leah! Ms. Leah is Caroline's sitter and also a good friend! The words sitter...childcare provider... etc, do not whatsoever do Ms. Leah justice because she's even more than a blessing!

Last August, Caroline was set to go to daycare when I started back to work. All in a matter of a day our plans for the daycare changed and we found Ms. Leah. At the time I didn't know Leah but she was recommended by another private child care provider who was very good friends with her. From the moment I called her for an interview I knew that she was going to be the kind of child care provider that we needed for our sweet Caroline!

We have been extremely happy with Ms. Leah and we are so appreciative of how she takes great care of Caroline and all of Caroline's little friends each day. My most favorite part of the day is when I go pick little girl up from Leah's and Leah has a story to tell, either about what new thing Caroline did that day or about how she played with her friends (She is really liking pulling her friends' hair when they get their diaper changed or are walking by her when she's in her exersaucer..can you believe that about my sweet Caroline!!)! We love you Leah and are so glad that our little girl is in the best of hands each week day! Thank you so much for all that you do for "your babies!"

Leah wanted to catch up and see Caroline after

her ear surgery so we met up last Saturday!

Here's little girl's latest pair of shoes (I think the shoe

total comes to oh about 2 now)! Ms. Leah

bought them for Caroline! We hope that they will

make her socks stay on better!

Happy 1st Birthday to the cutest twins in Lexington! Yes, Anna Claire and Charlie are one years old today! We had the best time celebrating their

first birthday yesterday at their fun party! They are cute, cute, cute!

Here they are with their smash cakes!

This is how Anna Claire ate hers!

This is how Charlie ate his!

On yesterday Caroline had tubes put in her ears. Before the tubes she had five ear infections since December with the last one being the worst. We are hoping the tubes will help her ears. She can still get ear infections and the tell tell sign is a lot of drainage, which we'll use antibiotic drops. For now she's well on her way to feeling lots better. The procedure took less than fifteen minutes and afterwards she cried and cried like we've never seen. We couldn't seem to get her settled at the surgery center (even after feeding her apple juice and milk) nor in the car, but as soon as we got home and changed her clothes she was all better. We had a great afternoon and she had a great day today spending time with her Grand.

Here's little girl getting prepped for her surgery. She

loved meeting the nurses and they loved seeing how

happy she was. She didn't know what to do at

first but after a few minutes she was laughing and

playing as usual! She rolled the toy car they gave

her all over her bed!

Loved playing with all the doo dads the nurses

gave her! Even at 7:15 am she was full of energy!

Silly!

Being a Busy "Bee"!

Look at her face (and the hilarious tasmanian devil

nightgown). She had so much fun walking along

side the railing.

Cute pie!

Can't wait to see how her "new" ears will be!

Just Playing!

Little girl loves to play, play, and play some more! Here's the latest pictures of her playing!

Just happy!

So many toys which to choose!

This was one of the days when daddy kept me at home!

Look what he lets me do!

But it's fun!

She also found her "snacks" in her diaper bag

and wanted it to be her noise maker!

Enjoying our day at Rita's bridal shower! Here's

Heather with all the girls: Neeley, Caroline,

and Morgan Kate!

This little doll was just precious!

Caroline playing with new friends!

Liking Morgan Kate's stethoscope!

Ms. Anne and the girls!

Look at those girls' smile! Morgan Kate is so giggley

because someone was singing the tune of

her favorite book, "Polar Bear, Polar Bear"!

Heather and Caroline!

Caroline loves this noise maker! She'll go to it

everyday and play with it just to hear the rattle!

She also loves playing with "junk"!

Here she is standing up! She's been standing on her

own for quite a while! We think she might take that

first step soon!

Got another package from my aunt Rhonda! I nearly

ate the envelope trying to get it open!

Aw, my first St. Patrick's Day bib!

Here's my Yippee! Anytime we say "Yippee"

she'll throw both hands into the air!

Here's my "Yay"! When we say "Yay", she claps!

Making daddy's lights go out!

Playing with all of my baby things!

Caroline had her ENT appointment on Monday and on tomorrow she'll be getting tubes. This will hopefully take care of all those ear infections that she's been getting. She's handled them very well and I'm pretty sure they've been painful for her. What a brave little girl. I can't wait to see her all better, 100%!