Grandpa's funeral

My Grandpa died a week ago today. I was lucky enough to visit him while he was in rehab. He would tell me how beautiful I was and how much he loved me. He loved to look at pictures of my girls. I saw him while he was asleep waiting to pass on. Those were the hardest days. I know where he is and that I will see him again. His funeral was beautiful with wonderful memories of him. He was very involved in my life and very supportive of everything I had done. I will miss him dearly. I am so lucky I have such a wonderful Grandpa.

Kate was not feeling well, thus the face

My cousins and borther

My grandma and aunts

Kate's pictures

Here are the rest of the 1 year old pictures that I took of Kate. They could have been better but I am still happy with the result.

Alyssa's 4th birthday

Alyssa has been talking about her 4th birthday for about 6 months. She was so excited to turn 4. She went back and forth on what kind of party she wanted, but she insistent that she wanted to invite her friends. She has so many friends from different groups, daycare, play groups, church etc. She wanted to invite them ALL. I thought that people might not be able to come so I agreed. Well they ALL came. Alyssa was so excited and didn't seem to mind the chaos. I had my mom and friend stay to help. We had 5 adults and that was necessary! We had 4 stations of different activities. The party was Tinkerbell themed. The most recent Tinkerbell movie is where Tinkerbell finds her long lost sister, Periwinkle, she lives in the winter woods. We had winter activities and spring activities to simulate the two areas. The stations were; planting a flower, tinker toys, frosting a winter tree (sugar cone) and animal activities. The rotations were more chaotic than I expected but we went with the flow. We also hired a face painter. That was a hit! That night when I put Alyssa to bed she said, "Mom that was the best birthday party ever!" She is such a socialite that she loved having ALL of her friends there. Needless to say I think in the future I will limit the number of kids to maybe 5.

The cake! I hire the same lady to make the cake every year. It is the BEST cake I have ever tasted and the CUTEST!

Me and my girls!

Kate the Great

My computer crashed so I can't post the rest of the pictures that I wanted to.
My sweet baby is one. I can hardly believe it. She has been such a joy. Here are some things about Kate at age 1. We had her 1 year old check up yesterday,. She is 27 inches (1.29%) Yea!! She is growing at a steady rate and we are not so concerned anymore. Weight 19lbs.  She is walking all over the furniture and the walls. She will push this little chair around so that she can walk with it. (Although she wont push the push toy that she has). She has taken 5 steps. She stands by her self and pick things up off the floor and stand back up. She will walk very soon. I think she could do it now but gets scared and then leans towards me or just sits down. She blows kisses(so cute). Points to everything new she sees. Babbles non stop, says Dada and occasionally Mama. She loves her sister but doesn't like it when Alyssa picks her up or smothers her (which happens often). She loves to climb up the stairs. This is not safe! Every step or 2 she stands up to look around. I let her do it when I am right behind her. When she heads towards the stairs and I come after her she starts laughing and crawling as fast as she can towards the stairs. She is a great eater but she will not allow me to feed her, she has to feed her self. She is becoming more demanding and will yell if she wants more or is done. I am trying to teach her sign language, she does it sometimes but is not as good at is as Alyssa was. But if there is ice cream in front of her she will sign "more" for sure! She loves to explore all the cupboards and drawers. She is so much fun and I can't wait to see how she grows and develops this year.