amelia's first brrrrrr-thday party!

the weekend of amelia's first birthday party was the warmest one we've had in a while... that figures since i'd been planning a "winter ONE-derland party" for my baby girl's first shin-dig! i wasn't hoping for snow on the ground or anything miraculous... but the frigid temperatures from this past weekend would have been nice! :) there i was turning our church fellowship hall into a winter wonderland while wearing flipflops. oh well!

i had so much fun gathering up decorations for amelia's party, thanks to after-christmas clearance sales! i felt like we kept the decorations pretty simple, though brian may tell you a different story after hanging who knows how many snowflakes!

these snowflake lollipops and blueberry candy canes (dollar tree!) were the party favors.


i intended to cute-sy up our coffee and hot chocolate bar a little more, but i ran out of time. and right as the party started, we blew the outlet by plugging in the hot pot and the coffee maker into the same outlet. ooooooops. thanks to jeff and kristie for handling that mini-crisis. i don't even know if we ended up with hot chocolate after all!


the tables had a little bag of "snow" with balloons. and simple snowflake tablecloths.


i loved these huge snowmen! and as you can see, the kids loved playing in the fake snow. we seriously could have just had fake snow everywhere and sat and watched them for 2 hours. now that would have been an easy party!


this adorable snowman sign is courtesy of aunt kristie. i'm showing a close up so you can see how the coal on their tummies makes the letters... too cute!



i could not resist making frosty the cheeseball for this party. how funny is he? my mom actually ended up constructing the snowman because (yep, you guessed it) i was running out of time. i guess he was good. i'm not really a cheeseball fan.


and here is amelia's sweet cake. my mom did a great job creating this igloo smash cake. i could not have been more pleased with how it turned out! and it tasted really delicious too!


when the kids arrived, they colored cut-out mittens that we'd use later in a game.




our first activity was making igloos out of marshmallows and icing!


i am sure brian was wishing that he was taking pictures and i was helping with the igloo!


the kids did not mind getting a little icing on their fingers...


and apparently the adults didn't either!


the finished igloos!


after creating the igloos, it was time for the sled race! my children did some trial runs in our hallway to make sure the sleds worked ok, and they could not wait to have this race. (they also currently pretend to be dogs 95% of the day at our house, so to be a sled-dog was an added bonus!) here are avery and ethan on the first leg of the race.


caroline acting the part of a dog-- tongue out and all! :)


ishen was so cute as he barreled down the way... but when he approached the turn, he went in reverse. it was hilarious.


after the sled race, it was time for cake! everybody decorated their own snowman cupcake. the kids had fun making silly faces with chocolate chips and candy corn, and the adults had fun stealing all the fixin's for the cupcakes!





speaking of cake, amelia was more than ready to dig into her cake! we took a bunch of pictures first (of course), and she was DONE staring at that cake! she tried pulling the tablecloth to get the cake closer to her, and when we moved the cake again, she gave up and started eating the tablecloth....


singing happy birthday to my baby girl


a quick family picture with the birthday girl! (if you are concerned--as was i-- that brian is wearing a t-shirt to his daughter's winter one-derland party, never fear... it is a snowboarding t-shirt. i choose my battles.)


ok, amelia, NOW you can have your cake! (and eat it too!)


amelia loved being allowed to play with her food! she smashed those icing hands together over and over. in time, she will appreciate that icing!!


the sugar rush is starting to kick in!


all three loving the cake. this may very well be my favorite picture of my three kids!


"i KNOW you're not swiping my icing, lola!"


hurricane amelia strikes the arctic


we asked that our friends not bring presents, but the grandparents did give amelia a few little things. she loved this jiggling pig!


sisters with the "sisters" book


don't i look so surprised in this picture!? this is the present WE gave her! haha! i am such a dork.


so i bought this snowflake headband for the birthday girl to wear. and i totally forgot to put it on her. but it did not get neglected....



five 3-yr old girls + cheap-o snow blankets= snow princesses! (though poor savannah got stuck with a "snow shawl"!)


each girly got their turn as a snow princess... what is it with three year old girls and princesses? i cannot fight it, lest i try.


kids loved playing with the fake snow blankets the best! go figure! by the end of the party, they were in shreds! (see savannah's "snow shawl" above)


so much for the winter wonderland.... the kids worked up a sweat flinging the snow everywhere!


our final game was "pin the mittens on amelia". i saved this one till the end, and by this time, most of the kids were more interested in flinging fake snow all over the place! oh well! but the kids who were interested took a turn.


indica and avery were the winners of the mittens game! they got to take home the much sought-after penguins.


so we had a fun celebration for our baby girl's first year! we loved sharing her special day with friends and family. i will end with this precious picture of amelia with her great-grandmother. i love how my grandma's sweet face of experience is admiring amelia, who has so much ahead of her. this one's going in a frame, for sure.


happy birthday, amelia! we love you "snow" much!

amelia is 1 year old!

happy, happy birthday to my baby girl! amelia is most excited that she has taken her final monthly pictures! this year with amelia has flown by for us. it seems like just yesterday that we were snuggling with our floppy-headed newborn who slept all day! and now she is this bright-eyed one year old who thrills on being flipped upside down over and over again. here's a little recap of amelia's monthly pictures...


