Charlotte's First Birthday Luau

Charlotte is ready for her first birthday party and her first luau.

I made the tutu, onesie, and headband myself.  Claire asked me, "How do you get her to keep that lei on?" I said, "Um, I glued it to her onesie, DUH!"  HAHA!! Worked like a charm!!

 I think I was still hanging pictures 5 minutes after the party had already started.  But look how awesome they look!! Here is the Instagram Banner.  My family kept saying, "I don't think you estimated how much time all these projects were going to take!"  Whoops!

 These are the milestone monthly pictures that's I've been taking and putting on the blog every month.     These turned out especially cute.

 Speaking of projects that take time.... Here are the amazing cupcakes for the party.  Yes that is a Teddy Graham floating in a gummy saver near a beach of graham cracker crumbs and fish sprinkles along with an umbrella for shade.

 Oh hey, here's a Teddy Graham laying out on a bent piece of gum for a folding chair.  Pinterest, what would I do without you?? (Probably not be so overwhelmed with crazy projects, for one!)

 Check out Charlotte's loot! Our friends and family are so nice!

 I love this picture.  Charlotte is constantly surrounded by little girls.  Little Lady Humans LOVE Charlotte!!

 More of our favorite people at the party in these pictures...

 We wanted to have one last giant kid birthday party bash and invite everyone we love and we accomplished that. (Only smaller parties from now on)

 We had 44 people, 18 of which were kiddos ranging from 1 to 15.

 There were people everywhere!

 Hi Lilli!

 Hi Uncle Adam and Isabel!

Awww little Nora! We haven't seen Staffords forever!

Then it was time for CAKE!! 

Charlotte gives her cake the You're Number One Sign.  (BTW, I asked her pediatrician about that and he gave me an extended medical explanation about why she would be doing that and yes it is perfectly normal.)

After all that cake, Charlotte needed cleaning up.  Doesn't it look like she has on blue eye shadow? Nice.

Then Brandon hosed off the chair.  What a good idea.  That thing was a mess.

Time for gifts!  Doesn't it look like an actual luau? The torches in the background and everything? Tres cool.

We got all the gifts open before the storm came and we all rushed inside.  I have no idea why Andrew and I are dressed exactly alike.  We did not plan that.  Leis and shirts.  Impressive right?

Charlotte really enjoyed her party and so did we! Great people, Great Food (from D&R Market), and a Great Time!

 I'm not sure who enjoyed playing with her toys more?

 Charlotte also loved all of her clothes too.

Doesn't hurt that she also had some cupcakes leftover the next day!! She definitely had a party hangover, that's for sure!

Here's the silly girl on Sunday trying to recover from her big party.  What a goof!


Happy Birthday, Miss Charlotte!  Your party was quite the success!  

Charlotte's First Year Round Up

Charlotte is ONE YEAR OLD!

 Oh my goodness! It's finally here! Charlotte is one year old.  It went so fast.  I can't stop time and it sucks.  But each day that she grows and changes is more amazing than the next. 

Stat Time!
Charlotte is 20.81 pounds which is the 66th percentile.  She is 29.8 inches long which is the 72nd percentile.  Her head circumference is 18.2 inches which is the 83rd percentile.  She's really growing!

She celebrated her birthday at school on Friday.  YUM! Cupcakes!

Look at her class.  She won't be with these youngins any longer.  She's moving up to the big leagues.  She'll be in the 1's class on Monday.  I know she can hold her own but still... I'm not ready.  She's been ready for awhile.  She's so bored with these babies.  Ha! They can hardly walk.  She's steamrolling over them! :-) She also discovered the door and tries to escape every once in awhile.  Her new class has a gate.  That's probably a good thing.

 It kinda sucks that she had to be teething the week before her birthday.  But she handled it well (for the most part). 

 She is a fast walker these days.  She prefers it to crawling in most cases.  She almost hops too.  It's too cute.

 Always walking walking walking...

