1 YEAR!

Where did my BABY go?  We NOW have a TODDLER?!?!?!

So in six months she has done a lot...starting with gaining a LOT of weight.  As Aunt Julie said last month, she went from a skinny-mini to a chunky monkey! :)  And we dearly loved our skinny-mini and each day love our chunky monkey even more! :)

Right now we're going through a "separation anxiety" phase (mommy hopes it ends soon) although I do love feeling needed all the time!  She's saying a LOT of things and putting several words together.  She's napping and sleeping well at night.  This summer, mommy plans to do the CIO method to get her to go to sleep without having to have mommy put her down.  Right now if she does wake up, she'll scream for a few minutes and go right back to sleep.  Its nice!  But hard to not run in, scoop her up and "save" her from whatever has frightened her.

We just had her first birthday with family, a couple friends, and both of our pastors!  She had a great time and was such a trooper with no naps!!! (Phew!) :)

Here are a few pictures of our peanut!

 November

 December

 January

 She was sooo proud of herself

 Our lil snow bunny HATED this, thankfully it wasn't too cold this winter to need it all the time!

 February

 Mom can I have the camera??

 Happy girl in the morning

 March

April (she had a cold)  :(

 Easter Basket

 First birthday!  Curious George themed of course! :)

 She LOVED her cake - Neena found one that was yogurt and cream cheese icing

and banana cake - less sugar!!!!  Yay!

 Birthday girl!

 Not sure of the cake quite yet....

 New car from Aunt Pam

 Coloring Easter eggs with her cousins on vacation

 We LOVED Aunt Julie (and Aunt Julie LOVED her! :))

 loving the penguins at the aquarium in TN

 can I touch it Poppa?

 "I don't know?"  Love when she does this.

either means I don't know, all done/gone, where did it go :)

Spent Easter weekend in KY with friends - this was after church

Oh and we are walking as of April 10!!!!  :)

SURPRISE....?

Last weekend we ventured to KY to visit with friends and Ron's best friend since elementary school's 30th birthday. Ruthann had a surprise party that, surprisingly, he didn't find out about until right before the party when HE didn't follow the plans! We drove down thursday and arrived around dinnertime. We played games and visited with everyone (REALLY nice visit) all weekend. Saturday, the plan was that everyone do whatever during the day then meet at a friend's, Dan, house at 5 (for the guys) as they were going to take Don out for his birthday. Don didn't listen and showed up at Dave's...which is where the party was. He felt bad but it was still a WONDERFUL night. At that point, Ruthann didn't care a whole lot as she had been planning this with Ron and I since before Christmas!!!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

(Some are of the party at Dave's (where we stayed) - some are us gaming at Dave's - the cake Mary made from scratch (well...all but the cake mix) - and the little guy is Don and Ruthann's baby, Donald Lee Richardson IV, he'll be 1 in April and is such a cute and fun little guy!)
















Oh and all the candy little Donnie is playing with, was Don's gifts from his crazy friends...Ruthann wanted something that had to do with "30" so we all got him 30 oz of candy or 30 things of candy...so much for his diet he's on! :)

Youth Outreach

Last night we had a youth outreach Luau. We had a few kids but not as many as we were hoping...it was at Bonnie's house. It was fun. We had pictures taken for them to take with them and decorate, hula hoop contest, volleyball, limbo, coconut bowling (with real coconuts - until they broke), and a REAL WHOLE pig roast!! It was a good time! I think the kids really had fun.

The first picture is Karen giving a lesson at the end of the night about the REAL paradise - not Hawaii!

Debe and I at the end of the night:
Me, Debe, and Juanita's picture:
Ron and Joey:
Limbo contest:
More limbo:
the entrance where you signed in (so we knew who people were and who they came with):
coconut bowling:
volleyball:
Debe, Josh, Joey, and Ron:
More Limbo:
Doug, Ken, and Juanita:
Ken awaiting his picture taken...haha (this is the "backdrop" we used for the pictures - they cam out nice!:
the food tables:
first girls making their frames as Juanita and I "worked" on printing them:
Debe and Mindi getting their picture taken:
the entrance:
tent where the food was going to be and volleyball in the background:
Everything was cleaned up and we were gone by 9:45 - overall I think the night went well!