Hannah turns ONE!

One of Larkyn's best buddies, Hannah, turned one just three days after her.  We helped Hannah celebrate at her house with a Ladybug party!  Hannah was very cute in her little tu-tu that Larkyn gave her for Halloween:)  Hannah loved the wrapping paper and tissue paper, and was sort of interested in what was inside!  

Hannah, Larkyn and Mckenzie enjoyed playing together...and taking things away from each other too!

The 3 girls checking out Hannah's new laptop!

Jessi and her mom, Sue, made the cakes and cupcakes.  How cool are these!?  Sue made all of Jessi's cakes when she was growing up.  (Side note...if you don't know Jessi...ladybugs are her thing!) 

Hannah wasn't thrilled about her cake, but did get a frosting face!

Larkyn was pretty interested in Hannah's fridge farm towards the end of the party.

One Year Old!

Well, the last 3 months have quickly passed since my last post and she looks so young in these pictures!  (I am marking this post March 14th, but it is officially June 11th...I'm now done with school so I have freed up a little time to hopefully catch up!)  12 months old...wow, that seems like a long time ago.  At 12 months Larkyn was walking, though not completely stable at all times, had 8 teeth (four in front on top and 4 on bottom), saying "dada" "mama" "hi" and "go" though she loves to babble and ramble about other things too, and has been experimenting with new foods and drinks.  She ate eggs and drank milk for the first time.  She LOVED the scrambled eggs and gobbled them down right away! It took a little while for Larkyn to get adjusted to the whole milk, but she's starting to get the hang of it.  After her one year well check with Dr. Mitha, we found out that Larkyn weighed in at 22 lbs. 8 oz (75th percentile), 30 1/4 inches long (75th percentile), and her noggin' was 18 1/4 inches around (also 75th percentile).  

Here are some of her photos in the chair....my hope is to do a 15 month photo (which is already Monday), 18 months, maybe 21 and then 2 years.  We'll see how it goes:)

She really wasn't thrilled about being back in the chair...

Are we done yet?

Larkyn LOVED her cupcakes from her birthday party with family and then her 2nd party with some of our neighbor friends.  She enjoyed a tasty chocolate cupcake in its entirety...even licked her fingers!

She loved the vanilla cupcake too...

I loved this and wish we would have gotten this on video...

She is holding my phone and is absolutely thrilled because Katie, Mike and Luke called to sing her "Happy Birthday".  We had them do it twice because her giggles and happy dance were PRICELESS!

Our little one year old was tired...

Here are some of Larkyn's one year photos...

Gotta love the icing beard!

Larkyn's First Birthday (Weekend)

We celebrated Larkyn's birthday with some friends and family on Saturday, March 12th.  We felt very blessed to have so many wonderful people come to help her celebrate.  Larkyn was a little overwhelmed at the number of people, but warmed up after awhile.  She spent a lot of time with Mama and Daddy, and the rest of the time with Tracey, her daycare provider!  Larkyn was interested in the first couple gifts, but then got quite distracted by all of her cousins and little friends surrounding her.  She loved the boxes, but really didn't play with the actual items in the boxes until a week or so later!   

Larkyn is set for this spring and summer as far as clothes go!  I don't think she has anymore room in her closet.  Between a grandma that works at Kohl's, a couple aunts that live at Kohl's, and another grandma that shops the yellow dot sale at Younkers, Larkyn will continue to be one stylish little girl!  

Many of our guests created a quilt square to add to a quilt I plan to make for Larkyn.  I have a co-worker that makes quilts and will be putting all of the squares together for Larkyn.  Many people turned their handprint into an animal or flower to decorate their square.  I will post a picture of the final product when we get there:). 

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Larkyn, Happy Birthday to you!"

"What's going on here???"

 Daddy and Mama getting in on the action!  Larkyn LOVED her cake and even licked most of the frosting!

"Sugar Crash anyone?"

The quilting table, monthly photos, and 1 year photos of Kim, Shea and Larkyn.

On Sunday, we had the neighbors over for a cupcake party to celebrate Larkyn's birthday.

Larkyn loved the chocolate cupcake even more!

Many more pictures from the weekend...

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Basement Pre-Carpet and Post-Carpet...

The last few weeks were very busy and very stressful!  I would recommend if you are going to put a deadline on finishing a basement never to take a month and a half break for the holidays during the 6 months you have to finish it in!  We were able to make it livable for Larkyn's party, but it took a LOT of late nights and very work filled weekends with little rest or time for play! Here is a tour of the basement before carpet, after carpet and then with furniture...

Opening the door on the main level and walking down the first flight of steps... 

2nd flight down to the basement...



 

Looking into the living room from the bottom of the stairs...

Living room...

Living room (other view)...

The bedroom...

Bedroom (other view)...

And...the almost finished product...

(Shea got a couple really nice Packer frames and he was trying them out for space and size.  Not sure where they will go at this point!)

Larkyn wanted to welcome you to the bathroom...

Larkyn's play area...

The entertainment center is still to come...

(Actually because I'm writing this on April 16th and I'm posting it as March 7th, I will let you in on a little secret.  The entertainment center was put in yesterday and looks absolutely fabulous!  You'll just have to wait and see it when I post that in a couple months:))