June 2013

June 2013 was a nice time of enjoying playing at home, packing slowly but surely, and preparing for our big trip to see Nana and Pawpaw in Spokane, WA.

Not long before we left for Spokane, Mallory decided to add some excitement to our home by taking her first steps by herself.  Madeline didn't walk until 15 months and Will was 17 months, so we didn't quite know what to do with an early walker, lol!

The next day, we headed to Little Rock to help Lucy celebrate her 1st birthday!  It was such a cute and fun party with a watermelon theme.  We had such a great time visiting with our family and celebrating Lucy.

Madeline and Emma are always thrilled when they get to spend time together:) 

Will loves anything involving cupcakes!

Mallory and Lucy are so cute together.  There was music playing and they both just started dancing.  I love that they are only 10 days apart.  I can't wait to see them interact with each other more and more.

I offered to make some of my cookies for the party.  Here are my watermelons.  They turned out super cute, I think!

The week of our trip, Madeline participated in Ferncliff's day camp at the Presbyterian church with her friend Miriam.  They had a great time.  Miriam came to spend the night before their last day.  Summer sleepovers are the best!  Miriam also loved playing with and carrying Mallory around.  Mallory loved being with the "big girls."

 The next day, we flew to Spokane.  It was our first big trip as a family of 5 and it went pretty well.  We had a long layover in Denver but we tried to find fun where we could and the kids all did really well.

It was a lot colder than in Arkansas.  Luckily we packed for the weather:)  It seems weird to see Mallory in leggings and a jacket in mid June!  We had to go buy Will jeans at first, lol!  The kids loved being at Nana and Pawpaw's house for sure.  They had planned so many fun things for us to do.

This is Mallory getting ready to do some serious shopping!  We live in a small town and get so excited when we go somewhere with good shopping!

 My kids have never been to Build a Bear, so that was up first!  Madeline made a cute panda bear.  She named it Oreo.

 Will built a cute bear and fell in love with the police man outfit.  He named him Officer Bacon:)

 I didn't get a shot of Mallory's, but she made a little dog and named it Brownie.

That Sunday was Mallory's first birthday!  We went to mass that morning and my dad took a great family shot of us all dressed up.  I sure love my family of 5!

 Here's the birthday girl in her cute apple dress.

 After church and a nap, Mallory was ready to open presents.  Nana and Pawpaw got her first baby doll.  It's name is "Baby Jenna."  You can see how excited she was about it here!

 It was love at first sight!  This little girl sure loves babies.

After presents, it was time for cake!  She wasn't sure about the candle and Will and I had to help her out.

 She did really love the cake though!

I'm so glad I made a point to take her picture every month for her first year.  It is so fun to see how much she grew and changed.  I also love that we had to give up on the crib shots the last three months, lol!

That evening, my dad and Nathan took the 2 big kids to a Spokane minor league baseball game while the birthday girl stayed home and rested with Nana and Mama.
 This will always be remembered because my dad and Nathan let Madeline eat a ton of kettle corn.  Then, they won coupons for free tacos from Jack in the Box and fed them that for dinner.  Poor Madeline got sick in the middle of the night after that, bless her heart.  She no longer likes Kettle Corn, lol!

 On June 29, Nathan and I celebrated our 11 wedding anniversary!  My parents surprised us with a one night stay in a nice resort in Cor d' Lane Idaho.  It was such a beautiful place on a lake with an amazing restaurant.  We had the best time together, just the two of us.  I think this may be our first official "selfie"  We are so grateful that our parents kept our kids so that we could have this time together.  Now that we don't have any family in the same town as us, this is very rare.  It was wonderful!