Rose's Tricks

Rose has lots of new tricks! This is an amazing stage of life and she is learning new things everyday! It is so much fun to see her learn and Rose is so proud of herself!

1. She shakes her head no when I say, "no,no" or if she does something that she knows she isn't supposed to do. Like playing in Lucy's water bowl.

2. Waves bye bye and hello. She has started waving at me a lot recently. She loves to wave at me when I leave her in her high chair to fold laundry (she can see me through the laundry room door off the kitchen.) At the waffle house the other morning, I got up to pay and left Rose with Clark at our table. I looked over at her from across the restaurant and she was just waving away at me! It was so cute!

3. She has learned how to drink out of a straw. Thank goodness! I was starting to worry that she would never drink from anything other than her beloved bottle.

4. Says "uh-oh" when she drops something or throws it down. It sounds like "ah-uh." This little girl LOVES to make a mess! She get into everything! Her favorite thing is the lowest shelf of our spice rack which happens to be the perfect height for her. She gets out every spice and spreads them all across the kitchen. This keeps her occupied while I cook but creates a big mess for me to clean up! I try to only put plastic spice jars on that shelf and make sure the tops are all screwed on tight. But one day, the top of the little tiny sprinkles came off and Rose had spread hundreds of tiny candy dots all around the kitchen before I realized what had happened. It was pretty cute!

5. She screams "dawww!" everytime she sees a dog in person, on tv, in a book, etc... This was her first word and she absolutely loves dogs. She will point to dogs in her books if you ask her where the dog is.

6. When asked where her head is, she pats her head. When asked where her tongue is, she sticks her little tongue out.

7. She loves to play "how big is the baby?" and she proudly shows you how big she is by raising her hands above her head. This was her first trick.

8. Rose loves to clap! When I ask her if she wants to play patty cake, she claps her hands to show me she is ready. If I say "yay!" she will start clapping. She also claps if she sees or hears people clapping on tv. And of course she claps when she knows she has done something good or if I get really excited about something.

9. When I sing the "10 little indian song" she makes the indian sound at the end by sticking a finger in her mouth and making the "o-o-o-o-o-o-"sound.

10. Last but certainly not least is my favorite trick of all. If I ask Rose to give me a kiss, she kisses me on the lips. Those kisses are the sweetest thing in the whole world!!! I just love her so much and those kisses show me that she loves me right back :)

Rose's 1st Birthday Party

The food table. The best restaurant in Mobile catered the party...CAMILLE'S! We served wraps, sandwiches, broccoli salad, fruit, and PB and J's for the kids.

The kids table. Notice my Dad videotaping in the background. He got most of the party on tape and he has the best commentation ever!!! Its so cute to watch.

The cakes! I couldn't resist having them decorated with roses in honor of our little Rosebud! I often wonder how she will feel about roses when she is older. She's either gonna love them or hate them! I hope she loves them :)

Greeting Asa and Maribeth Cutie Bennett loved the rocking horse
Not too sure what to think about her friends taking over the den

I wish we had more pictures of the kids playing. It was a zoo! But so much fun!!!

Lunch time! We set a table for the kids and they were all very well behaved! They were all very serious about eating their lunches and seemed to enjoy sitting together! Meryl Moo

Sweet William

Jaybird (He had to borrow a bib and wouldn't you know that every bib we own is pink!)

Bennett, Rose, and Annie

"Asa, you need to wear your hat!"

Then it was time for cake!

The week before Rose's birthday, we "practiced" singing Happy Birthday to Rose so that she wouldn't freak out when 40 people started singing to her at her party. All of the practice worked, because SHE LOVED IT!

This is my favorite picture from the day.

Rose loved it so much that we just had to do it again! So we all sang another round!

The second time was just as sweet.

Time to dig in!Lovin it...

lovin it...

And we're done!

The Big 60

For the last few years, we have been talking about doing something really special for Dad's 60th birthday. Instead of a big party, which Dad would not have liked at all, we went to the beach for a long weekend. Our little family of five has expanded so much that we have outgrown our 3 bedroom beach condo! So we rented a HUGE house at Martinique. There was plenty of room for our party of 10. Of course we picked the coldest weekend in recent history but we had lots of fun just hanging around and relaxing in our PJs.

Rose and Pops
Jay and Rose had so much fun being together. They are so close in age and love doing the same things. Having them on the same schedule make life so easy! They were like brother and sister that weekend.

We ate alot! And the boys took the babies swimming in the indoor pool. Rose has grown so much since last summer that she didn't have a bathing suit that fit! The swim diaper worked just fine!

Rose, Pops, and William in the hot tub...don't worry, it wasn't too hot!

Loving the pool (and Pops!)

Look at that weggie! So cute :)

Jay perfected his jump.

Snuggling with Aunt Dana after the swim.

All tuckered out after a long but fun weekend

Happy birthday, Daddy! You truly are the sweetest, most thoughtful, hardest working person I know. You deserve only the best in life and we all love you sooooo much!!!

Rose is ONE!

It was so surreal today to see my Lilypie ticker wishing Rose a happy 1st birthday. It seems like just yesterday that I started the countdown to her arrival. I remember that it seemed like forever until she would be born. And today she is ONE!

Words cannot describe how much I love my little Rosebud. I think she is the most amazing person in the whole world! I adore everything she does, every little sound, motion, laugh, and cry. I love that I am usually the last person Rose sees before going to sleep for the night, and I am the first person she sees in the morning. I love that she is ticklish on her thighs. I love that she doesn't want to be away from me. I don't want to be away from her either! I love that she makes herself laugh in the car. I love that her favorite food is raspberries. I love the way she sucks her two fingers and rubs the silky part of her blankie on her cheek. I love that Rose still wants me to hold her bottles. I love that Rose still loves being rocked to sleep. I could go on and on forever.

I hope that Rose will continue to thrive and that she will love her little sister when she arrives in May. I pray that these two girls will be best friends. I can't wait to see what this year has in store for Rosebud...I know it will be a great year! Happy birthday to my precious angel and thanks for making us the happiest parents in the world!!

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Angel

Rose, you are 1!!!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It really seems like just yesterday that we were bringing you home from the hospital. I was so scared that I was going to do something wrong and I didn't want to be left alone with you at first! I quickly learned everything I needed to know about taking care of you with the help of your wonderful Grammy and Jannie. They spent lots of time with us, teaching me things like how to nurse you, burp you, swaddle you up tight, and how to bathe you! After a few days I felt more confident in my new role as your Mommy and I began to treasure our time alone! You were the sweetest and most beautiful baby I had ever seen. You hardly ever cried, ate great, and slept for a few hours at a time! You loved being held and I held you all the time! I never wanted to put you down. I loved holding you and watching you sleep. I couldn't believe that you were my baby! You seemed to beautiful and perfect to be real. But you were and you were mine!
Now you are learning to walk! What happened to my little baby??? You have changed from a snuggly little newborn into a busy little toddler! You love exploring every nook and cranny of our house and making huge messes. (Your messes are the only ones I don't mind cleaning up!)You love reading books, playing with baby dolls, playing with the spices in the pantry, taking baths, and eating all kinds of food. You love your Mommy and Daddy, and lucky for me, you still love to snuggle!!! I hope that you will always be as sweet and as beautiful as you are today. Mommy and Daddy love you more than anything in the world, Rosebud!!! We feel so lucky to be your parents.

Happy 1st birthday!

Love,

Mommy