A Little Help by my sister

Brynn has been walking a lot recently, but Kate still holds her baby sister's hand to help her out.  They were walking around the house the other morning before school and I caught this picture of them.  Kate is so excited that Brynn is walking because I think she thinks it's a playmate for her :)  Love these 2 girls!!!

13 Months Old!

Brynn is 13 months old- well, yesterday, but she's still 13 months old.  She is doing so great and getting so big!  She's walking all over the place- she walks with her left arm in the air and right arm up my her chest.  She LOVES to read.  Her favorite books are Tails, Cats, Heads, Good Morning, Good Night, I Love you, Goodnight, and Daddy Kisses.  She's always carrying Daddy Kisses around.  Am I going to have another Daddy's girl?!?!  I'm thinking so!  She eats everything, but I definitely think her favorite food is gnocchi.  And, most recently, she has started shaking her head No, when she doesn't want something.  I carried her into "school" yesterday, and one of the teachers put her arms out for her and Brynn shook her head No.  Guess she knows what she wants!  She's been doing her swim lessons- crying throughout most of it, but still doing great.  She's a sweet little girl and loves to cuddle.  

Senorita!

We took Brynn to our favorite Mexican restaurant tonight after swim lessons.  Kate went with my parents to dinner and then to spend the night there.  Brynn ate pretty much her entire cheese quesadilla and part of Rich's beef enchilada.  She apparently loved it there- she was dancing, happy, and having a good time. Rich got this little video of her dancing, and then she got tired, but got her 2nd wind:

Fishing

We went fishing today and had a blast!  Namma & Pop Pop came too and Pop Pop took the pictures for us.  While Daddy & Kate fished, Brynn practiced her walking.  She was sitting down and just stood up and walked. She's been walking a ton each day.

While Brynn walked, Kate was so busy fishing.  The fish were a little lazy today, but that didn't stop Fishergirl.  She did an awesome job & was the only one in our area catching fish!

Rich sometimes puts the rod in the water and when he feels a bite, he gives it to Kate to "hold".  Today she said, "Daddy, every time you had me the fishing pole, a fish gets on it!"  So innocent and so sweet.

Speaking of innocent and sweet....

Not to be outdone by her big sister, Brynn showed us her new walking skills

But, the biggest highlight to her was when Kate would catch a fish and bring it to Brynn and let her touch it. Brynn was screaming and reaching for the fish & Kate loved that she caught it to show her.

We had such a fun day fishing.  After fishing, we had a picnic and came home for naps.  We went to the Blue Rocks game after and saw the Cowboy Monkey Rodeo! Even Brynn went and had a blast!!

Throwing Kisses

Brynn blew kisses tonight for the first time on her own.  We were reading her new favorite book, "Tails"- Thanks Sophie! and she was making fishy faces. So, I said, give mommy a kiss.  Well, she put her hand to her mouth and went, "mmwah!"  I couldn't believe it! So, I called Rich & Kate (who were watching shows in our room) and she did it. Rich had his phone and we caught it on video.

2nd Cousins

My cousin Doug and his wife, Carrie, and their 2 daughters stopped by for a visit. They came all the way from Oklahoma and have been non stop traveling, but took the time to stop here to see us. It was so great to see everyone.  We haven't see Doug or Carrie since 2002, and we've never met any of our daughters, so this was great.  The girls immediately got along as if they've known each other forever.  

Here are the girls doing their rock band

Here are the girls and me with my cousin Doug and his daughters

Doug's daughters loved Brynn. I love this picture.  I also love that Kate is posed in this one :)

And, here is the last picture of the girl band.  

It was so fun to see them and talk and have dinner. We even celebrated Carrie's birthday with a cake and sang to her, which was very fun!  They are off to DC tomorrow.  Hope they have a safe trip and hope it's not that long again before we see them :)

Visitors

This past weekend, my brother from California, my half sister and my niece from Illinois and my half sister from Minnesota all got together.  It was great to have us all together and have them all meet Kate & Brynn.  

Carmen got in on Friday night and we went to the blue rocks game.  Angel & Natalie's flights were delayed.  On Saturday, we went to breakfast at my parents' house.  Here we all are eating:

Later on Saturday, everyone came to our house for a visit and to swim. Here are all the girls, minus Kate, who was napping still, and Tony.

