Reese’s 9th year questionnaire

What is your favorite color?

Who is your favorite friend?

What is your favorite snack?

What do you like to do with Ella?

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?

What is your favorite drink?

What is your favorite thing to do outside?

What is your favorite sport?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What is your favorite animal?

What is your favorite book?

What do you like to do with Daddy?

What do you like to do with Mommy?

What is your favorite song?

What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner?

What do you take with you when you go to bed?

What is your favorite holiday?

What makes you happy?

What makes you sad?

What do you think about before bed?

What is your favorite thing to do with William?

What is your favorite thing to do as a family?

Reese’s 9th birthday party

I can’t believe I have a 9 year old! This year Reese requested that we not buy a cake but make one. So the night before her birthday she and I baked a red velvet cake with chocolate chips in it and made a delicious whipped cream/cream cheese icing. It turned out great and was delicious!

She’s really into cooking & baking and loved the idea of a cooking class as her party this year. She had the sweetest mix of friends and it was a really fun time. After her party her sweet friend (& neighbor) Madelyn spent the night. The girls had fun and Madelyn is so easy that we all had a great night. Time is flying and I hope to remember all of these sweet moments!!

William's 12 month stats

For several years now we have seen the same doctor for all of the kids well child check ups, Dr. Swindle. They go to a clinic that has around 14 doctors and for a while we just saw whoever was available but after seeing Swindle a few times we all really liked him and now request him. We have gotten to know him and he remembers all kinds of things that I wouldn't expect and it has been nice to have one that is "our" doctor. However, as the girls get older (probably in the next year for Reese) I think we will switch to a female doctor for them. Hopefully William will be able to stay with Swindle for a long time.
On the 17th we went in for his 12 month check up and the dreaded 1 year shots. He is 29.75 lbs. which is slightly off the chart for weight :0. I have lost the paper with the exact numbers and cannot remember what his height was but he is 99th percentile for height which is right around where Reese was at this age.
This boy is such a joy. He is walking all over, has 4 teeth on top and 3 on bottom, babbles all of the time, likes to shriek in a really high pitch and has the cutest little laugh. He has bitten my knee cap twice now and his fathers nipple once so hopefully none of that will happen again. He also has experimented some with hitting and clawing me, but only a couple of times. Mostly he is sweet and precious.
I hadn't planned on doing 1 year pictures but an old co-worker of mine is a photographer and offered a free session if she could use his photos to boost her baby business. Look how cute!

A few updates

I just realized that I never posted this update that I wrote months ago, so the post date will be a couple of months after it was written.

I’ve been so terrible about keeping up to date with posts since having William. But I do not want to go without documenting these seeet memories. So much has happened that I have failed to blog about. I should mention that over the summer we did a Texas vacation. Our destination was San Antonio but we made a 2 day stop in Waco to do Magnolia. It was so much fun because the girls are old enough to be interested in the show and to be excited another everything we saw there. We then spend the rest of the week in San Antonio with my mom, Carrie & Jacob. We spent multiple days a sea world and the water park and had a blast.

The real reason I write is to document William during this precious and oh so quick stage. He is an absolute blessing and such a joy. Every member of this family has been obsessed with him since the day we met him. His sisters will do anything to help if it has to do with him and absolutely adore the guy. He is almost 10 months old and I don’t know how that happened! I scheduled his first birthday the other day!! He is crawling all over the place, has 3 teeth, says mamamamamamama and dadadadadadadada, walks along the furniture and is the smiliest happiest baby. He ran his 1st fever last week and that started on Halloween so he missed the festivities. We love this guy and are beyond blessed by this addition to our family. 

William’s 1st birthday

I cannot believe this sweet baby is already 1! We had such a fun weekend celebrating him. His party was on a Friday evening at the Little Gym. He really had a fun time and ate up the attention. This boy is so much fun and it shows in these pictures!

His actual birthday fell on a Tuesday. All 4 of us got him out of his crib singing happy birthday. He didn’t quite know what to think but he grinned from ear to ear. Neal got him some donuts and we sang again before he ate and before his sisters and dad headed out for the day. He and I had a pretty normal day and when the girls got home from school we headed to meet Neal at chuck-e-cheese. We all played games and collected tickets to win a prize for William. We ate pizza and salad and he was home and asleep around 7. It was a really fun day celebrating our boy.