Lee's Birthday Bash

Somehow, I'm not exactly sure how, but somehow Lee is getting old. You can tell by the inferno on his birthday cake! Just Kidding. I think we only used 9 candles (to represent the 9 in 39) but it still somehow looks like an inferno. I guess you just can't hide some things. :)

 

For the first time in a long time we actually had cake on Lee's real birthday. Most holidays and special days have to be celebrated on other days that Lee is actually home, but he ended up being home for his birthday this year. Yea! Here is the birthday boy and his inferno, I mean his cake:

As part of Lee's birthday celebration, we played a little xbox 360 Kinect. We hoped to play Just Dance, but it hadn't come in the mail yet (we actually found out later it was in the mailbox that day just waiting for us to get it, but I hadn't realized we hadn't gotten the mail yet...I must be getting old...) So we played some Kinect Adventures. Fun times!

 





 

It turns out I don't have any pictures of Melissa doing Kinect with us. She is SO cute - she stands in the middle of the room and waves her arms all around and does whatever it is she sees us doing. Thankfully she's too short to be detected by the sensor so we just let her at it. Her newest favorite activity is to have me actually hold her while trying to do Just Dance. Now THAT is an arm workout!

 

Happy Birthday, Lee! Next year you really will be old, but we'll just love you all the more. :)

Brynne's 9th Birthday

I've been trying to get away from having "friend parties" for birthdays. My main reason for this is stuff. That's what nice friends bring as gifts for birthdays - stuff. I have recommended birthday parties where friends bring canned goods to donate, or where they bring money to donate to a cause that the birthday girl can choose; but these ideas have not been popular. I was really impressed, though, when Brynne didn't put up a fight when I said no friend parties this year. She just requested that we go out to dinner and asked if she could take one friend. 

We had dinner at Churck-A-Rama (a favorite of the girls' and also a place where we almost always have coupons for kids to eat free!!). The nice waitresses even made a cute little ice cream thing and sang to Brynne. In the past Brynne would have shied away from the attention, but this time she soaked it up! :)

The friend Brynne invited was Jordyn. Jordyn just moved into our neighborhood before school started. She and Brynne have the same class and have become great friends. Can you tell what Brynne ate before I took this picture? (Hint: It has something to do with a red frozen drink traditionally found at 7-11...)

Melissa decided to give Brynne a fun little present: While we were sitting eating someone mentioned the word "airplane" as part of our conversation. Suddenly Melissa starts making an airplane noise while flying her finger around in the air. It was so unexpected and so cute! We have a sign language book with the word airplane that I've read with her several times, but I had no idea she was taking that one in. It's hard to tell in this picture, but Melissa had her pointer finger out and was flying it all around. :)

Melissa's 1st B-Day Party

I realize I haven't blogged in quite a while. It has been a busy summer for us. I'm leaving in a few days for my 20-year high school reunion, but I set a goal to catch up with blogs before I leave. Here it goes...

We had a birthday party for Melissa at my sister Alyson's house. I made two cakes, but I also bought cupcakes. I couldn't stand the thought of Melissa having too much sugar no matter how good the cause, so the cupcakes were my way of ensuring portion control. :)

Happy Birthday, Melissa!!

Words can not begin to express how grateful I am to have sweet Melissa in our lives! Things definitely changed the day she was born one year ago, but I can't imagine life without her! I am so thankful that Heavenly Father knew we needed her in our family. 

I love you, Melissa! Happy Birthday!

(Pictures taken by Denise Brown, the bestest friend anyone could ever ask for!)

Melissa Is 11 Month's Old!

Wow! This precious little baby of ours is not so little any more! She is still super cute, though!! So cute, in fact, that I once again find myself unable to narrow down the number of pictures to post. :)

This is Brynne's favorite picture and was taken at her request. She thinks it's great that Melissa is "texting"! :)

When I first put Melissa down on the grass, this is what she did. As you can tell from above, though, she finally got a little more used to the grass. :)

Here is what our busy little girl has been up to:

*She finally crawls! Uh-oh!

*She is getting her two top teeth.

*She has mastered going from her tummy to sitting.

*She has discovered the joy of putting blocks in a bucket, taking them out again, repeating countless times. :)

*She LOVES music! We have a little record-player type toy and one other toy that both play music. She loves them and could put play on them all day if she could!

*She started trying to pull herself up onto furniture.

*She began "sharing" (i.e. purposefully handing things to people and letting go).

*She signed the word "more".

*She has become a squirmy little one who is always looking for the next thing she can reach out and grab!

*She loves to stand more than anything (still holding onto something), so you really have to work hard to get her to bend at the waist and sit. :)

By the way...have I ever mentioned how much we love this little girl who has totally bless our lives?!

Melissa at 10 Months!

 Since I know you are all wondering what my secret was for getting Melissa to

smile with so much excitement, here it is:

New tricks and skills Melissa developed around 10 months:

*Discovered you get better stuff if you drink from someone else's cup instead of a sippy!

