Larkyn turns ONE!

It is TRULY amazing how fast a year goes.  Seems like it wasn't that long ago since we were meeting Larkyn for the first time and now she is already ONE!

A bit about Larkyn at age ONE:

-She is still volleying between needing one and two naps a day.

-She eats everything we eat in tiny pieces (no more pureed food) and is a great eater.  

-She drinks whole milk.

-She has two teeth.

-She army crawls with two arms and one leg (one leg is dragged behind her!)

-She will walk if someone holds both her hands.

-She loves to lay on her back and kick both feet up/down/up/down.

-She loves to explore and her favorite toys to play with are things that are not her toys!

-She has determined her favorite blankie - a pink one with hearts - and will point to it in her crib as if asking for it.  

-She says DaDA, MaMA, Ba (ball), ah-ah (uh-oh), uh-uh (no-no), and "da" (what's that?) along with other gibberish!

-She giggles a lot!

-She loves to swing and splash in water.

-She is growing more opinionated and has a cute scrunchy angry face and a little protest cry that most often can be easily distracted away.

-She loves to press buttons.

-She has many facial expressions.

-She is such a blessing to our family and I couldn't imagine life without her!

As much as I don't want her to grow up, I truly have more fun with her each day.  With that being said, I am truly trying to enjoy each baby moment as much as possible.  She is SUCH a fun baby!

She melts my heart and makes me forget anything I am worried about with her little smile.  All I want to do is cuddle her close!

With each of my kids, I want to REMEMBER their baby stage, and for me the best way to do that is to capture as much of their expressions, voices, mannerisms, likes, etc on video.  So I did the same thing with Larkyn on her first birthday.  I followed her around all day with my video camera, just trying to capture each moment and remember it forever!  Below is Larkyn's first birthday video, a compilation of moments on her birthday, including waking up, naps, eating, going to the park, playing, opening presents, going to sister Summer's last soccer game, cupcakes, bath and bed.  Because Paul and Summer had their last soccer game from 6-7, Paul got off work early and got home by 4:30 so we could do presents and an early dinner before the game.  It worked out perfectly :).  Here is her video:

 Happy Birthday Larky-Loo!  We all love you so much!!!

Larkyn's Kiddie Birthday Party

On Tuesday, June 30th (the day before Larkyn turned 1) we had a kiddie party for her at the Burnsville Splash Pad.  My goal was to do a similar party like I did for Summer's 1 year birthday.  We played in the water, had baby snacks available (puffs, graham crackers).  We wore party hats.  We ate cupcakes. 

However, when Summer was 1, she invited 6 other first-born baby friends.  Larkyn's baby friends all have 1-3 older siblings (just as Larkyn does!) so the party guest list got pretty big :).  The splash pad was the perfect place to host many kids in a fun and easy way. 

We had a kid friendly, somewhat healthy snack lunch including Go-Gurt, peanut butter crackers, apple sauce pouches, string cheese, juice boxes, and cupcakes.

Each kid got to pick a watering can or a squirt gun toy to play with at the splash pad.

Colton entertained himself the entire time splashing around and playing in the water.

Socialite Summer probably spent more time talking than playing in the water :)

Larkyn "walked" through the water much of the time, "drummed" the water, and enjoyed watching the fountain.

Summer and twins Faith and Noelle all had Ariel suits!

We spent much of the time in this lower pool at the splash pad.

Friends

More friends

Some mom friends :)

Larkyn and Carter are just one day apart and Jessi and I were neighbors in the hospital!  (We also taught together at the local high school and had our first two kids roughly the same time too!)

Lunch time!

 Singing to Larkyn:

*Note: Yes, the crying kid in the background IS Colton.  He was very disappointed that he didn't know we were starting to sing (and he wanted to sing along too), so instead of jumping in and singing with us, he started crying because he wanted us to start over for him (or so I found out AFTER we finished singing!).  Oh well.  Keepin' it real :)

Eating :)

Larkyn and Carter

Larkyn and Tenley

 I missed getting a picture with Larkyn with her baby friends Lilah (used to be our neighbor) and Cayden (just one month younger!).  We missed Lincoln who last minute couldn't come. 

Thank you Grandma for all your help and for these pictures!  We love you!

Ben and Karin Wedding

This past weekend we celebrated the marriage of Paul's cousin Ben to his wife Karin.  It was really fun to see so much family all in one spot!  Grandpa T took lots of great pictures!  Thanks Grandpa T!