Allie's birthday party!

Saturday was a busy day for us. First was Allie's 2nd birthday party! We were so excited to be there. Allie is such a sweet little girl, and one of Lullaby's first friends. Here's the birthday girl waiting for her guests to arrive.

Megan is an amazing hostess and when it comes to food, she is fully prepared to greet the crowds. She had make your own panini's set up for us and they were SO tasty. What a good idea.  Megan with her family, lots of them were able to come for the party. I thought Megan was tall until I met her mom and two sisters (one not pictured).

Cutest picture of the Rogers family. They were posing for someone else, but it was too cute, I had to steal it too. :)

The party was a hit and Allie had fun.  She wore the tutu my mom made for her to wear to Lullaby's party, which I thought was nice.  She looks so cute in it.

I made a video for Megan of the party. You can follow this link, if you would like to see it.

On our way out Paul raced the kids up and down the driveway a few times. They love that.  Lullaby was helping push it back up the hill.

Also, I got a video clip of Lullaby pushing around a little toy. She is still such a stinker about walking without holding something. This toy isn't very stable, so I know she's doing a lot of the work herself, but won't usually try unless she feels secure.  Silly girl.

hallowgreen

Matix's preschool had a "HallowGREEN" party. They are always so hippie, and we love that.  The kids got to wear their costumes, although these days, they pretty much live in them anyway.  Lullaby wore Halloween colors (black and orange) because the outfit from the day before at the witches lunch was still dirty.  Paul wore this ridiculous clown wig and construction helmet. He was going for silly, I think he got it. :)

Hawken, my monkey man, found a fun tree to climb. The party was in the OC (outdoor classroom) and the kids took full advantage of the leg room. They were all over the place. Paul and I thought we lost them a dozen times, just to see them pop up somewhere new a few seconds later.

Does your pot luck usually include things like sushi? 

I'm glad ours does, because it was SO good, along with everything else. I ate about three plates full of the delicious food, but I always have helpers, so it was more like two plates...

Peter as DJ Lance holding Petal as a giraffe with Paul as...? holding Lullaby as...? We need to get  more creative.

Lullaby painted a pumpkin (and her hand) with Paul that is now sitting on our front porch with our million other pumpkins.

Matix ran around mostly with Ollie, a friend from his class. I love this picture. They were having so much fun.

Before leaving we also got a picture of Jack (which turned out fuzzy) and also one with both of Matix's teachers. Ms. Emily of the left as a witch and Ms. Jessie on the right as a princess, which Matix was very excited about.

Okay, get ready for it, the world's BEST family pictures are about to be shown. Please, tell me how much you LOVE these pictures. I really do. They had all these props for picture taking purposes, and we had lots of fun with it.  I know, we're amazing.

Lullaby's book!

I had been planning on this book since Lullaby was a few weeks old and my friend Liz suggested it. I took one picture of Lullaby each month for her first year of life. Most pictures were tied to something significant in the month or in Lullaby's life.  Finally, she turned one and I was done. Then I uploaded the pictures to Shutterfly.com when they had a promotion going on so I got it for only shipping charges and for the price of a couple extra pages. I think it turned out really cute, and Lullaby loves to look at herself. She gives herself kisses on each page.  One month old, October "one sleepy pumpkin":

Halloween.

Two months old, November "two thankful brothers":

Thanksgiving, obviously.

Three months old, December "three bright lights":

Bright lights, Christmas, get it? :)

Four months old, January "four chilly snowflakes":

Not that she's ever seen snow...

Five months old, February "five yummy valentines":

Each cookie has a name on it, one for each person in our family that she loves (including Sakina).

Six months old, March "six lucky clovers":

I didn't label the 4-leaf clover stickers that I hid in the photograph, so you have to search for them.

Seven months old, April "seven easter eggs":

Easter, and also the month she was obviously a sitter. She didn't need any help and never tipped over at this point.

Eight months old, May "eight colorful blocks":

This was the month she learned to clap, and she did it all the time. She still does.

Nine months old, June "nine humming birds":

Pulling herself up to stand began to be a regular occurrence, although she had done it a bit before this month.

Ten months old, July "ten playful stars":

Independence Day festivities.

Eleven months old, August "eleven round balls":

One of her first words, spoken at eleven months was "ball".

Twelve months old, September "twelve birthday balloons":

Her birthday, obviously. :)

Here are some pictures of the book itself.  It's so cute. I really like it.  Each page has different colors and backgrounds and makes the book more interesting, I think.  Shutterfly did an amazing job with the printing and the quality is far beyond what I would have guessed it to be for how cheap I got it for.

big boys!

Hawken knows how to click his own seat belt! This has been a loooong time coming, since usually he figures out how to do anything Matix can do within a few weeks of when Matix learns it.  But Matix has known how to do it for months now, and I have been waiting and waiting for THIS magical day.  Hawken declared, "I will do it by myself today." and he did, all three clicks!

Matix wanted his picture taken too, just to "show my grandmas I can do it".  He didn't specify which grandmas he was talking about, so take a look grandmas, all five of you, he can do it himself!

For some reason them being able to click their own seat belts makes my life SO much better. It still takes a while to get in the car and get going, they go fairly slow, but it's less work for me, and that is something that I am always in favor of. Good job my big boys!

from my boys

The boys often bring me flowers, one of my favorite things that Paul taught them to do.  A couple days ago, they brought me these orange and white seed/berry things...

Have you seen them before? I really like them, but don't know what to call them.  The leaf in the second picture isn't attached, that came later from Hawken. They like bringing me leaves too. :)