Thursday, September 25, 2008

Birthday Bliss

Sweet Cate had a great birthday yesterday! I do believe she got the birthday-loving gene from her mother because she didn't want to miss a minute of it...she slept for an entire ten minutes out of the whole day!

The birthday girl was bright-eyed the minute she woke up...she must have known it was a big day!

She opened her cards and presents right off the bat...got to start the day off right! The card in the middle was addressed by Towns (it's her version of Cate's name, kind of hard to read)...love it!

She could hardly walk fast enough to get to all her loot!

Once she figured out that tearing through gift bags was oh so fun, it was full speed ahead!

Seeing what's in bag #1

It took about .5 seconds for the scene above to unfold....she loves opening gifts!

Out of everything she got, the balls that came with her new house were her favorite! {FYI...the Fisher Price house front toy (in the background) is the best money ever spent!}

After presents, it was time for a round of "Happy Birthday" complete with a candle in her waffle! In this one she's watching in amazement as we're singing to her....

Next up, a trip to good ol' Chuck E. Cheese!

Apparently sprawling out in the floor is even more fun at Chuck E. Cheese!

A power nap was long overdue (hence the laying in the floor picture - i.e. showing her temper)....

After a quick rest, it was off to the church to stay in the nursery while I taught two dancing classes. On the way inside I snapped a few pictures of Cate in her sweet little birthday dress. Note to self: giving your one-year-old your jewelry to keep her still enough for pictures is not, I repeat not, a good idea because when she's so sick of pictures and starts throwing a fit and you forget to pick your bracelets up from the grass where she's thrown them down, they may or may not be there 3 hours later when you remember where you left them.

She never acknowledged me and the camera until she gave me this "alright lady, enough is enough" face....



Love you and your sassy little self whether you smile for the camera or not, Bugaboo! :)

It was a fabulous day, and the best part is that the fun isn't over yet! We've still got a big birthday party to look forward to on Saturday! {Have I mentioned that I love birthdays? There's not much more in the world I enjoy than celebrating someone super special!}

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

1 Year

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY
CATHERINE HARPER MCCLENDON!
Wish I had some pictures, but my camera is nowhere to be found! Never fear, Amy to the rescue...she's letting me borrow hers for the day! Can't believe my baby girl is a year old! Guess it's true, time flies when you're having fun! :)

Friday, September 19, 2008

We Love the Park!

I think it's seriously our favorite place in all of Decatur! We went late afternoon yesterday and Cate enjoyed the park from a different view...instead of being on all fours like usual, she had fun standing on her own two legs!! Yay Bug! Night before last she took her first steps. Want to take a wild guess at what she was trying to get to while taking those sweet little baby steps? My Diet Coke! The girl's an addict at age 1! Here are some of the fun things we did yesterday...


We did a few (hundred) cartwheels...


Watched Cate practice her new favorite thing (excuse the dress hiked up in the back)...


Climbed the rock wall....


Taught Cate "no fear" McClendon that climbing down the rock wall isn't really a good idea....


Crawled through the tunnel a million and one times...


Met a new friend....


Watched Towns and her new friend in awe....





Did some riding around on the sidewalk....


Climbed the rock pillars and discovered that a stick makes a great magic wand....


And a fantastic microphone as well....


Cate did a little climbing of her own...right up into the seat of her car....


When climbing in the car was old news, she moved onto the rocks too....

We're so thankful for this great (almost) fall weather!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Katherine Lee Crowe

This morning Jess and I made a quick trip to Birmingham to see Anna Kate and meet little Katherine. Oh the sweetness! She's the tiniest little thing and is an absolute doll! Everyone looks beautiful, and by now they should be home swet home with the new baby girl.

Welcome to the world, baby Katherine! You have no idea how much you're loved already! Click here to see more of the sweet baby...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Wordsmith

Towns has really been determined to learn how to write lately. She's been able to write her name for a while, but now she wants to venture a little further into the alphabet. I think it started the last time Bethany was here and brought her backpack full of school books. We played "school" and that got Towns' little brain working overtime! Ever since then she's been captivated by the idea of going to school, using pencils, doing homework, etc. She longs for the the day she'll turn 5 so she can go to Kindergarten. In a perfect world, she'd be 5 already. It's all she talks about, as if being 5 holds the key to all great things in life. A few months ago we were in a fabric shop and a lady asked her how old she was. She said, "Well I'm 3, {long pause} but I feel like I'm 5." Yesterday we were playing school in her room and I'd call out letters for her to write so she could put words together. Here are a couple of things she came up with....

(My personal favorite, naturally!)

And her latest creation...a stick person with a purse!


