Cake, Pumpkins and Fairy Princess Cowboys . . .oh my!

No huge 1 year old birthday bash, but I did make fondant for the first time and had fun experimenting with it. As a result, Lexi enjoyed not one but two little cakes just her size. The kids and I celebrated on her real birthday and we did it again that weekend so that Dave, my Sister Margaret and her boyfriend Nick could join in the festivities.

She was very girly and neat with her cake, not at all exciting, I just hope I can teach her how to make a good mess with it by the time she gets married.

The cold weather left us not wanting to go back out after the boys' soccer games on Saturday so we stayed in and carved pumpkins instead.



Lastly, Brooklyn. Such a girl. Loves skirts. Loves dancing. Loves being "pretty". Loves pink. I can't wait for her to turn three so I can get her in soccer or something and make sure she can at least be a tough ballerina. She is forever changing outfits and they are all so cute that we often have to hunt down the camera.

Happy Birthday Lexi

Lexi turns one today and I am somewhat saddened to see her grow so fast as I sit here for the first time at my baby's one year mark not already pregnant or planning to get pregnant in the very near future. She was born in the midst of an already chaotic life and I fear we haven't taken nearly enough pictures of her, but here are some of them we did catch from birth to one.

Hello bright cold world! Birth announcements that I never even sent out.

First Holiday: Halloween

All bald after mom went crazy with the clippers trying to rid her of horrible male pattern baldness. Firts Sunday at Church. One month old.

All bundled up for the winter cold.Just one of the many ways she is loved by her siblings. Easter sticker smack in the middle of her forehead that she has no way to remove.
First Rice cereal. First trip to Kentucky.

First Graduation experience as daddy finished dental school. almost crawling

Just last week as she is walking along things, still pretty much bald but with the beginnings of some strawberry blonde hair

She came as a suprize, but we cannot imagine life without her. She gets the hiccups everytime she laughs hard, loves to pull both her own hair and others and continues to be one of the greatest sources of joy for our family. We love you Lexi!

Labor Day

No exciting journaling on this one . . .just some photos from our Labor Day trip to the Natural Bridge State Park in Easern Kentucky. My mom was out visiting the week before Labor Day and overlapped a few days with a visit from my cousin Lachelle and her husband Nick and kids. The hike up to the natural stone bridge included something like 500 steps so to motivate the boys we told them they could play a minute of xbox for every step they counted. It worked pretty well and they probably still have time saved up since the following weekend we put the xbox and television in an extended time out as I felt like it was not bringing the best out in our children. They haven't played xbox since and have watched maybe a few television shows that they earned for completing certain things. They have however, learned to ride bikes without training wheels, played outside a lot, taken an even greater interest in books, used their imaginations to play, wrestled, enjoyed soccer season, etc. . . .all better activities anyway in my mind. In case you're wondering, Dallas has also returned to some bed wetting, but still can and does go dry . .so we'll continue to work on that and search perhaps for some other form of extrinsic motivation for him.

How many is that Trenton??

It's a toss up on who poses the best. GQ/puffy chest Dave or pop a squat/ride a horse Bri?

It was fun to have Grandma's company . .not to mention help. She and Lexi enjoyed the view opposite the natural bridge (it's the line of stone you see in the background.

We almost got the whole crew to look at the camera.

Butler . . party of 6.

Coming back down. This little crevice in the wall was creepily narrow. Lachelle couldn't even walk through it with the baby back pack on. I knew there was a reason we wanted Nick with us .. .who else was going to hoist Dallas down the mountain? Dallas and Keyton were fast friends after this unique experience they shared together.

I like the Fall: Halloweeen , cool weather, leaves changing color . .However there are a few things I don't care for that come with the season: plentiful spiders huge and small and snakes. Dallas found this little guy wrapped around the sensor on or garage door. Yuck!!! Apparently it was a rat snake and they can grow up to 6 feet long. I wasn't happy that Dave let him go near our house as I now have nightmares of him coming back for a visit when he's all grown up.