Dear Daughter

Well it happened, Katie is one year old. Just one year ago I was hugely pregnant, unable to sleep at night, constantly worrying, anxiously praying and fervently hoping that Katie would make her way into our family safely. Ever since our baby Jillian passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, the last couple weeks of pregnancy are so full of anxiety for me. But Katie did arrive safely and has since filled my heart with joy and I have felt so much peace and happiness at her presence in our family! My boys are the apples of my eye, completely, but I have wanted a daughter, dreamed of my own daughter and Katie has been everything and more than I could have hoped. There has been something so healing to my heart to dress Katie in some of her sister's outfits and use Jillian's blankets for Katie. One does not replace the other, and I am certain we will see Jillian again, but just one year ago I held my brand new daughter in my arms and felt so much gratitude and love in my heart for her, and for the Lord in remembering me, I can only echo the words of Hannah, "For this child I prayed."

Katie is the chubbiest, sweetest, most good natured, and adorable baby girl. She has brought more laughs, happiness, hugs, and cuddles into our family in the year that she has been here. She is loved by her brothers, adored by her daddy, the darling of her mother, certainly cherished by her grandparents, and just generally doted on by all. I guess all that's left to say is Happy Birthday Katie-kins! And many more to come....!!! We love you so!

Party Animals

The boys' birthdays are over and they are one year older, 4 and 7 respectively. Noah had a Super Mario birthday party and Addie's was Curious George. Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Mandy came and after partying all weekend, we were pretty exhausted. They both got lots of great presents and were completely thrilled by the race car bed tents from Grandma and Grandpa. We had a big dinner on Sunday with the whole family and it was tons of fun. It's sometimes hard having the boy's birthdays one day apart, but we make the best of it by making sure the whole weekend is full of cake, treats, family, friends and presents!!! For more pictures of the fun, check out below:

Stand by Me

Katie has started to pull up on things and stand, especially when she is in her crib. Well that's an understatement--90% of the time she's pulling up on anything, it's her crib rails when she is supposed to be going to sleep. It's like she can't help herself. We have this new ritual we go through every nap time.

I lay her down in bed and cover her with a blanket.

Mom: Good night Katie, go to sleep.

Katie: Thank goodness I am soooo tired. (of course she is only thinking this part, not saying it.)

I shut the door and about five minutes later I hear lots of excitement/anxiety coming from her room. I open the door to find what you see in the picture.

Katie: Oh I'm so glad you're back Mom! I just thought I would stand up for a minute and then I couldn't get back down. I have been standing here for 5 minutes just trying to figure out how to lay back down.

Mom: (lays Katie back down) Katie go to sleep. Night Night.

Katie: Thanks Mom. I'm really tired. Goodnight.

REPEAT FIVE TIMES

Pass Shoot Score!

This next post was going to be about the boys' birthdays and all the fun of that whole feverish weekend full of cake, ice cream, and lots of presents, but I am holding off on that because I don't have the pictures I am hoping to show you all. I was just going to wait, but thanks to your inquiries on what was taking so long for a new post, and various cryptic emails telling me to get a new post up on my blog ASAP I will write about how we spend our Saturdays this time of year: soccer games!!! That little cutie in the middle is Noah, such an awesome player. He scored three goals today at his game, he is having so much fun and loves to play. Noah has been on this same team for the past three years and the team's name is the Rapids. Ever since the first time the kids heard the name they quickly changed it to what they thought it was...Go Rat pits!!! I have to admit that does bring a scarier picture to mind. The Rat Pits' proud coach has been none other than Jason for the past three years and Noah loves having him for a coach. On the field he doesn't call him dad, just coach.

This picture shows how Katie occupies her time during the Saturday games. She goes through my bag and throws everything onto the grass, after carefully studying and tasting it. Then she crawls after the extra soccer balls on the sides of the field and sometimes she even sits on my lap in the chair.

Addie spends his time dribbling the ball up the hill and back down again and again with his buddy, one of our player's younger brothers, just like himself. They sometimes sit together at the top of the hill and just talk. They are pretty far away at that point, I can't hear what they might be saying, but I really wish I could. Maybe they commiserate about being too young to be on the team, or other unfairness issues about being the younger brother, who knows?

We like our soccer games and we have many more years of soccer ahead so I will finish by saying....Go Rat Pits!!!

I Heart Fall!

I know fall doesn't officially start until September 23rd, but I feel like it's already here! The weather has been so so beautiful, sunny with a nice cool breeze, and the kids are back in school. I listen to my Autumn Tunes playlist (Love it!), packed away the summer clothes and my sweaters and morning hot chocolate are already calling me. The honeycrisp apples are here, YUM, and yesterday I got these fuji apples that were seriously as big as Katie's head. Ok maybe not THAT big, but close. All the holidays are just around the corner and I think fall is my favorite season of all.

Ever since Katie has started crawling she has been lots of entertainment for the boys. They play this game, in which she is referred to as "the evil Missy", and they race their cars or fly their planes around her, then land them and wait till she crawls over to check out their toys and the boys snatch them up at the last minute right before she grabs them. It seems mean I know, but she just likes to be a part of their game and she is such a sweet, patient little girl that she doesn't cry about the unfairness of it all. The boys are really such great brothers to her, so sweet with her, in the end they always let her slobber their toys.

Soccer games are in full swing on Saturdays, both boys' birthdays are coming up soon and generally we are having a great time over here at our place. Now to start breaking out all my favorite pumpkin recipes!!

The Ladies Man

Addie had his first day of school this morning. He was so thrilled to be going and was all ready and dressed by seven o'clock. (school doesn't start until nine.) When we got to the preschool he just went right in and got to playing and making friends. When I picked him up his teacher, Mrs. SueAnn told me he had a great day and was very sweet. He is going to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:30. I was so excited to see him having such a good time. He was playing with a little girl when I went to pick him up-- that is something so sweet about him. He loves the little girls! He adores our neighbor Cora and always calls her his best friend.
Other news at our house is that Katie is crawling!! She also got her first tooth! I tried to take a picture of her first tooth and you can imagine how well that went, but if you could see it, and see her crawling, I'm sure you would agree that now she is cuter than ever and growing up so fast!

Barefoot in the Park

On Saturday we headed up to visit the other Paces, Uncle Mike, Aunt Melissa, and Baby Becks. We took a picnic down to a park by their house, which had a really fun playground and a lake all surrounded by beautiful trees. The sun decided to shine on us and it was a gorgeous day! The boys played on the playground, while the big boys, Jason and Mike, played some soccer. Katie rolled around on the blanket eating chips, one of her favorite past times. The boys quickly decided they wanted to jump into the lake and swim a little but we didn't bring their swimsuits. Addie wanted to go in his undies, but Noah wouldn't be caught dead with anyone seeing him in his skivvies! We let them go in their shorts and of course Katie would not be left behind, she LOVES getting in the water. They had a great time and after Katie's diaper had absorbed the whole lake we had them come back in and it was time to head to Mike and Melissa's house for a BBQ. The food was delicious and we had a great time laughing with some of our favorite people! The boys "accidentally" threw balls over the fence, (sorry Uncle Mike), played loud games of Frogger and had a blast. Katie and Beckham were perfect little angels, OF COURSE!! So much fun, thanks again M, M and B!