Happy Birthday Carly!!!

On March 11, 2011 God blessed me with you Carly. Daddy and I couldn't have been more excited. You have brought us so much joy (and so much mischievousness) since you came into our lives. Since the day you were born you've wanted to do everything your big brother Brodie does. We've been trying to get you off the bottle and you have several of your own big girl cups and yet you still cry for Brodie's. You follow him around trying to play cars and transformers (sometimes he gets very mad at you for messing up his toys, but you are not one for having things in order). No matter what though, your brother loves you more than anything in this world...well except for maybe Puppy. He pushes you in your swing, gives you great big hugs and even climbs into your crib in the morning to visit with you. At night when your very tired and crying Brodie will come in and sing you a song that Daddy used to sing to him at night. He calls it the bom bom bom song but the actual title is Stand By Me.

You are not yet walking but getting closer everyday. I think you just prefer for Mommy to carry you around everywhere. You are crawling down the stairs backwards fairly well which has given Daddy and I some piece of mind. There are 7 teeth in your mouth (four on top and three on the bottom) with several more on the way.

We celebrated your first birthday with a cupcake theme. Mommy worked very hard to make you a cupcake onesie (which you looked very cute in) and several cupcake decorations. It was so much fun watching you dive right into your birthday cupcake, complete with glitter. You are definitely a sweets girl. We all love you very much and look forward to another amazing year!

My hiatus!

So this is probably going to be a very long post. I don't know what happened but time just seemed to keep going by and I never made the time to update. So much has gone on over the past 9 months (I could have had another baby....BUT I DIDN'T!). Carly has changed drastically and Brodie is becoming more of a young man everyday. I've uploaded several photos so just follow along:

4th of July. Brodie just loved the fireworks!

Atchison County Fair

A couple random pics of Carly.

Halloween!

Carly's first hair cut. She did such a great job!

Another random pic.

Everytime it snowed a little Brodie asked if he could make a snowman. Finally we got enough to make a snowman and he made snow angels while I shoveled the driveway.

In February we took a small vacation to visit Bill's family in Florida.

Carly and Brodie on the airplane. (what a trip!)

Outside Epcot.

Magic Kingdom

Riding "It's a Small World"

Spending time at the park down the block from GG's.

Carly eating a slider cheeseburger.

Brodie is very in to Superheros.

Bible School

Last week was bible school at our church and this year Brodie was finally old enough to go. It made for a long exhausting week (it was every evening from 6:15-8pm) but Brodie had sooo much fun. The theme for bible school was Pandamania and the church decorations were amazing. Each night they met a new bible buddy who told them a story. With every story was a catch phrase after which the kids shouted "thank you God". The kids made little key chains that had a wooden person they were suppose to color to look like them. Each night a plastic bible buddy was added to the key chain so by the end of the week they had their own bible buddies to take home. I cannot tell you how many times Brodie asked to take home his bible buddies. He would be so disappointed every night when he couldn't take them home. Imagine just how excited he was Friday when they handed him those buddies (like Christmas and birthday all rolled into one). I was able to purchase a CD with the music from bible school so we practiced the songs before it started. Brodie was a pro when it came to the singing and dancing...but this shouldn't be a surprise since everyone knows how he loves to sing and dance. Overall we had a great week and he performed with the other kids at church this past Sunday. We can't wait for bible school again next year.

Pics

Here are some pictures of Carly's first three months of life (and some of Brodie too). Just trying to catch everyone up.

Brodie laying on a board for washers

Carly's St. Patrick's Day outfit
(yes I know the feathers are bigger than her head)

Brodie helping to feed Carly

Snuggle Time

After our bath

Sitting with Grandma at Great-Grandpa's Birthday

So Sweet!

What a goofy face

Brodie Happy....Carly Not So Happy

Our first trip to the neighborhood pool

Easter

So I know Easter was a long time ago...I just can't seem to keep myself caught up. Anyways, here's what we did:

Of course one of the first things we had to do was dye Easter eggs. This is one of Brodie's most favorite things to do! (so much so that I bought several kits for half price after Easter just so we could do them later) We used a kit to decorate our eggs as MONSTERS :) Brodie's favorite part was putting the eggs in the dye b/c he loved mixing them, dunking them and watching them turn colors. We gave them eyes and hair and ta-da...we had monster eggs.

On Easter morning we got ready for church and then went to see what the Easter Bunny had left. He got a fishing pole, hot wheels, baseball cards and ring pops!!! Then Brodie helped Carly find her Easter basket which contained a musical projector for her crib, a rattle and some leg warmers!!! When we were done we loaded up and headed for Grandma's church. Bill had to work so it was just the three of us. After church we went to Grandma's house and lucky us there were Easter baskets there too! Grandma and Grandpa were too generous. Finally we spent the afternoon at Great Grandma and Grandpa having lunch and letting Max and Brodie Easter hunt in the yard. I wish I had more pictures to share but I haven't received the ones from my mother yet.

Four generations
(Great Grandma, Grandma, Mom and Daughter)