Eleventy-Seven Pictures of Katie's First Time In the Ocean

Let the cuteness commence!

PS: You're welcome! =)

Yay for Adventures!!!

Y'all KNOW how I love my big adventures! I love grabbing my whole darn family and dragging them around to cool places and taking a bunch of pictures. It had been entirely TOO long since that had happened, so we took advantage of a Girl Scout field trip and made it our own. As luck would have it, only one other family was able to attend this event - which was a little bit of a disappointment on one level, if we're being honest here, but what can you do? - and since they happen to be a really cool family, it was really like a true Big Adventure and not as much like Liz The Crazy Brownie Troop Leader forcing my husband to corral the babies while I did CBTL stuff. =) =)

Also, it was a beautiful amazing day and the places we visited (Airlie Gardens and the Halyburton Park in Wilmington about 1.5 hours from us) were super duper extra cool.

There was this little chapel made out of concrete and glass bottles...it was amazing. In this creche, the Mother Mary is an Aunt Jemima bottle and Joseph is Frangelico. The details were incredible!

One side was this amazing incredible (kind of freaky with the eyes...) butterfly! The opposite side was two faces, the front was two trees and the back was wire leaves. Truly, truly amazing.

Bree and her friend Marin who she used to call Marvin =)

We went into downtown Wilmington afterward for dinner - it was awesome! My crazy girls....that Bree, I'll tell you what. How do you only cross ONE EYE?!? She's gifted! =)

If I weren't such a lazy blogger, i would totally move this back up to the top of the blog for you, because it was at the botanical gardens. They called it the "Ribbit Exhibit" and each of the kids got a little scavenger map to find all these rad frog sculptures around the gardens. Super cool!

Friday Beach Day!

The weather has finally finally decided to cooperate with us and give us some sunshine and warmth! In my humble opinion, 72 is still a little too chilly to get in the ocean, but my kiddos are little mermaids and will jump in there at the slightest opportunity. =) Katie was advising Paul on the optimal "mushroom-style" beach umbrella set up. =)

Bree, just being herself. Sweet silly little beauty.

Those tiny little beach clams were EVERYWHERE. I'm pretty sure it's tiny-little-clam mating season or something because they all had tubes and flaps and all kinds of body parts sticking out of their shells. It was kind of creepy, especially when the tide brushed them all up on top of my feet and I could feel them dancing around. Yech! Get a room! haha - the girls thought it was cool.

We let Katie play in the surf, too and she LOVED it!

Bree, interrupting tiny little beach clam...you know...activities.

Katie Claire at a Year

 This precious baby!

They don't come cuter, or sweeter, than her.

At a year, Katie eats:

Great! She still nurses a few times a day, and likes to eat pretty much anything except eggs, beef, and broccoli. Her favorites are things you'd expect: avocado, fruit of any kind, pasta, cheese, grilled chicken, applesauce. She has tried Gatorade and coconut milk and likes those okay, but we usually stick to water in her sippy cup. She likes to feed herself and to eat EXACTLY what we're eating, even if she doesn't like it.

At a year, Katie sleeps:

Pretty well, all things considered! She usually wakes up around 6:30am, is ready for a morning nap at 9:30 and an afternoon nap at 2:30, and bed around 7. If the day doesn't allow for her morning nap, she'll take a really long nap (like 3.5 hours!), usually around noon. If she goes to bed late because of softball or other activities, the next day will be a heavy nap day. She sleeps in her crib, through the night and will transfer from the car seat sometimes, which is awesome. She sleeps on her belly with her little legs tucked underneath, just like she has since around Christmas (7mo old) and usually wakes up pretty happy. =)

At a year, Katie wears:

Not this, obviously, but it was one of my very favorite tiny baby outfits. She's in 18mo clothes, some 18-24, some 12-18, just depending on the brand. She doesn't have a preference, but we like to keep her in leggings so crawling doesn't hurt her little knees. We have her well baby on Monday so we'll see her official stats, but I'm thinking she's around 22-24lb now.

What's new this month:

 Along with the general improvement of basic skills and standing independently, Katie has started to REALLY get into her books. She gets so excited and starts laughing when we sit down to read with her! Her favorites are animal books and we can hear her all over the house saying "baaaa" or roaring. SO cute!

