The Bug!

It seems that lately I have been posting a lot about Leah, and it seemed time for an update on the The Bug! I Hate it when your baby turns one and then you start spreading out the well-baby check-ups with the pediatrician. I actually look forward to them so I can talk to the doctor about all the progress that my little one is making. We have found a great pediatrician here in Decatur. We really like her and I will be excited to see her again next month for Kiersten's 15 month check-up.

In the meantime, Bug is doing all sorts of things!!! She climbs up and down from chairs and the couch. She LOVES to give kisses, they are a bit sloppy...but oh so sweet. She is still the happiest girl I know, with her big open mouth smile. Still only have the 4 teeth. She hasn't gotten a new one since February. What's taking them so long??? There is a whole slew of new words in her vocabulary. At 14 months she says, Mommy, Daddy, Sissy, Puppy, Baby, Cracker, Snack, Milk, Hi, Bye, Gigi, Book, Cheese, Macy, Colby, outside, Thank You, Uh oh and of course NO!

I just couldn't love this little girl more if I tried! She makes me smile all sorts of different ways every single day and she has the cutest little chuckle too. She is really getting into mimicking. She wants to try out anything that her big sister is doing so lately that seems to be dress-up. I catch her walking around in my flip flops occasionally and the sunglasses are a big hit. Below are a few recent pictures. The kissable cupcake face is from a birthday party we went to this weekend. Dustin turned 2 and we were so happy to celebrate with him! Anyway, hope you like the pictures. Love my BUG!!!

It was a "Rockin" Good Time!

So last Monday our baby girl turned 3!!! Where has the time gone??? I Know that everyone says that, but seriously wasn't she JUST a little peanut in my arms??? Needless to say May is a full month for us with birthdays and we felt the need to do it up right...really, May is full. My niece Shelby's birthday is the 8th, Leah's is the 9th and Macy's is the 10th. Thankfully this year we were able to have Macy and Leah's party together...you know since we live close now and all. Macy was a bit skeptical but I think the end result made her super happy. I had a little fun with the invite and the Thank You on Etsy and got most of the rest of the stuff from Oriental Trading. The rest just took a little creativity...and Vwaaa Laaaa...Rockstar Birthday Party Masterpiece. My sis-in-law took care of the awesome rock star outfits. The girls both had personalized Zebra print shirts (etsy), Zebra print shoes and Rockstar tutus made with love by her friend Lindsay. They looked AH-MAZE-ING!!!

Macy and Leah were both super excited to see the decor. Good thing too...Mitch, my friend Ellen and I spent a lot of time working on it. Originally we had hoped to have the party outside. But the weather didn't cooperate. I was all set to build a stage, I wanted to have the music pumping and had some good outdoor games ready to play, but oh well. It still ended up being a good time. The kids just went crazy in the house. Not an easy thing to do when the house is full of 30+ party goers, but they managed. Mitch got them going with a game on pin-the-tail on the donkey but most of them were too little. We had brightly colored cupcakes, and of course MORE than enough gifts to open. All in all it was a great time, and even with all the hardwork I would do it all again. The girls loved it and I think their little friends/cousins did too!

Birthday, Confirmation, Mom's Day...Oh My!

We had what some might call a busy weeked. On Friday morning I got up and went to Charleston, dropped Kiersten off at my mom's, took Leah for a haircut and hit the road back to Decatur. Mitch left work a little early and we packed up the truck and headed up to Mondovi, WI (just outside of Eau Claire). It's about a 6.5 hour drive. I took the first stretch and got us into Madison around 5:30. We stopped for dinner at Red Robin, YUM because Leah loves it and it was a great chance to get out of the car for a bit. We made it to Grandma Fran's house around 9:30 and Leah was wound up. I got her ready for bed and we laid down around 10:15...it was 11 PM before she finally went to sleep but was up and ready to go at 6:30.

We took off from Mondovi for Warba, MN (just outside of Grand Rapids, MN) around 8 AM and arrived a little after noon. Leah didn't nap on the way...shocker, and was so excited to see Aunt Lori, Shelby, Justin, Lexi and Uncle Todd. After lunch we headed over to the hotel to meet everyone else. Sunday May 8th was Shelby's Birthday, Confirmation and Mother's Day so there was lots of family coming into town to celebrate. Leah was in heaven to finally be going swimming. Lexi and Rylee took the 1st round in the pool with her. They were in the water for nearly 2 hours before retiring to the hotel room to watch some movies...still no nap and then it was almost time for dinner. Everyone gathered in the hotel hospitality room to visit and celebrate Shelby's big weekend. Then it was back to the pool. Leah and Daddy were in for awhile and then Uncle Brian even took his turn. Leah would get out and jump into their arms over and over and over. They were even able to get her to put her head under the water...eventually.

Sunday morning we all headed into church, we made up more than half of the congregation. The church sang Happy Birthday to Shelby and Happy Birthday to Leah too! Shelby had to get up and give a speech on what Jesus meant to her. It was touching, really touching...it brought tears to my eyes and I feel so lucky to be an aunt to such an amazing and special girl. Mitch is her godfather and I know that he was equally proud. After church we went back to Lori and Todd's house. We had dinner with the family, followed by cake to celebrate EVERYTHING! Then it was time for us to hit the road again. It always goes by so fast but it was a great weekend. We love you, Shelby! We are so lucky to be your aunt and uncle. Congrats on your confirmation, hope you had a Happy Birthday, and we can't wait to see you all again hopefully sooner than later.

Better Go Bounce

So we got a trampoline. It's an early birthday present for Leah and Easter weekend seemed as good a time as any to put it up. And Yes, we have heard all the arguments against them...ours actually has an enclosure net, we just didn't have it on yet when these pictures were taken. Rest assured it is on now, and the girls...both of them...are loving it. Leah had played on cousins trampolines and occassionally I would find her jumping on the bed saying it was her trampoline. When we got situated in our new home, she would take the couch cushions off and say that they were her trampoline. I'm hoping the fact that we ACTUALLY have a trampoline now will negate and future bed/couch cushion jumping, ha!

Unfortunately the last few weeks have been rainy...not just rainy, our backyard was a swampy mess for a short time. Leah desperately wanted to go play outside and she would preface by saying "I better go bounce, I think I need to go outside." It's been tough stuff keeping her cooped up inside so thankfully we have gotten some good outdoors time in the past week. And really I can't believe how much Kiersten loves the trampoline. She loves to just run in circles and bounce on her bottom. She is not a big fan of Leah jumping right next to her and not letting her stand up and get her balance...yeah, we're working on that.