more birthday pictures

laila's first birthday

Laila is one! It seems like just the other day she was born. When she was a newborn, keeping us up all night, that first year couldn't be over fast enough. However, now that she is one, I wish I could keep her tiny a little bit longer. It's been quite a year, and I am looking forward to her first steps, first words, and many other firsts.

little tiger

One of the fun things about having a baby is dressing them up for Halloween. After I took Laila's picture I got distracted and forgot to take the tiger ears off of her. Several minutes later, I realized that I had a little tiger crawling around my house.

fall weather

fI'm loving the beautiful weather, it finally feels like fall! It was so nice to be outside today without sweating, getting attacked by mosquitoes, or having my camera fog up from the humidity.

barney

ee

This is Laila watching Barney. She can sit through a whole episode and is fascinated by it. I guess there is something about brightly colored, singing and dancing dinosaurs that babies love.

little pumpkin

What happened to the nice weather? While I was outside taking these, in 90 degree heat, I had to keep reminding myself it was October, not July!

pumpkin cookies

I love the month of October. The weather is cooler, all of my favorite holidays are around the corner. Today I made these white chocolate pumpkin cookies, they are the perfect fall cookie. Also, in celebration of Oktoberfest, Food Network has 100 great German recipes posted. This week I made this and this , it was delicious.

11 months

Laila is now 11 months old. I am happy to say she no longer army crawls. She can now get up on her hands and knees to crawl. Hopefully she'll start walking in a month or two. She loves clapping her hands, she has been doing that whenever she gets excited. She also likes to make growling noises, especially when she is playing with her brothers action figures. I'm excited to start planning her birthday party in a month.

almost 1

I can't believe she'll have her first birthday in about a month. I have been taking lots of pictures so I can remember her as she is now, my sweet little baby.

aiden

happy labor day!

I love three day weekends! Today I weeded till my hands hurt and daddy entertained Laila. She is such a daddy's girl.

ava and me

I have been really enjoying spending time with Ava while the boys are at school. Laila usually takes a nap while we eat lunch. So it's just Ava and me. I cherish all the cute little conversations we have been having during our lunches together.

On a different note. Aiden brought this home from school today. The sad face was drawn by his teacher, it looks like someone needs to work on their coloring!

caught in the act...

of sneaking into my makeup! This happens a lot and if I'm ever missing any makeup the first place I look is Ava's little purse.

beautiful day

Today we had such nice weather. There was little humidity, no mosquitoes out, and temperatures in the 80's. I know it won't last long, so we enjoyed the beautiful weather and played outside without sweating and being bit by mosquitoes.

10 months

Laila is 10 months old! She can now pull herself up, fit into 18 month clothes, clap her hands, and point at pictures in books.

first day of school

Aiden started Kindergarten this year. He did great his first day. When we dropped him off he didn't act scared or nervous at all, Aiden found his table and happily began coloring. I think I was more nervous and anxious than he was.

....................................Aiden made this at school, it is a raccoon.

Dario was a bit more nervous and while we walked him to his class, he pouted the whole way. But, when he got home he said he had a good first day. He also has several friend in his class from last year, which I'm sure helped. I also had a great first day of school. It was peaceful and quite with just my sweet girls at home, and I actually got to take a nap. I did miss my boys though and was happy when they came home.

elayna's party

On Saturday we went to our niece Elayna's 9th birthday party. It was a fun filled party with lots of good food, lots of playing outside, a pinata and a sleep over.

delicious chocolate cupcakes Lauren made

the beautiful birthday girl

Ava tried on almost every pair of her cousin's shoes, her favorites wear these hot pink boots, that she wore everywhere

what a cute expression!

the end of summer

Here's a couple of pictures from this past weekend. This summer has flown by, there's less than two weeks before school starts. Of course, we haven't bought any school supplies or clothes yet. Aiden starts Kindergarten this year. With boys at school all day long, I'm looking forward to some peace and quite!

potty trained

I am happy to say that Ava is finally potty trained! I will be saving lots of money buying diapers for one child instead of two. Now I just need to break her addiction to bottles. At first it was cute, now it's just embarrassing that my almost three year old still drinks bottles. Wish me luck!

9 months old

It seems like just the other day I was taking Laila's eight month pictures, now she is already nine months old! She is scooting around everywhere, although she still can't crawl yet. She will follow the kids when they go into their rooms and will get into their toys and books. I love wood floors except when it comes to scooting or crawling babies. Every little crumb or speck of dust on the floor ends up on her clothes and hands, she is like a little Swifter sweeper. Laila also loves to eat, when she sees the kids eating a snack she will scoot up to them and beg for some. She does well at chewing little finger foods and now has her two top teeth coming in. I am going to try and really enjoy these last few months before her first birthday, because they go so fast!