An Early 4th

Last weekend we got an early start to celebrating the 4th of July. Eastvale, where Danny and Kristi live, had their celebration for the 4th, but before heading over, we had to get in some classic block party time. They set up and kiddie pool and a slip and slide! The boys LOVED the slip and slide, but the girls weren't too sure about it.

 The girls stuck with the pool and loved it.

 Then we walked over to the city's celebration. The kids had a blast on the rides. Surprisingly, they both loved the tilt-a-whirl.

 Maggie got in some Papa time. Her opinion of him is finally changing and she actually reached out for him several times! Hooray!

 Rode on some "kiddie" rides with Bryce.

 Who doesn't love kiddie rides?

Jack was obsessed with this one. Grace couldn't go on it with her flip flops, but Jack went on it at least 4 times. There were punching bags, a rope bridge, a rope net to climb, a bounce house and a huge slide. He loved it.

 I caught a rare moment while they were waiting in line together. Nothing makes mama happier.

They rode on the swings together and both loved it. Seems like Grace is as much of a dare devil as her big brother.

Maggie hung out with Daddy, taking it all in.

 There's so much to watch.

Of course she got to go on the carousel a couple of times. She enjoyed it, but it wasn't such a big deal for her.

 It's still one of Grace's favorites!

 It's extra fun because we can all go together.

 After all of the rides it was time to grab a spot to watch the fire works. We had front row seats and crazy tired kids. But the loved the show, it was totally awesome. Grama brought them glow necklaces and kettle corn, they couldn't have been happier.

 Maggie loved it too! She oood and awed with the crowd, it was adorable!

Happy 4th of July!

Maggie's First Birthday - The Party

This post is totally heavy on the pictures... We had a small birthday party at Grama and Grampa's for Maggie's birthday. Lucky for us, we have quite a big family and a small party grows really quickly! 

Maggie LOVES babies, especially real ones. She hugs them and kisses them. Sometimes, she even snuggles on their tummies. Most of the time she remembers to be gentle, but that's not a guarantee. She's been known to be so excited about them that one time we had to hide the baby from her. She kept waking her up during nap time. Anyway, she was very excited to see Tatum.

 For some crazy reason, she hesitates around Grandpa Kevin. One of these days, she's going to figure out that he's a ton of fun, but for now, we're bribing her with cookies to sit on his lap. It worked for quite a while. And it's also helped her to discover cookies. She can even identify them in a book.

 In case I haven't mentioned it, Maggie's part fish. She loves the water. A swimming birthday was perfect for her, especially with a June birthday. 

 She loves all of her aunties.

  I had one major goal for the day - Get a family picture! Hooray!

 After that, it was time to sing and let her dig in...

 She started out slowly, but progressively got more and more into her delicious cake.

 Grama Colleen made her the cutest giant cupcake ever.

 Somewhere around this point, she really got into it.

 But occasionally stopped to pose...

 Everyone cracked up at this point and I think she loved the attention.

 The other kiddos loved their cupcakes and ice cream sundaes.

 Aw, the cutest cousins ever!

 Maggie totally enjoyed opening her presents too.

 Maggie got the cutest little sandles, they matched her birthday outfit perfectly. Also, daddy gave her her first pedi before the party.

 Another family picture! Crazy! These are Grama and Grampa pictures, I love it when they share!

 All tuckered out at the end of the party...

Happy birthday baby girl! Slow down!

A Fun Little Day

Last week we got to meet up with the Turners for some fun at Atlantis park. We all had a blast. There are lots of playgrounds, places to explore and they just added a splash pad too. It was a great park.

Here are some pictures from our fun day.

July Challenge

As any one who has looked at this blog lately knows, I'm way, way, way behind on posting. I've decided that I need a challenge and for the month of July, I will attempt to post daily. Hopefully I can catch up on the past events (like Christmas) and capture more of our daily delights.

In the mean time, I will leave you with this adorable collage of Maggie playing with her baybee. She's such a little mommy.

Maggie is One!

My dear Maggie,
I really don't know what to tell you. You are growing up so quickly. Your personality is exploding in every way.

I'm pretty sure that you think you're a big kid. For the most part you keep up with them and you don't really like it when they treat you like a baby. And you certainly love big kid toys. Their toys and the things they're doing are always way better than what we have for you.

You're a big 'ole lover. You give hugs and kisses on demand and hand them out pretty freely.You really, really love babies. Sometimes we have to hide real ones away from you because you love them so much. You give them super sweet hugs and slobbery kisses. You love your dollies too. You carry them around in the toy car seat and you give them hugs and kisses too.

Yesterday, Dr. Engle asked if you "work to get a toy," the typical 12 month well check question. I had to laugh out loud. Mostly you work to KEEP your toys. Every time I turn around, someone is taking something away from you. You're constantly finding things, dangerous, dirty, gross, tiny, terrible, little things. And you hate it when we take them away. When you know you have something good and you see me coming, you turn around and run as fast as you can. Don't even get me started on the cat food. Every time I turn around, you're trying to eat the cat food. In fact, Jack freaks out when someone feeds the cat - he hears the clinking and thinks you're eating cat food again.


Speaking of cat food, you're a great eater. You'll eat just about anything. You love all fruit and veggies. Mostly you eat everything that Daddy and I do. Your big sister and brother are far more picky. And you're pretty sneaky. You know where I keep the good snacks and you catch me whenever I'm sneaking one. You even figured out how to open the container of cookies. So we let you eat one. Man you have a sweet tooth.

You love to laugh and you think we're all hilarious. You love your bebo and randomly show strangers all the time. You know your nose, and your hair and if we tell you that your hair is pretty, then you smile, put your hand down and stop trying to rip out your bows.

Right now you're in a full mimic phase. You put your hand to your ear and yell "hay-yo." You love it even more when you get MY phone.  But you drop things, so much... so, so much. You love to "brush" your teeth and whenever you get a hold of clothes, you try to put them on. You know how to brush your hair, though you have to work on being gentle.You love to sit on the counter when I get ready in the morning and you put on your make up too. You almost always squat down like this and I think it's so cute.

You love to talk I mean yell. You're always making noise. Dada, Jack and that all sound pretty similar and are your favorite words. You say mama, but it's just usually when you're crying or tired.  You can say hello and bye-bye. You wave, blow kisses, clap, sign all done and more. And created your own system for communicating what you want. You point at yourself and then point at the item or where you want to go. You're so smart.

Your mornings are hot and cold. Sometimes, you're all about cuddling and chatting away happily, other times you cry your brains out and push Jack away. Same with the nights, most of the time, you fall asleep happily around 7:30, other times, you decide that you're a party animal and want to stay up until midnight. I'm not sure what's up with that. Crazy girl.

 You love to swim, tolerate the beach and refuse to participate in the fun at the splash pads.
 

 For your birthday we took you Soup Plantation. You love that place - all you can eat peas and olives - woohoo! You ate more than your brother and sister combined and way longer than any of us. And you thoroughly loved the dessert.

It's hard to think back and remember you as a little blob. At the reunion, you were barely 8 weeks and you didn't do much. I felt like you and I sat in the corner and nursed the whole time. You didn't have much of a personality, aside from preferring me and going to sleep sharply at 7:30 every evening. You still prefer me, but other people are a whole lot more tolerable and that 7:30 thing has gone out the window. Though you are a pretty good sleeper, that or we're just more tolerable. And I certainly never get to sit in the corner any more. Now a days, it's all chasing you, making sure you don't fall from where ever you've climbed and I never get to sit down. You're lots of fun, exhausting, crazy fun.