these days, amelia is having a ball at waving at anyone in sight. she will sometimes say "hey!" along with her twisty, experimental wave. she also loves to say "bye, bye", "dada", "mama", "nite nite" (mommy's favorite!), and "nana" (which is how she tells me she's hungry). she started trilling her tongue last week, and now she does it in an attempt to imitate "eat". it's pretty funny to hear her do it, especially considering that brian has been trying to learn how to trill his tongue for years (and this slp wife has had no success in teaching him!). amelia is really nowhere near walking yet. she's content crawling from place to place, looking for forbidden toys to reach for (ie, horses with hair, ethan's cars). she has tried to stand unassisted a few times, but she's not trying to cruise around our furniture yet. it'll happen... she's obviously very busy working on talking right now, so she'll get around to working on walking soon enough. she's still as happy as can be most of the time, though she has hit that point where she gets fussy the moment she sees me after being away from me for a little while. that can drive a woman crazy, but hey, at least i know she knows her momma! here's my birthday girl just waiting for the party to get started!


check out these rolls before she's had any sweets! (in amelia's defense... she was turned to the side, which accentuated her sweet lil' love handles!)


if you've been around amelia for more than 10 minutes, you have more than likely seen "the scrunch". i've decided that she just can't smile any bigger, so the smile has to go up! :) the scrunch doesn't really make for the most photogenic of pictures, but it does always make me laugh!


"well, we've got to get ready for my party now! see you soon with lots of pictures from the celebration! bye bye!"

happy new year!

we had a wonderful new year's with jonathan and tammy and kids. we love ringing in the new year with our dear friends! and as the kids get older, it gets even more fun. we arrived at their house after dinner, and the kids got right to playing. before long, natalie, joseph, and ethan went crazy on the couch-- i don't even think anyone got hurt!


caroline thrilled on playing with natalie all evening. i told tammy that i need a 7 year old girl at my house!! at one point, the boys headed back to the kids' room, and they came back quite dismayed at what was posted on the door. i am chuckling thinking about joseph explaining the sign in detail: "and there was a picture of a boy on it with a line through him!"


the girls had made a hideout in the bottom bunk. my daughter was loving it! and it looks like natalie didn't mind entertaining a three year old!


so the boys were determined to make their own sign. joseph was so so cute in his striped pjs, writing so intently. ethan stood nearby coaching him on how to spell "no girls allowed", but they of course needed some help after "no"!


tammy and i quickly constructed a hideout for the boys, and ethan and joseph were prepared to defend their camp!


the kids scrapped their hideouts in time for the ball drop. here they are in anticipation as we counted down! (and according to joseph, 2010 is the year of the monkey???) :)



and here's the gang in their pajamas. (sorry, ethan... your cute pjs were in the washer. and my girls' pjs have owls on them, which i thought was fitting since they were night owls this night!)

ethan- 4 1/2, joseph- 5, claire-2, natalie-7, amelia-11 mos., caroline- 3


"check it out mom! weeee're smiling!"


natalie has obviously let her guard down in the whole baby's-gonna-pull-my-hair department (and she'd better brush up on her skills because there will be a new baby at her house this summer!). as you can see, caroline has become an expert in fleeing amelia's hair-pulling grip!


here we are in 2010! man, i was really slacking with my "0" this year. i have been a "0" every year... you'd think i'd have it down by now!


i still laugh every time i see this picture! jonathan didn't get the memo that we were doing the kiss shot. :) maybe this will be the next "mac vs. pc" commercial!


jonathan goes and goes all day, and when he crashes... he crashes hard and fast. here he is after the inevitable hit. i think i have a picture like this for every new year's! his daughter was not too far behind him!


before i go, look at these cute glasses that natalie and joseph made on new year's day. we were all going to make them on new year's eve, but with all the hiding out and the ball dropping, we just never got around to it. i am hoping to make them with my kids before january is over, but just in case we never do.... here is my precious flower girl in her 2010 glasses!


hope your 2010 has gotten off to a wonderful start!

cozy cousins!

i've been meaning to share this picture for over a month... this is one of my favorite shots of 2009! i snapped it one day with kristie's camera when we were all playing in her yard. i just couldn't resist the three girls in their cutesy hats!

ok, i have to include this one. this isn't even the full-sized picture, but it's too funny not to share. the girls were talking to amelia, and i knew i wanted to get a closeup of the three of them... but i didn't want the stroller in the picture. (this was before i took the above picture). we told them, "get close to amelia! touch your cheek to amelia's cheek!" and this is what the girls did.


caroline looks as if she's thinking, "ok, mom, but this looks really silly!" oh, yes it does!

encouragement for today

as january rolls on, i find myself with a list a mile long of things to do around the house and with the kids. blogging seems to fall further and further down that list as each day passes! i know i will be back before too long to share amelia's birthday this weekend, but until then, i thought i'd share an article that was incredibly encouraging to me. here's a snippet (emphasis mine):

Our children at very young ages have learned to go to God whenever they can't gain self-control on their own. They stop what they are doing and pray. It has been amazing to watch our now 2 yr old daughter do this at 18 months old - then walk away from praying with a smile on her face. It has been my saving grace with her because she tends to get wound up really fast and her temper is quick to take action - I give her the cue - "please stop and pray - you need God." Down she drops, hands folded, head bowed and her sweet words that we can't understand all of the time come out and up to Jesus. We all benefit from watching her do this and has taught our other children to do the same thing when they are hurt, angry, frustrated, sick or not being nice to their siblings.
wow. was that ever convicting to me! sure, we are teaching ethan and caroline to pray... but jill's example pretty much knocked my socks off. i hope you'll take time to read the entire post. it will be a blessing!