Evan Wade - 1 year!

Yes, you read it right.....my sweet baby boy is 1 year old today, man time flies! I have shared all the kids' birth stories on their birthdays this year but I shared his on his 6 month blog so if you are interested you can check it out Evan's birth story.  I had him all natural and it was definitely the most painful (most likely due to him being face up instead of face down) but it was overall my best birth experience....it was such a good laid back environment!!!

We had an awesome party for him yesterday and I will share more pics from that very soon but for now....let me tell you how incredible little Evan is!!!

He loves to eat, loves to play and loves his bottle! He is weaned now and as of today he is on whole milk, no more formula.....when he sees his bottle he starts to act like a little junkie, even sucking on it long after it is empty and while playing with his toys! He says "mama" "dada" and "de du" (thank you) when you hand him something or when he hands you something. Also when he puts a phone to his ear he says "ha" (hi)!

He cries when he's told "no" and will often cover his ears too, he has 2 teeth on top and 2 on bottom with a third one coming in. When he does something and gets attention for it... he gets the biggest grin on his face and does it over and over again! He loves his daddy and loves watching daddy fix things. He has become a bit of a grammy's boy lately, he gets excited when he sees grammy! Of course he is still a Mama's boy!!!

 He loves loves loves bathtime.....and we recently took him to the pool for the first time and have gone several times since and he loves that too!!!

Evan is usually in bed and asleep by 8pm. We used to rock in his room while he drank his baba for bedtime but he would fall asleep and I need to put him to bed awake or he gets too used to being rocked to sleep so now we sit in the living room where there is more commotion and he stays awake while he drinks his bottle.....then we go to his room, rock for a minute, usually we sing "the itsy bitsy spider" then hugs and kisses and he is off to dream land for the night! He gets up usually around 7:00!

There are no words to express what a blessing my sweet baby boy has been! Happy Birthday Evan.....Mama loves you more than you will ever know, bigger than the moon, farther than the stars...forever and ever!!!!

A Sneak Peek......

of Evan fantabulous 1st birthday party!

It was a wonderful day for my wonderful sweet baby boy, it's hard to believe he's going to be 1 tomorrow!!!

Little Dare Devil!

Look what I can do Mom.....and with no hands!!!

Oh.....this kid, I tell ya he is such a little daredevil! He just may be the one that ends up a regular at the emergency room (let's hope not)! Not even 1 yet and already climbing on everything!

But look at that ADORABLE little face........man I love this kid and see the cute little tushy in the background of the middle picture..........my funny little Katelin, she would live in nothing but undies if we would let her!!!

My Beautiful Diva!!!

The other day I took the kids Back to School clothes shopping at Kohl's and I spent a little bit okay a little more than a little bit of money but they made out pretty good. Rylie is my little fashionista diva child and wanted to put on a fashion show so I made it fun by being the papparazzi.....................

Isn't she Gorgeous???

Yeah I think so too!!! And she has incredible taste in clothes, I love everything she picked out!

An Old Fashioned............

Windmill Raising!!!! Ever been to one???

Yeah, I hadn't either.......we live on a deadend gravel road and at the beginning of the road is a house with an old school house next to it.....well Old Man John (as we like to call him) lives their with his wife. He is a very funny, very kind old man.....him and Chet like to shoot the breeze. He has at least 20 cats that just reproduce like crazy and the kids love to visit the cats. He keeps telling us he would keep the cute little blond, he doesn't believe us when we tell him he'd be sending her right back!

We enjoy visiting with him.....he is 80, his wife is 75 and they have been together for 60 years. They lost their only child, a daughter, to cancer several years back and have 1 granddaughter. I can tell they enjoy seeing our kiddos. Anyway.....he restored an old windmill and had a party!

 I'm not real sure how a crane/bucket truck qualifies as "old fashioned" but we'll go with it!

 The big kids weren't all that impressed and were ready to go home, it was a very very HOT day but with shade and a nice breeze it was very tolerable.

 Katelin kept herself busy with the dirt!

 Evan....well he was just all over the place but having a good time!

We didn't stay too long but I am very glad that we went! 

 A few more pics that I took....the 2nd one I edited some and thought it turned out kind of neat!



Pro Photographer.....I am not.........

but I do give it a try every now and then! I recieved a really cool....well actually 4 really cool Christmas gifts last year.........I just had to add pics and I finally got around to taking those pics!

The kids and I had fun........they were being goofy and well here are some of the shots I got:

Rylie.....

Owen.....

Katelin.....

Evan.....

 While I love the goofy shots, I did manage to get some good shots that I really love and here's what made the final cut...........

 And of course I took some group shots and my beauties hammed it up......

 Then I got a shot that I absolutely LOVE......all my babies happy and smiling and looking at the camera:

So these Christmas gifts I got.............are you dying to know what they are????

OK, so maybe you already guessed they are picture frames but they aren't just any old frames.....they are very special ones...............

Like I said i'm definitely not a pro but I was very happy with how these turned out!!!



Moon Marble and Wonderscope!

A few weeks ago.........Grammy and I got my 4 kiddos up and ready and then we picked up Haylie and Dylan. We went to IHOP for breakfast (where the kids received a compliment on their behavior) and then headed to Moon Marble to see how marbles are made.

We got to watch a demo on how marbles are made and then look around the store......Rylie got the dolphin and the cherry, Katelin the penguins and duck , Owen and Dylan got the camo marbles and a jet plane toy and then Hay Hay got a frog and a soccer ball. It was pretty neat. (The kids also got a compliment here for their behavior.)


From there we headed to Wonderscope in Shawnee, they have 9 different rooms each with a different theme:

Evan was sound asleep when we got there.

 Katelin loves rubber ducks so she was excited to see their rubber duck collection, there was a "fat" mirror, no need for mama to look in that and they had a "doctor" room with lots of baby dolls so Katelin was in heaven!

The Raceway Room (Lots of golf balls with race tracks to play with them all).......

The Farm Room..........

The Water Room............

The Lego Room..........



And the Under 2 Room............



It was a fun day, we (the adults) were exhausted by the end of the day. Overall I wasn't real impressed with Wonderscope.....it was HOT in there and a bit pricey for what it was but the kids had a fun day. We ended it with milkshakes from Sonic...can't go wrong with that!!!