Genna's 4th birthday party

Today, we had a birthday party for Genna and another friend in her class, Hagen! Originally, it was supposed to be at the park, but since it rained all day and was about 50 degrees, we had to move it to our house in the basement. I was a little worried about how it would go, but the kids were just excited to be playing together!

This is the birthday girl and boy! They are such great friends!

Before the party, Genna, Mary Frances, Hagen, Charlie, and Andrew (trying to eat a balloon, of course) played with all of the balloons.

This was the party-saver...my great friend, Kaci let us borrow this bouncy castle to use. Luckily, it was small enough to fit inside. It was absolutely perfect for the kids!

We also made bead bracelets and decorated easter eggs and other spring shapes with stickers.

More crafting fun...

Taking a break from jumping...they were so thirsty!

Daddy and the birthday girl!

Genna gets very nervous around candles, but she did so good!

She was glad to finally blow it out.

Memama did a great job cutting the cake for a lot of hungry 3 and 4-year-olds.

Yes, Genna is swiping her finger down the side of the icing....

...and licking her finger...

We also played a few games...

All in all, I think it was a successful party thanks to a lot of people helping to make it happen.

More to come on Genna and Grandaddy's birthday celebration from Saturday night!

9 month portraits (a little late)

I had these taken about a month ago, but I'm just getting around to posting them. Needless to say, I did not buy all of these! They are just some of my favorites.

Snow!

So, we've had snow in Birmingham (while we've been home to play in it) 2 years in a row! Genna remembered it from last year and how much fun she and her Daddy had playing in it (I was very pregnant with Andrew, so I didn't really play much). She has been sick with a fever virus of some kind, so we were not able to go out for very long. She was so excited, though, that I had to let her at least go out for a little while.

We tried to build a little snowman on the deck, but it kept falling down.

making snow angels...

We tried again in the front yard, and it worked out a little better. Yes, she gave the snowman her hat, but we went inside right after this picture.
She was insisting that only Daddy could build a snowman and since he was at work, we just wouldn't be able to do it. When she saw that I had built one, she kept saying "Mama! We teached ourselves!!!" She was very proud of "us"

Andrew, on the other hand, slept through all the fun and was not happy about it at all when he woke up.

He did seem to like looking at it through the window, though.

Happy Birthday Memama!

The first decent picture EVER of Memama, Grandaddy and all 4 grandchildren!

We celebrated at Outback with the whole family (including 4 children) and there were no major dinner catastrophes! I think this is a first ever, too.

Andrew ate a little of everybody's food, I think. Andrea's feeding him baked potato...

Andrew loves Uncle Kevin (or Uncle Keky, as he is known around here).

Yet another decent picture of grandparents and grandchildren!

Mary Frances, Genna and Keecoo, the bunny. Keecoo is Genna's class "pet" who we had the pleasure of spending the weekend with. He rode in Genna's bicycle basket, helped bake a birthday cake and went basically everywhere we did.

Crawling and 9 months

Andrew's 9 month stats:
19 lbs. 4 oz
29 inches tall

He is crawling all over the house and can go from crawling to sitting up. He can pull up on me, so I know it's only a matter of time before he's pulling up on everything else. That means time to move the crib all the way down to its lowest setting, so that's what Brian did on Saturday, with Andrew's help, of course.

He thinks his mobile is much more fun now that it's not attached to the bed.

Here's a video of him crawling. It's a funny crawl that I want to remember...it's not going to last much longer, though. He has started to at least try to crawl normally over the last few days.

Indoor fun

It has been so cold here lately that we had to find a place to play that would be inside. Luckily, there is a new place near our house that is an indoor playground. We went to a Kindermusik demo which the kids LOVED and then had free time to play.

He really was smiling behind the paci. He sat in this ball pit (which was actually a blow-up pool filled with little plastic balls) with no fussing for probably 15 minutes or more.

Sweet Olivia had fun riding on this 4-wheeler

Genna climbing on the playground equipment. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of her because I couldn't catch her!

Andrew also really liked the swing. He would have fallen asleep here if I had let him stay longer.

Happy New Year!

Looking like a big boy...


New clothes...Because we have been blessed with so many hand-me-downs from several people, this is the first dressy outfit that I have bought for Andrew (and it's not like he needed this one; I just thought it was too cute!)

If you look really close, you can see one of my new teeth.

New dragon hooded towel (Thanks, Ashley!)