Happy birthday to this guy!

Happy birthday to our favorite New Years Eve birthday boy! 

We love you,

Your Girls 

Christmas 2013 in St. Matthews

We went to St. Matthews to celebrate after Christmas.

group shot!  

We had a delicious lunch, then let the kids go wild with their presents!  Christmas just gets crazier with this group, too.  Seven kids and one more coming in May!

Beautiful tree! 

Best attempt of a shot with all of the kids.

Lee got a GoPro for Christmas and got the best video of Caroline on Cooper's tricycle.  Once I figure out how to post on here, I will add it.  It was the cutest video!

Christmas Day 2013

We woke up at a very reasonable 7:30 on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought the girls.  Obviously, Tolson had no idea what was going on.  Caroline did not understand Santa, but she was  excited to see the presents!  

Caroline loved the 4 wheeler from Santa!

Mom cooked a delicious brunch and everyone came to the house to celebrate.  

Only family picture of the day.

Allison with the girls!

Addie and Bennett- 2 of the 4 cuties at the kids table.  

Bennett is the only kid in our family that eats as much as Caroline!

Caroline clearly enjoyed her brunch!

We loved spending time in Aiken with family!  I was glad we were able to be there this year with everyone.

Christmas Eve 2013

We decided to give Caroline her "outside" gift a day early so she could play with it on Christmas Eve when we had some down time.  She loved her new Minnie Mouse 4 Wheeler.  She was even pretty good at driving it, we just need to work on the concept of turning!

We didn't make it to church on Christmas Eve this year.  Tolson is just too young to be exposed to large crowds, especially during cold and flu season.

Everyone else looking good and off to church.

We met up with everyone after church.

We have a lot of girls in the family- Addie (3), Lily (2.5), Caroline (18 months), Bennett (17 months) and Tolson (5 weeks).  Next Christmas, we will have one more girl and our first little boy.  Tricia is expecting her second daughter in March and Breigh a little boy in April. Each year it gets more crazy as we keep adding more kids, but that is what helps to make it so much fun!

Caroline, Addie, Lily and Bennett

We then went home and opened presents late Christmas Eve with the adults.  Caroline missed that memo, though, and would not go down without making a scene that threatened to wake up Addie and Bennett, so she joined us for presents, too.  She was nice enough to "help" the rest of us.

Sweet Tolson slept through most of it!

18 months

At 18 months, Caroline:

*loves her baby sister.  She is always saying "hi baby" and "bye baby."  She tries to help her when she cries.  She will even dance for her if Tolson is crying.  

*is talking more and more.  "No" and "no no" are probably still her favorites.  She has added "uh-huh" to the rotation now.  She will now say two and three word phrases.  No Mama.  Bye bye Dada.  

*has good manners.  She says thank you and sometimes will say please.  We are still working on please.

*has discovered the word "mine" and now uses it all of the time.  Everything is hers.  My juice, my baby, my snack, etc...

*Still sleeps very well.  If she stays up late, she will sleep in, which is nice.

*is a party animal.  She doesn't like to miss anything!  She especially loves a party at Bubbles' house.

*She can be very sweet, but most of the time is BUSY.  I don't know any other way to describe it. She does not fit the mold of a typical first born.  She is a dare devil, fiesty, VERY friendly and NOT a rule follower.  She is always moving and rarely sits still.  

*She still loves to eat.  "Nack" is another new favorite. She also loves milk.  She would drink a whole gallon a day if I would let her.  I'm working on cutting back on this and adding more juice (which in our house is 80% water and 20% juice).  She has quite the little baby gut :)

*loves school.  

*is a MESS.  This child can make a mess in a heart beat.  Her toys are everywhere.  She pulls things out of bags, drawers, table tops, you name it.  The house is always a disaster...something I am starting to get used to, but will always drive me crazy.

*is a dancing machine!  She loves to dance and has some really great moves.  It never gets old watching her dance.  

18 month stats:  

Height:  33 inches  81%
Weight:  26 lbs 10 oz  78%
Head circumference:  48.3 cm  89%  

Tolson is 1 month old!

1 month stats:

Height:  22.2 inches  88%
Weight:  9 lbs 6 ounces 56%
Head circumference:  38.1 cm  76%

So far, Tolson is a very sweet baby.  She is sleeping one 4-5 hour stretch at night, so that is great!  She eats a lot, which explains her 2 pounds and 1 ounce weight gain in only 3 weeks.  She is a noisy little thing- grunting and squeaking all of the time, gets the hiccups at least twice a day and spits up a lot!  She loves to be held, but also likes to take little naps on her belly.  Her jaundice has disappeared and she has gorgeous skin and her pretty eyes are still blue.  She is still sleeping in our room in the Rock and Play, Nap Nanny or bassinet (we rotate because I'm terrified of giving her flat head), but the doctor says I should start letting her sleep in her crib, so I will give that a try soon.

In her first month of life, she has been to St. Matthews for Thanksgiving and to Aiken twice!  She is a good little traveler, which is a good thing as we are about to take off for Christmas.

We are blessed with sweet Tolson and are looking forward to celebrating our first Christmas with her.