Walking

OK I lied - I found a super cute picture of Mollie walking that Katie took at Summer's birthday party this past weekend. :)

Here ya go! :)

We have a Walker!

So I don't have any cute pictures, and I'm pretty sure that I already mentioned that Mollie's been taking steps, but this past Tuesday, it's like a switch flipped and she walks a LOT more than she crawls. She still loses her balance and falls from time to time, but she gets back up instead of crawling instead - most of the time. It's so cute! She's still really proud of herself every time. It's funny because we're getting used to it, so it's not that big of a surprise to see her walking to us, but you can take one look at her little face and see that SHE still thinks it's a pretty huge deal. So much fun - and so much fun to come!!

Twelve Months!!!!

OK, I'm a little late on the post, but I've been mulling it over in my mind for a while and just enjoying life with TWO toddlers. How did that happen?

The past month has been a HUGE one for Miss Mollie. It seems like just yesterday (and really, it wasn't that much farther back than that) Katie and I were trying to remember exactly HOW and WHEN our big girls dropped their evening feedings. It just seemed like there wasn't an easy way to do it or to know when the babies were ready for that. Well, fast-forward just a few short weeks, and get a load of this:

- Mollie is 100% on table food, and couldn't be happier about it!
- She hasn't had a bottle in about a week, and hasn't looked back!
- She doesn't have to have any milk before bed.
- The girl is no longer taking a morning nap.
- She sleeps without a sleep sack and uses a light blanket in bed.
- She's got a great nighttime sleep schedule and isn't waking at the crack of dawn anymore!
- She's taking lots of steps!
- She's babbling all the time, and we're starting to recognize more and more words.
- She says "Dada" but it seems to be directed to me or to Brad.
- Last week, she heard Natalie talking in another room, looked at me, and said, "Nan-yee?" I was so excited to hear her using a word for Natalie! Now I think she's been saying "Nana" for Natalie!

Mollie is still just as sweet and joyful as always. We're also seeing more of her stubborn side, though. It can be frustrating, but it's also fun to see her assert herself. I tell Brad that she knows what she wants all the time, we're just lucky that most of the time, it happens to coincide with what we want her to do. :)

Watching Mollie and Natalie together is so much fun. They really enjoy having playmates and spend lots of time playing together! Natalie's excited that Mollie has started calling her "Nana." Mollie is thrilled to go into Natalie's room when she wakes up in the morning. I hope their friendship stays strong! :) Of course, as Mollie gets older, we're starting to see more disagreements too. Natalie's used to Mollie doing whatever Natalie wants her to do, and she's complained to us a few times lately that "Mollie not LISTEN a me!" to which we gently reply that she doesn't have to. ;)

We had Mollie's 12-month doctor visit this morning, and it was great! She weighs alllllmost 20 lbs (19 lbz 13 oz) and is 28.75 inches tall! It's crazy that she seems bigger to me than Natalie was at this age, but Natalie was shorter and weighed just a bit more!

So without further ado, here are a few photos of Mollie (they were actually taken last week, right at 12 months). :)

On her actual birthday, the first time I've had to wake HER up in as long as I can remember! Sleeeeeepy girl!







And here with the pink bear. Check out the sweet pigtails! :)






And one sneak peek of some photos yet to come . . . ;)

Baby Z

Here is just a teeny, tiny sneak peek of the photos I took of Zane earlier in the week. I can't wait to get the rest of them all ready to go!!! Zane was sooooo sleepy and bendy and sweet when I was there! He made the job even more fun than usual!





With big-bro Gavin. :)

Mollie is ONE!

Mollie is ONE today! It's totally crazy. I will do another post with some details about the past month, but let's just say Mollie has changed by leaps and bounds over the last few weeks! She's still wonderful, and we still love her more than we can describe!

I'm sitting here uploading and editing pictures, thinking about how late it's getting, and the thought crossed my mind that exactly ONE year ago, we were in the hospital, just me, Brad, and Mollie, and everything was so new. We were trying to get some sleep, and not having much success with that. I'm glad that I'll be able to go to my own bed (not a hospital bed), not be hooked up to any machines, and get good rest here in a few minutes. But there's just something so special and sweet about those first few nights, though, no matter how sleepless they are!

Mollie's party was so much fun! If you weren't there, you were missed! We took a ton of photos at Mollie's party, and I'm posting a ton of them, but there are many, many, many more. I tried to narrow it down more, but I gave up. I'm just posting them, and this isn't even all the ones I liked.



I made two banners with one photo from each month since she was born. I loved how they turned out! :)




Yummy cupcakes!!!




Brad made yummy pulled pork!


My little shadow, documenting the decorations before the party. :) Some of her photos actually were really good! :)


The Birthday Girl!










Natalie just HAD to wear the belt that Josh & Carolyn got her for Christmas (because she looooooved Carolyn's so much). ;) I didn't intend for her to wear the pettiskirt either, but she was pretty jealous of Mollie's tutu, so I gave in. ;)

It's a Boy! Again! :) :)

Last night, Josh & Carolyn welcomed sweet baby Zane into the world! He arrived at 8:08 pm, weighs 5 lbs 8 oz, is 18 in long, and has a good amount of wavy strawberry blonde hair. Of course, he's absolutely adorable! Just see for yourself! This is just a tiny sampling of the photos I have of him so far! :).

Let them eat . . . CAKE!

So Miss Summer who I took newborn photos of here is alllllmost ONE, just like Miss Mollie - she's exactly two weeks younger than Mollie, and already walking "like a big girl" as Natalie would say! ;) We had a lot of fun letting Summer get her first big taste of cake . . . chocolate cake, to be exact. I'm pretty sure she's a fan. :)