April and May

I have quite a bit of catching up to do. So here it goes...

I had a wonderful birthday this year. One more year until I hit 30. Kind of scary! The boys brought me breakfast in bed and gave me wonderful cards and gifts. My favorite gift was the porch swing. I am holding up the picture of it because it hadn't arrived yet. We also enjoyed having dinner with the extended family.

I was so excited to get to go on a field trip with Peyton to the Hogle Zoo because I remember when my mom went with me on the Zoo fieldtrip when I was in first grade. I remember it so well because my jellyshoe fell off and down into the big Gorilla pit. My mom had to find someone to get it out for me. Peyton thought it was the coolest story and was excited for me to go with him to the Zoo. The ride on the bus with 60 screaming first graders gave me quite a headache, but the rest of the day was great.

I was in charge of 5 kids and they were all really well behaved, which made it a lot easier for me.

A couple random photos of the kids. They get a long so great and really love each other!!

We celebrated Lily's first birthday on May 4th. I don't think she knew what to do with all the attention she was getting.

We found out the day after her birthday, at her Doctor's appointment, that she had a bad ear infection, which explains the runny nose and huge slobber stains all over her shirt in all her birthday pictures. Poor girl :(

I decided to make her cake with fondant icing this year. I don't know why I put myself through all this work, but it turned out cute.

Here is Lily trying out her new baby stroller from Grandma L.

Lily is very good about eating healthy foods. She is enjoying some carrot sticks for her birthday dinner.

Lily is very lucky to have wonderful Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins that spoiled her on her birthday. We missed Grandma T because she was in the hospital.

Lily didn't quite understand how to open her gifts, so she got a lot of help from her brothers and cousins.

Lily was excited about the play food and bottles that her brothers picked out for her birthday.

Lily absolutely loved, loved, loved the baby dolls she got for her birthday. As you can see she already has the maternal instict. She immediately knew that the bottles should go in her baby's mouth. She would not let go of her doll all night. She completely lost it when Phil took the baby away when it was her bed time.

Everyone singing happy birthday to Lily. She tried to grab the flame a couple times.

Here is Lily eating her very own cake. She actually stayed pretty clean and didn't smear it in her hair like the boys did on their 1st birthday.

This is a picture the morning after Lily's birthday. The first thing she did when she woke up was find her baby doll. It is so fun to have some girly things in the house now!