Ty's "Wild One" Party

We had Ty's first birthday party the Saturday after his birthday.  We went with a western theme of cowboy hats and bandana print.  I intended to just to a small party with some family, but ended up inviting lots of people and I'm glad we did!  We had a nice afternoon with great weather and good food celebrating our Ty-Ty.  Barry's mom made the cutest cupcakes and I made Ty a dairy-free, soy-free smash cake so he could still enjoy a treat on his birthday.  It took some convincing for him to dig in, but he eventually did and loved it!  I think he had a great day.

     

    

     

      

   

I'm so happy he got into his cake because it was definitely a labor of love to make!  Thanks to everyone for for coming and to everyone that helped...it was a special afternoon!!

Caroline's Birthday

July 17th started out like any other day: took Sawyer to school, ran home to do a couple things then head down town for a lunch.  But, right as I was getting on the high way Becky called.

She had texted earlier in the day that she was having a lot of contractions but she thought she had just over done it or something.  She said she would start timing then at 10:00 that morning if they didn't stop.  They never stopped.  Michael was on his way home and they were going to head to the hospital. Fortunately, Kristin was able to come hang out with the older girls until I could get there to help out.  I picked Sawyer up from school a little early and we went to Becky's house since they had decided to admit her!!  I hung out with the kids all afternoon while driving my parents and Michael crazy for updates.

We finally got the word to slowly head up to the hospital…so I loaded all the kids up (getting there slowly was not going to be a problem!)  Fortunately Becky & Michael had just bought this new car the night before so I was able to haul everyone to pick up dinner and meet Caroline!

After only an hour or two of toddler wrangling and entertaining…

Caroline Therese made her debut - so beautiful and so perfect!!

The girls thought she was just so cute!

I agree.

Ty stuck pretty close to my dad the whole time, trying to figure out how he was going to survive among all these girls!

But, being just shy of 4 months apart, these two will be best buds before too long!

I just love being an aunt, especially to little ones as sweet as this!!

Dallas Road Trip for Mimi's Birthday

The last weekend in May we made a road trip up to Dallas.  My dad, Barry & Michael had planned a fishing trip, so we planned a girls trip to Dallas to celebrate Mimi's upcoming birthday with her.  Since my mom had to work on Friday, Becky and I decided to make the trip with all the kids Thursday afternoon.  Crazy?  Maybe.  We packed my car to the brim and were on the road…

After sitting in traffic FOR.EVER. we finally made it to a Chick-Fil-A for a dinner and diaper change stop.

7 hours (yup, 7) and 4 sleeping kids later we made it to Dallas.

We spent Friday hanging out at Mimi's house and playing in the backyard.  Lisa, Brooke & Holly drove in from Arkansas to spend the weekend with us too which was great!

Saturday we hosted a lunch for Mimi's friends to come over and celebrate her birthday, she was more interested in showing off her great grandkids!

We spent the rest of the day shopping, hanging out with Brittney & Eric and walking on the "Balance Wall."  The balance wall, as Cora named it, is the border between Mimi's yard and her neighbors'.  When we were kids it was made of railroad ties, it has since been upgraded but still provided hours of entertainment, much like it did when we were little.

I am so glad we got to spend the weekend celebrating our wonderful grandmother!  And fortunately the drive home only took us 4 hours…as it should have…thanks to Ty taking a marathon nap, M.E. sitting in the back providing entertainment and lots and lots of snacks.  The fishermen had a great weekend too!