::a little birthday::

She did it.  She turned 1.  I was kinda hoping she wouldn't, but she did!  She's 1!!  We had a little family party with her on her birthday (Wednesday).  A few presents, some singing, a candle, some cake, and that was it!

Bubb, Avie, and I picked up her cake in the morning, and ALL.DAY.LONG  Bubb begged (begged!) me for a piece of it!  It kinda made me mad!  Then Port came home and asked for a piece!  Really?  You think we're going to cut up her birthday cake and hand out pieces before she even has her party and blows out her candle and gets "happy birthday" sung to her?!?  Jeez!  Hungry boys.

So she opened her presents first 

(before she got all cake-y).

Then she had her cake.

...and she liked it 

:]

She's not walking on her own yet.  I guess she's kinda close.  She loves to walk around like this...

...and along the furniture.  Sometimes she'll get brave and let go of the couch for a second to switch to walking along the table.  She stands all by herself for a few seconds at a time, but not too often.  She pushes stuff (her lion walker, laundry baskets, big toys, etc).  She's super busy!!  Always taking stuff apart, pulling stuff out, putting stuff in, pushing buttons, switches.  She "talks" a lot.  It's baby babble.  But it's lots of questions.  Blegliglooglih??? And then she'll say almost the exact same thing again.  It's funny.  She says "uh oh"  A LOT, and she seems to know what it means.  She says it when she drops stuff, or throws something on the floor (which she does a lot!!), or when other people drop things, or when something/body falls.  She waves bye, and claps when we do or when we all say "yea.". She is super smiley! She laughs alllll the time!! She gets the hiccups when she laughs too hard (just like Chloe), and when we keep going after her she squeals this really loud cute, happy little squeal. She's really demanding. She lets you know when she's not happy, or when she wants something-usually she squeals. She's pretty attached to her mama. She likes to be held, and she always has to see what's going on. She likes to play peek a boo, and she likes when I hold her facing out and chase the other kids around the house. She puts her hands up when we hide stuff and say "where'd it go?" She dances any time she hears music.

Her one year stats...

weight:  18lbs 12 oz (14th)

height:  30" (77th)

head circ.:  44.7cm (38th)

Happy Birthday to our Teeny Moo!  We love her so much!  She's such a sweet baby sister.  She's so much fun, and we're so glad to have her in our family.  

::drawer cleaner-outer::

This is Ave's new favorite pastime.

PS

She'll be 1 tomorrow.

::long time, no post. right??::

It says on my dashboard that my last post was something like 3 weeks ago. I almost don't believe it. I don't think I've ever gone that long without posting! I don't know what the deal is. I guess it's due in part to life just not being that interesting, and partly to some computer program switcheroos.

A couple of Fridays ago, Chloe had a lip sync concert at her school. It was smack in the middle of the day. I thought I'd get there about 10 minutes early so we could get a seat up front. Pshah!! Try maybe if you get there 10 minutes early you can park within walking distance of the school!! So, Avie, Bubb, Portie, and I walked a little ways to the school (Ave in her stroller, Port and I on foot, and Bubb on my back-piggy style). It was fun. Lots of fun. It was standing room only in the auditorium. I found Robyn (my besest girlfriend (if that's allowed as an adult)) and stood kind of by her. I caught Chloe just before she went on stage, and grabbed a quick photo of her in her Hawaiian get up. We did the best we could. I swear, one of these days I'm just going to buy a dang grass skirt one summer day because inevitably there will be a beach/Hawaiian day at school in the middle of winter and we will need it and no store will have one! Anyway, she wore a little Hawaiian-ish print dress and a bow that Grandma & Papa Kitty brought back from Hawaii and a Hawaiian bracelet along with a lei and a shell necklace.

So they sang "Love Train." The costumes had to do with that part "people all over the world..." so that tried to get kids to dress up. She was on stage for about 2 minutes. It was fun to watch her. She was glad we were there.

Life's pretty normal. School's still going-but only for about 2 more months! Isn't that crazy?? They get out on May 31! Winter officially ended yesterday. There's still snow on the ground, but that's a new thing-we've had great weather lately. Bubba's driving me COMPLETELY nuts lately! It's over such dumb things too. Like he'll want to shut the door, and if I shut it, he loses it! He's scream and cry and tell me he hates me (or he says he hates Ava, when she didn't even do anything!), and it'll completely ruin his day. He's hungry all.day.long. He likes to come in about every hour and tell me he's hungry, and if I don't hop to it and give him something to eat he gets very upset. I don't mean to sound like I hate him or anything-because I love him SO much! He's so fun and so funny and makes us all laugh and he's so sweet, but some days... I guess we all have our moments. Portie's a sweet boy. He likes to play with Jaken-his BFF (but I'm sure that's not what he calls him. Dude! That's what he calls him!). Port and Jaken play about every other day. His mom and I are trying to see if we can get them in the same class again next year. We hope it'll work out. Avie has 2 teeth. They came out at about 11 months old. She also had her first ear infection a few weeks ago. It was so sad! Poor Teeny! She liked her medicine though, so that made it a little easier. She's trying to walk. She pushes her little walker around until it hits a wall or a piece of furniture, then chirps at us to turn her around.

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Well, so there is one major thing that happened this last week. Our cousin/nephew, Jordan left on his mission on Wednesday. He'll be serving in the Argentina, Salta mission for 2 years.

We got to hear him speak in his home ward on Sunday before he left on Wednesday. Oh, what a great talk! It was darling! And very Jordan! I loved what he said about the temple. He said how special of a place it is, and that you don't even have to be inside to feel the spirit, that just being on the grounds allows you to feel the love of Heavenly Father and feel at peace and forget the world. What a lovely thing to say.

I met him when he was 9. He's grown up a lot, and grown up well. Chloe made him a card she forgot it, so we went back home to get it. He got a little teary when he read it. It said something about her going to miss him but being glad for his example. I agree.

I'm so happy and excited for him! We'll miss him, but we'll be here when he gets back :]

(Matt, Ava-almost 1, Me, Porter-5 1/2, Cooper-3, Chloe-8, & Jordan)

The end.

::snow::

On March 1st...


We're having the biggest snowstorm of the season. Nice.

A little late, don't ya think??

4ish inches so far, and it's still snowing.

Where was this in December/January??

We've moved on. We're ready for Spring!

Sheesh!!