4:1

We went to play at the Clark's last evening and Molly was outnumbered by 4 boys (Alec, Owen, Bryce, & Tucker). She didn't seem bothered a bit by all the boys in the room. The kids had a blast with each other and ALL of Bryce & Owen's cool toys. I think the parents had a good time, too!

All babies wrestling with Alec









Bryce trying to get the camera









Tucker playing with the musical instruments












Molly & Owen with the fire truck

Rub a Dub Dub

Two girls in a tub

Our neighbor Natalie, who's 6-weeks older than Molly, came over the other night for some awesome play time. We ended the night with a bath full of toys, splashing, & endless laughter!

Finger Licking Good

We abandoned baby food early because Molly quickly figured out that what she was being fed was not the same thing that was on our plates. Tonight, Mommy & Daddy's Chinese food looked so much better than her ravioli. And Molly was right, she devoured Mommy's rice (also adorned her hair with a few pieces), chicken, and egg roll!

Animated

Molly's facial expressions provide us with lots of laughter. Hopefully these pictures will bring a smile or two to your home as well!

Bookworm

As an avid reader and former language arts teacher I'm thrilled that Molly loves books. She's really not partial to any one genre; she enjoys magazines, picture books (both fiction & non-fiction), photo albums, hymnals, and even chapter books. Lately, Molly's facial expressions seem to be matching the joy she gets from 'reading' and I sure hope this never ends!

What A Difference

Its been over a year and she's 13.5 pounds heavier (weighing in at 22 lbs, 1 oz) and 8 inches taller (measuring 29.5 inches). Molly feeds herself, sleeps through the night (unless she's sick), cruises along the furniture, and actively participates in Church.

A year ago I posted that it took both Mommy & Daddy to give Molly a bath and now she's so excited to get in the tub to crawl around and play with her toys. What a difference a year makes.

Most importantly, she steals our hearts every day when she shares her blankets & binkies with us, when she gives Daddy good morning kisses (Mommy doesn't get kisses-go figure), when she giggles at pictures of her family and when her face illuminates as Alec walks into the room.

Ours days are quite different now than a year ago. We get more sleep and have lots more fun reading books, doing puzzles, playing babies and dancing to Laurie Berkner. We're so excited to see what this year holds for our family!

Already

texting her friends?

Happy Birthday

Molly celebrated her first birthday with lots of her cousins, aunts, uncles, and all of her grandparents today! I can't imagine a luckier girl in all the world to have so many people adore her. Molly's guest cake was a page from our favorite book: Snowmen in the Night and her smash cake was a basic #1. We had practiced blowing for a few days, but when the cameras were on and the audience appeared, Molly was not about to be center stage! But she had a cousin or two to help her blow the candle out.

Once the smash cake came out, Molly wasted little time. She wanted to share her joy with everyone at the table and Alec was the luckiest! He took it like a champ and made Molly's birthday all the better.

After Molly assured us she was "all done" we continued the festivities with presents, presents, and more presents (a little secret is that Mommy & Daddy forgot to bring their presents for Molly)! Everyone was more than gracious and Molly was much more interested in gift opening than she was at Christmas.

One of the funniest gifts came from cousin Jason who is a huge Bengals fan (we're a Browns family even though its hard to admit at times). Molly will be sure to wear her awesome cheerleading outfit to Jason's house next football season; as long as it isn't when they play the Browns.

We all had a wonderful day and feel blessed that so many people were able to share in Molly's special day. An extra thank you to our resident photographer, Aunt Teri; we were able to truly be present in Molly's party without having to worry about if we got that shot or not!