Have Your Cake and Not Eat It Too

We celebrated Penny turning 1 on the 3rd of August. Since we were leaving the next day we decided to save the festivities for Washington.

We made a cake and topped it with my Mom's homemade cherry pie filling. Then came the singing. She seemed to like that. She even knew what to do with the cake. With both hands on it she picked it up....and then proceeded to squeeze the living daylights out of it. It was a cake massacre. She went to taste it after much prodding and this is the face we got. So the verdict was, she was not a fan of the cake. Well, eating it anyways. She was a fan of squishing it through her fingers. Every now and again she would bring some up to her mouth to eat and we would get very excited hoping that she was gonna eat some. Pipe dreams. The most that was consumed were a few cherries, no cake. Then she was done, and I am fairly certain there was a collective sigh of relief from my Mom and Steve because cake managed to not get smeared all over their carpet. When I posted these pictures I cried. I cried about how little she was when she was born and I cried about my little girl growing up.

I am a boob like that.

Newborn. One month. Two months. Three months. Four months. Five months. Six months. Seven months. Eight months. Nine months. Ten months. Eleven months. One Year! She had her year doctors appointment today and the stats are in:

16 lbs. 2 oz. (not even on the chart.)

Her height is 27 3/4" (the 5% - 10% percentile)

and her head is in the 50%.

(Gotta love our big headed babies.)Penny may be a little thing but she is spunky. She lets you know what she wants, and how she wants it. Her voice is loud. I adore her.

The Business Of Picking Berries

Our trip to Washington was a blast. Be prepared for an onslaught of pictures.

We did a little bit of lounging around. Barbies were played with daily. Mallets were pounded but nothing or no one was injured...that I know of anyways. We also went and picked some blueberries. I thought for sure that the kids would loose interest after about 10 minutes, but they surprised me and were hard core.Everyone grabbed some pails, and the picking began. We take berry picking very seriously at our house. Child labor laws be damned. Some kids took the "go out and get 'em" approach. Others contemplated their berry picking skills and progressed onward at the appropriate pace. Some were meticulous. Then there were those that ate them as soon as they were off the bush. Heck, that little girl grabbed them so fast and ate them that you had to be careful she didn't eat a finger. All the kids were determined to fill their bucket. Canon got so excited about the amount of berries in his bucket that he came to show us. Slow down bud. This cannot end well. I would just like to point out that I think this was the point of no return for Canon. Falling was the catalyst for a bad remaining picking experience. Poor kid just needed a win. His bucket was empty most of the time. The few berries that were in there I picked and put them in. Instead of picking he decided to spend his time eating. By the handful. Smart kid. His little sister followed suit. When it was time to leave he was....devastated. Gavin and Laney had filled up their buckets about half way and his only had a few in it. There was screaming, and crying, and at one point he threw himself down in the middle of the road by an outhouse in protest. Then we pointed out the turkeys. No one can be mad after looking at one of those weird looking birds. When you look at their ugly faces, your problems seem so small.

Two

2 Weeks gone and now we are back.

2 Days spent driving in the car. One there one back.

2 Impromptu stops we had to make on the side of the highway for bathroom use.

2 Parents visited.

2 Many clothes to wash, suitcases to put away.

2 Many days without naps. 2 Tired boys and 2 tired girls.

2 Long since our last visit.

2 Awesome.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

Blake and I are getting ready for our big trip to Washington. I am very excited for a vacation. I am not excited about packing for 2 weeks for 6 people. So I am doing what most people that have to pack for a small herd would do...procrastinating.

So, in lieu of packing how about some of my most favorite things lately?

I recently learned how to make my own lotion and sugar scrub. I love it. It smells the way I want it to, works great, is easy to make, and I know exactly what is in it.

Penny gave up the pacifier when she was around a month old. Just wouldn't take it anymore. No big deal. Except that she has decided at almost a year old that it is the best thing in the world. For now it has been nice, to keep her quiet or just make her happy. But come next month she is gonna be one sad girl when we take them all away. I am in the throws of making Halloween costumes so it is no surprise that me and Joann Fabrics have become BFF's. With it being summer and all, and me being super pale by nature it is no big shocker that me and tanning lotion are best buds. I may have had to kick Jergens to the curb but Bare Escentuals Faux Tan and me are getting along swimmingly. Oh, salmon colored jeans, how you sing your siren song to me. I want you in my life. For realz. (Mind you...when you use a Z at the end of the word you know it is love.)