After a storm last week, I found Rose in Anna Kate’s room, laying in what is going to be her big girl bed… looks like sooner than later!

Last weekend, we got to celebrate Noemi turning 1 at Kay Kay and Grand Papa’s new house!  It was so special!

Here’s the precious birthday girl with her Mommy, Susana, and her Daddy (Mike’s brother), Stephen.  They are the cutest little family!

I LOVE this picture Mike snapped of Noemi enjoying her first birthday cake!  Look at those big blue eyes! (Noelle wrote that part, ahhh)

Kay Kay and GPP bought this awesome teddy for the girls to snuggle.  I bet you’ll see him lots throughout the years when the girls visit their grandparents!  Here’s sweet Kay Kay with her two littlest grandbabies, Noemi and Rose.

Another click of magic by Mike!  This smile (and dance in her eyes) has me captivated!

Rose had a blast playing the balloon game with Grand Papa!

More fun party pics!

Kiss the birthday girl!

Rose had a front row seat for present time!

Here’s Kay Kay and Grand Papa with all their grandbaby girls!!!  They had two boys for all those years, and now they have four grand girls… God is so cool!

I love the “kicked-back Rose look!”  I wish she’d sport it more often, ha!  Love each one as if they were the only one… every moment of every day!

Happy 1st Birthday, sweet Noemi!  We love having cousin time with you!  You are so gentle, cute, inquisitive and sweet!  So happy you are here!!!

“It doesn’t make sense to call ourselves ugly, because we don’t really see ourselves. We don’t watch ourselves sleeping in bed, curled up and silent with our chest rising and falling with our own rhythm. We don’t see ourselves reading a book, eyes fluttering and glowing. We don’t see ourselves looking at someone with love and care inside our hearts. There’s no mirror in the way when we’re laughing and smiling and happiness is leaking out of us. You would know exactly how bright and beautiful you are if you saw yourself in the moments where you truly are yourself.” Author Unknown

We love you to the moon and back, Anna Kate!  You are so CUTE in every single way and make us laugh every single day!  XOXO, Mom and Dad

Mrs. Paula made this awesome bird seed table for the kids to experiment with last week during play time in her back yard! 

I love the pictures Mrs. Paula gets of the animals.  Our girls enjoy seeing them on the blog; I hope you do too!

This egg is in Mrs. Paula’s back yard.  She told us, “It is 12 days since the black swallowtail butterfly laid her eggs, now this one has a dent in it! Will it hatch? When?! We keep looking at it each day.”  She amazes me with her creativity and her love for learning and experimenting too!

We are so thankful for Mrs. Peggy and her story time for all the toddlers in our community!  She’s the best, and last week we got to celebrate her on her birthday!

Rose was so cute doing the hokey pokey… she was really getting into it!

This was the “turn yourself around” part!

Here’s a picture of Rose and Lucy sharing snacks, and Mrs. Peggy reading a story about bears.

Each story time, the kids get a snack during the reading portion, and today’s snack was ice cream!  Rose gave up her spoon and ate it with her fingers… whatever floats her boat!

This is Mrs. Peggy with her Mom and a dear family friend that were our special guests at story time.  I love this picture of them!  We don’t get to go to story time with Rose as much as I did with Anna Kate, but it is wonderful each time we go, and we love it so much!  Happy Birthday, Mrs Peggy!  We love you!

Spring break is on!

These are just a few of the faces we get to enjoy every single day of our lives with Rose.  Loving every minute with this sweet little spunky, wonderful baby girl!!!

Thank you Mollie Grace, for inviting us to the most relaxing birthday party ever!!!  The PondFam5 had SO much fun at your swim party… I think we spent the majority of our time in the hot tub, which was perfect! 

This is a special little group of girls!  Anna Kate and Noelle are mine (of course), Mollie Grace and Maggie are my high school friend, Mark, and Meredith’s little girls, and Gracie and Addy are my high school friend, Greg (Mark’s brother), and his wife Stacey’s little girls.  These little girls parents have pictures together as friends at this age!  It was a hard photo to get (thank you for rounding everyone up, Grandpa Tim) but having this picture is priceless! (Mark and Greg have three children too, they have little boys, and our baby Rose, were all out of pocket, lol)

Rose was ready for a good time!

Noelle went to the top of the slide, chickened out, came back down, gained some more courage, went up to try again, followed through with it, and LOVED it.  From there, she went down it about 50 times!

Love seeing them so happy! 

Noelle and Maggie were the big girls today!  Yes, we let Noelle wear lipstick to a Saturday birthday party.  Lipstick comes off and she has fun expressing herself, which is all that matters to us.  There is a time and place for everything, and we are excited that she is having fun and feels confident enough to be different within the parameters we give her.  And baby Rose… well, she’s just so happy to be here!

Here’s Anna Kate with Mollie Grace, the birthday girl!  They were really anxious to get back to playing!  Mike took Rose down the slide, and she loved it once she realized how much fun it was!

Silly faces… this was the best Saturday we’ve had in a really long time!!!  Thanks for inviting us to celebrate Mollie Grace and play with you guys!  Wish we all lived closer but will treasure the times we can get together, be goofy and have fun!

Lisa, Mrs. Arnold, to the girls, has blessed our lives more than words.  She came over the night before her party to open her present from the girls.  Noelle had picked out several jewelry sets for her because they both have the diva thing going on.  Mrs. Arnold is Noelle’s mentor at school, and Noelle felt so proud to give her something to say thanks!  

Mike and I have been looking forward to Lisa’s party for a while now; a great night out celebrating our friend!  As we drove into Dallas, I got so excited!  I love it here in the big city!

Lisa, Rara and I worked so hard on the table decorations.  Mom tied the bows while she was in town at some point (it’s all running together now), and Lisa and I did the rest.  The room was so classy/fancy in person.  It was a magical night!  I was impressed/proud that we pulled it off!  There was a warm fire going in the middle of this patio room, her beautiful cake, two huge arrangements on the bar, as well as an incredible buffet.  We had so much fun celebrating and dancing… it was the perfect night out!

The cake was more neon than this… we just didn’t get a good picture.  It was beautiful as you can see.  Everything coordinated perfectly!  Lisa is a wonderful friend, and I am thankful for her straight-forward thinking, her honesty and her unconditional love.  She’s so very special to the PondFam5.  Today, when Lisa brought back the vases, and Rose was saying bye, she ran over and hugged her leg and said, “Bye Arnold!”  Lisa’s spunk and energy for life is contagious, and we love her to pieces.  Happy Birthday, friend!!!

These are Lisa’s fun party pics!  Best night out!