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Birthday Girl!

My sweet baby Nora turned one! Stella had gotten up at 2:30 and woke up Nora and we had a hard time getting her back down for the night. Kris rocked her and then I got up with her at 3am and spent the next hour rocking her. I couldn't help but think as I looked at this sweet baby that one year ago at this exact time I was holding my little miracle. I can't ever forget that moment. 2:26 am 6/16 We got to hold our Nora in our arms. As much as I hate getting up at night and hadn't gotten to bed before 1:30 I couldn't help but be grateful for that opportunity. What a blessing to hold, rock and cuddle with my baby on her birthday. It kind of reminded me of that book... "I'll Love You Forever." Way cheese I know! Due to the late night she slept in until 10. She still looked a little sleepy when we woke her up for her party. She wasn't sure how she felt about her birthday crown! Happy birthday Nora! 

We love you!

xoxo

Baby Cake Birthday Set Up!

My sweet baby Nora turned 1! And honestly I'm so sad. I just want to cry. This baby is so sweet and part of my knows that this is going so fast! My arms are feeling more empty as she wants to be down and independent. She has her own ideas of what she wants and how to get it. This is going so fast... to fast for my own liking. I love and will miss this baby stage....

Anyway, for her birthday I wanted to do something that she likes... She loves pancakes (totally gets that from her daddy.) Loves Cheerio's and so I came up with "baby cake birthday"! I did mini pancakes, syrup (in mini syrup bottles) big muffins (as big as a mini cake) "Bottle" of milk (well chocolate milk, and I should add that Nora couldn't get enough of it! I had some other plans for the day, but didn't quite work out the way I had hoped for her big first birthday. I have more photos coming of her on her big day, but for now here is the set up...

Swimming...

We have done a lot of swimming already this summer. It's so fun to watch these girls in the pool. Stella's favorite thing to do is dive to the deepest part of the pool and get rings or goggles that have been left on the bottom of the pool. It's so fun to watch and totally terrifying at the same time. Stella can hold her breath forever. She will jump off the diving board and then swim along the bottom of the pool to the shallow part (well shallower part 5 ft) of the pool to take her first breath. I think she freaks out all of the adults every time she does it. They have both become really great swimmers and it's so much fun to watch them swim. Nora loves the water as much as the other girls do.

Gardening...

My camera card is full and I guess that means I need to get those photos off the camera and onto the blog. Journaling has been slow these days but here are some high lights of things that have been going on. Kris help the girls make a fort in the back yard a few months back. I piped in and thought we should add flower boxes. So we went and got them some flowers to plant in their window boxes. Each of them had their own to plant and didn't want ANY help! So I had to coach from the sidelines... But they did take directions fairly well. They turned out really cute and the girls are loving the fort! When I took the pictures they would only make crazy faces... one less fight! Jody had helped me get the front flower beds paned and planted. I'm loving them and wish that they were growing even faster! Thank you Jody! They look so good. I need to get pictures of that as well.