Molly's Birthday Fun

Molly's Birthday was last week. I was so excited for her big first birthday! On her birthday we had brownies and sung to her and let her open a present. She was so much better at opening the present than I thought she would be.

We had her big birthday party a few days later and invited family over to celebrate with us. I made little stuffed animal owl and gift bags for the kids and we had a ball pit for them to play in.

(this was the best shot Robbie got, but I promise they were really cute! Each little kid went home with one)

I wanted lunch to be something Molly would thoroughly enjoy, it is her party after all, so we had sloppy joes, tater tots, salad and juice. I was pleasantly surprised that the adults liked it as well.

After lunch we opened presents and I have to say that our family was far to generous to this little girl. As she opened her presents she wanted to play with every single one. I had to start hiding them to get her to go onto the next gift!

It was really cute when we sang happy birthday, she got kind of shy and cuddled her head on my shoulder, I've never really seen that side of her before, so it was a cute little surprise. She enjoyed her cake and gobbled up some ice cream. I was pretty happy with how he cake turned out.

It was such a fun day and we look forward to a lot more birthdays to come!

Molly Turned One!

My sweet little Molly has turned one, can you beleive it? It seems like I blinked and now it's been a year. I'm never very sentimental, but Molly turning one has me reminiscing a lot about my sweet little baby over the last year! She was such an easy baby; cuddly and happy with a head of dark brown hair. Now her hair has lightened, she talks all the time but she still loves to cuddle with her Mom. I hope she never stops wanting to cuddle her Mom!

With one whopping year behind her are her stats:

Weight: 20 lbs 3 oz. (36.64%)

Height: 28 1/2 inches (59.85%)

Molly has been doing a lot lately. She got her first tooth when she was 11 months old and it was followed quickly by two more. She started walking at about 10 months and is now totally proficient. She loves to play with McKinley and they can get rough housing pretty good. She loves to hold/cuddle anything soft from stuffed animals to clothes to blankets. She is passionate about the things she wants and doesn't mind making a fuss if she doesn't get what she wants. She says "Mama" all the time and the occasional "Dada". Her favorite book is Galoshes. She is very adventurous; climbing on everything and getting into all of the cupboards. She refuses to come down the stairs backwards. If it's a lot of stairs, she'll sit at the top and yell until we come get her; if it's 3 or less stairs, she tries to walk down them which usually ends up in a fall, but never crying. She loves to play chase and also loves puzzles. She often wonders around carrying something, the item doesn't matter, she just loves to carry things. She's a ball of energy, that doesn't often stop moving unless she's asleep. She laughs all the time and it is the cutest little giggle I've ever heard!

Molly is such a special girl that brings so much fun to our house! We love you Molly!

Halloween

This is a post I wrote a while ago and forgot to publish!

Halloween was so much fun this year. We've been very busy enjoying some fun Halloween activities. A couple of weeks before Halloween we went to the local pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. The patch has a little corn maze, lots of tractors and of course pumpkins. We had a good time going up and down the rows of pumpkins trying to find just the right one. Molly was more than happy to smile and pose for the camera, but McKinley was less willing. It was an oddly warm day for October which was really nice too!

My brother and his family were in town about a week before Halloween and we went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point. It was a lot of fun. I had never been before and even though it was a windy and cold day, the kids had a blast!

Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to end the day with churros and hot chocolate for all of us, so we could warm up on the way home!

The day before Halloween, we drove up to have dinner with Nana and Papa. Papa had to leave town, but we stayed to carve pumpkins with Nana and had a great time carving and then showing her the girls costumes. Apparently we didn't take one picture of the actual carving, or one with Nana, but we did get shot of the pumpkins.

Then came Halloween. McKinley had a program at school and was SOOOO excited that Nana could come with Robbie and I to see her. They dressed up in their costumes, paraded in and did a program of a bunch of Halloween songs. It was really cute and McKinley did a a great job.

I brough the girls to trick or treat at my work and then there was trick or treating that night. It was such a fun day. McKinley enjoys giving out the candy as much as getting it! Here are our cute little black cat and witch:

Molly's "First" Haircut

Molly's hair was so out of control. The top of her hair is growing in so much quicker than the sides...McKinley did the same thing, but not quite as drastically. Here are some really awesome pictures of her super cool hair. These are what lead me to getting her hair cut!

I've cut it a few times when it started to look particularly homeless, but decided it was time to have a professional fix it up for her. Ruthie was kind enough to cut Molly's hair on the last Friday in September and it turned out so cute! It was fast, Ruthie was awesome...maybe 7 minutes and she looked like new little girl. She was so good too, she just quietly sat there trying to figure out what was going on.She looks so much better. Her hair is starting to get long again, but looks great!

Conversations With a 3 Year Old

I was driving to work today and McKinley and I had some funny conversations, they went something like this:

McKinley: Mom, you are my special girl.
Me: You are my special girl! Did you know that I have two special ladies? You and Molly.
McKinley: I have two special ladies!
Me: Who?
McKinley: Mommy and Daddy!
Me: (giggling under my breath) Daddy is your special lady?
McKinley: Well, no he is a boy.

Then I missed my turn because I couldn't merge over in time.

McKinley: This isn't the way to school.
Me: I know, I missed my turn, so I have to turn here and then flip a U-ey and go that way.
McKinley: This is not a U-ey Mom, this is the store.

Then I accidentally got in the turn lane instead of the straight lane (I know, not my best driving day).
Me: Darnit, we have to go the long way, I got into the wrong lane.
McKinley: Dad doesn't have to turn around because he doesn't miss his turn or go in a U-ey. Because Dad is a grown man.

Oh how I love talking with my 3 year-old!

Soccer Anyone?

McKinley joined a soccer team this year of 3 and 4 year-olds. It has been an interesting ride so far. We've had several practices and now a few games. The first game, McKinley basically refused to go in. She sat on the side enjoying her comfy chair and snacks. She did go in a couple of times and there was a fleeting moment of joy, but when she didn't get to kick the ball, she got sad and came out.

The second game brought Robbie and I to our game plan....bribery! We told her every time she went in she would get a Pringle, every time she chased after the ball she would get a Pringle, if she kicked the ball she got 2 Pringles and a goal would get her 3 Pringles. It worked like a charm! She went in the game and even kicked the ball a lot, we just need to work on turning it.

Now we don't even have to bribe her to go in, it's awesome! She loves to go in and last week she even scored a goal! Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Jon and Uncle Ty came to one game and Nana and Papa came to another, McKinley LOVED having them there! But this person right here is her #1 fan, for sure! (yes, this is Molly's hair before her first haircut, another post on that is coming)

The funniest thing about soccer so far is 1-how HUGE their jerseys are and 2-that parents run on the field with their kids to get them used to it....yes, we do this with McKinley. I think by the end of the 8 game season she may be willing to do it on her own!

Cartoons

So, many (most) of you know that I have two brothers that are quite a bit younger than me. One is 13 and one is 15. Well, when these guys were younger Robbie and I used to tease them about how weird the cartoons they watched were. We would laugh and talk about how the ones we watched when we were little were soooo cool!
Well, just the other night we found a channel that plays cartoons we used to watch. We found them in the middle of the night when we were up giving Molly a treatment. They had He-Man and She-Ra. We were so excited and nastalgic about getting to watch these cartoons again.
After making through nearly half of an episode of each we determined that our cartoons were totally weird as well.
Seriously, did any of you like those shows when you were kids and think they were cool? If you watched them again, I think you'd be surprised at how weird they are!