Caroline's Cupcake Celebration!

These pictures are in random order...surprise surprise! :) Miss Wiggles trying to get back to the party after posing with Aunt Cara and Uncle Chris- this picture should be with the other Atlanta pics below.


Giving daddy a chocolate cake kiss

At home on the night of her actual birthday Brad and I gave Caroline her first birthday cake- she wasn't a fan of chocolate or strawberry cake. She had just finished her dinner and we had to do it kind of late since daddy didn't get home until after 7:00, so it wasn't a huge success. But it was fun, and the memories are documented! We have video of her not liking this cake...maybe another post. :)

We spent the day of her birthday with our friends Mary Ellen and Rachel. We met at our original lunch spot- Chick fil a. Mary Ellen gave Caroline an Elmo dvd for her trip to GA and a fun Santa Claus book. Caroline loves them!

*On a little side note....after we played and ate at Chick fil a we went for a walk around the shopping center we were in and played outside by the nice fountain they have. Well anyone that knows how BUSY Caroline is knows that you must keep your eyes on her at all times or fun things may end up in her mouth...well they did. Caroline officially smoked or "ate" her first cigarette butt on her birthday!! YUCK!!! I was appalled! Poor thing didn't know what she was getting herself into. Luckily, there was no harm done. A little celebration on her 1st birthday! What's next??

Turned forward in her car seat for the first time

Here are some pictures to recap the wonderful day we spent with friends and family in Atlanta celebrating Caroline's 1st birthday. She was the perfect birthday girl and was a very gracious hostess! She loved her party and we are so thankful for all of you who made it happen. The pictures upload in reverse order, so if you want the true order of events you'll have to start at the bottom and go up. :)

In awe of all her new gifts! Thank you everyone!!

Nana Deb and Niki made an amazing video of pictures from her 1st year. I am not sure there was a dry eye in the room....I can't believe how fast she has grown up!

Her very own cupcake!

Mmmmm....she likes it!

She REALLY likes it!! And daddy does too.... :)

Not finished yet...

I think she devoured as much as her little tummy could handle

Marshmallows are her new favorite treat

Greeting her friends and family

Uncle Ben and Aunt Sarah

The cupcake spread- smore's cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, pumpkin apple spice cupcakes, fruit pizza cupcakes, frozen strawberry cupcakes. I think everyone was on a sugar high afterwards!

I love my Aunt Nik!

Grammie and Grandpa Wakefield

Nana Deb and Papa Ronnie Hobbs

Our Family + sweet Emily in my tummy!

I tried all day long to get a video to upload and it just didn't happen. So after days and days of getting this post ready...it will have to do w/o the video.

Random

Tonight I have a few minutes to sit at the computer because Brad's on call and sweet Caroline is sleeping like an angel. I have a MILLION things I need to be doing- cleaning up the house being #1, but they can wait until tomorrow...which they always do! I don't have any amazing news to share, but just wanted to catch up up to date on what we're doing these days.

As we are preparing for our QUICK trip to Georgia this weekend I can't seem to stop getting all sentimental and sappy thinking about my precious girl turning ONE! I know we all "can't believe it" but every mother out there knows there is something so bittersweet about watching their baby grow up. I've only experienced one glorious year of it and I can't help but wonder if it ever gets easier to see your baby grow into something new, something bigger, something even more amazing. Tears well up in my eyes thinking about how much I love my sweet little silly goose- it's like my love for her just literally pours out of me! I have found myself wanting her to KNOW how much I love her each day- but with little communication I have had to settle with the idea that she knows how much I love her in the simple things I do for her each day-

the way I make and share each meal with her,

the way I read her the same book 15 times in a row,

the way I tickle her under the arms,

the way I pick her up and comfort her when she falls down,

the way I snuggle her to sleep during nap time and bedtime,

the way I always find energy for one more game of peek a boo or where is your belly button,

the way I wash her clothes,

the way I change her diaper 100 times a day,

the way I sing songs to calm her down,

the way I tell her Jesus loves her.

There is nothing more amazing than getting to spend each day, each minute, each second with my little love. I love getting to see her grow and learn new things every day. I could write a book about all we do each day- and it would not be as sweet to anyone else but me because I know her so well. I guess the tears come simply because I want it to be like that forever- to always know her and get to love her all day long. I am so blessed to have her as my daughter and I often don't feel like I am good enough for her. I am 100% sure that God has a plan for us- each day we wake up from 6:30 a.m. until she is off to bed each night. I want to be the parent that God wants me to be each and every day that I am given the privilege. Sometimes I lose my patience or get irritated and it takes me a few minutes to through those little "hot spots" and sometimes I feel guilty afterwards, like those were wasted minutes that I should have been admiring her. But I am simply reminded by how crazy I must make my heavenly father sometimes...but He doesn't get mad at me- He loves me relentlessly. And to know that God loves me like I love my sweet little Caroline. All I want Caroline to know sometimes is HOW MUCH I love her, which is also God's message to His children. Motherhood has been an exciting, twisty, confusing, road- but the word that I would use to describe it the most would be AMAZING. All the bad disappears each day, all the stress and sleepiness disappears, all the things on the never ending "to-do list" get forgotten, when I fall asleep thinking about her sweet little self. And to think....we get ANOTHER precious little girl to experience this love with in March!! I am overwhelmed with how much God has entrusted to us....thank you Lord!

AND NOW ON A TOTALLY DIFFERENT NOTE...

