November Part 2

 I had this little set up ready for Caroline on the morning of her actual birthday!  I was so excited for her to wear her birthday outfit AGAIN!  Best thing about having her birthday a few weeks early... you get to celebrate again!  :)

 I went in and vidoed me waking her up just like we did with Parker the first few years of his life when he was in a crib.  She was her normal sleepy self.  This girls LOVES HER CRIB!  And will stay in it as long as we let her.  Which is GREAT when I have to get something done in the morning, but SAD when I just want her to get out of bed and play with me!

 Really mom?  You want me to get up?!

After we got up and got dressed, she was back to her happy, sweet baby girl!  She has grown to love our photo sessions every month!

 

 Being silly.

 Park REALLY wanted in on some pictures.  He was still in his PJ top but had no pants on, so I made him sit down and put Caroline on his lap and put a tissue puff in front of him!

 Love this - he's trying to kiss her and she's backing away!

 She kicked the tissue puff away and let him kiss away.

  That night, we wanted to go out with Whit and her family since it was Doug's birthday, too!  That's right, Caroline was born on Doug's birthday.  We went to O'Charleys and it was TERRIBLE.  Not because of O'Charleys in any way - it's always great - but the kids were AWFUL and we should have left them at home!  Ha!

 Trying to get a family photo.

 We let her have a little cake.... again!

 That night, KK and Garrett gave Caroline a stroller!  Park loves it more than Caroline does...

But Caroline likes it too!  Looking like such a big girl!  And check out that pot belly!  Baby girl is starting to put on some serious weight!  She loves to eat and would eat all day if we'd let her!  I think the only thing she loves more than food is sleep!

This girl cracks us up how she sleeps... she's always ALWAYS in a corner.  Thumb always in her mouth.  A leg is almost always up in some fashion and hair is crazy!

 A few days after her birthday, we went for her 12 month check up!  We got all dressed up for the occasion!

 We were a little nervous about her weight, but she did great!  Up to the 10%... around 18 pounds!

 Dee Doo came to play and he is a definite walker now... Caroline was doing really great with walking, too!  She does better when D is around but I snapped this pic of them and just couldn't believe how big these two babies have gotten!

 BIG KIDS!  "Look mom no hands!"

 Baby girl still had an ear infection at her one year appointment... so we switched antibiotics again.  I wasn't a big fan of keeping her on antibiotics but after a LOOOONG conversation with the doctor and looking at all our options, I decided it would be best for now.  I know there are a lot of risks with antibiotics when not needed, but I also understand the issues that can occur from not treating a bad ear infection.  And hers was pretty bad.  There are three things that I want to make sure are always healthy in my kids.... eyes, ears and their "private" parts.  Everything else is important, too... but for those three things, I want to make sure are always good.  SO - off with the 2nd antibiotic we went.  She was still crabby most evenings and would just want "this" which I didn't mind so much.  :)

Park also was able to stay pretty healthy but for WEEKS after our stomach bug in early November, he would randomly throw up!  It was the most annoying thing.  He'd be FINE, then would just stop and throw up and then keep going.  He never ran a fever, never acted sick, would just stop and throw up and be on his way.  One of these instances happened just as we walked into church on Wednesday night!  We walk into the middle of the atrium where they were serving dinner and he throws up on the floor.  Chris was at home working, so I was by myself, with both kids, with no idea what to do!  Ha!  Several people came to help me and I insisted on cleaning up my own son's puke, but it was just "awesome".  We turned around and left!  Whew!

 A few days before Thanksgiving, we met up with my good friend, Jess at Northpoint Mall!  We got some food time, some carousel time, some ice cream time and even some shopping time!  I got Chris all of his clothes I wanted to get him for Christmas and loved getting that off my list while having Jess help me!  It was not an easy feat with both kids.

 I love this picture of this little man!  He was so excited!

 Ms. Jess held onto Caroline the whole time.   Caroline loved the carousel!

 Parker started writing his name!!!!  It always takes some persuading, but he does it!  I always write it at top and he first wrote it with his finger, then traced over it with chalk.  I'm not sure he's written it since then, but I'm still proud of him!

 Oops - this is out of order, but on Caroline's birthday, we had Parker's Thanksgiving feast at school!  We all got to go and had so much fun!  We had a whole feast laid out for us and the kids in his class recited a Turkey poem and sang us a song!

 SiSi is a few months younger than Parker and is in the class below him, but we always see her when at school!

 Park playing with a few of his girlfriends at school.  All the moms always tell me how much the girls love Parker and talk about him all the time at home..... Hmmmmm.....

 Here is his class beginning to recite the poem.

 He ate jello for the first time!  We had no idea he had never eaten jello til we were at the party!  He loved it!  And I felt like a horrible mom for never feeding it to him!  Ha!

 A few days later, the weekend before Thanksgiving, we got to go to Sisi's birthday party!  She had it on a Sunday afternoon at a gymnastics place.  We had a blast! 

 They had this super fun slide which he loved!

 And a hug pit with these foamy cubes!

 The entire M family!  Love them!

 The kids kept getting stuck in the pit... it was so funny!  It was like quick sand.

 Parker jumping into the pit.

 These two love each other!

 Sisi jumping into the pit.

 Reid and Dylan watching all the kids "sorta" taking turns to jump!

  After the party, we helped clean up a bit and got ready to go!  Tried to snap one last pic of these two.