Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Anna's 1st Birthday Party

 This weekend we celebrated Anna's birthday with a "Little Peach" themed first birthday party!  Here is the birthday girl in her little Flintstone car from Mimi and Mr. Dave.  She loved it!  So cute!
Dessert table

Anna's peaches and cream cupcakes with little "Anna face" cupcake toppers

The picture gallery, featuring a monthly pic of Anna from last July to this July!  It's amazing how fast she's grown :)

Food table, featuring hamburgers, hotdogs, and lots of sides

Birthday girl on the move...

Dalton, Aunt Amanda, and Colton hanging out on the patio

Anna, Uncle E, and Mimi playing in the backyard right before the party started

Anna with Aunt Diane and Uncle Josh

Sweet girl

 Dalton, Anna, and Reese playing with Anna's water table, which was her gift from us.  She loved it and so did big brother!  I really wish I had gotten more pictures of all the kids playing outside. They had so much fun!
Anna and her smash cake.  She ate it very delicately at first and then started tearing it up! 

The Grahams :)

I'm one!!!!

Here is Anna in her birthday hat which she wore all of 5 seconds.  You can see why here...not cool Mommy!

Anna and her very first Cabbage Patch Kid, Haley Jade!  Thanks Aunt Diane and Uncle Josh!  And if she doesn't want it...I see another little girl who might!!  LOL

Horrible picture of me but super cute of Anna and her BFF Charlotte!  Precious girls!
We had a ONEderful party and are so thankful to have such wonderful friends and family who came to support Anna on her first of many, many birthdays to come.  Happy birthday sweet girl!!  We love you so much!

Anna Katherine is 1 and a trip to LegoLand!

Dalton and his masterpiece...a birthday card for little sister!
 On July 15, our little princess turned 1!  Can you believe it?  I, for one, can not!  I just can't believe it's been one year since this little bundle of joy came into our lives and changed them forever! 
This past weekend, we had a super fun birthday party for her...but more on that in the next post.
On the actual day, we have gotten into a little tradition ever since Dalton was born of having our own private little family celebration, and we did just that on Anna's birthday.  We started the day out with lunch at Taco Mac and a trip to LegoLand, which is actually a place where Dalton has been asking to go FOREVER!  (Not really-it just opened this spring)...but anyway, we finally went.  Of course it's geared more towards bigger kids but I think Anna really enjoyed it too.  It was very visually stimulating with all the colors and activities.
Here she is...all pumped up to be at LegoLand!

Dalton waiting to go into the big play area.  They had huge foam blocks in there shaped like Legos!  Doesn't he look like such a big kid here??

Dalton and Daddy working on his Lego car that he raced in the derby races.  He won almost every time!

Here's Dalton with a sorcerer made completely out of Legos!
 I might add that when we got home I asked him what is favorite part of LegoLand was.  You will not believe this but his answer was, "picking out my ninja Legos in the Lego store."  So next time maybe we will just save a lot of money and go to Wal-Mart instead!!  :)
Here's little bit eating her birthday dinner...homemade spaghetti and  meatballs!  Yum, yum!  She loved it!!

Anna and her first birthday cupcake...vanilla with vanilla icing

Yay!!!  I'm one!!

 Another little tradition that we are going to do is have the kids buy each other a little something for birthdays and Christmas.  I want them to understand the importance of giving to others, so before her birthday I took Dalton to Wal-Mart and made him pick something out for her.  He picked this lovely baby doll.  Anna really does love her, she calls her "Bobby" and carries her around and pushes her in her stroller.  She also tries to take her paci.  :)
Opening one of her presents from Mommy and Daddy, a bubble machine

Yay for bubbles!
And just for the sake of documentation, I'm going to do a little likes/dislikes section here:

Likes:
Food!  Particularly pasta-pasta salad I think is her favorite food right now.  She's a carb-a-holic like Mommy.
Kip-quite the change from a few months ago.  She calls him "Glip" and thinks he's fascinating!
Being held (especially by Mommy)
Dalton-and everything he does!
Daddy-which is her favorite word to scream
Putting her finger in her nose (it's the perfect fit, why not?)
The train table
Her paci-she's addicted
Music and dancing
Squeaky shoes
Dislikes:
Being put down
When Mommy leaves for work in the morning
Car seat
Dalton getting in her face-screams and tries to hit
Vegetables and fruit-I think she doesn't really like the texture.  She will eat the pureed baby fruits and veggies but not the regular ones
Being told "no"-it really hurts her feelings and she usually cries.

