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!

1 year

Molly had her one year pictures taken today and luckily Alec went along to help make Molly smile.

Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Let It Snow

Winter break fun with friends!

Blessed

Lately we've been given the time to reflect on the blessings in our life. We are surrounded by a loving extended family; who we are separated by miles but technology allows us to be moments away. Who have provided us with unending support and love. We also are blessed with our "Columbus" family who are there in a moment's notice; to pick up the pieces.

And then there are our kids! There are hardly words, just look at these faces and you can see just how lucky we are. Take an moment tonight to give your loved ones an extra hug or an unexpected email, text, or phone call to let them know how much you love and appreciate them!