Happy 1st Birthday Deano!!

We spent the weekend in Alamo to visit with everyone, finally ride Jacksons new four wheeler (kind of) and celebrate Dean's first Birthday. It was sort of a windy wknd and not all our plans were executed but we got just enough sunshine and warmth to have a big bash for the birthday boy. Soph had a good ol' time on the swing set with Daddy, it was a little more than he bargained for, she wouldnt let him stop:) Good job Soph, he totally deserves it:) The three babies are always so funny together because no matter how hard we try to get them to play together they just really dont care to pay attention to one another. Except when Dean was having his cake, then Soph stood just as she is in the picture the whole time and watched him. Jackson always LOVES being in Alamo and playing with his cousins, he was heart broken when it was time to come home, I almost left him there, dang school!

My Little Tortilla

Yesterday Sophia wanted to help pick out what she was going to wear. I put her in her cutest baby legs and a little dress and sweater...she was NOT happy about the sweater. She opened her bottom drawer and got out her black boots and her bunny hat for her addition to the ensemble:)
She has also taken her dish washing skills to a new level (Jay, I am sure you will get to experience this one soon enough). Not only does she push in the drawers and close the door after every dish that you put in, she will move whichever dish you just put in then close it for you, after EVERY ONE!!!

She also likes to harass these two...or anyone, actually:)

Opposite

My kids might look alike but this little girl could not possibly be any more different than her big brother.

This is Daddy's cup. Soph LOVES it! Usually when Codee is home he will let her play with some of the contents, some are probably not baby safe. However today she wanted to play with it and Daddy is not here...what options did she have really? She carefully got it off the pedestal table and set it on the floor without spilling anything, all by herself. Here is example #1, I am not so sure Jackson could have done this w/o spilling or breaking something even at 5!

She took everything out one at a time to inspect, taste and play with.

After dumping the cup she set it back on the table, by herself. Example 2, there is NO WAY Jackson would think of putting something back w/o being told at 1...or 5. It cracked me up to watch her, i wish i would have caught her in the act with pictures but i didn't want to risk distracting her.

She is 100% Jackson's complete opposite!

He is content, timid, sensitive, cautious...she is...well, not.

She already climbs on everything, gets hurt regularly, is a total busy body, feels absolutely free to boss ANYONE around and man has she got an attitude!!

Claire

I thought I should let Claire make her blog debut:) It's my right since I did all the "hard work" right Jay? Kidding. Both Jamie and Claire did so good and are still doing well and will hopefully be settling in at home soon!

What a sweet little chunk! All that hair, 8.15 lbs and already a fat roll under her chin...you could have convinced me it wasn't a Blackwell. So very glad to FINALLY have this little angel here.

And here is the "hard work" I mentioned earlier:)

"My dad shaved this."

SNOWWW!!!!

I just love it, love it, love it!

ONE!?!

Sunday was Sophia's first birthday! I can not believe it! Walking, talking (if telling dad "no" counts) and already 1?
We celebrated the big 1 with an outside, over the top, holiday bash. It pulled together pefectly in the last minutes, Soph slept through the first hour of it but that wasn't her favorite part anyway, she woke up just in time for all the fun...it couldn't have happened without her:)

1. Hesitant at first, she needed a little help opening the first few presents. 2. Caught a glimpse of babies and got a little more interested. 3. Three babies! Is this heaven? 4. Not getting this one out of her hands, even to get it out of the box. She will just cuddle with the box for a while, she doesn't care. 5. More presents than this girl knew what to do with. 6. cleared away the present madness, sang to her, plopped a bright red cake in front of her and she still wouldn't losen her grasp on the babies:) 7. Ga decided to help her with the cake since she didn't have a hand to spare. Sometimes princess' have to be hand fed. 8. Decides to give it a try. 9. Even shared a little. 10. Good food, fires and gifts, lots of pretty stuff to look at and all her favorite people, a good way to turn one!

I have to say how lucky I am to have so many people surrounding me and my kids that love us and want to help us! My totally awesome big sisto hauled all of her kids to our house the day before the party to make this cake with me. It was our first, posssibly took way too long, but we are proud of the way it turned out:) One of my amazing sister-in-laws left work in the middle of the day to come assist Soph's photo shoot (hence the cell phone in one of the pics, we were all dancing to get her to laugh). Another amazing sister-in-law stuck out hours of shopping and a little tending to make the big event happen, even though she couldn't make it;) Codee's mom made tons of delicious food, as uasual and spoiled us all while she was here. Even my best friend helped from the other side of the world keeeping me company while I was haunched over the toilet friday night till 4 in the morning:) So loved, so lucky.