Happy 1st Birthday sweet Lalon!

Woke up happy and ready to celebrate officially being 1!

Pancake breakfast!

First time in her new big girl car seat.

She didn't seem to mind it, she fell asleep immediately both times!

One of many sweet, new outfits

Getting ready for the presents!

She loved riding the wagon with Ava James

Cake! Although she was distracted by something...

Party hat that she wasn't too interested in.

Hanging with Daddy and her first baby doll... I don't think the thumbs up is intentional, but still pretty cute.

How quickly time can pass us by when we are having so much fun!

I know folks always say it, but it's truly hard to believe that it's already been a year that we've had Lalon in our lives. And even more, how far she's come since her 9 day stay in the NICU at Rex Hospital. Of course, that wasn't the start to her life that I had imagined, but they were so great and our family and friends were so supportive, it was over and she was home before we knew it... and now to see her so grown up, I really have a hard time remembering that teensy tiny 5 1/2 lb baby! I've been sorting through baby clothes and just found some of the preemie pj's that Lalon had; holding them up it's hard for me to remember how tiny she had to have been and with most of the outfits, they were too big at the time!

We celebrated her birthday Sunday afternoon with family, playing in the back yard, dinner and of course, cake! I think she had a great time playing with her cousins and riding in the wagon with Ava James. She got tons of great gifts too... don't worry, she is properly spoiled around here. She got her first collection of baby dolls (which Naylor loves to give them "juice" and make them go "night, night") and a superb winter wardrobe. She enjoyed the singing and cake and Naylor helped blow the candle out to show her the ropes.

Yesterday, on her actual birthday, we went for her 1 yr photos. Brian and Naylor joined us at the very beginning for a family shot that I hope turned out. We'll have those proofs in about 2 weeks. I take her tomorrow afternoon for her 1 yr well check and I'm excited to see her latest stats. She'll also get a few shots and her second flu shot, so we should be good to go after that... well, we still have to get Daddy's flu shot - he may be worse than the kids!

It was a wonderful day of celebration and we are so grateful to have both of these healthy, happy kids blessing our lives each day. God is good.

Completed Yard Project

Brian gets MAJOR points and gold stars for all of his work on the back yard project. With the exception of installing the fence, he's done it all on his own (with lots of help from friends and neighbors), but no "hired" help. By the way, we have a long line of favors we owe now, so if you want to start your requests you may want to submit them now!

The fence was installed on Thursday and Naylor and I LOVE it! He's able to run around like a mad man and I can relax a bit that he isn't running towards the street. You can see in the pictures from the assortment of toys, he's already having a great time. There are 3 gates in the fence, one to the left of the screened porch, a double gate at the end of the driveway and one leading into the woods (eventually, the kids will walk through the woods to the school that's right there).

You'll see straw in the pictures and that's where Brian took that huge pile of clay and leveled the yard out. Next spring we'll hope to have some grass in it's place and some nice trees along the fence line on the driveway side of the house.

Thanks Brian for making our back yard a fun, entertaining and SAFE haven for me and the kids - you are awesome.

Park at West Lake Halloween Festival

Our HOA hosted a really nice Halloween festival in our neighborhood today and the kids got to try out their costumes. They had some games and hot dogs, but a lot of it was a little "old" for our young kids, so they just literally ran around for about 30 minutes with their friends and then we headed back to the house for tacos.

It was a fun treat and we appreciate the hard work our Board members put into the event - thanks guys!

NC State Fair

We've continued our tradition and going to the fair, but it's definitely a different experience than when Brian and I first got married! Actually, it was this weekend last year that we went to the fair on Friday (just the 3 of us) and on Monday morning we had a little girl in our family.

Both the kids loved the animals, food, people watching and the lights from the rides. Naylor and Brian went on the carousel and through the fun house and had the best time.

We went through the weigh booth with the kids too and Lalon weighed in at 22 lbs 8 oz and Naylor was 28 lbs 3 oz - that was after the food!

Hill Ridge Farms Trip

Last week, Brian and I took the kids (along with our street buddies) up to Hill Ridge Farms for a morning of fun! There was so much to do: animals to see, slides, hay jump, train ride, corn house, and a few mazes. The weather could not have been any better and I think everyone had a great time. We got a few pumpkins as a token as well. Lots of pictures on Facebook, but here are the highlights.

Lalon's first NCSU game

Naylor and Carson giving rides in to the stadium.

Lalon just hanging out...

Last Saturday we tried our first adventure in taking both kids into the NCSU game and everyone lived through it (including me)! This was Lalon's first game she's attended and we figured it's Naylor's 4th game. The kids did super well and I couldn't have asked for any better weather to have them there; it was an all around fun day. We only stayed through halftime, although I think the kids would have lasted, I'm not sure I would have... I was pooped! Here are a few pics of their short tailgating experience; unfortunately I forgot to take the camera into the game, so we didn't get any good pics of us all together.

In other Lalon news...

• She's officially waving bye-bye now and loves to do so!
• She's standing on her own more and more and likes to 'walk around' holding on to your hands.
• She's started drinking a little bit of real milk this week. As her formula is running out, I'm starting to introduce the real milk... so far, so good!
• More and more real food these days! She does still eat some stage 3 foods, but that's sometimes more for my convenience... she's doing really great.
• Our next big step this month... forward facing car seat. Yay!

Ultrasound for # 3

Today was the big ultrasound day and I held out... # 3 will be a surprise to us all! Everything measured right on track (about 8 oz in weight) and all vital organs were present and functioning. To date I still haven't gained any weight really, but we all know around 5 1/2 - 6 months I tend to put it on fast, so I'm still not worried about that part. Dr. Flanagan was also fine with it since the baby is continuing to grow on track. Another strong heartbeat today, so that was good too!

Here's a profile picture of # 3. Still no name, we haven't really discussed that part too much. Guess I'll dig out my family name lists so we can start getting some more ideas!