Fun Times

Caroline has had some fun times with friends and her Nannie this week. Monday, we drove up to Willowbend mall to meet some friends in the play area. It took Caroline a long time to warm up but once she did, she enjoyed playing and walking all over the place.

Caroline walking around (we're trying to get as much wear as we can out of her birthday dress :-)

Sweet Ava taking a little breakAsher and Brady For some reason, I didn't get any pics of Ethan and Dax but we had so much fun with all of you!

Tuesday, we went to eat lunch and play with Nannie (my grandmother). Caroline LOVES Nannie and calls her "Nah-nah". She would play with Nah-nah all day if she could. Here is Caroline sitting in Nannie's lap (diving for the camera)

Walking to get the camera...she's a determined one :-)

I went up to Nannie's attic and pulled out this old rocking chair that we used to play with as kids. She loved it and wanted to rock in it over and over. She also liked standing beside it and rocking one of Nannie's old dolls.

Worn out from all the playing and ready to go home for a nap! What a fun week we've had so far.

Birthday Bash

Matt and I started Caroline's birthday off by going into her room in the morning with the video camera and camera, singing "Happy Birthday". Caroline had no idea what was going on :-)

We had a small Pink and Brown Cupcake Party at our house to celebrate Caroline's big day. She had a grand ole' time celebrating with some of her favorite people. Here are some pics from the party:

The party favors
The food table

Babycakes by Angie made the cupcakes. They were so cute and tasted deelish...thanks, Angie!!

Caroline, enjoying getting to sit outside and eat her lunch

Taking a pic with our friends Abby (5) and Kingsley (3) Getting ready to eat a cupcake for the first time!

"I'm not so sure about this"

"I think I like it!!!"

Present time!

Matt, me, Caroline, Abby, Kingsley and Nannie

Caroline loved all of her presents and had so much fun opening them up (with some big kids' help of course :-)

One of Caroline's favorite gifts: this little piano

Waving "bye" to everyone

Some pics of the birthday girl:

We can't believe our baby girl is ONE! This past year has had its challenges but has been the BEST year of our lives. We are very blessed to have Caroline as our daughter. She has enriched our lives and family more than we ever thought was possible. Happy birthday sweet girl, we love you so much!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Caroline!!!

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday, sweet Caroline,

Happy birthday to you!!!

Stay tuned for lots of birthday pics!!!

A Daddy's Love

Matt and Caroline almost one year ago

So Matt is going to KILL me for posting this story, but it is just too sweet not to share. Last night, while we were getting ready for bed, we were talking about Caroline and how funny we think she's becoming as we see more and more of her personality every day. Then Matt said, "She's just so sweet, I feel like I can't ever take my eyes off of her". Ahhhhh, just MELT my heart why don't you?!? That's a daddy's love for ya!

Strike a pose, there's nothin' to it

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy busy getting ready for someone to turn the big ONE this Saturday. The other day I realized I had no idea what size swimsuit to buy for Caroline this summer. I remembered from last year that they tend to run really small. So we had a dress-up session today to see what size fits the little lady. Here are pics from our modeling session:

Caroline likes to tell us over and over that she's "SOOOOO BIG"
Love the ruffles on the booty

As I've mentioned before on my blog, Caroline is at risk for melanoma because of high family incidence of the cancer in our family. So I want to keep her covered up as much as I can. But this bathing suit was too cute to resist. We'll just have to utilize a lot of sunscreen and shade this summer!!

And of course, we can't forget the hat!!

Movin' & Groovin'

Caroline decided to take her FIRST STEPS last night!!! Matt had just gotten home from work (which was great...I really hoped Caroline would take her first steps while he was home), and we thought we'd see if she'd walk to me from him. And she did it! She took about 3 steps back and forth between us a few times. After that, we started backing away from her and she would take a few more steps. I think the most she took was 9 or 10. Her balance still isn't great, and I think it will be a long time before she's really walking around. But seeing her take some independent steps was exciting nonetheless. We caught her walking on video...here it is:

Wordless Wednesday