Serena's first birthday

My sweet baby girl is one year old already. It makes me sad how quickly she is growing up, but at least I have pictures and video to remember every stage. One thing I absolutely love right now that I will miss is how snuggly she is.

Her birthday party was a success. It consisted mostly of family, and two good friends. I was worried we wouldn't have enough room again, so we took the dining room table out on the front porch. That actually worked out really well because then we had the dining room floor for Serena and had the adults around the perimeter of the room.

My mom is on the right in the light pink sweater. Can you tell the person next to her is her sister Jewel?! They look a lot alike, just like my dad and his brother Dan. Also in the picture are Wanda and Bob, Jamie, Josi, and on the left is Mike's Dad.

Aunt Ginny and her daughter Kelly.

Uncle Glenn (Ginny's hubby) and Andy (Kelly's).

My Dad was pretty sick, but I told him he had to come. Even though he was miserable, I think he was glad to be there.

Me and Pappy ( my mom's dad).

I finally got one of my babies to make a mess of herself in her cake! I waited 7 years for that!

Before I slipped in this 1 yr. portrait of me.

My mom was no fun!

She got some very nice gifts and several were quite unique. I was very excited to give her my gift that I had made-20 wood blocks that I had "Mod Podged" with pictures of family, 2 puzzles, colored papers and alphabet stickers. She really liked them and kept going back to play with them later-that made my day! She also got a cute mini rocking horse from Ginny and Glenn that is antique (they are the antique dealers), a homemade blanket from Nanny, and a sling made by Josi(that one was for both of us).

My Mom and I when I was about 1 yr. old.

She got her very own Cabbage Patch doll from Gram and Pap that looks just like her!

Where's Serena?

Peek a boo!

Ride 'em cowgirl!

So, doesn't my daughter look a lot like me?!

I will also include her birthday letter.

My sweet Serena, What a blessing you have been in our lives ever since the special day you were born and surprised us all. You have delighted us with your sparkling bright blue eyes, your jolly personality, your fuzzy hair that sticks up, and your pretty smile. You are at an age now where you are learning new things every day and it amazes me. You have already learned to say several words like "ma-ma", "da-da", "ba-ba", and are learning others like "uh oh" and "num num" and "gack" (doggy). You just learned to crawl the beginning of this month (December), and already you are pulling yourself up and trying to master the stairs. It took a little while to get you started, but soon you'll be walking and going everywhere! You have had six teeth in the front for a little while (4 on top and 2 on the bottom), and just this past week you've gotten one molar on top and one on the bottom on your left side. Now you can chew those carrots! (Just kidding mom!) Speaking of food, you do LOVE food, just like your mama! You are good at eating your veggies, fruits, meat and grains. We've discovered this holiday season that you love cookies (and birthday cake!). I let you have a cookie the other day now that you are a year old, so when I went to eat one yesterday you stole it right out of my hands! You don't like it when I do your hair, but I hope that changes as you get used to it and I get better at it! You have lots of family and friends who love you very much and who love to hold you and snuggle with you laugh with you. We are so grateful that you came into our family and that we get to be together with you for all eternity. We look forward to watching you grow this next year and discovering more of your personality. Happy Birthday my little Cindy Loo Woo! Love, Mommy

Serena crawls!

I know many of you were wondering if she was already crawling and I just hadn't posted it, but no, she did it for the first time this morning! Actually, all my kids have been slow in the large motor skills of crawling and walking! I had put her down on the floor and she acted like she had known for a while, she just didn't let anyone know. Here is some video of her first time.

Cute huh! (Don't pay any attention to all the blankets and other messes!)

I can't believe my little girl will be a year old in just a few weeks. She is weening herself off of nursing right now, getting ready for cow's milk I guess. I want to write about her, but I think I will wait and post her one year old letter after her birthday. But I do love every minute!

Triumph of the Turkey Trot

Homage to Angie Brandt, Triumph of the Turkey Trot, Konqueror of the 5K, Hero of Historic Downtown York! You set your sights on the 12th Annual YMCA Turkey Trot and, never wavering, trained on the treadmill like Rocky IV in Siberia, persisted through a sustained cold, and braved race day temperatures in the low forties, all the while making those old-school running pants look fine, yes ma’am! You not only finished the race but ran fast enough and strong enough to be annoyed by narrow bottlenecks and dawdling joggers. You earned that stylish poly-cotton long-sleeved race t-shirt, baby! Wear it! Who needs a door-prize frozen turkey or pumpkin pie—you’ve got running pride, sister! Love and admiration from your husband and fellow runner, Mike!

