A Beautiful Day

It was gorgeous on Saturday. We broke out the shorts and the kids played outside all day. I love days like this when my kids are so happy and all playing so nicely together.... until five minutes after I took these pictures and Daphne came in screaming that Jo pushed her, and then five minutes after that, Lay came in crying that Daph was teasing her and then.... you get the idea. Ha ha... aren't kids great? Ahhhh, life.

A Little "Crush"

He gave her this egg and it was filled with Easter candy!

Someone at Lay's school has a crush on her! I think it is just so cute. There is this boy (I can't even remember his name) at her school that keeps giving her treats, pencils, erasers, etc. I asked her why he does it and she said "I don't know!" I asked if he ever gave anyone else anything and she said "No, just me" Someone likes my little girl! Oh boy.... I think this is just the beginning of something I'm going to laugh at, and her dad is going to hate for many years to come :)

Another "Thing"

On Thursday afternoon my left eye (which is the eye that has iritis) started hurting and it was a little pink looking. It also had a little bit of discharge coming out. At first I thought I was having an iritis relapse, and so I started my drops and thought I'd just call my doctor in the morning to be seen. Then later that evening I thought "Oh great, what if it's pink eye?" because with iritis, there is no discharge or anything like that. In the morning, my eye was completely sealed shut with goop. It was disgusting! I had to run warm water over my face before I could open my eye. So I called my doctor and they got me right in. Turns out I have another eye disease which is also associated with my auto-immune thing... it is called epi-something-itis (I wasn't really paying attention, and it was a weird long name ;) I asked the doctor "Why are all these eye things associated with a joint and bone disorder?" and he kinda laughed and said "That's a good question, and we have no idea." So for now, it's more antibiotics and eyedrops for me and a yucky looking eye that has... stuff... coming out of it. Yuck!

*After I wrote this and read through it, I realized that it sounded kind of negative. I'm really trying to be more positive and have a brighter outlook on life lately, so I had to come up with a "bright side" . I found one... the bright side of this is... supposedly this new eye thing is really painful, and because I am already on pain meds because of my other thing, I felt no pain. There's always a bright side if you just look for it! :)

Elmo Birthday Party

Favorite dinner for Bear's birthday.... pizza- yum! (It was also the first solid food he ever ate... at 6 months old :)

Where'd the balloons go??This was probably Bear's favorite toy... the $2 ballI had to stick this pic of Jo in, because for some reason, he isn't in any other pictures ( I think he was jumping on the tramp with his fun Uncle David the whole night)Bear was my first one year old that actually ate and enjoyed his cake. The other three either played in it or just looked at it.Sorry, Andy is so weird sometimes. After this pic, I told my mom to take another, and it is just as bad if not worse. How this guy got me, I will never know :) I like to claim that he tricked me. This is blurry, but Baron loves to be thrown in the air, he gets the biggest grin
Bear with Grandma and Grandpa Collette



Playing on his new slide

With Grandma Claudia and Papa Bry

Bear with his haul

We had Baron's birthday party last night and I went with an Elmo theme because I got Bear a Hokey Pokey Elmo for his birthday (that he doesn't really seem to care for. In fact, the only thing he does with it is throw it :). We had a lot of fun and Bear got a lot of great gifts. Thanks everybody for coming! He had a blast!

Happy Birthday Baron!!

Well, it happened. My baby turned 1! I can't believe how incredibly fast this past year has gone. I feel like I was pregnant about 2 weeks ago. This first year has gone the fastest of any of my babies. Is time speeding up? It's crazy. Well, here is the past year of Baron's life, in reverse. Watch him get smaller and smaller. Although, he doesn't get to small. He was, after all, my 2nd largest baby at 9 lbs. 11 oz. (and almost 2 weeks early!) I love you baby boy.

Please excuse this pic... it was 3 in the morning and I was dialated to an 8 by now :) Get me my epidural!!!

Notice how he is smiling in nearly every picture? Bear has been such a happy, fun baby. He's had his moments, of course, but for the most part, he has been a wonderful, good boy. He does have a little temper though, and I'm a little worried for when he's going through the terrible two's because he has tantrums already! Baron loves to play. Ever since he learned how to go down the stairs about 3 months ago, he will go down to the playroom by himself and be occupied for hours at a time. I will check on him and he will be completely content alone. He still loves his bottle, and we are down to one a day. Poor boy will have a rude awakening as soon as this last can of formula is gone, because so will the bottle be. He also loves his bink and at night he will hold 2 in his hands and take turns sucking on them. He also loves to growl. I don't know where he got it from, but he will take any two toys (doesn't matter what- action figures, cars, princesses, barbies, ponies, etc) and he will smash them together and growl like they are fighting. Pretty cute. His favorite toy has got to be a ball. He will throw and chase balls for long periods of time. He loves Sadie and his first sentance was "Hi Sadie!" and he still says this every morning when he wakes up and sees her. He can also say "Hi dad", "mamma", "binky", "uh-oh", and a few more that I can hear, but no one else can :) He also waves hi and bye and will give fives. He has taken a few steps here and there, and I think he will be walking within the month. He loves food, if you can't tell, his favorites being fruit (mostly berries- any kind) and pizza. He also loves most veggies, toast, cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, yogurt, lunchmeat, eggs, and anything I make for dinner. He's not picky! I don't have his official stats, because his first year appt isn't until next week, but I think he weighs about 27 pounds. And I'm not sure of his height, maybe 31 inches. I'll update as soon as I find out. He's such a wonderful addition to our family and we love him more than words can express. Happy 1st Birthday Bear!