One Year Beauty

Thought you'd like to see the gorgeous photos that Lisa Holloway took of our sweet Coco. Expect one or two in your mailbox in the near future.

Kingman, AZ

We took another jaunt up to Kingman last weekend to try to get Cora's photos taken again. This time, thankfully, we got some beautiful photos and we didn't run into any car trouble. :) We stopped at a cute diner before we left. Everyone was happy and the light was gorgeous- perfect opportunity for some pictures. 

Celebrating our Girl!

Cora's day started with a birthday wake up from her brothers.

The boys and I decorated Cora's door (this is a picture from the inside looking out obviously). We did white streamers and cut out construction paper hearts. On each heart we wrote something we love about Cora. 

Breakfast was cereal and toast with jelly.

Coco got all dressed up in her birthday dress.

Between dropping the boys off at school and heading to Bible Study, we had about 20 extra minutes. I decided to take the birthday girl to the park for a little swinging.

Sweetie pie!

Present helpers!

Cora got pajamas and a new book.

Cora got her first giant birthday donut.

It is safe to say she enjoyed it! 

Yesterday morning Rowan was kind of quiet and subdued. Finally he said to me,
"Mom, I don't really want Cora to get bigger because I like her as cute baby... Will she still have her soft, puffy (chubby) cheeks when she gets bigger?" Rowan loves kissing Cora's soft cheeks and I thought it was sweet that he was concerned about them disappearing. Rowan surprises me often with the sweet things he says.

We are looking forward to celebrating our baby girl again this weekend at her party! We can't wait to see lots of family and friends.

Happy Happy First Birthday

to our beautiful Cora Grace.

I can't believe how quickly this year flew by. It truly seems like only a month ago that you were a tiny newborn. You have brought so much joy and sweetness to our family, Sissy. Your brothers absolutely adore you. Rowan is your protector and Cruzy is your buddy. Its fun to watch your relationship grow. You daddy is absolutely in love with you and it melts my heart to watch you two together. You are spunky, snuggly and the most beautiful little girl. I'm so excited to be your mama and one day, your friend. God gave our family just what we needed when he gave us you. I pray that you always know how loved and special you are, Coco. There is no one else like you. I love you so so much.

Cora....

-has eight teeth

-says five words (whoa, mama, dada, uh oh, yeah)

-takes a lot of steps but still prefers crawling

-goes to sleep at 7, gets up at 7.

-likes to climb on things

-is constantly reminded not to touch the buttons on the printer or to play in the potty

-loves scrambled eggs, bananas and watermelon

-does not like her car seat

-loves water

-adores her daddy but ultimately is mommy's girl

Happy Birthday!

New....

...birthday dress and headband from her great aunt and uncle.

....Honda Pilot. We decided that the Land Rover was a ticking time bomb. It had almost 100,000 miles on it and repairs for a car like that are pricey (we were reminded of that last weekend). We decided to lease this time around and so far, love the car.

More Birthday for Cora!

Thank you Great Aunt Jill and Great Uncle Jim!

She was saying, "Oh!" in this one.

She couldn't quite figure out how to tear the paper off but she did figure out that if she shook it hard enough, the paper would fall off. :)

The boys showed her how to feed her babies and now she's a pro. I caught R & C feeding dolls too. They both also felt the need to try to drink from the bottle and sippy cup even though I told them it was pretend. :)

I couldn't get a better picture of her with the outfit. I love it though and she has the perfect purple shoes to go with it. I'll post a picture when she wears it. 

Thanks for loving our girl! 

Cora's Birthday Begins

Cora's first birthday gifts arrived from GeeGee the other day.

This was Cora's first experience opening gifts.

Thankfully she has an expert big brother to help! :)

Thank you GeeGee! She needed spoons so badly and the book with the Spider is so cute. I'm sure she will love spending her gift card to Target too. :)

The tissue paper was a hit too! 

This video doesn't have anything to do with her birthday but I love how she's actually playing now. She likes to load up her stroller and rock her baby dolls. She knows how to drive a car or pretend to talk on the phone. She concentrates so hard when she plays- its really important work. :)

Our Adventure

This past weekend we drove up to Kingman, AZ (about 3 hours away) to have my favorite photographer take Cora's one year pictures. Cora was not herself on Sunday but we decided to go anyway (bad decision #1). We got there and attempted to get photos of Cora but she wouldn't stop screaming (so unlike her), so we ended up getting none. It turned out that she was sick. Anyway, we got back on the interstate to go home. Roger wasn't happy because we'd wasted a trip up there and as we were accelerating on the on ramp, we realize that the car wouldn't go any faster than 50 mph. By the time we got to an exit, the car just wouldn't go.

We managed to push that beast of car off to the side of the road and sat to wait for a tow truck in a little rocky area. The boys were super happy to be running around and playing. Even Cora bucked up in spite of not feeling well.

The boys filled their hats with rocks, poked each other with sticks. The boys were thrilled to find out that an overnight hotel stay was in order.

The boys and Roger watched for the tow truck. Roger and I tried to make this a fun memory for our family since we couldn't control the situation in any other way but we both had a lot of things going on the next day (Monday) so it was hard not to be a little put out.

The tow truck was the favorite part by FAR. Since I knew the boys would be missing school the next day, we snuck in a little bit of school as we learned about tow trucks and how they work. Then, we got to ride in the tow truck to bring the car to the mechanic. 

We always take extra splashy baths while in hotels. :)

The boys munched on candy and watched TV on Monday while we waited for our car to be ready. It turned out that they needed to order a couple parts and Kingman doesn't have a Land Rover dealer . The parts for our car would be coming from the Scottsdale Land Rover dealership where we have our car serviced usually. Ironic, isn't it? :) Anyway, Roger HAD to be back for a presentation at work so his company paid to rent us a car to get us back, which was a blessing. 

In our family, we have a "one strike you're out" mentality with our cars. Don't be surprised if there's a new car joining our family in the very near future. 

The End.

Bible Study 2013

We had our first day of Bible Study last Wednesday (9/11). Women in the Word uses an inductive method of study so its pretty in depth but I love it because I learn so much. We are studying John and I know that its going to be amazing. Both Cruz and Rowan are at school on Wednesdays so its just me and Cora. Women in the Word has a great kids program. Cora will only spend a few weeks in the Nursery class before she gets to move up to the One Year Olds. Unfortunately we had to miss yesterday due to Cruz being sick. 

Here she is on our first day of Bible Study.

Sweet Baby Girl

She is super hard to photograph. She's always on the move and refuses to cooperate. I figured if she was in her crib, at least she was contained! :)

I love this next picture!! She is so adorable as she tries to balance and figure out this walking thing.

The face of concentration as she walks towards Cooper.

Cora loves to climb up on the printer and look at the library books in the basket beside it. 

We've had a rainy couple of days, which has been nice. I am so looking forward to starting my women's bible study tomorrow morning. We are studying John and I am positive that its going to be absolutely wonderful.