*Started getting up on hands and knees.

*Discovered the fine art of standing -- her favorite thing is holding onto something and standing.

*Stood all by herself for 10 seconds (without holding onto anything)!

*Learned to play "throw" the ball with Daddy.

*Realized that while sitting it's lots of fun to fall backward onto someone's lap.

*Also learned how important it is to make sure someone's lap is actually behind you!



Melissa Is (Was) 9 Month's Old!

With Bert's passing, I sorta lost track of time. Melissa's 9-month birthday came and went. I thought I hadn't gotten any pictures of her on that day, but then I remembered Brad (my sister Alyson's husband) had taken some for me. Ashley, my youngest sister, had made BEAUTIFUL matching dresses for Melissa and Elise (Ashley's 19-month-old daughter) for Easter. Brad was kind enough to take pictures of the girls in their dresses. The following pictures are courtesy of Brad. :)

And this is one of my favorites! :)

I realized, however, that none of the pictures with Brad were taken with Panda. Although this picture was taken a week later, we're counting as her 9-month pic! :)

A few fun things about our little Melissa:

*She has discovered clapping, which she loves to do all the time

*She likes to sleep on her stomach

*She has discovered that what Mommy is eating is almost

always better than what she is being fed

*She has learned to push herself backward (and just got on hands and knees

for the first time today

*She discovered the joy of pulling off her socks ALL the time

* She is scared to death of men in hats, including her Daddy. The pilot hat is the worst!

*She discovered consonants, including 'ga', 'da', and 'ma'

*She says what sounds exactly like "Hi-ya Dadda!"

Melissa is 7 Month's Old!

(Note: This year my mom was kind enough to set a New Year's resolution for me: Blog at least once a week. Although I'm a little late in getting started, I figured that was a pretty good goal. Anyone can feel welcome to remind me lest a week passes by with no posts!)

I have a new camera and was experimenting with different settings while taking Melissa's 7-month pictures. The biggest problem I have is that she is constantly moving! Notice all the moving, blurry hands and legs in the pictures. I sure do enjoy taking Melissa's picture, though! She has so much personality and it just comes shining through!

Melissa does a cool bendy thing with her tongue. You can kind of see it in this picture:

This morning, Morgan said, "Mom, I'm going to disobey you in a way that is worse than I ever have before!" Just when I was starting to get really worried she followed with, "I am going to take Melissa to school with me. She's just soooo cute and I don't want to leave her!" That pretty much sums up how we all feel about Melissa! :)

Melissa is 6 Months Old! (And celebrates by doing the Hokie Pokie...)

Look at this cute girl! She is getting so big! She has lots of new tricks, so be sure to read all about them after the pictures!

 

I had so much fun taking 6-month pictures of Melissa. She kept cracking me up with her personality. I decided to post a lot of the pictures along with what I think Melissa looks like she's doing or thinking in the pictures. (Disclaimer: I realize I'm not as creative as lots of you with this type of thing, but here I go...)

"You put your left hip in, you put your left hip out, you put your left hip in and you shake it all about..."

 "Hey Morgan! (that's who Melissa is looking at) Check out my new trick - I can lean over and grab my toes while sitting!"

 "YES!" (Fist pump!)

 "Are we done yet?"

 "I can stare at your ear without blinking longer than you can stare at mine."

 "How rude of me to sit here eating my fingers without offering you any. Here you go, pick one."

 "I wonder if this thing comes off?"

 Picture this everyone: I'm sitting there taking a bunch of pictures when Melissa suddenly looks to her right, opens her mouth wide, and dives for Mini Mouse! I could just imagine her thinking "If you're going to keep taking my picture, I'm going to do it my way!" I don't have a super fast camera, but I tried to capture Melissa in action...

(Admittedly, I did have to get Melissa in a seated position; she doesn't quite do that by herself yet.)

 So I promised you information about Melissa's new tricks and such: She's at the stage where she grabs and eats anything within reach. I have to hurry and eat before she wakes up because it's impossible to eat while holding her. I was eating a yogurt the other day, and I noticed Melissa was leaning forward with her mouth open every time I brought a bite to my mouth. It was cute and sad all at the same time. She is starting to master eating, though, and this girl loves sweet potatoes! She got downright mad at me when I ran out of them while feeding her yesterday. Melissa also rolls over! She rolls both ways, but her favorite is tummy to back. She laughs when you put her on her tummy because she knows she can immediately just roll right over onto her back. Her other trick is talking loud. She wants the world to hear all she has to say! And can I just say how much Melissa loves her sisters and how much they love her! One of their favorite games these days is making Melissa laugh. Morgan regularly says to me, "Mom, can I please squeeze you again?! I just want to hug Melissa so tight but I can't, so can I squeeze you instead?" There are really no words to describe how much we all love this little girl!!!