Piper is ONE!

I swear I got cheated out of 3 months from Piper's first year…no way can she be one!  I kept telling Adam this over and over the last month.  It's most definitely been the fastest year yet.

However, whether I like or not, she is one so we might as well celebrate!

 The day before her birthday, I was at Costco.  I texted Adam this picture and said, "I have officially lost my mind."  His response was, "She will love it, get it!"  So apparently we have both lost our minds!  Background on the unicorn…every time we go to CostCo, we spend at least 5 minutes playing with this animal and she dies laughing.

 Her last night as a baby!

My sleeping almost one year old. 

 Good morning our 1 year old!!!!!!  We were in her room cheering for her when she woke at 7.

 She LOVES her morning and night time bottle, about time to cut that out Pippi!

 We had birthday muffins for breakfast and sang Happy Birthday!

 She was giddy to see that unicorn!

 She just kept kissing and tackling it.

 Best birthday gift ever!

 Time to open presents!  We spent the day playing around the house and getting ready for her birthday party.  

 She was a bit shocked by her birthday news as well.  We sang to her again and ate cupcakes.

 She didn't really get it so her brother tried to help her out.

 She had zero interest in the cupcake!  What!?

Happy 1st Birthday Piper Marie!  We love you so so much!!!!!!

Pre Christmas Fun

Lots of fun leading up to Christmas!

 We made marshmallow snowman…or as Laney likes to call it - snowman gets 1, I get 6.

 We had hot chocolate with our marshmallows.

 I forgot to take pictures of the final product!

 We put Pippi in the ottoman while the big kids worked with marshmallows…kidding!  But she was loving the ottoman for a bit…and that hair!

 Laney played at Gunner's one morning and they made gumdrop trees.  Laney only asked 15 times a day if she could have one.

 I made these for the kids' teachers gifts.  The mugs were from Target and the little trees from Trader Joes.  I most definitely did not think of this gift on my own, but I can't remember the blog that I found it.

 Nineey had lots of fun in our house this year, definitely the most creative he has ever been.  However, I didn't take any pics except this one.

 Every year since high school, Ali, Stacey and I with our moms have done a Christmas lunch.  We always had it Houstons on the Plaza…until we had kids :).  After a couple of kids, we started going to one of our houses and it's much better that way.  This year Stacey hosted us in her beautiful new home. It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions, love this group!

 These two were the first babies of the group, in fact I think we took them to Houston's with us at least one year.

 A hazard to having your tree on hardwood floors and playing ball in the house.  Coop and I were playing baseball in the house and he nailed it right into the tree and down went an ornament.  I was totally bummed because it was an ornament that he made out of his handprint in preschool a couple years ago.

 Thanks to hand me downs, she has so many pairs of Christmas pjs!

 We took a couple ornaments off the angel tree at church.  I talked to the kids about how there are kids that don't have a lot of toys and nice things like they do.  We talked about how lucky they are to have a nice house, a car to go places, all the toys to play with.  We picked a 5 year old boy that wanted a Paw Patrol toy…which is a show the kids have been watching a lot.  We also picked a 3 year old girl that wanted a pink or purple shirt.  Well, my talks didn't exactly work.  They BEGGED for a Paw Patrol toy and Laney bawled when she had to put this back on the shelf.  

 Nineey the elf brought a gingerbread house for the kids to decorate.

 I don't have a finished product but Cooper's side was lined up perfectly and Laney's side was…not so much, pretty fitting for their personality.

Lots more Christmas fun to come, I am sure you are just dying to read ;).

Preschool Christmas Program

Last week both kids performed in their preschool Christmas program.  Cooper was nervous all week. He kept saying he didn't want everyone watching him and he was going to be embarrassed.  We did lots of reinforcing and talking about it.  The morning of he was almost in tears.  Laney was up, dressed and so excited to perform!

Well-it was role reversal when they got on stage.  Laney put her head down for all 3 songs her class sang!!!  Cooper was top row in the center and he rocked it!  He sang, did all the hand motions and seemed so happy to be up there.  You just never know!

It's really late and all the videos from the performances are on Adam's phone. I will (hopefully) update tomorrow.  This was Cooper practicing his bible verse for us last month.  He class recited Luke 2:1-14. It was incredible!

 I wish I could have seen him when Laney was performing.  I am betting that sweet older brother was all smiles for his sister.

 She was all smiles before the performance started.

 See that lime green bow?  Yep, that's the top of her head.  All we saw while her class sang.

 And she really had nothing to say about it afterwards.

 Mama Kelly spent part of her birthday watching these great grandkids of hers sing some Christmas songs.

I either made some ridiculous request like asking her to put her coat on or took my phone away.  

We were so proud of our preschoolers and their performance!  **on a side note…in case you are wondering…yes, i wear that black vest a lot.  I would say 3-4 times a week, it's the best and I can't take it off so expect to see more of it.**

Patio/Deck addition

We are in the middle of adding on a new back patio and deck.  There is a long ways to go but I thought we would appreciate having it documented to look back on…

 A few before pictures. 

 It was so sunny, I miss the sunshine!!!

 We have a pretty big backyard considering we are in a typical 'no yard' neighborhood.  So even after we finish up the patio, the kids will still have plenty of grass to play in.

 This first step was done in early November and then we have been kind of at a standstill because the weather went south fast.

Our deck stairs have been out in the backyard for almost 2 months so the kids have been banned from the deck which hasn't been a problem with the winter weather.

 The first weekend in December, the guys got the concrete poured.  We are very fortunate to have some family/friends helping us out.  My uncle Greg came and did the dirt work.  My dad's friend poured the concrete for us even though we were low on the priority list.  My uncle Charley was kind enough to bring over his pump truck to make the process much easier.  Otherwise we would have had sidewalk and yard damage to repair.

 The original patio is the small light gray square up against the house.

 Of course Cooper was in heaven!  Charley let him try everything out.  Here he was moving the boom of the pump truck.

If the guys are here doing any work on the deck, this is usually where the kids are.  Cooper quietly watches, Laney and Piper bang on the window and yell hi.  In fact last week Adam was outside and one of the guys commented to Adam that the baby must be napping because she hadn't been at the window yet that morning.

Piper telling Henley all about it.

 A drive by shot as they were putting up the deck/patio cover.

This is where we are currently at.  We have definitely made progress but lots more still to be done.  No timeline on finished product, all depends on weather at this point.