My baby is O-N-E!!!!

What do you do with an almost 1 year old while you're trying to get cakes made? You feed her Oreo's of course!!!!! On Saturday my sister and step sister came over to help me finish up for Kaitlynn's party. We had so much fun, and got so much accomplished.

We had cakes to make, cup cakes to make, house to clean, tables to set up, laundry to fold, and so much more that didn't even make the list or... get done!

Kaitlynn got so messy with the Oreos she needed a bath right away! But she was having a blast chasing us in the walker with her messy hands!!!

I decided to do the cake myself, and I was so pleassed with the way it turned out. Infact when we got done, I had to call Joel's sister and ask if she could cut it. There was no way I could stand to destroy it, it was just too cute!!!! The whole thing was edible!

I also found this cute idea for cupcakes, and just had to make them. And considering we had 67 people invited, I figured we'd need them.....anyone want any? There are plenty left!
Of course when you work so hard you have to have a little fun, and we did! I got Lindsey with the frosting, and her and Kaitlynn were just Beautiful!
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The big day finally came for the BIG party!!!! We had such a good time, and an awesome turnout. It was so fun to be able to have all the family and friends we love, that have been there for us the last year. If you wern't able to make it, and are one of our loved family and friends, please know how much we appreciate your support!!! All my September Moms, you've been wonderful, and I love you ladies. Also to all our friends and family that have been there emotionally, we thank you too!!!!!!

It's been a tough year, and the first 4 months went by with unknown certitanty, and the last 8 have been way too fast! I thank our lucky stars every day that the great Nurses found it when they did. Kaitlynn and I will be going there tomarrow to tell them thank you as well!!!!!

Enough talking and on with the picutures!!!!

Kaitlynn got her own cake and didn't quite know what to do with the candle. She proceeded to lick all the frosting off first, and only after I cut into the cake did she proceed to eat it. She was so content with her cake also, and sat there for more than an hour eatting, and playing in it!

See she had a good time!!!!
Here's what was left of some of our family. There are pictures before we ate of all the kids, and they were having such a good time! But then again when you've got 26 nieces and nephews, it's always a good time. There are so many of them that are the same age range so they always have a good time!
We had a bunch of beach balls in the back yard, and here is MacKenzie and our niece Jenna cleaning up! Little Jenna is the oldest of the youngest babes! She just turned one in March!
Here is Kaitlynn opening one of her presents! She was getting mad because she couldn't get all the wrapping paper off!
POOPED, this little girl only went on one nap that was maybe an hour to and hour and a half! (this from a girl who normally takes AT LEAST a 3 hour nap each day!) She had so much fun opening all her gifts and was the last one to crash lastnight!
One last THANK YOU to everyone for everything you helped out with. Weather it was financial, physical or emotional help, we couldn't have done it without you!

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So you ask, how did my baby spend her actual birthday? We headed out to the State Fair today, and she had a good time looking at all the animals, and eatting more cake when we got home. She also got to play with her toys, and we got her some balloons. She loved the ballons.

Dahrran and MacKenzie are having a hard time with my new rule. "When you get a new toy, it is YOURS and only yours for the next 24-48 hours, you don't have to share" So this is hard for them with all the new toys Kaitlynn has got. They know though that they can play tomarrow, which has them excited!!!

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I'm off to bed! I'm completly exhausted myself. We've got another big day tomarrow....MacKenzie starts preschool tomarrow. She's excited, and can't wait to wear her Dora shoes. She also gets to go with one of our nieces, and they're both ready to go. Let's just hope the school is still standing when SIL, and I get back!!!!!!

Calling all shutter bugs....

So I totally found something I WANT WANT WANT more than anything right now, and I will have myself one.

Want in on it? If you've got a big camera like I do, then you'll really want to check these out! Shealynn has some really cool designs, and they're fairly reasonable in prices!!!

So you ask, how can I get one? Well I've got a way you can get one for free!!!! All you have to do is head on over to the Vintage Pearl and let her know which one is your favorite!

