Lacy Lyn's 1st Birthday!

Our sweet baby turns 1 year old tomorrow! We have no idea how an entire year has went by already! Lacy Lyn is such a joy in our lives, and a perfect addition to our family. We have enjoyed watching her grow from an infant into a toddler who is beginning to say words like “ut-oh” and “kitty kitty” as she points to Slater or Peeve. She is also standing up a lot. She pulls herself up on the ottoman or coffee table and stands there for a few minutes. She’s the happiest baby and loves to giggle at her big sister and brother. She is definitely gaining more of a personality with her sounds and faces.

Last Sunday we took her to get her pictures taken at Portrait Innovations. Here are some of our favorites. Mom and Dad Cross – yours are on their way to you!

Yesterday we had her 1st birthday party. We had a great turnout from our wonderful friends and family. I will be posting those photos later this week!

We love this smile!
Precious!

Pat-a-cake!!

Snowman and "The New Binkie"

Today I was off work for MLK day, and Anson took a vacation day. Anson went over to my parents' house we my Dad could work on our van (brakes). While he was gone, the kids and I went outside for a about 20 minutes and made this snowman. I made it mostly while they watched. Lily really liked it but Dillon was cold. We had to hurry because Lacy was out with us and she was cold too. Sampson loved being outside and ran around and around! It warmed up today and our snowman fell a few hours after we made him :(

On Saturday, Dillon refused to take a nap. So we put Barney on for him. A few minutes later, Anson went in the living room and found him like this...what's in his mouth you ask? A binkie? No, it's string cheese! LOL. Anson took him upstairs to put him to bed and it's a good thing he woke up because he had a mouthful of cheese in his mouth!

Milestones and Dance Class

We've hit a lot of milestones over the past few weeks:

• Dillon is binkie-less! Friday, Jan. 6 he went to bed without a binkie and hasn't had one since. For the first few days, he asked about it but we just told him that he's a big boy now and doesn't need one. He hasn't asked about it lately :) Next milestone for him is potty training. He's a little interested now and then but we haven't really pushed it with him. He'll be 3 soon so it's time we start focusing on it.


• Lacy quit nursing last week. It was her decision not mine. I was hoping to continue until her birthday like I did for Lily and Dillon, but she decided she had had enough. Unrelated to nursing...I fear Lacy is going to grow up the fastest in an effort to keep up with her brother and sister.


• Lily received her first progress report from school! She's doing great. She only had a few areas for improvement like controlling her frustration when she hasn't mastered a skill, reciting her address and learning her sounds in preparation for reading. She earned excellent remarks in cognitive development, language and physical skills. She can also recite my cell phone number and can write her name. We are so proud of her.


• We are switching Lacy to Vitamin D milk this weekend. We are out of formula and milk is much cheaper. We are also beginning to wean her off the bottle. She's drinking from sippy cups just fine.


• All of Lacy's milestones just remind me that we don't have anymore babies :( I can't think about that too much because it really makes me sad. I am focusing on all the years of fun we still have ahead of us, though :)

New dance outfit from Mimi!

Lydia, Molly, Olivia, Lily, Jade and Carly

Sophia, Lily and Molly

Here are a few videos of Lily dancing.

Couple other updates:

• It's fun to hear Lily talk about her preschool classmates. She likes to play with Cassie and Olivia.


• Lacy is crawling everywhere. No more inch worm - she's full steam ahead of all fours. She's pulling herself up and can stand for awhile if she holds on to something. She'll probably be walking in a few more months.


• We're taking Lacy to get her 1 year pictures tomorrow, and we are planning her party for next Sunday. I can not believe it has been a year!!!!

New Year's in Kentucky

On New Year's Eve, we got up early and drove down to Kentucky to spend New Year's with Dennis, Jeanne and all the kids. We wanted to leave our house by 7, but we pulled out at 7:25. We made two stops including breakfast and one roadside potty stop for Lily. The kids did great. We moved Lacy up to the big girl car seat because she was really outgrowing the infant seat:( No more infants for us. We got down there about 1:00.

Playing Mad Gab with the older kids and Emily's boyfriend, Jimmy. He's a super nice guy. It was a fun game too.

Lily and Michael playing house in their finished basement.

Dillon playing

Lacy biting on the apple juice bottle

Getting ready to eat a very yummy dinner - baked pasta, bread, salad! And we took down Hartville Kitchen pumpkin pie for dessert!

Adam's girlfriend was with us too and so we had 17 in all at dinner.

Playing birdies on Anson's ipad.

Joseph!

Anson and Lydia playing electronic Scrabble

Emily making us french toast bake for breakfast. You make it the night before and it sits all night.

Baby girl crawling around on the floor.

Getting ready to ring in the new year. Their tradition is to run outside and bang on pots & pans, so Jeanne gave them some pots and lids to bang together.

Watching Dick Clark and the ball drop

Little Michael didn't make it to the New Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Lydia is covering her ears so it must've been loud.

Jeanne helping Dillon bang his pot and lid together.

A bunch of kids came running down with pots and pans, making a lot of noise :)

The next morning...Sarah watching all the little ones.

Cuties!

Jeanne took the kids outside to play baseball and climb on the big wood pieces.

Hanging out and watching football.

We left about 3:30 after we went to lunch together at Skyline. We stopped 2 times on the way home and made it home about 8:30. We really wish they lived closer to us. We had such a good time with them!