Happy 1st Birthday Harper!

I can't believe my baby is 1!!!!!!! This year has gone by SO fast. He is such a great boy. He is always smiling and laughing. He crawls all over the place (has been since 5 1/2 months) and is just a sweet boy. We had his birthday party at the pool since he thinks he is a submarine. He will crawl in the pool at the aquatic center until he is completely submerged!! Then he comes up laughing. We all swam for an hour and a half and then went to the park for food, cake, and presents.

Harper dove right into his cake!

Kaitlyn did too!

Reagan just tried to inhale the whole thing!

Connor was just being silly as always

And Reilly very daintily chopped away at hers. We all laugh at Reilly for her famous saying when she was 2: "I eat cake!!!"

Tractor

Harper loves things with wheels. Matt and I walked out of the house one day and this tractor just so happened to be across the street. So, we put Harper in the driver seat and he did not want to get off! He kept saying "tractor."

Water fun!

We decided to have a water day and let the kids get wet - even though we aren't supposed to be playing with sprinklers due to the drought! They needed some outside time!

The girls would not even touch the hose, until Harper started playing with it. Then they decided that it wasn't that bad and they could handle the sprinkling of it.

Oh what they think of!!

While cleaning up the playroom mid June (mind you well over a month after Rachel's college graduation), Carly was in charge of the lego blocks. She had one block left and the lid in her had - she stared at them for a minute, then put the lid on top of her head and stuck the block out the bottom and said, "I'm Ray Ray!!" She was mimicking her graduation hat! She is a trip!

Goofy girl!!

Of course Chloe has to be funny too!

Gearing up for the Recital

This year the girls started dance class. It took them until around October to stop sucking their thumbs during class and of course the first few classes they cried the whole time! By December they started talking to their dance teacher, Mrs. Sabrina!!! They are so funny. They had an award/parent day the first week of June so they could show us their dance. For some reason, Carly was in a stubborn mood and would not participate that much.

Practicing wearing costumes - there was only 1 other girl in their class at the end. They started off with 7 kids total, but the rest quit.

The girls got a 1st year dancer pin. They are all admiring their prize with their teacher Mrs. Sabrina.

Happy Birthday Carly and Chloe

This year Carly and Chloe were so excited for their 3rd birthday party!! We decided to have it in our backyard and rent a jumper. The girls looked through the brochure with me and Carly said she needed the jumper with the slide attatched to it! That one had a big clown head on it, so we turned their party into a circus party. We had a tightrope, elephant bubble makers, ribbon streamers, bean bag toss, a duck game, and a ring toss. They had a blast!!! We had to count down to their birthday and when the day came, they were stoked. I enjoyed throwing it so much because of their excitment. Oh yes, I did have sleepless nights thinking of this party! They love clowns now. If anything gets on your face, you turn into a clown. Like when I brush my teeth and foam gets on my face - I am a clown. One night I went and put Harper in the tub, when I came back in the kitchen, they had taken ketchup and honey mustard and smeared it all over them, they were clowns!! Oh what those two think of!

This was the first year that they blew out their candles! It was such a big day for them!

This was the clown jumper! It was great and we got to keep it for the whole weekend so they jumped alot!

Oh yes, this would be KRIS playing with ribbon streamers!! He was making fun of Matt doing them, and Matt laughed and said "Yeah, but I have you documented doing it!"

They all got clown noses after pin the nose on the clown - Carly ended up getting the nose in the exact spot - do you think she cheated??

There was even a clown that stopped in at the party!!

I took everyone's picture with this elephant thing I made and used it for their thank you cards - here is Connor hamming it up.

We took the girls to see the Doodlebops concert in April (I think) and since then have have named themself each a name. This is Carly - she is Dee Dee. So of course Grandma got them a costume so they can look the part!

Here is Chloe, AKA Moe. Harper has been name Rooney Doodle (the blue one because he always wears blue, but he doesn't have a costume!)

VACATION!

This year we didn't want to go to the beach on vacation (last year the girls wouldn't touch the sand). I really wanted to go to the mountains and get a cabin! So we began our adventure on May 5th and headed to Gatlinburg, Tennesse. My brother Kris, Gina, Connor, and Kaitlyn stayed with us for a few days in our 3 bedroom cabin. We had so much fun spending time with them since they live far away from us. Connor made us play a lot of Golden Tee, the arcade game, that was in the game room. Kaitlyn loved showing us all her "resses" (dresses) - she is such a girly girl! Unfortunately, our kids got sick (what is it with us and sicknesses on vacation??), so we had some very HOT and whinny babies, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. Matt went with Kris, Gina, Connor, and Kaitlyn to ride go carts! Connor LOVED it! We also went to Cades Cove. According to Matt and Kris it was just a little stop, so we left at 11:00. It took about 1 hour!! Kris was driving on fumes and luckily Gina and I through a little food in a bag to go - there was no where to eat!! Gotta love how Kris and Matt plan things! Then they left and Mom and Grandma came to stay. We did some shopping and relaxing - I had to fight my mom to get out of the hot tub the first night when it started thundering and lightning!! She was so sad - she wanted to flub! On Saturday, the 10th, we ended our trip by driving to Western to see Rachel graduate. It was a very fun trip!

Connor and Harper - Connor loves this boy!!!!!!!

An old Baptist Church at Cades Cove

The hot tub at our cabin.

Shopping

The girls first time playing putt putt! They did a great job!

Grandpa and Chloe waiting for Graduation to begin