Henry turns one!

Henry's birthday was also on Thursday (July 30th). I really can't believe he's one year old already. It doesn't feel like it's been that long since I was making Rachel's volcano birthday cake and having contractions.

Like I mentioned in Rachel's birthday post, we had the kids start opening presents nice and early before Daniel went to work. I think Henry was a little overwhelmed/confused as to why I was making him sit on the floor in the family room with a pile of packages instead of feeding him breakfast. He was slightly suspicious of the whole event (he had still been sleeping while Rachel was opening her presents, so he couldn't really take any present-opening cues from her).

Opening his first present. "What is going on here? Is this some kind of trick?"


"Okay, this is kind of cool."


"Can I just have my oatmeal now?"

Opening his presents quickly became a group effort:

He did really like his little football, but I was at just the wrong angle to capture his big grin. Can you see the edges of it? At least I managed to capture Rachel's fly-away hair entering the picture:

Okay, this one isn't Henry, but Elizabeth was feeling a little left out after seeing both Rachel and Henry open their presents, so she asked me if I could take a little picture of her holding her bracelet:

Playing with his new toys:

Watching the cakes cook:

The two birthday kids together:

Playing in his favorite cupboard:


Ready for cake. He has a guilty look on his face because I had underestimated his reach, and had put both cakes a little too close - he managed to quickly swipe off a chunk of Rachel's kitty cake's ear before I scooted them out of the way.

His own little mini cake:

First taste:

Digging in:

Cleaning up:

Happy birthday to our one-year old! He is such a delightful, delightful little guy. He gets more and more fun as he gets older - he loves playing little games now, and is learning lots of new tricks. He likes to babble and laugh a lot, but he also knows how to say some real words (mama, dada, clock, uh-oh, gucky-gucky, no-no-no, more, ni-night, blanket). He also learned how to walk just this last week (I think he was determined to learn before he turned one). He still can't take more than about 10 steps at a time, but he gets a little better every day.

We love you, Henry! Please don't get old too fast!

Rachel turns five!

Rachel's fifth birthday was on Thursday (July 30th). I think she was about the most excited any of my kids have ever been for one of their birthdays - she's pretty much been counting down the days since July 31st of last year.

Daniel had to go into work early Thursday morning, so we let the kids get up a few minutes before 7:00 (Rachel viewed this as a very special birthday privilege, because usually I make them stay in bed until 7:00) so we could start the present opening.


Here's Rachel very pleased with her new princess dining set (it's been a looong month and a half since Elizabeth got hers for her birthday). I love Rachel's wild morning hair:

New fuzzy slipper crocs:

A fun new book from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson:

Her own Legos! I think this was the biggest hit of the day. She kept repeating to me over and over, "I just can't believe I have my OWN legos!!!"

Her own chapstick came in pretty close, though:

And she was also pretty happy about her new princess dress:

Which inspired much dressing up and posing from everybody:

Then the pirates and princesses moved on to do some serious Lego building:

Enjoying her picnic hotdog birthday lunch. She was pretending she was eating at a fancy restaurant, and I was designated "Person in Charge of Restaurant." She really called me that. I would go back and forth from the kitchen to the back porch, and she would say in a really high pretending voice, "Um, Person in Charge of the Restaurant, I think we could use a little more pink lemonade out here please, okay?"

Helping me whip up some birthday cakes:

Decorating her own mini cake:

So that I could work on the kitty cake that she had requested:

The two birthday buddies posing together:

With their cakes:

Blowing out the candles:

We really are so lucky to have Rachel in our family. She is such a funny, sweet, obedient little girl.

Weight-management tips from a 4-year old

The other day Rachel was messing around with our bathroom scale, and she asked me "why do we even need these things, anyway?"

Me: Oh, I don't know - people use them to see how heavy they are, so they can tell if they're getting too fat.

Rachel: I don't get it. Can't they just look down?!

I love the way kids simplify things.

And speaking of weight, I'm going to have to start worrying about mine if Rachel and Lizza keep bringing me morning snacks like this one:

They are so kind to look after me while I blog:

Except I'm not so sure how I feel about it when they bring me trays full of tasty treats like this one:

Because did you see what was in that lower right hand corner?

"They're fish-sticks, Mom!!"

Visitors from Oklahoma

My sister Rebekah just moved to Oklahoma last month (her husband is going to dental school there), so we took advantage of the fact that we are only one state away from each other, and last week she drove down for a visit with her two girls (Mariah is 2 1/2, and Elaine just turned 1).

We spent a lot of our time at the neighborhood pool (we even miraculously got one picture with all 7 of the kids in it (click to enlarge; 3rd picture from the left) They're not in the greatest of poses, and Oliver might be under water, but it was the best we could do):

It was so fun watching Henry and Elaine play with each other, because they are so close in age (she's about 3 weeks older). For the most part, they got along really well, and they'd just kind of follow each other around. (There was one time that Henry decided to claim a particular push-toy, and he went on the offensive to keep Elaine away from it, but she was a great sport about the pushing, shoving, and eye-gouging that Henry was dishing out. Who knew he could be such a bully?) These are just a few of the pictures we got of the two of them hanging out together (and I promise Henry doesn't just wear his diaper all day long - we really had been doing a lot of swimming):

Bekah and I also had our share of fun. We left the kids with Daniel a few different times and went out for some sister time. One of the nights we drove down to Austin. I showed Bekah the capitol building, and we watched the bats fly out from Congress Bridge (a true Austin experience!). We ate dinner at Pita Pit and then went really wild and played darts in a bar on Sixth Street (Bekah won).

Hooray for sisters living close enough to visit!

More Henry

Henry is at that fun stage where he loves to spend all day doing things like this:



And this:


And this:



And the thing is, he gets away with it all because he is just so darn cute we don't even know what to do:

We are overcome by his cuteness.

A Disgruntled Knight

This is what happens when you try to sleep in on Saturday morning so you take your baby upstairs to the playroom and ask his older siblings to please take good care of him:

The Best Thing about Summer

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)