Rory turns 1!

Wednesday came all too fast. Rory is now one! I can hardly believe how fast this past year has gone. My baby is growing up way too fast, both girls are! We are so proud of our little Rory and feel so blessed to be able to celebrate her with so many of our friends and family. I won't lie... I actually cried when I put her down in her bed the night before her birthday because my baby is not really a baby anymore. She is becoming a little girl.... that really hit me Tuesday night and I just stayed in her room as bit and watched her sleep. So cute and so calm.. I love that feeling !

Rory had a really wonderful birthday. It was busy, but so much fun. We started off the day by opening some presents just after breakfast while still in our jammies. Since Joe had to be at work early that morning we only opened a few presents, but none from Mommy, Daddy or Jolee. Then it was off to playgroup to play with our friends and eat some cupcakes (that I spent way too much time on , but they turned out cute!)
Then we napped and got ready for a big crowd of family and extended family to come over for dinner and cupcakes. Rory did us proud by demolishing her cupcake and loving every second of it! Jolee had let us down a little in that aspect.. she hates getting her hands dirty so much that she refused to touch her birthday cakes. Rory is her own person though and loved making a mess and even rubbing it in her hair!

We ended the night by opening some gifts and plying until bedtime. Thank you so much for all the well wishes that were sent to Rory. We appreciate it and we are looking forward to her Yo Gabba Gabba party on Sunday! tons more pictures to follow!

presents at breakfast!

she is pretty good at unwrapping already

Jolee and Rory playing nice

ready to demolish her Monkey cupcake at playgroup

after a nap and a costume change

opening some Gabba Gabba toys from mommy and daddy

really excited

Ready for cupcake #2

this is yummy

I think I can get my whole hand in this thing

mmm... cake

I need a bath mommy!

cleaned up and loving her new anywhere chair

getting sleepy

Birthday girl before bedtime with Mommy and Daddy

sisterly love

The girls are all about playing and hanging out together this week. Not sure what is going on but I am not arguing! The pics below are from 2 separate days of Jolee and Rory playing on the couch together. They are so cute.

Rory being silly


zoning out watching Yo Gabba Gabba

chewing on everything

Rory tickling Jolee

smiles, but never both at the same time

fighting for the attention

Rory wins this round!

Halloween fun

Halloween was a ton of fun. We started last night by carving our pumpkin. We all watched Daddy start cutting the pumpkin, then it was my turn to clean it out. Rory was fascinated by the pumpkin guts and wanted to touch it and play with it. She even started flinging it around which was how it ended up in her hair , as you will see below. Jolee on the other hand wanted nothing to do with getting her hand dirty by the pumpkin. I kept showing her how cool and slimy it was, but those of you who know Jolee, know that she hates to get her hands dirty! Well, I was a mean Mommy and tricked her into coming over and looking into the pumpkin and then I slimmed her hands with pumpkin guts. She proceeded to FREAK OUT and scream... she then ran inside and washed her hands as quickly as possible. I know it was mean , but it was really funny too... :)
After carving the pumpkin it was off too bed.

Today we spent the day at a Halloween party with lots of football fun, then trick or treating with all our friends. Too bad it was almost 90 degrees , so Rory only stayed in her costume for about 10 minutes. We still had a great day. Enjoy the pics of our Little Mermaid and Sebastian the crab!





Rory playing in the pumpkin guts

pumpkin in her hair

Jolee comming over like I asked :)

Mid FREAK OUT

Joe and I as Black eyed peas with Ariel and Sebastian

Jolee with her 2 best girl friends.... all princesses

Jolee ready to go sitting with Rory

At least they are both looking at me this time, but no smiles

Joe trick or treating with Rory

Rory looking cute walking between houses

Jolee and James( Peter Pan) walking together holding hands

Jolee and James again ( James is really happy! )

Images for a cure

This is a little behind, but oh well. Last Sunday, we were very lucky to be part of Images for a Cure. We had a photo session with one of our favorite photographers with all the proceeds going to Breast cancer research. The photographer, Crystal , had a full day of sessions , ended by a group shot where we released pink balloons. It was very beautiful. Of course the theme for the day was for everyone to wear pink, which went over great in my house.

For the session, the girls took pics with their Gam (Joe's mom , Pam ). They had such a great time... I have only received a sneak peak of a few of the pictures from Crystal, but they are already so stunning, that I cannot wait to see the rest. She was also nice enough to let me bring my own camera to piggyback on her pics a bit :) The first few, of course, are hers as that is easy to tell. The second group are mine after the group shot for images for a cure.

I will share more when I get the rest!

The following ones are all mine :)