I wanted to share this breakfast idea with my fellow lady friends and especially my doctor's wife friends. I was starting to feel a little guilty about not providing healthy meals for my sweet hard working hubby. Since my husband has been working like a dog during this rotation he has not gotten to eat lunch on the majority of his days. He gets to work at 5 a.m. and doesn't get home until after 7- that's if he isn't spending the night there. So that means that his breakfast is the fuel that keeps him going through out the day. Well....my love was eating a pop tart and maybe a granola bar with a cup of coffee each morning. As yummy as those snacks are and as easy as they are to grab and run out the door- they weren't offering a whole lot of nutritious value or stamina. So I came up with this quick breakfast one morning- which I prepared several for him to eat through out the next few days.

Easy Breakfast Burritos

Sausage patties- we buy a box of like 30 of the frozen kind and keep them in the freezer

Eggs

Green and Red Peppers, Onions- you can get a mixed bag of these already cut up in the frozen section

Tortillas

Cheese

I cook the eggs in their own pan- scrambling them. In another skillet, which happens to be a cast iron one that my hubby is obsessed with, I cook the sausage and peppers/onions. Chop of the sausage while it's cooking. Once they are both cooked, put the eggs in the sausage skillet and let them cook together. Put the mixture onto a tortilla that is sprinkled with cheese. Wrap them up in tortilla and wrap the burrito in foil.

*I also keep some out by itself so that Caroline can eat a little of it for breakfast too. She loves it!

Then all Brad has to do is grab one burrito out of the fridge, microwave it for a minute, and eat it on the way to work. I'm not saying it's the most NUTRITIOUS meal of all time, but it has protein and some veggies- both good things. :) I only keep the mixture for 2 days...then it's time to make a new batch if we want it.

Just an idea...not a novelty at all. I know I'm always envious of new ideas....so share with me!

And that's the end of my random blog. Goodnight! :)

Currently Caroline

Mice, Leaves and NOOOOO Laundry!

We have had so much fun enjoying the nice weather and the leaves outside in our front yard. We went outside one morning after her nap and just played around- she has FINALLY stopped putting everything into her mouth...for the most part. I love watching her frolic around in the leaves on her little wobbly legs...priceless! She and Isabelle like to play a nice game of cat and mouse. Speaking of cat and mouse....last Sunday morning we woke up and let Isabelle inside from spending the night outside. As we opened our door a little mouse ran in!! I was able to think quick and capture it between the 2 front doors- between the screen door and real door. So daddy and Caroline got the broom, went around back to get to the front door to go on a mouse hunt...this was around 5:00 in the morning...but the first pictures are from the "Mouse Hunt".

Anyone that has been around Caroline lately has noticed that she has learned to shake her head "no". She only 1/2 way knows what it means. She knows to do it when she is finished eating, but the rest of the time she just does it when any question is asked. One day last week at Cara's I asked her "Do you want to go do some laundry with me?" Her response of course was a no-head shake. Ever since then I can ask her that question at any time and her response is always no. A girl after my own heart- no laundry!! :) See her infamous "no laundry" in this video below.

A bit of everything

My sweet friend Paige met us and had lunch in Atlanta Friday afternoon. She has an adorable 4 month old- Braelinn. He was a doll!! We were so glad we got to visit with them and meet Braelinn for the first time.

Little Charlie snoozing away...he is such a good sleeper right now!!

Caroline is meeting her cousin Charlie for the first time. She LOVED him. She wanted to grab him and touch him the whole time we were there. She knew that he slept in his bassinet and continually ran up to it trying to pull herself up to look inside. We are definately working on the word "GENTLE" and hopefully will make leaps and bounds of progress before her little sister arrives.

She loved watching the baby- except for when he cried. She broke down in crocodile tears every time Charlie made a peep. She is very sympathetic. :) Again, we have a lot to work on before we bring our 2nd little one home.

Ok, so this is all out of order and randomly placed pictures. It's late, I'm tired, but I wanted to attempt a blog. :) You are all smart- you'll figure it out.

We have made some sweet friends that we enjoy weekly playdates at Chick Fil A with. Rachel and her sweet little Mary Ellen have just moved back to Little Rock. We met at a library playtime and have gotten together each week since. Unfortunately library time falls right in the middle of naptime, so we haven't made it in awhile. We'll see how little love does this week- we love the interaction! Caroline is contemplating how to get up these steps...one day soon I think she'll attempt after watching the big kids do it over and over.

Mary Ellen is about 17 months old- perfect little friend for Caroline to follow in her footsteps.

Enjoying girl time at lunch

Random picture of Caroline on the way to the park. She loves her Elmo sweatshirt!

Hayride and glowsticks! She eventually tossed one of them over the side...

Trying to chill in the car before the festivities

Strutting her stuff

Miss Peacock

We are finally back home in Little Rock after an amazing time in Atlanta. We are glad to be home with daddy and in our "normal" surroundings...but we miss our family already! Good thing we have a birthday party right around the corner!! :)

Here are some pictures from Caroline's first Halloween. She was very tired that evening since we had just gotten off an airplane and traveled all day. We almost didn't make it out, but we ended up going out to a fall festival at a friends barn/house/land. They had all kinds of fun things set up...mostly for kids a bit older than Caroline but we still enjoyed. We had hot dogs, took a hayride, chased other children around, and enjoyed a bonfire. I got to meet a lot of the couples that Brad had met the following week while I was gone. Our little peacock was precious...she walked around strutting her feathers like she was the center of the world! She was out WAY past her bedtime, but she did amazing. The only major catastrophe was a busted lip and scraped up face that she got when we got home and enjoyed a few minutes at our neighbors party. She was a champ though and didn't seem to mind once we got the boo boo bunny and apple juice for her. All in all it was a fun night!

Finally, on another random note- we joined The Summitt Church. We are very excited about being a part of their church family and getting plugged in with small groups, serving opportunities, and outreach. The church is on fire for the Lord and has such a heart for helping others and mission opportunities. Thank you Lord for leading us to a new church home!

The End :)