Katie had a lovely birthday celebration and a fun birthday-day. Here are the birthday high chair photos from all our girls....we look so young with Carly, so tan with Bree and so happy with Katie. We've been happy this whole time, but we're 8.5 years into this thing and really getting into our groove. I love seeing pictures of us together with each of our kiddlings - it's good for them, too, to remember that their Dad and Mom are at the center of this family and each of them (the kiddos) is important on their own, too, not just as a sibling.

Transition is So Weird

So yesterday was my birthday! It was a nice day and relatively low-key which was nice after our wonderful but busy weekend. I woke up to a bunch of fun prizes and cards in the morning, we got pedicures, I took a nap with Bree in the afternoon, got a lot of beautiful flowers, and didn't cook dinner. The day started off gloomy and rainy, but the sun came out in the afternoon and it was lovely.

A couple of my very good military-life friends arranged our pedicures and as we were sitting there talking about the one husband coming home from combat in nine days, and how the other husband just so happens to be in the company taking over for the first husband and how maybe he'll come home early because things are wrapping up, and homecoming outfits and summer schedules and Skype and humvees and Tricare....it hit me. That used to be me. It's not my life now, and it is not my life in the future.

Being a military wife is something I used to do...now I'm just a regular wife, and it feels like a demotion. I guess that's how it should be, but it's weird. On a day when I just found out a Marine from my hometown (this might be the first time I've EVER used that word in relation to Lawton, OK) lost his life to an IED in Afghanistan, I'm more than willing to hand over my military wife title in order to have my husband home. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining about our choice. It's just a big change for us, and it's...weird.

Carly's First Communion

Carly was up at 6 this morning and asked me about every ten minutes when she could put on her dress and veil for her First Communion. She has a pretty good understanding of what this day means for her, and it really was a beautiful service. This morning it was a little overcast and rainy so when there was a break in the clouds we ran outside to get a picture! Poor girl, the sun was so bright reflecting off the wet sidewalk!

Her daddy said she looked like an angel and I have to agree.

 

Bree, with her godfather Uncle Matty, and his new fiancee (yay!!!) Auntie Sam.

My crazy napless baby. She and I spent most of the Mass in the worship training room. =)

Carly's Communion class! There are so many hilarious things going on in this photo - I so totally love it.

Carly and her banner. The flowers are for her great-grandparent who have passed. The rose is Paul's maternal grandmother (Gigi), the lily is for my paternal grandfather (Papa Jack), the dark purple chrysanthemum is for my maternal grandmother (Grandma) and the pink carnation is for Paul's paternal grandparents (Grandpop and Grandmom Fish). I'm really hoping we'll be allowed to take this banner with us when we move because it means a lot to us!

Poor Katie had had enough.

We returned home to lunch and Carly's beautiful amazing cake that I tried to avoid cutting for as long as possible!

Katie's Birthday Party

We had our final first birthday party yesterday...the birthday girl herself doesn't officially turn one until Thursday, but since we had a little bit of family in town, we had to take advantage and celebrate our sweet baby while we had company. 

I had her cake made from the extra batter from Carly's communion cake. I love and adore this precious confection! The font was just too darn cute!

Katie with soon-to-be Auntie Sam.

Auntie K did the banners - SO CUTE. She also painted polka dots on the hats, even though it was kind of silly, just because I asked her to. =)

I spent three days rubbing the skin off the tips of my fingers making this darn wreath! Note to self: read the Pinterest instructions before starting! Haha, I really needed about maybe 1/3 the amount of mesh ribbon I used, but I still totally love how it came out. Baby girl will be having red and pink birthdays for a WHILE though.....prepare to see this wreath for at least three years. =) I didn't attach the K, so don't be surprised if you see this for Valentine's Day, too. =)

Opening some presents! As usual our family was so super generous and sent such lovely adorable clothes and toys for our little birthday girl! You can see in this picture, Katie is just dropping the awesome bathing suit when she caught sight of that shape sorting elephant toy. =) All three girls love that little elephant!

The traditional parents-by-the-highchair pic. Un-cropped and I look a little crazy but I'd just gotten smacked in the face with Katie's party hat. =) =) On Thursday we'll look back at the bday pics with the other girls. =)

What the heck am I supposed to do with THIS?! It took her a while to figure it out, but she finally did make an adorable mess of herself and the cake!