Thanksgiving 2008

Happy Thanksgiving! I am feeling good because I ran the Turkey Trot 5k (3.1 miles) this morning. To all you runner friends out there, I know that is just a stroll for you, but for me who is NOT a runner (bad knees), I definetely feel good about it. I wanted to run it in 35 min.(again, very slow, but a breakthrough for me!), but these past 3 weeks I have been battling a cold, so I didn't think I could do it. I was able to run with my friend Jamie and her son Harrison most of the way, and they helped push me at the end to finish at 34:40-yeah! Harrison by the way is only 7! I am so glad I did it. It was a lot of fun to experience a little taste of what Mike experiences in marathons. I loved the very start when they played music and I was feeling good. And it was such a family friendly race that people at my end were not competative, just running with their kids and having fun. Maybe next year Hayden can run with us and I can push the other two in a stroller.

After the race we came home where my parents were watching the kids, and got ready for some Good Eats (Alton Brown!). Mike and Connor made our traditional rolls for the dinner and I made a little sweet treat I found in Family Fun magazine.

We went over to Wanda and Bob's house (my Dad's side).

After a yummy dinner we went outside to play in the leaves. The boys started this tradition last year, but unfortunetely this year there weren't as many to play with. Of course we still had fun and got some cute pictures.

Some more pictures from inside the house.

Great Uncle Dan (my Dad's brother-can you tell!)

This is Uncle Bob that I wrote about in Sept. who had the heart attack. He ended up having lots of other complications in the hospital which kept him there for over a month, but he is finally home now and recovering well. He lost 40 lbs. which he is slowly trying to bring back in the form of muscle, but we thought he looked pretty good.

Great Grandma Weikert

Great Grandpa Weikert We finished off the day with a few games on their Wii. We may have to ask Santa for one next year!

So Proud of Hayden

We've always known that Hayden is a good kid. He does what he is told, he always helps, he reminds us to say prayers and have Family Home Evening, etc. But this past month or so I have been amazed at some of the things he is doing. I'm sure there are some kids out there reading chapter books by age 5, but considering Hayden was not even interested in learning words when he started kindergarten, I am truly amazed that he just finished his first chapter book last night! It was from his favorite book series-Magic Tree House. The book was Christmas in Camelot. He checked it out from the school library just 3 days ago and didn't put it down until he was finished! I am so excited that he has discovered a love for books. Two other things that have happened recently are that he was chosen as "Top Dog" at school for October. A child has to be good for the entire month and then from those students, someone is chosen. He had been hoping to be chosen since the beginning of the school year, so he didn't have to wait that long. One other thing that he gets to do at school is tutor a kindergartner in math. I think it's so cute they have these programs for little kids! I think a big factor in his doing so well in school was that we decided to wait a year to put him in kindergarten. (He had just turned 6.) It has definetely helped his self-esteem.

Every day is a new adventure

That's the beauty and sometimes the set-back of being a stay-at-home mom. You never know what life will bring your way that day. You may have a great, stress-free day playing with your kids, getting the house clean, talking to friends, sending off birthday cards, feeding the pets, getting homework done, meals prepared ahead of time, exercise done, laundry done, children bathed, coupons clipped, scriptures read, bills paid, e-mails sent, Christmas gifts ordered, light bulbs replaced, blog updated. The list could go on and on. Then again, life may throw you some curve balls along the way like vomiting children, pooping children, crying, tired children, and the list goes on. But at the end of the day, no matter what kind of day it was, I still thank my Heavenly Father for letting me be a mother and for the ability to stay home with my children every day.

Fall Festival and Halloween '08

This year, Hayden had planned months ago to be an alien and had this helmet already prepared. Connor said he wanted to be grapes which we loved because it was cheap, cute and original, just like him! Serena decided to be a mermaid because that was the costume that Mommy bought for her! I thought this is the only year she won't mind her legs being wrapped up.

Mike was in charge of an autopsy table for our church party. He did a great job and all the kids loved it.

Instead of bacteria ridden apple eating, we chose to eat doughnuts on a string-clever! And very difficult to not use your hands!

They also had a hoop game that was like skeeball-you try to throw the hoop around the furthest pumpkin to score the most points.

Then on Halloween night, the Coats family had us over for their annual party and trick-or-treating in their neighborhood. This is little Lily Perry, or should I say Tinker Bell! (She's a McGladrie)

This is always fun to try and get all the kids together and smile for a picture before they go get candy! I think Serena was crying because it was so hot with all those bodies! She was smiling once we went outside.

Grace was Belle and Will was Luke Skywalker.

I spy with my little eye, walking grapes.

I'm not into the scary, creepy part of Halloween, but even Hayden and I were amazed by all the displays this one house had put together. I couldn't get very good pictures of it because of the fog they were spraying. This is a picture of a dead pirate coming out of his coffin. They also had a big outhouse with a halogram of a ghost inside.

This is another guy, a mad scientist I guess.

After the kids get totally worn out by walking around the neighborhood, we stop by Gram and Pap's house for one last goody bag (my mom tries to keep it somewhat healthy). Halloween is always a little crazy with loud, screaming kids begging to eat more candy, but the kids love it and that's why I like it.