 And walking! (Even with no pants!)

 When you sit her down to take a birthday pic, she doesn't want to sit still! She must stand! She has the same FOMO (fear of missing out) that Tommy has. :)

Random side story.  Andrew and I were watching John Oliver's show and he brought out a unicorn when talking about Scotland.  Charlotte made a beeline for the tv.  She was obsessed with this unicorn.  Too funny! But I get it, Char.  Unicorns are awesome.

Charlotte's personality is so much fun.  She loves being around her mama at ALL TIMES (which can sometimes be not so fun) but if someone picks her up to carry her out of the room, she will cry and scream but also wave bye bye at the same time.  It is hilarious.  She LOVES blowing kisses.  MmmmWAH! She does it over and over again.  It's too cute! She loves to laugh and play and is happy almost constantly.  Her teachers say she's a joy to take care of which makes me happy/proud but also jealous too.  She really is a joy to be around (except for those nights when she's teething).  She's our little girl and we are lucky to be her parents.

Happy birthday, Charlotte! We love you so much!

Meeting Everett Wynne Neal

The Neals are a family of FIVE! Everett Wynne Neal was born at 4:19 am on Saturday, September 13th.  He was 9 pounds 12 ounces.  Holy moly.  Congrats Neals!

We visited him on Sunday.  What a cutie!!

He's got cheeks, cheeks, and more cheeks! Love 'em!  

 We both got to hold him.  It's been awhile since we've held a newborn!

Congrats Neals! He's definitely a keeper! ;-) Can't wait to visit again for more baby cuddles! 

Charlotte's First Major Injury

It was Saturday a couple weekends ago.  I was heading to a wedding shower with Charlotte.  Andrew was heading to a Purdue football game with Tommy.  Andrew left before I was ready so Charlotte was with me in the bathroom.  I normally remember to pull the cords up so Charlotte won't grab them but of course the ONE TIME I forget, she grabs the cord to my curling iron and she pulls it down.  I grab the curling iron and set it back on the counter and let go but I didn't realize that Charlotte still had the cord in her hand.  She pulled it down again and the barrel of the curling iron rolled down her leg.  

She. Was. Pissed.  

I put cold water on it and tried to calm her down.  She really didn't cry that long.  She was very clingy  though after that.  She ended up being in a pretty good mood so I decided to go to the shower and call the doctor on the way there, just in case.  All the offices were closed so I talked to someone on some Nurse Line.  I answered all of her questions. After the spanish inquisition, she told me to take her to the emergency room.  

Now with my first child, I definitely would have gone to the emergency room.  However, when I did, they told me Tommy probably had cystic fibrosis (when in fact, it was just a constipation issue) so I try to avoid the ER at all costs.  So I tried to WebMD myself out of having to go to the ER with a baby.  She was in a really great mood the rest of the day.  She never had a fever.  The burn only blistered in two tiny places.  I called two medical professionals in my circle of trust and they confirmed that I could get away with home treatment.  We lubed up the wound with neosporin, kept it bandaged, and waited until Monday when I could see her pediatrician.  

 Look at her! Tough as nails! She had a great time at the shower.

 It was a dessert shower.  She loved the treats!

I picked out a mini cupcake for her but she grabbed the cream puff off my plate and shoved it in her mouth.  She's a woman who knows what she wants! Poke that puff! :) 

The picture on the left is in the afternoon a few hours after it happened.  The picture in the middle is the next day.  The picture on the right is later in the week when the blisters opened it was pretty gross.
The pediatrician was the one that pointed out that it actually rolled down her leg. I thought it landed longways but he said you can see where the opening of the curling iron hit from the two lines on each side of the burn.  Poor baby. :(

This is the burn yesterday.  All the burned skin is peeling off and it's healing really well.  It's too bad it had to happen right before her birthday! Oh well. Memories, right?

So to summarize, we get an F- in babyproofing, an A in Wound Management, and we now know Charlotte is one tough little chica.