Our big 1 yr old!

Karson had a GREAT 1st birthday:) On Sunday we had a party at our house with friends and family and lots of kids. It sure was a lot of fun!

We even had a few balloons and party hats!
Karson loved hitting the balloons

Cousins

Karson enjoyed the pizza
Birthday guests

Present time!

I was so proud of the kids for watching Karson open his gifts and not helping too much

Look what big sis did to me!

Cake time!

He dug right in and found out he really liked cake:) In the middle he took a small break but then dove back in for more! I probably went a little overboard with messy cake face pics but they are just so darn cute!!!

Notice how much cake he ate?

This cake goatee cracks me up! End result...

Now on his actual birthday the kids decided what he should eat for breakfast...a waffle and chocolate chip pancake (each of their favorites of course). He loved them both:)

After dinner it was present time from grandparents, aunts/uncles, and mommy and daddy. As you'll see in the pics below, Karson was VERY good at unwrapping the gifts! He grabbed lots of pieces and ripped them off without any help. He got so many great toys and adorable outfits!

He was so excited to open the gifts that he crawled to them

A few days before, big sis and big brother helped me decorate another cake. They each got one side of the cake as their own and really went all out with the icing:)Then they each picked out a candle to put on their side of the cake and helped Karson blow it out

More cake!

Needless to say, Karson had such a fun filled 1st birthday:) We just can't believe he's one! Thanks to everyone for the cards, toys, clothes, gift cards, etc. He'll have a great time these next few months finding out how all the toys work. You all made it such a special few days for him!!!

Stay tuned for another post about Karson's latest milestones...

___________________________________________________________________
The next day was my birthday...so many birthdays around here lately! Kassidy made this card and picture for me at school. The picture is me (of course!)

Daddy even suprised me with a very yummy white chocolate and strawberry cake complete with numbers...which I haven't had on a cake in years:)

It was so nice to have a day where I received so many texts, emails, cards, and gifts to help celebrate my special day:) THANK YOU SO MUCH! ! ! ! ! We have so many blessings from God to be thankful for...here's to many, many more years!

Happy Birthday Karson!!!

My sweet baby boy...today you are 1 yr old! I really can't believe it! Stay tuned for some bday pics including some messy cake face pics:)

Bits and Pieces

Here are some leftover pics from Feb and the beginning of March that just haven't found their way into my blog yet. Enjoy:)

For Valentine's Day this year I wanted to do something different. So, the kids and I (well mostly me) made our own candy. It was SUPER fun and very yummy! And not too difficult either. First I bought some molds, lollipop sticks, and colored candy wafers at a craft store. Then I melted the wafers and put them in the molds and refrigerated until firm (for the multi-colored ones I had to do 1 color, refrigerate 5 min, do another color, refrigerate 5 min, etc). Kassidy said her classmates were very excited to get some homemade goodies! We also gave some to her bus driver, dance teacher, cheerleading coaches, and all the kids teachers at church.

Back in February we had a snow day and had so much fun playing in it:) The kids were disappointed that it wasn't packing snow to build a snowman with, but did enjoy it anyways. (I guess later in the day when it started to melt it did become packing snow but we were done by then!)

Karson's first time out in the snow! He wasn't too sure about it... NOT enjoying a snow angel

Kassidy's snow angel...looks great huh?!

This was hilarious...Keith told the kids to stand under the tree and he'd have a suprise for them. When he counted to 3 he took the end of the rake and shook all the branches of the tree and all the snow came falling down onto the kids. They thought it was just great and did it several more times on our different trees.

All bundled up! Poor Karson didn't have any shoes or boots to fit so we just went with lots of socks and footed PJ's. That's what happens when you live in South Carolina!

Kaleb's favorite thing was sliding into the big snow pile at the bottom of the slide!

Jack looked like a little deer jumping all around

Daisy didn't like walking in the snow very much and walked all clumsily...too funny

It's always fun to swing:)

Our lease was up on the van so we got another one, this time black. Kassidy went with Keith to Honda to get things squared away while Kaleb was napping. When Kaleb woke up they were home with the new van. Kaleb said, "Wow! Daddy changed the car black!" It's so funny how 4 yr old minds think:)

Kassidy's Upward Cheerleading trophy

Here's my cousin Alex, a pitcher for Wright State. They were down in South Carolina at Clemson playing a tournament so we got a chance to see him in action...very cool! You might have even heard of him on ESPN recently:) Go Alex!!!

Some of Alex's cheering section (his mom and sister in front row)

One of my best friends (I've known her since she was 8!) is getting married in May and had her bridal shower recently. Here's the cake I brought...it was a hit at the shower!

Erin and her sister Ashlee (who flew in from New York to throw the shower)...and Buckeye

And what is a bridal shower without the famous TP Bride game! As always, this game is by far a favorite:) These teams did such a great job creating dresses and veils. This team also made a ring for their bride, Erin's grandma.

This team made a bouquet

Wireless Communications newest store...located in Central (right by Clemson University).

This is their 6th store and we're so proud of their hard work and their success!!!!!

Karson's 1st crawl!!!

Well it only took 11 1/2 months, but Karson finally crawled!!! We were playing Cars Dominoes with the kids last night and Karson really wanted the Dominoes. We put them just out of his reach and he was trying everything he could to get them including rolling both ways, but it wasn't working and boy was he getting mad. He finally got up on all fours and just took a few little crawls...we couldn't believe it! He did it again a little bit while mommy had the video camera out, too, so enjoy:) We're so proud of you, Karson!!! It definitely won't be long now until you're crawling everywhere.