"I sorry Mommy"

A few weeks ago I was giving Ahnie a bath and next thing I know AJ was running into the bathroom saying "I sorry mommy!  I so sorry!  Its ok Mommy!"  I didn't know what to think and just asked what happened.  All he could tell me was my angel broke.  He brought me a piece of this:

This is a angel that my grandpa Higgins made for me.  I hold it very dear to my heart because we found it down in his workshop with my name on it when he passed away.  (He gave one to each of the grandchildren when they were confirmed.  I was confirmed later that year)

To Ayden's suprise I was not mad.  It comes in pieces and fits together to look like this.

He had picked it up wrong and it fell apart.  But, this led into a great conversation that we were able to have about how happy I was that he came to me even though he thought I was going to be upset with him.  I told him that it is better to come to me with something that went wrong rather than try to hide it or not tell me about it right away.  I love that inocense of a child and I hope that he can continue with that.  I also hope that I can remember to be calm and understanding later in life when he comes to me with things that are not such an easy fix.

Girls Night...Simply Wonderful!

Dear Ahnie,

Tonight, we had a little mommy/daughter time while the boys were at a baseball game.  It was a wonderful and simple night!  We spent a little time just shopping at Target...I didn't need anything just wanted to get out of the house and look (my favorite thing to do) then we headed home for a quick dinner and took a walk together.  You were getting a little antsy so we stopped at the park!  (One of your favorite places to be!)  While we were at the park I was able to give you my full attention!  It was so fun!!!  I could not get over how big you are!  You are very independent and love to play little tricks on me!  You insist on walking up all the steps by yourself and love to pretend to go down the slide and at the last minute you would run across the platform and giggle so loud! I could listen to that giggle all night!  Finally, you did got down the slides.  Even the big one!  I think you are going to be our dare devil!

You are so sweet these days too!  While at Target we bought you your very first dolly with her very own binky.  You love giving her hugs and kisses and you like to try to put the binky in her mouth.  After a while you end up puttig it in yours instead.

I love these nights where we can spend just the girls!  I hope that we continue to have girls nights as you grow up and spend time together doing things we both love to do!

I love you and love watching you grow up and develop your personality.

Love,

Mommy

We LOVE VBS!!!

AJ loved VBS this year!!!  Every afternoon after his nap he would say "Mommy, time to go to VBS!!!"  and would insist on wearing his "lion" shirt no matter how dirty it was...  Thank you to all who helped my little guy have a great time!  I can't wait to see what all he learns when he is in an actual class :)

Ahnies Hungary Little Caterpillar Party

We celebrated Ahnies first birthday on Friday the night before her actual birthday.  I choose the Hungary Little Caterpillar book as our theme for the party.  Thanks to pinterest I had lots of great ideas to decide from. 

I made a caterpillar cake :)

I couldn't decide on the smash cake so I just made a little round cake and decorated the beautiful butterfly that the caterpillar turned into.

I found how to make a tutu to complete her Birthday Girl outfit!

This was my favorite touch.  I took monthy pictures of Ahnie and put one on each section of the caterpillar to see how Ahnie has grown this year!

Ahnies wonderful grandmas helped me out by setting out all the food!  They were a huge help before the party began until the end!  Thanks so much grandmas! :)

We ate almost everything the caterpillar ate in the book.  Strawberries, pears, watermellon, apples, oranges, salami, cherry pie, cake...

The big kids made their own caterpillars!

Grandma H. made sure everyone got their names on their caterpillars.

After eating we ate the cake.  Ahnie wanted to be done and get down and play.  She was not so sure about the cake but after she had a few bits she started digging in.  Unfortonially my camera died before she started enjoying her cake so here is the best one.  Luckily my mom got some good pictures but I don't have them on my computer...

After cake we opened presents!  Ahnie had lots of helpers but she had lots of fun opening her presents. We were so blessed that so many friends and family could come and help us celebrate our daughter!  She recieved so many wonderful presents!  

I can't believe she is already 1!!!  I loved every minute of planning her special day.  I have really enjoyed planning birthday parties for my children!  Guess I better get started on Ayden's 3rd Birthday!  Its only 2 months away!  

Ahnie Turns 1!!

On April 28th our baby girl turned 1 year old!  I can't believe we don't have a baby anymore...  I think she looks so old these days and is on the go!!!

This past month she has mastered walking and is everywhere and into everything!!!  It makes playing outside so much easier.  She loves to crawl up steps but we still are working on how to get down.  She loves to go down the slides and swing at the park!  She is always trying to keep up with her brother!

Ahnie said bye bye to her bottle the day after her birthday.  I was very excited to be done washing bottles everyday and done buying formula!  I was a little nervous how she would make the switch to milk though but she has done great!  She was not a good cup drinker but once the bottles were gone she switched to a cup very easily.  I think she is even a better milk drinker than AJ was at this age!

This month we went to Des Moines with the Hofferts and Ahnie got to enjoy the waterpark and the zoo much more than last year!  She loved being in her floatie walking around the pool by herself and swimming in the deaper section with mommy.  We tried a few of our songs from AJ's old swimming lesson and she loved it!  At the zoo she was a little more laid back and tired.  We went right after lunch which is normally her nap time so she hung out in the stroller much of the afternoon.  But she did help feed some animals and at the Monkey cage after I was making monkey noises at her she started making them back!  It was so cute!!

Ahnie had her "fun" one year check up and did GREAT!  She was not a fan of the shots so I forsure thought she would hate the finger prick but she really did good!  She just sat and watched as the lab tech kept squeezing her finger.  I was impressed how they could get that into such a tiny vile.  As for her stats she is still top of the charts.  She weighed in at 24lbs (75th-90th%), Height was 31.5(95%) inches and Head was 17.5(25th%).  It was funny they first measured her head at like 17.75 inch and when she put that in it said the percentile was really high.  So she remeasured and with only .25 of an inch it dropped down to her normal percentile.  We also found out that Ahnie had low iron so we are now on an iron supplement so hopefully it will check out higher at her 15th month check up.

She got her 4th tooth this month and this one snuck in on us.  Finally not to much trouble to get this tooth.  Usually it is a big ordeal with her!

Ahnie signs 'please' for everything and is starting to point at everything.  She said a hi sound while she waves and says d-d for daddy.  She talks all the time but we can't make out to many words yet and the ones we can I don't think anyone else would pick up.  Hopefully in the next couple months she will be talking a little more.

Ahnie is wearing 18 month clothes and just grew into a size 4 shoe.  She is wearing size 4 diapers.  She is forsure a big girl and we hope she starts to slow down!!  :)

I did finally decided to give her hair a few snips.  Brett was against me cutting her hair so I did it the Sunday morning after her birthday while he was at work.  It looks so much better!!  I just took a few snips from behind her ear and now everything looks much more even.  I still don't know what to do with the hair on top but hopefully it is getting long enough it will start laying back a little bit and not always in her face!