I know my favortie is this one or this one. Check them out everyone!!!! You'll be begging for more!

I'll never see my Brother again.....

"The Time Has Come, The Time is Now, Marvin K. Mooney you MUST go NOW!"

I can't believe the time has come to send my baby to school. I knew it was time, and I've been waiting for it to come for a while now, and it was here. Dahrran was just as excited as I was. He shot out of bed when he'd realized I was already awake.

MacKenzie wanted to be in all the pictures we had to take in the beginning.....
But then didn't want much to do with them here...It was time to make the walk to the bus stop.
Yawning already?
Here he goes, I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry....

I didn't cry until...MacKenzie cried. She took it worse than I did, and cried that, " I'll never see my brother again, I'll never ever ever see him. I want him back I'm going to miss him."

She did pretty well though, and after we got home she didn't mind that he was gone. I think she didn't exactly know what to do though. Of course though she had to give her mommy a scare. She'd took off twice yesterday. Once she ended up at our next door neighbors house, and was just over there "talking to Valerie". And the next time, I thought she'd went in the house, and she'd actually just went to play between our fence and the neighbor's fence. Scared me I tell ya.

Dahrran had a good day though, and was so excited. As if the look on his face doesn't say it!!

This morning he didn't get up as fast as he did yesterday, and MacKenzie still cried when we left him at the bus stop. But she's doing better, and well I'm still trying to adjust to only having two children again. I don't exactly know what I did with only two. Times in the afternoons it feels like I've only got one with Kaitlynn down for her naps.

Lady Bug Spots

I got Kaitlynn's birthday invitations done, I can't belive her birthday is in two weeks!!! Seems just like days ago that I was HUGELY pregnant walking around our local county fairs! Now I'm sitting here working on my baby's 1st birthday invitations. It's been a long year, but it's been an fantastic year! So do you want to see her invitations???? Okay okay, I'll show you...if you're family, and don't want to see them that's fine just don't keep reading! Your's will be in the mail shortly!!!!

The Loving Dedicated Husband

So for some reason the last few nights, while I've been checking up on my fellow bloggers, and emails and such, DH has stayed "up" with me. Read: Fallen asleep on the couch, floor, where ever. I have to say this is a true dedicated husband. I've told him to go on up without me, I'll be there shortly. But then again if it was going to be shortly, why is he falling asleep you ask? Well because as you fellow bloggers know, I've come to find my favorites, and just a special few are on my blog roll, the rest are in my favorites!!!!! So this can either take a few minutes or an hour!?! Along with the emails to respond to!

It's the very LAST weekend of "normal" life, or shall I say life that's been "normal" for the past 5 years! Nothing much to do, staying up WAY too late even on Sunday's, and just hanging out. You see we're not going to get back to "normal" for a LOOONG time! Read: Probably more than 20 years! You see school here starts in just a matter of days, not weeks, days. My baby will be starting Kindergarten. I can't believe it, it just means that I'm getting older. See I was a senior when I had Dahrran, and I still don't believe that it's been 5 years, even though I had my reunion just a few months ago. So what will we do with our last weekend of "normalcy?" Probably nothing more than "normal" things! LOL! We attended another county fair this evening, and may attend the last days at our local pool. Only a couple more school supplies are needed, and then my, not so, little boy will be getting on the, very, big school bus, and will be on his way to bigger and better things!

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:Pay It Forward:

I was recently fortunate to be able to play the Pay It Forward game over at 3 Guys, A Girl, and a Prim Place. So I want to be able to share it with you!!!!!

This is how it works. The first 3 people to comment requesting to join in this "Pay It Forward" exchange, will be sent a surprise from me. WHOO HOOO!!!! Then you need to post it on your blog, and the first 3 people to comment, you will need to send them out a surprise and it just keeps going and going and going.

The gift can be something you've made, or bought. Please keep your gifts small (maybe something you can put into a regular or manila envelope)

You can play more than once, if you want to. I just need your email address for your mailing address.

