It's already September...

Birthday sign from her friends at school!

Round 2: finger painting with frosting!
Round 1: Not really enjoying her first cupcake!

Loving her new horse. Thanks Nicole and Lauren!

Elise had a great first birthday. I am proud to say she did NOT like her birthday cake. For her party we had on Saturday I just got her a white cupcake with white frosting. She took about 2 tastes and threw it. So I was thinking 'maybe this is a fluke..' so for her real birthday on Tuesday I got her a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting thinking that maybe she just didn't like white cake. Nope, that wasn't the case either. She took one bite, cringed, and started finger painting with the frosting. I finished the 9 inch cake for her.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELISE! :)
Her gift opening was fun. She got 3 new babies with a stroller and their very own pack-n-play. She puts everything in her stroller to push around.. Clifford, her water bottle, cell phones.. anything she can find. She walks all around the house pushing that thing around. She was also pretty excited about her piggy bank she got. She points at it every morning she wakes up and says 'Ooooo.' This girl is ready to make money..;)

As a 1 year update Elise can do the following: walk, sign language for more, eat, all done, and please. She also can say "momma, dadda, ba-ba (for Braydon), woof woof for puppy, bath, yea, hi, and bye." People of my past will tell you, I was a motor mouth as a child... but I don't know what they're talking about. At this point, she gets her love for talking from her DAD! :) Her favorite food: broccoli!

We had family pictures taken the first week of August by Tim Dodd- the same guy that did our wedding photos. He got a few good ones... I can't help but share a lot- there are too many goodies. Elise hated every minute of family photos. She did not want to sit still: she was fussy, puked once, and wanted to grab the photographers camera at any chance. We also took some in a field across from the studio. Elise managed to touch a thistle and was bleeding on her shirt- thankful for photoshop. It was also very hot, so we are lucky he got any good ones considering the circumstances. I'll share more over SNAPFISH when I get a chance..

Braydon seems to be doing well in Kindergarten. We have conferences for him the first week of October, so we will know more then. He doesn't get much of a nap, so I think that has been his biggest adjustment. He has matured so much over the last couple of months and is suddenly a 'big kid' now. It's scary, but so exciting at the same time.

We took him to the Iowa vs. Tennessee Tech game over Labor Day weekend. I signed him up for the Junior Hawk Club, so he gets a free football ticket for the first home game, along with other perks. With that, we can order up to 3 extra tickets, so Kassey, Adam, and I all took him together. It was a great time.. and we had awesome seats- Row 6 near the end zone. It rained for all but 20 minutes.. long enough for us to take a couple of pictures and eat some food. We ended up leaving at the beginning of the third quarter due to the torrential down pour of rain. I think we will make that an annual trip- we had a blast!

We are BACK!

I realize it has been 10 months since my last post. Halloween seems ages ago. I have since then been inspired by an old friend to blog again. But, I am back at blogging and have a goal to update at least twice a month.

When I first started blogging, I intended it to be about my little girl and life as a new mommy, but I plan to make it our family blog.. because Braydon and Adam have a tendency to be exciting too!

Elise will be 1 year old in 23 days. Every one always told me, "times goes by so fast, blah blah"... but it TRULY does. This time last year I was hoping to be in labor at any minute. Here we are almost a year later and she is walking, talking, dancing, barking like a dog ;), among other fabulous things. Her favorite person in the entire world is Braydon. There isn't a day she isn't completely thrilled when she sees him or even a picture of him. Let's hope it stays this way... 10 years from now! :)

We are trying to decide on final birthday plans for her. With family so far away, it may end up just being me, Braydon, and Adam. We will see. It will be monumental regardless- her FIRST sweet treat, EVER. (Well, besides those gummy bears she snuck out of her diaper and bag and into her mouth last week). But still, the first taste of anything that's not healthy given to her on purpose!

I have been very good about feeding her the right things. This is the only time in a child's life where they can't be corrupted by all the nasty, terrible foods out there. I know, I know, I ate them as a kid and "I am fine," but I'm giving her a shot at learning how to eat well and be a healthy kid. We will see how that goes- Grandmas feel differently. :)

I am currently working on switching her over to whole milk from formula. She has other plans. She gets one taste of whole milk and chucks her bottle across the room. She.is.not.having.it. There goes 3.89 down the drain. I plan to continue to sneak little bits at a time into her formula... hopefully she will come around.

As for Braydon, he starts KINDERGARTEN in less than 2 weeks. Holy smokes. It's hard to believe when I met this little guy he was almost 2 years old and now he is starting school. He is so big and such a great kid. Elise really couldn't ask for a better big brother. Last Spring I started bringing home Kindergarten Sight Words from my classroom. He mastered all 50 of those in no time at all, so we give him new word lists every 2 weeks or so... depending on how well he does with them. There always seems to be 1 or 2 words out of the list that get him every time. Regardless, we are proud and confident that he is academically ready to take on fellow Kindergarteners.

Braydon participated in soccer and blastball (tee-ball) this summer. He absolutely LOVES it. His age group is 3-5 year olds. Wide range right? I will admit, sometimes it's like watching paint dry. Braydon runs circles around most of the other kids, as some 3 year olds are watching birds or eating grass (seriously). Braydon is there to score some goals, he takes it pretty seriously.

That has been our life this summer: Braydon and Elise.. it's not too bad :)

Thanks for reading... stay tuned for Elise's birthday bash.. or as Adam would say, "Elise's 1st Kegger" :)

<3