ONE!

VERA IS ONE!!!!!  Cannot believe it's been a year!  She is such a grown-up little lady!  We had her party on Saturday with a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme.  I thought it was perfect and fitting for my little caterpillar who is growing into such a little butterfly!  Susan made her SUPER CUTE cakes of course!  (And super yummy, too!)

 

 Of course she had to have a little bit of help from Grady to blow out the candle...  He was more than happy to help out!

 Vera wasn't so sure about the cake...  it was s sugar rush for a kid who has had little to no sugar other than what's in the baby fruits she eats...

 We all signed a keepsake copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar for her to keep from her first birthday...  Here's Grady signing his name!

 Unfortunately, when you're the mom of the birthday girl, you have no time to take pictures.  Plus, it doesn't help when your camera battery dies in the middle of the party...  AGH!  Way to be prepared, Julie!  So, I need some pictures... (hint, hint...Faye and Viola!!!)

THANK YOU to all of our sweet family who came to celebrate this special day with us!  We were so glad you could be a part of V's first birthday!

Here are some pictures I took of her in her caterpillar dress the other day...  Man, she is so big now!  Going to be a TALL girl!  Still not walking, but pulling up on everything!  She is the fastest crawler in the entire world!  Grady never did crawl on his knees...He was an "army crawler" and drug his legs behind him.  She crawls in perfect formation SUPER fast wherever she goes...She seems to think that she has no time for walking.  She can get places faster in her own way...

 She is the happiest girl in the world, too!  She grins constantly, or has her tongue sticking out.  She laughs all the time...mostly at Grady, who she ADORES!  She wants to be right where he is at all times.  I am afraid she is going to be a MAJOR tom-boy!  LOVES Grady's toys and prefers them over her dolls any day!  Hates socks and shoes, bows, and headbands.

 She is a major drooler...  She has been drooling like mad since about 4 or 5 months old...  So you'd think that she would have a mouth full of teeth.  But no...  only two.  They came in on Christmas night and we haven't seen any more yet...  So she's not eating a lot of food-food...still baby food.  Tried giving her a few things mushed up, but she can't really chew much.  We are hoping for some more teeth soon!  Finally finished up with formula a few weeks ago and she LOVES her milk!  :)

 She babbles all the time, but hasn't really mastered many words yet.  She can say MaMaMaMa and DaDaDaDa, but sometimes she just chants it and I don't really think she means to call our names...she's just "talking" and making sounds.  When she sees Grady, sometimes she says the "g-g-g-g" sound, but that's a pretty hard name to say.  What's really funny is that we have noticed her saying "Uh-oh!" alot lately when she purposely drops something and then wants you to pick it up...  So my child can say "Uh-oh" but not "Mama" and "Daddy"...  HA!  She waves "Bye-bye" and "Hey" and we are working on peek-a-boo and blowing kisses!



I am so grateful that God has brought such a precious little girl like you into our lives. You are so fun to watch and you melt my heart every day.  I hope you have many, many more birthdays and I can't wait to see how much you grow and learn this year, Baby-V!
Love,
Mama

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Spring Break has come and gone...can't believe a week flew by that fast!  I did nothing but spend the week hanging out with two sweet little kiddos and enjoyed it so very much!  It will be hard to get back into the routine again tomorrow for all of us! 

 

We finished up the week with a busy, fun-filled weekend...  On Saturday, our small group had our annual crawfish boil party.  It's been something we've tried to do each spring, and have added to it since we all have kiddos now...we have an Easter Egg hunt and a jump house for them too.  I was surprised at how much Vera loved the jump house.  We let her get in it when we first got there before it was full of other people...and she was all smiles!  Grady thinks jump houses are the greatest things since sliced bread and I couldn't get him to slow down long enough for a picture.  Matter of fact, I couldn't get him to slow down all day to get a picture...not even during the egg hunt... Needless to say, when we got home Saturday evening, he was OUT in 5 minutes on the couch!

 

Pops' birthday is on Monday, so we had his birthday party today.  After church, we headed to Pops and Grana's condo for a catfish fry, some birthday cake, and a boat ride.  Grady and Vera had a ball with Gavin and Samantha of course...  Pops had quite a bit of help blowing out candles!

 Grana pointed out that Pops was the only one who didn't have on GREEN (Today is St. Paddy's Day of course!!!) and so Pops was the victim of pinching and tickling!

 Even Baby V. came along on the boat today!  It was her first trip out on the water.  It didn't take her long to fall asleep!

Countdown to summer?????
This mama cannot WAIT!  :)

More Spring Break...

Baseball game at Trustmark Park...  MSU v.s USM

Grady has been to only a couple of MSU games in Starkville... so I wasn't sure how he'd do.  He did awesome!  He was the best little fan!  Sat through the whole game until the 8th inning when he claimed he was sleepy.  He paid attention the entire time, asking questions about the batters, the umpire, the different positions...all the while, cheering at all the appropriate times!  The people in front of us commented on how much he was paying attention to the game and that they were impressed.  I was amazed!  Erin, you would have been SO proud!  :)  I made the comment to my dad that I am SO glad that he loves football for Josh's sake, and equally glad that he enjoys baseball just as much for my sake!  I think the kid loves sports even more than his parents if that is possible! 

We got to see the Diamond Dawgs pull out a victory over the Golden Eagles!  Can't wait to take Grady to Starkville for a series this spring!  GO DAWGS!

(p.s., THANK YOU, DeeDee and Susan for keeping Vera!!!)

 I promised Grady we'd make a trip to his favorite place during spring break... The Children's Museum!  He'd go there every day if I offered...  He is all over the place and into everything there!

 The weather here is SO beautiful...  PERFECT for spring break!  Hope it stays this way!  I am SO excited it is finally spring and we can get outside!!!!

Spring Break

Yippeeee for Spring Break!  We are enjoying this wonderful weather!  We've already been to the Zoo, a baseball game, and had spring pictures taken.  Hope it stays this pretty weather-wise the rest of the week!  Yesterday when we got home from taking pictures, Vera was so animated that I decided to take some more at our house...  Another little kiddo who shall remain nameless did NOT want to participate because he was DONE with pictures for the day...