SO LET'S PAY IT FORWARD!!!!!

Hope everyone else has a great weekend, I'll get in contact with the first 3 Bloggy gamers!

this took FOR-EV-ER!!!

Okay so this took forever to load all of these, and I had the title all picked out..."a few Tidbits of Fair"....it's more than a few tidbits! More like a bunch! But when you've got over 300 photos to mull over this is what I get! I've got lots of favorites, and lots of ones I love but I thought I'd share a few with you all!

This is my little sister, with MacKenzie, they were having so much fun, of course it was the first day of the fair getting things checked in, and not much happening!

Dahrran having a good ole time just walking around!

Here is Dahrran listening to the Judge with his rabbit, he did so good, and I've got so many pictures of the kids showing, but it's just easy to pick my favorites, otherwise...we'd be here ALL day long!

Here is MacKenzie after she got her Overall Grand Champion. I love the look on her face it was just priceless!!!

Here's the kids with their "rabbit ribbons".

MY FAVORITE all time of the pictures I got. Here is MacKenzie walking out of the show ring after getting her Blue ribbon for her pig

As I said before I've got a TON of pictures, and so I didn't put up ones of the kids showing their pigs, but I did get their picture with their ribbons! They both did awesome!

And to prove that I did take Kaitlynn to the fair, here she is! She did awesome dealing with no sleep, the heat, being cooped up in a stroller all the time, and of course her helmet!

After we got done showing everything, we decided to head out to the Midway with Joel's brother's family. Thier youngest is about 9 months older than MacKenzie, and will be in the same preschool class. The girls are loving it up that they'll be able to spend time together! Also Dahrran enjoyed being able to spend time with his cousins! It was nice to have the kids there to play with my kiddos. Thanks James and Julie, we had an awesome time on the rides with the kids!!!!

This one is just to "prove" to mommy, who by the way said he wasn't tall enough, that Dahrran was tall enough to RIDE on the Bumper Cars!!!! I can't belive he was tall enough, he got to ride along with Tyler, who was tall enough to Drive them! They had a blast!

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When we got home and settled in from the fair, this little package arrived in our mail box. I didn't know who it was from, and couldn't wait to open it.

So a while back I participated in a State to State swap, hosted by Crystal over at Little Bit Funky. It was my first blog swap, and it was quite fun. I got GiGi over at A Fresh Take on Paper, and had a fun time getting my box put together and shipped out. Well here was my return box from my fellow swapper, Kelley. I loved getting the box from Sunny Cali.

She included a little note for me...

Of course the girls were RIGHT there while I was opening it, and wouldn't leave it all alone!

She even sent suckers along for the kids! Which by the way, were SUPER yummy, I want her to send me some more!!!!!

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Well that's all for now! We've been so busy, and we've had the chance to have our roof reshingled the last couple days! So I'll get ya some befores, and afters later! Have a Happy Thursday!!!!

MIA

Okay so I've been totally MIA, and well with County fair, I'm pretty hard to get a hold of! If you really need me, call my cell be sure to leave a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!!!!

On a quick note, the kids showed their rabbits this morning, and did awesome! About 10 seconds before it was time to show, MacKenzie decided she didn't want to do it anymore. She dropped in full force and started crying! Aunt Jess had already taken her rabbit to the table so she had no choice but to stand up there! It's a good thing she did. Both the kids got blue ribbons, which is the best they could do considering they can't give purples in open class. MacKenzie's rabbit was chosen as the top rabbit in her class, and ended up being choosen as the Overall Grand Champion Open Class Rabbit!!!!!! She got a BIG. Purple. Rossett. Did I tell you purple is her new favorite color!? Well it is, and her face got so big when she got that ribbon. The judge said seeing her face was the best part of his day!

So it's been a fun week so far, and the weekend is just begun. Tomarrow they show pigs! I'll catch up more with pics and such when I get the chance!!!

*Which saddly to say probably won't be until Thursday of next week! :(