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I'm On Strike!

On strike from the sun, that is. Call me irresponsible and whatever else, but I've never been overly concerned about getting too much sun. For as long as I can remember I've loved baking in it, and it all started when I was really young and my mom and I would go to the beach almost every Saturday. I've always had the attitude that it would never catch up with me...and I was wrong! That "simple procedure" (to remove a couple of pre-cancerous sun spots) I was supposed to have done the day before Cate's surgery got put off thanks to me showing up for my appointment and having a minor meltdown right in front of my dermatologist. I told her what little Cate was about to go through the next day and she assured me that taking care of my two suspicious spots wasn't anything that couldn't wait a couple of weeks. So I thanked her for understanding and for totally wasting her time, and rescheduled my appointment for last Monday. I was dreading it like the plague, but I went anyway. And I really and truly thought that having these things removed wouldn't be much worse than when they did the biopsy on them....laser it a little and put a Band-Aid on it. An hour or two after those numbing shots wore off I realized it was a tad bit more involved than that! I told J that I was in some major pain so he took a look under the massive bandages and said "you don't even want to know what I'm looking at here - this cut is so big, are you sure she didn't go ahead and remove your shoulder blade while she was at it?" Turns out that "simple procedure" left me with two 1 1/2 inch gashes in my back complete with internal and external heavy duty stitches. WHAT?! I was blindsided by that one! I suppose I've been so caught up in getting Cate all fixed up and on the mend that I completely neglected to find out what my (let's call it like it is) surgery was all about. So all of last week my existence here on Earth solely consisted of lying in bed (very uncomfortably), eating, and sleeping. I'm never one to willingly give in and let people help me...maybe because I don't like to admit I need help and would rather do everything myself. But if it weren't for my dear hubby and my sweet friend Amy (who showed up at my house with groceries and dinner, has had my children more in the last week than I have, has taught all of my dancing classes for me, taken my kids to school, picked them up, need I go on? Don't think I could ever do enough to repay her!) I wouldn't have survived!! I told J that I would give birth five more times before I'd have anything like this done again! Therefore, I'm on strike from the sun indefinitely. After this episode I don't know that I'll ever feel the same about it again! With every move I made all week it was accompanied by "God, if you just let me make it out of this alive I'll stay out of the sun for the rest of my life" (bargaining is against the rules, I know, but it's all that could come out of my mouth at that point)! Sunscreen is my new best friend. And it should be yours, too. Seriously. Anyhoo, it's beginning to be a little more normal around here. We've had a good time, despite everything else going on. And we've got a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks...Cate's turning ONE! Here are some shots from the last week or so...

Last Sunday Bethany made a chocolate chip cake from scratch all on her own...she set everything up so Rachael Ray-ish and we pretended like Towns was the audience and B did a cooking show!

We kept Bug entertained during the cooking show with Lucky Charms. Love how she'll only eat the marshmellows, and if you ask her to share with you she gives you the bunk cereal and keeps the marshmellows for herself! Right, B?! A lesson in sharing the right way is in our near future I do believe! This is the look I got after swiping a few of her beloved marshmellows...

Caught in the act! The cook licking the bowl!!

Who would have thought a kid could sleep this good after all the chocolate and marshmellows? Don't worry, the birthday fairy is bringing her some new pj's since she's about to bust the feet out of these...

My favorite outfit in the closet...she wore it to school last week and did a round of "2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits a dollar" before we went inside...

On our way to Towns' friend Emma's Fancy Nancy b-day party...she'd been waiting for this all weekend long and asked me at least every other minute if it was time to go yet. Finally! It's time! And to celebrate she did a few twirls and dance moves on the sidewalk outside...

Towns getting her hair done at the party after picking the biggest, most fancy dress out of the dress closet...trust me, the finished product was va va va voom! :)

Having her toes painted....

Is that not the fanciest hair do ever?!

Playing a game with Fifi, the fancy dog...

All the girls...Emma is in the middle, Towns on the left, Emma's sister Olivia (hence the name of Towns' new imaginary friend) beside her, and the rest of the girls on the right are their cousins....

Towns and the birthday girl!

Drinking tea from her tiny little tea cup...

On the way to church Sunday morning...had to have baby Charlotte (don't know where the name came from) in her carseat, of course. Along with Cate's lesson in sharing, Towns needs a lesson in the safety of rear-facing infant seats for babies. A mother's job is never done.

(Like the other night when I realized no one ever told me that a strong background in early education was required to be a mom....we were at the tennis courts and I pointed out the half moon to Towns. Her reply? "Where's the other half?" To which I had no reply.)