Party time with friends!

Two of our good couple friends had girls around the same time Adeline was born. I was the first to find out I was pregnant and they found out shortly after we did and all of our due dates were within a week of each other. Matt/Kelly and Shawn/Megan all knew they were having girls, but we decided to remained surprised just as we had with the other kids. I was the first to have the baby, due to my scheduled c-section, so I had my c-section exactly a week prior to my due date and they were both still almost 2 weeks from their due dates. Adeline was born February 25, 2009 and three days later along came Rylee on February 28, 2009, joining big brother Logan and nine days after Adeline, Kaelyn was born March 6, 2009 and was Shawn and Megan's first. I still find it rather ironic that we were all due around the same time and all three of us had girls. What are the chances?!

Well, the time came to celebrate these three great girls' birthdays. Shawn and Megan had a friend party at their house tonight to help all three girls celebrate! I can't believe how big they have gotten in a year, crazy how quickly they grow up.

The three girls having story time!
Rylee, Addie and Kaelyn

Addie, Kaelyn and Rylee anxiously awaiting their birthday cakes!

I made birthday cakes for the party, one for each girl and a big cupcake for all of the party guests. They turned out cute if I do say so myself!

Addie clearly enjoyed her birthday cake!

Tired girl ready to go home!

It was fun to celebrate the first year of their lives! It'll be fun to watch them all change in the next year, and hopefully have a get together for their 2nd birthday!

Adeline's 1 year pictures

Here is a sneak peak at Adeline's 1 year pictures!

Happy Birthday Adeline Mae!

One year ago today, Miss Adeline Mae entered our lives...

Here is a look back at pictures from a year ago!

This is the morning Adeline was born shortly before we left for the hospital. All of our kids have been born via c-section, Paul and Adeline were scheduled, so it made it easier to get a last minute picture before heading to the hospital!

Anxiously awaiting my c-section while being monitored.

Kevin cutting Addie's cord.

Me seeing Adeline for the first time.

Our perfect little bundle!

The birthday girl when she first woke up! Or I should say, after being WOKEN up.

First Birthday Cake---decorated by Mom, Amelia and Paul...

Enjoying her Lady Bug cake!

Adeline had a great birthday. We grilled steaks and had some tasty potatoes for dinner followed up by some yummy birthday cake, chocolate with butter cream frosting! I still can't believe she is ONE! Where did the year go to? She's such a fun little person, with a great big personality!

Christmas in Lutsen...

For our Christmas with my dad's family this year we had planned to go to Lutsen and stay at a resort over Christmas weekend, but due to the weather it left all of us homebound. Thankfully the resort we had planned to stay at allowed us to transfer our reservation to another weekend, otherwise we would have been out all of our money. We had to pay it all down when making the reservation due to it being a holiday weekend. We went to Lutsen this past weekend and I think everyone had a great time!

We rented a 3 bedroom condo with a loft, which worked out great for everyone, we cooked all of our meals right in the condo which was nice too. I think the weekend provided a lot of R&R for everyone!

Amelia and Paul were excited to see that there was a "swimming pool" just their size, so Friday night we filled up the jacuzzi tub in Granny and Papa's room and let them swim to their hearts content, it saved us from having to go over to the lodge to take them swimming and gave all of us adults some time to visit with one another.

Adeline kept herself busy climbing the steps!

Three little monkeys spying from the loft!

Saturday morning walk to the lake.

View from the deck of our condo.

The weather was perfect all weekend 35+ and sunny! Doesn't get any better than that! We all had a great time and enjoyed our time away from the hustle and bustle of life!

Winter Blues...

We have a bad case of the winter blues. Wishing for spring! Seems like we've been cooped up an awful lot for the last month and decided it was time to get the kids out of the house, especially after they were all sick two weeks ago for an entire week. We took them on a kid date! We picked up Grandma Mary and went out for lunch and to the zoo. Amelia claims Red Robin is her favorite place to eat (the last time we ate there, Paul was a baby!), we had a nice lunch, but our service was horrible and we suspect our waiter was hungover! Then we went to the MN Zoo. This was the first time we had ever been there in the winter. We've really gotten a lot of use out of our membership and its more than paid for itself, we'll definitely be renewing it in May! We walked the inside of the zoo and road the monorail, it was a great way to get out of the house and the kids really enjoyed it. Even Adeline! The last time we went to the zoo she was 7 months old and didn't really care much about the animals and she typically slept through the zoo. This time she really got into watching the animals, it was so much fun to watch!

Addie was very interested in the snow monkeys.

This dolphin came to say hi to Adeline. It came right up to the glass right by her face right after I snapped this picture. She was enjoying it until this point, then she started crying and backing up and she almost fell off the ledge she was standing on. (Grandma was standing right by her when I stepped back to take the picture!)

Kevin and Paul checking out the dolphins up close. We walked upstairs to view the dolphins from above in Dolphin Stadium, they no longer do dolphin shows at the zoo due to the age of the dolphins, but they dolphins had no problem showing off!

Amelia and Addie checking out the flamingos!

The zoo from Addie's point of view.

Watching the otters---one of Paul's favorite things to do!

Sounds like Amelia wants to go back to the zoo on her birthday, so that may be where we end up!

Pauly's new look...

Two weeks ago I took Paul to the eye doctor, our daycare lady had been noticing a "lazy eye" or his eyes crossing when he looks at things up close, so at Paul's 3 year old well child check-up, Kevin and I mentioned it to our doctor and he referred us to a pediatric eye doctor to have it checked out. Low and behold Paul's left eye likes to cross, there for the need for glasses. We went and picked them up this morning. I think he looks really cute in them, of course I'm kind of bias! He was proud to wear them into the grocery store after picking them up and said to me as we were walking down the aisle "Mom, everyone likes my glasses, don't they?", and he was excited to stop and show his daddy too! Though he wasn't so thrilled for me to take a picture of him wearing them!