Nellie's one year pictures

Since I bought my camera I've been trying to get better at taking pictures but it seems that the better I get the more mobile and uncooperative my kids get. Taking pictures of someone that just learned to walk and therefore just realizing all the freedom they have is hard work. My goal was to get some one year old pictures of Nellie but that didn't really happen. She was so not having it. I tried and tried to get her to sit still for 2 seconds and even looking at me was too much to ask. By the end of it I was so frustrated I was about to cry. But I got home and was happy that I got a couple of useable cute pictures of her but still sad that it took so much work just to get those. Nellie when you look back and wonder why you don't have very many cute pictures of yourself don't blame me. I tried my best.

Jace on the other hand was slightly more cooperative and I ended up getting in a few good shots of him too. I have got to say that he is one good looking boy =)

My favorite picture so dang cute. This is the face he makes when I tell him to smile for me.

Happy Birthday Nellie!

I can't believe my baby is 1 already! It seems like this past year has flown by much faster than I would have liked. I feel like she was just born and now here we are celebrating her first birthday. Nellie is walking all over the place now and is so amazingly adorable it is a joy to watch her grow. We celebrated her birthday with a mini party with 2 other friends from our neighborhood that are the same age as her. We did a party just for the 3 girls. I did a butterfly theme and made pick cupcakes with white chocolate butterfly wings on top. I was kinda proud of myself.

The Birthday Girls

Eden, Gwennie, and Nellie

Yumm cake!!

3 friends with 3 babies that are friends too.

Callie, Me and Kate (and Gwen too)
To clean off the cupcake mess from the babies we played in the backyard with the water on. I guess Nellie was thirsty after all that cake. And of course Jace had fun too.

Natalie's Baby Shower

I'm always excited about babies especially when its new additions to my family. Natalie and Dallas are having a new baby girl in October so it's baby shower time! Hurray

Our own water park

After all of our hard work on the backyard we figured it was time to enjoy it. We finally have grass growing and where there is grass and kids there is a waterpark. I remember tons of times growing up where we would all get our swimsuits on and run through the sprinkelers or jump on the trampolene with the sprinkeler underneath. AAAhhh such happy memories. Well now the best part about being a mom is getting to pass down those traditions to my kids. We bought Jace a slip and slide for his 1st birthday party and miraculously it survived our move without getting any holes. It is a really fun finding nemo one where you screw the hose in one end and as it fills up with water it sprays out of holes that run all the way down the whole legnth of the slide. Simple yet efective design and the kids love it. Even Nellie (who has a hard time getting wet sometimes *such a girly girl*) throughly enjoyed herself in our backyard waterpark.

Here's some pictures from our fun

You are not making me get my hair wet Mom!!

Jace jumped right in

Ok i guess i like it

Happy kids

Daddy and Nellie

It seems like I never make it onto this blog it's all pictures of the kids and an occasional Steven. So this is me making it onto the blog =)

Child labor

Yes its true I'm putting my kids to work!!! But don't worry its totally legal and they love it! Jace is my sweet helper boy. He loves to be involved in anything and everything I am doing especially when there is water involved and especially when there are bubbles to play with. I decided it would be a fun and much needed activity to wash the car with the kids. Nellie wasn't too thrilled as I had to pen her up in the play yard (she kept trying to eat all of Steven's tools in the garage) But Jace and I had a blast. And of course i got some free child labor =)

What a good helper and so much fun too

Oh a little side note. I got to go to the zoo this past week with my wonderful lovely Heather and her boys. Sooo fun I love you heather

Uncle Sam!!

No not the government uncle sam (although it is fun to say it that way) Jace and Nellie have an actual Uncle named Sam and they got to meet him this last weekend. Steven has 3 half brothers from his dad's first marriage and Sam is the youngest of the brothers. He was in town for training for a new job and I guess he heard our air mattress calling his name so he had to come stay. We had a lot of fun getting to know him. Jace especially, since Sam has a little boy himself he and Jace were best buds.

We all went swimming at Callie's condo

Hi Uncle Sam =)

Jace of course loves to be in the water he played long after we were all ready to get out. I swear that kid would be made of water if he could

This was nellie's first time actually getting in the water while swimming. We tried once before but it was too cold. I think she likes swimming...she looks pretty happy

Nellie also got to hang out with her buddy Eden. Such cute swimsuit models

Nellie's first time in the pool. I think my kids were supposed to be fish. They love the water.

Finally a Garden!

Saturday was Gardening time (kinda like hammer time but with more dirt and less gold pants) We have been working on our back yard ever since we moved in 6 months ago. Steven has been working so hard on it we moved a ton of rock, rototilled the whole thing (destroying our sprinkeler system in the process) Then fixing the sprinkelers, we planted trees and grass and now it was finally time to plant the garden. Steven got me some railroad ties to be a super cool border around my garden and we filled it up with dirt from my Mom's. We did about half plants and half seeds. We did Tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley, corn, beans, pumpkin, cantaloupe and Im hoping to do sweet potatoes here soon too. I love having a garden it makes me feel so frugal and organic and the fresh veggies are awesome too.

Jace of course was the perfect little digger helper. I think we are going to get him a dirt box of his own so he won't dig up the plants. He LOVES to dig. He's a boy =) and I think we've already established that Boys love dirt
Nellie was helping too. She was trying to eat the dirt though so she spent most of the time in the stroller silly girl
I don't know why he thought that would be a good idea.

At least she doesn't have any teeth yet

I have the sweetest husband in the world. I mentioned to him that I wanted a flower garden so he made me one. And he bought me my favorite flowers to go in it. Lillies I even have 2 different kinds now. Thanks baby

I went out to check on my flower garden this morning and my lillies had opened up for the sun. They are so pretty I love my garden!