Happy birthday little Angel!  We love you!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Happy 4th and a Family Reunion...

Please excuse this horrendous picture of me...this was the "baby blanket" in our neighbor's driveway on the 4th.  We sat here with the little ones while the big boys ran around with sparklers and we watched the fireworks all over our neighborhood.  It was a wonderful 4th of July!
 Dalton had the greatest time EVER this year on the 4th.  Mom gave us a bunch of sparklers left over from the wedding and I wasn't sure if Dalton was old enough to enjoy them.  Well-he was!  He had a fit over them and kept running up to Zack and I saying, "this is the greatest day EVER!"  SOOO sweet!


Dalton and Gabriel-the most fearless of the bunch.  By the way-see how they look like they are the same size?   Well-Gabriel is 7!


Dalton, Gabriel, and Bryson
 The next weekend we all headed down to Tifton to "day farm," as Dalton calls it.  Also known as "cowboy camp."  Anyway, we went for the Culpepper Family Reunion and had a great time with Zack's parents, sister, and Colton.  On Saturday, we went to the Agrirama.  So much fun!  I great little historic replication of what a farm might have been like in the early 1900's.
Dalton and Colton waiting at the train station

Zack, Anna, Grandma, and Grandaddy waiting on the train

The boys in front of an old cotton bale

Aunt Amanda and little princess

Mommy and her kiddos.  Look how excited little man is!  Love it
 After our little jaunt to town, we returned to the farm for some water fun.  Here is little Anna Banana in her very own pool....


The boys playing in their pool.  They loved it!

It wasn't too very long before Anna picked up on all the commotion and teeter-tottered over to the boys pool!  They had lots of fun in the  hot summer sun!
Thanks Grandma and Granddaddy for a fun filled farm weekend!

Goin' to the chapel....


 On June 30, 2012, Diane and Josh tied the knot!!  It was the most beautiful wedding ever and Diane was for sure the most beautiful bride ever!  I will have more pictures to come after Carl (the fabulous wedding photographer) and his team are finished, but for now, here are a few shots of the week before and some of the fun wedding events!
We (the kids and I) drove up to NC on the Tuesday evening prior to the wedding.  Mrs. Graham was nice enough to babysit the kids all day every day while I helped mom and Diane get ready for everything.  Here is a picture of her with Dalton and Anna in the morning before it got too hot.
One thing's for sure-we will never forget the wedding and the days leading up to it as they broke temperature records in North Carolina!  The heat index on the wedding day was 102 degrees! 
Mom with the baskets we put together for all the out of town guests, featuring local goodies from Winston-Salem
 The Friday morning before the wedding, Mom and I hosted a bridesmaids brunch for Diane and her attendants as well as the moms and aunts.  So much fun!
The Mimosa/Bloody Mary bar.  Yummy!  Diane especially enjoyed it.  :)

The delicious brunch buffet.  Mom and  I had so much fun putting all this together!

Monogrammed "petit fours"-this is in quotations because that is what I ordered but that is certainly NOT what they are!  Look how huge!  Oh well, they were delish.  Mom's homemade fudge is always a hit!

Bride and mother of the bride

Aunt Judy and Mom...2 of my most favorites :)

All the girls minglin'

Diane, Aunt Judy, Katelyn, Katie, and Katie.  Such pretty and sweet girls!

Me, Diane, and Cambria after the brunch

All the bridesmaids with our AWESOME thirty-one bags filled with incredible goodies from Diane! 

Me, Diane, Mom, and Aunt Judy

Me and the little munchkins prior to the rehearsal.  You might notice someone is missing?  Zack ended  up working late that day and was just a tad late....
One more pic that I stole from Brooke's blog...me and the BFF after tearing up the dance floor!!!