 Here are the 3 Granddaughters.  Kate was loving that Natalie was here and that she had a girl cousin.Natalie is such a pretty girl and so sweet.  Kate & Brynn loved her.

 Here are Kate & Natalie again.  

 We stopped over my parents' house after dinner on Saturday and Kate & Brynn were sitting with Angel & Natalie and we got this great picture of the 4 of them.

 Here are Brynn and Natalie together. Natalie was so good with Brynn. I told her I so wished she lived closer because the girls loved her and so did Rich and me.

Natalie, Brynn and Carmen sitting together for a picture.  Carmen came in 2008 and met Kate, but this was her 1st time meeting Brynn.

 And, here are the 3 girls again :)

 If you haven't noticed, Kate absolutely adored Natalie.  She kept asking about her, asking where she was, and was sad when she had to leave. Hopefully we'll be able to see Natalie again soon.

 I love the look on Natalie's face in this one.  Kate & Angel look so comfortable together too.

And, here are  my dad, me, Brynn and Carmen.  

It was so fun to have everyone together for the first time in a long time.  It was a short, quick weekend, but we had a lot of fun!

4th of July

Our 4th of July was pretty low key this year because the day before was Brynn's big party, but we still had a great day!  We dressed the girls up in red, white and blue

Kate

Brynn

 Rich played golf with Jeremy, so Kate, Brynn & I had a picnic :)

 After the picnic, we came in a made a cake for dessert.  Jenn, Jeremy & Luke came over for dinner.  We had the cake and smores for dessert.  It was great.  We just sat by the pool and it was very relaxing.

 After dinner, Jeremy brought some sparklers down and Kate couldn't get enough of them.  Here she is doing her very first one.

And, here are our 2 firecrackers together, loving one another, as always :)

Happy 4th of July!

Brynn's 1st Birthday Party!

We had Brynn's 1st birthday party on July 3.  It was at our house and we did it outside.   It was hot and humid, but we still had a blast! 

 We had tons of balloons & fun decorations such as a banner, a blow up cupcake and tissue paper flowers, which are below.  I made these tissue paper flowers.  2 of my friends did them for their parties and I loved the idea.  So, I did it, with the help of Rich, and we will hang them in the girls' playroom.

I wanted to have something other than cake so I made fruity pebbles treats in the shape of a #1.

 I had the same bib and bloomers for Kate so I had to have them made for Brynn

And, here is her special birthday dress.  She looked adorable in it, in our opinion :)

We had a smaller "smash" cake for Brynn made.  It was so cute and definitely too big for her, but it was fun for her to smush her hands in it.

And here is the cake for our guests.  I love how it turned out.

Brynn dug right into the cake. She loved feeling the icing on her hands and we let her taste it.  She thought it was good so she kept going after more.  She was covered in icing.

Here i am feeding her cake off of a fork so she could at least taste the actual cake, rather than the icing

We had so much fun at the party. We had hoagies, chips, dips and lots of swimming!  The kids all had so much fun in the pool playing and even all of the babies went in!  Brynn is loving the pool this year.

 Luke and Jeremy played in the pool for a while too

I love this shot of our family

 Here is Evan... he is one of Brynn's boyfriends.  He just started walking and is doing

I know that Brynn will never remember her 1st birthday party, but I want to be able to look back and show her pictures and remind her who in her family and her friends was there.  I found this same plate for Kate so I did it for Brynn. Everyone signed it and you bake it and the names are permanently on there.  Kate's is on her shelf in her room and we'll put Brynn's in her room as well.

 Kate was so excited that Ben came. She and Ben played baseball in the driveway.  I actually LOVE that Kate is sporty, yet also so chic :)

 Here are Brynn and her Godmother, Lauren, having a chat on the blanket.  Brynn was playing with her toys.  We were lucky enough to have both her Godparents there and also all of her aunts and uncles!

 Happy 1st Birthday to our baby girl!  We can not believe that you are one already! This year has flown by for us.  You had a blast at your party- at least the smile on your face seemed to show that.

 At the end of the party, we had a pinata in the shape of a number one. All of the kids pulled the pinata strings and tons of candy came flying out. The kids LOVED it!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Brynn!!  We love you more than you will ever know!  xoxo