Take Me Out to the Birthday

What a GREAT day we had! We got to celebrate our sweet Walker's 1st birthday and it was super fun!  We went with the baseball theme and with the help of Pinterest, I really like how all the decorations came together.

Thank you to The Cookie Mama for making the precious baseball cookies!!! And behind the cookies...my favorite baseball themed item at the party!!! Little plastic baseball hats for our homemade ice cream!!! I am OBSESSED with how cute they are!!!

                                

We have been so spoiled this weekend to have so much of our family with us!  Ella Kate did a bit of entertaining until Walker woke up from his nap.

 One of my favorite things that we did for Ella Kate's 1st birthday was to have all of her party guests write her a note with their hope/prayer for her when she turns 18.  I put the cards away in her special box that I will give her when she turns 18.  I obviously wanted to do this again for Walker.  The cards are so special and the one that Ella Kate wrote to him is just precious.  Not that I am wishing the time away, but how sweet will it be when he reads what his big sister wrote one day!!!

 That's right Walker! You throw that baseball with your LEFT hand!!!! 

 Both of my kids would love nothing more than to live with their 2 grandmothers!!! They would both ditch me in a second to go with Kay Kay and Nana!!!

 Walker got so many fun gifts and we are so thankful for the generosity that was shown to our little man.   The golf cart was a big hit and EK had fun pushing him all around the house...and then when he went to sleep, I found her sitting in it playing.

 (Dora photo bomb)

 My kid loves some ice cream!

 Our precious friends the Parsons came to celebrate Walker's day.  The day I went into labor with Walker, they came and picked up EK since our family had to drive in to town.  They are such special friends and we are so thankful for them. I do not know what we would do without them!!!

 Ella Kate was so glad to see Robert today...and we all were thankful for Robert's engineering abilities as he put together the tons of pieces that were needed for the golf cart!

 Happy little boy with Kay Kay and G

 These guys are some of the first people that saw Walker when we was born.  If Walker can grow up to be like these guys, I will be one proud mama.  So very thankful to have such Godly young men around to be such positive examples for my kids.

I think Papaw likes having a boy around!

 EK was thrilled that Will and Warren came to the party.  There are no words for how much we love their family.  I think I will just have to lay in front of the moving truck so they can't move to Florida.

 Our birthday cupcake today was not quite as messy as the red velvet, but I think he still enjoyed it!

 Happy Birthday Walker! 

Ella Kate Takes The Stage

Last night was Ella Kate's dance recital.  She has been so very excited about wearing her sparkly costume and I have pretty much dreamed about my little girl's first recital since I was about 15! It was quite the busy week with the last few days of preschool wrapping up, birthday party prep for Walker's party, and J going to Columbus to do marriage counseling for a couple he is marrying this summer so adding in extra ballet practices every day just seemed like FUN!!!!  When Friday night rolled around, this little girl was ready to perform!!!!

She LOVED getting to dance around with her sweet friends Enley and Leah!

 One of EK's favorite ballet poses is the curtsy, so ever time I tried to take a picture, this is what I got.

 Her ballet number was to a cute little song called "Pretty Little Costume."  They were too precious!

 And her tap number was to "Jesus, Jesus, I Love You."  They were so sweet singing and EK cracked me up because each time she left the stage, she had the biggest smile on her face and waved like Miss America after crowning.  Quite the turn around from her 2 year old preschool program where she sat and cried in the chair the whole performance!!!

 Ella Kate had a rather large cheering section as well and she was so tickled to get to see everyone!  A huge thank you to Nana and Pop, Aunt Haley, Kay Kay and G, and Papaw and Aunt Carolyn for coming down to watch EK dance.  We are so grateful to have such amazing families that support us!!!

EK was thrilled with all the treats she received for doing such a good job.  

 

 We love our little ballerina!!!

We Made It!!!!

Can't believe that Ella Kate is finished with 3 year old preschool!!!! We LOVE our preschool and especially LOVE Ms Sunny!!! So very thankful for another great year!!!! We are super excited for all the fun things we have going on this summer before she begins K4!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!

Mother's Day 2013

                       

 

Yesterday was such a great day! I am so very thankful for the opportunity that the Lord has given me to be mommy to these 2 precious babies.  They are a treasured gift for sure!!!! And speaking of gifts, J gave me the sweetest, most thoughtful gift!!!!  How cute is the platter he had made???? Seriously!!! He came up with the idea and our friend Lissa Ortego made it into a reality.  I just love it!!!

Wrap it in Maroon and White

My beautiful baby sister Haley graduated from State on Friday.  I have no idea how this is even possible since she is still a preteen in my mind!!! She pretty much dominated school and graduated with Summa Cum Laude honors.  She is one of the hardest working, organized, determined people I know and I am so proud of her!!! The 4th graders at Madison Station will be blessed to have Ms Jones as their teacher next year!!!!!

And just for fun...some of the pictures EK made to pass the time during the ceremony!!!!

Walker Man Turns 1!!!

Today, our sweet boy turned 1!!! Our day was pretty much a normal day, but we plan to do things up right next weekend at his party!!!  Walker is such a happy, busy little boy and it is so fun to watch him learn and explore new things.  He is in to EVERYTHING but especially loves climbing the step stools, or on EK's little chairs to get on top of the table. Awesome.

He has learned some new tricks this month like when asked how old he is, he holds up his finger.  He has also learned to do that mouth spitty thing that kind of sounds like a poot that all boys can do so well.  Yeah, Big G taught him that one.  Pretty hilarious!

He is still a great eater.  He eats anything and everything but his favorites are bananas, mandarin oranges, yogurt, turkey, chicken nuggets, carrots, green beans, nutri grain bars, and yesterday he ate about half of my ice cream at Chick fil a, so I guess you could say he was a fan of that as well.  He has been off of formula for a couple of weeks, and has done great with his milk from the sippy cup.  He still does like to have his milk in a bottle before bed time though.  I am curious to go to the doctor to find out how much he weighs!!! We are so blessed with healthy kids that we have only had to go to the doctor for well baby checkups....knock on wood!!!  He does wear 9-12 month clothing (depending on the brand) and size 3 diapers.

He is still a great sleeper as well.  He takes a little nap in the morning and his big nap in the afternoon, and then sleeps 13 hours at night.  We are so lucky in this department!!!  Some of his favorite things include being outside, swinging, climbing in and out of his rocking chair, any ball, music (he loves to dance), clapping for people, and whatever Ella Kate is doing.  He is talking all the time.  Some of his words are night night, that (he points at everything and says "that" like he wants you to tell him what it is), bye bye, more, mama, daddy, kay kay, and nana.

Walker's sweet daddy decided to do something special for our little guy tonight during youth group.  J picked up a cupcake for Walker to smash and they got on the stage to celebrate with all our "big kids." It was super sweet and I am pretty sure Walker (and all the kids) thought it was the best thing ever!!

I just can't believe how much my little baby has grown! We are so very thankful for Walker and can't wait to watch him grow!!!! We are confident the Lord has big things in store for him.  We are so blessed to get to walk through life with him as his parents!!!! We love you Bubba!!!