Katie got a birthday crown and new Elsa water bottle from her wonderful nursery leaders, Sister Michele Schmidt and Stacie Bowman. Kate loves nursery and looks forward to it all week long. She loves her friends there, loves her teachers and doesn't ever want to move up to primary.
My handsome baby ready to celebrate his first birthday in just a couple days! Wahoo!
He has been a huge blessing and brought great happiness to my life and our family. I feel such a depth of gratitude to have him. He is so easy to love. This sweet boy smiles, laughs, eats, cuddles and gets into everything all day long. His favorite pastimes are climbing the stairs over and over, emptying cupboards, opening and closing doors, splashing in the tubby, throwing a ball and eating every chance he gets. He is still nursing but, will take a bottle too. On his birthday he showed off his newest trick of going down the stairs backwards all on his own. He has 6 teeth, loves to give high fives, waves hello, crawls fast, cruises a little bit, and has the cutest jabber and funny sounds. He laughs at peek-a-boo every single time. He sometimes says Uh-Oh but most just the first half...Uh. He is easy to please, easy to calm, fun and happy. He refuses baby food. He tolerates his crib but prefers cuddling up with me. He has my heart and I couldn't ask for more.
Kate and Nathan both had their portraits taken at Busath just before their birthdays. Having pictures done can be hard but, it went so well for both of them. Here is Kate afterwards, a little "All-pictured-out"!
Kate's 3rd birthday finally arrived! She was so excited. She wanted to go to Smith's for the free cupcake.
She picked out a Mickey Mouse balloon too
And wore her nursery crown
She is a beautiful girl inside and out
We love being outside and spend a lot of time playing outside until the weather turns cold
It's Nate's Birthday Eve!
Playing Pirates at the house on the corner
Once Daddy and Andrew came home from football practice we had presents!
She adores her new, big Care Bear
Kate is such a sweet and beautiful girl. She has a very high pitched voice, but it's not quiet, and it is the cutest thing to hear. Her language has exploded and we love that she can express herself well. She is naturally polite and says please, thank you, I love you, excuse me and other adorable phrases all the time. She tries to be independent whenever she can but asks for help whenever she needs to also. She trips and tumbles often but is so tough and usually hops up and says 'I'm ok', as if she's more embarrassed than injured. She is a healthy eater, loves tubs, loves to try to get dressed herself, loves to hop and jump around and loves to cuddle. She puts herself down for a nap if she wants one but, then stays up way to late. She is not adventurous and doesn't like to climb, get in deep water, play out in snow or watch shows that have even a bit of something scary. She loves to color, play with toys, read books, cuddle in mom and dad's bed, be with cousins, have play dates with friends, pet animals, and always asks to watch shows. She watches out for others, especially in our family. She tries hard to do what she thinks is right. She is wonderful, adorable, sweet, loving and a huge blessing. I can hardly believe she's already 3.
Fun Run September 25, 2015. Last year the Fun Run was also on September 25th and I came, watched, cheered and left. A few hours later I had a new baby boy! What a quick surprise and blessing it was that he arrived safe and sound! This year I came with my baby boy on his birthday to watch and cheer again!
Ashley was the first of all the 2nd graders to make a lap. She ran the entire race with great determination, speed and focus!
Each time the children finish a lap they get a stamp on their arm. When the 2nd grader's 20 minutes were up Ashley had 10 laps! That's a lot! It's about 2 1/2 miles!
Ashley was the top girl runner in her grade! Way to go! Two boy runners had 11 laps and everyone else was 9 or less (it seemed that her friends ranged from 4 to 8 laps). Later on the top boy and girl from each class got a gift card for Cold Stone Ice Cream and she was super excited to earn that prize.
Ivy, Ashley, Kylee and Lauren
Mary, Ashley and Amelia
Next came the 3rd graders. Andrew ran steady, steady and with focus. He did amazing! All that football practice conditioning really had him in excellent shape. Here he is giving a high five to Carson's dad Dave Stewart.
The 3rd graders seemed to have been given a minute or two less than their 20 minutes, maybe to keep on schedule. When time was up Andrew also had 10 laps! He was the top runner for his class and I think he was the top for his grade. His friends seemed to have about 7 to 9 laps.
Way to go!
James W, Andrew and James B. They are both great runners too but, all that football conditioning gave Andrew a big advantage this year and it showed.
Andrew S, Trevor, Landon, Seth, Andrew, Isaac, Joey, and Matt
Fun Run really was fun! They ran hard, got great exercise and won too!
Cuties in the car
Nathan's Big First Birthday! One of his favorite things is tubby time
It was a Friday and that evening Dave and Andrew had football practice...again...as always. We would be celebrating a few days later with the entire family so for his actual birthday we had doughnuts. He did not like wearing his birthday hat.
Kate had a birthday doughnut too. Why not?
He was happier with the hat off. Ready to try a yummy doughnut.
When we were altogether Nate was ready to open his present!
We all love Nate!
He loved his present! It's really fun
He always loves snuggles and tickles from Dad
The following Sunday we had our extended families over for dinner and celebrating. First we had church of course and Hailey snapped these pictures of us. We were too late to go in to the chapel so we sat in a classroom and listened over the speakers.
Kate wanted a Dinosaur party, so we had Dinosaur cupcakes, Dinosaur plates for desert, cups, napkins, party hats and pinata. Nate's portion of the party was a 1 year old party so he had his own cake shaped in a one and plates and such for dinner with the 1 theme. Maybe I need to split it up in coming years, I'm not sure.
Kate playing outside waiting for everyone to come for dinner
And Hailey too
Nate playing inside waiting for dinner
After dinner we gave Nate his cake. It was so loud and crazy that he was totally overwhelmed and not his usual smiley self.
I thought it would be fun to give each child a birthday cake to celebrate our fun birthday season too. And, since this is the last year before Andrew jumps to double digits! They were easy to make, I just made some rectangle and some round cakes and then free hand cut them into the shapes I needed. Then freeze them overnight and frost in the morning.
The entire cousin crew
Lizzie pulling Ashley, Hailey and Kate in the wagon while Alyssa races
And with the end of Nathan's birthday we finished our fantastic birthday season! From start to finish we celebrate all five birthdays in just a few days over 3 months, with four of those being within less than 1 month. I like having all five birthdays together. I had hoped all my babies would be born in September because the weather is wonderful and they can be the oldest in their grade. Here are my beautiful birthday babies in 2015.
That night was the "Blood Moon" a very rare occurrence when the moon looks red for a few minutes. We had a perfect view from the corner and enjoyed watching with lots of neighbors. The picture is horrible but, I kept it to remember.
Hailey loves to catch potato bugs, or rolly pollies as she calls them. She found LOTS!
At the school to check Ashley out of school. During September, Andrew got very sick throwing up for a couple days, then a few days later it was Ashley's turn, then later Hailey, then later Kate. Nate had a rash and low fever too. I then got sick with strep throat. (I would later learn that this sickness would last on and off for me, leading to my second episode of guttate psoriasis which lasted for months and the need for a tonsillectomy in December.)
She sure didn't look sick! But, she later proved she sure was!
Another beautiful night outside
And that was the end of September, one of my favorite months of the year. It would only be better if school hadn't started yet.
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