What fun-Jane is ONE!

I know, I know! Where did the last year go? I can hardly believe that Jane is already one. Her birthday was Sunday and being the Sunday before Thanksgiving all the talks at church were on gratitude. I just kept thinking how grateful I am for a beautiful and healthy family. Jane has brought us much joy and has been such a blessing.
She woke up on her birthday in a great mood. She was in a great mood all day until bedtime when I wasn't going to give her a bottle. I did break down and give her a bottle to help her go to sleep. She wasn't so happy today (the day after her birthday) since she hasn't had a bottle all day. She takes her sippy cup and just throws it and screams. I hope that this only lasts a couple days and then she will be fine.
We had a small party for Jane Sunday night. We had Brad's parents, his sister and her family, and Mary and her family over for tacos, cake, and presents. I think dinner turned out great. The funfetti cupcakes are always a huge hit with the kids and I attempted to make a chocolate butterfly cake for Jane. It turned out ok but slightly possessed looking. Oh-well, I tried. She did get butterfly shaped ice cream though. I couldn't mess that up with a cookie cutter! Jane LOVED her chocolate cake and spent forever eating it. She went straight into the bath after wards. Jane also really enjoyed opening up her fabulous presents. She wasn't sure about it at first but by the end was loving it. She had so much fun playing with all her new toys and her cousins too!

This is what the big 1 year old is up too:

*Stands alone
*Crawls so fast (especially if you are chasing her)
*Loves to sing and listen to music
*Laughs like crazy-mostly at her brother
*Pretends to read
*Eating more table foods--hates when I feed her baby food
*No more bottles (hopefully!)
*No weight/length check as of recently
*Takes a 2 hour nap most days
*Sleeps from 9:30-7 with one wake up for some milk or a pacifier
*Has 3 (almost 4) teeth
*Wears clothing sizes anywhere between 6months and 18months (depends on what it is.)
*Has developed some stranger anxiety
*Can get in and out of her swing and bouncy chair (both low to the ground)
*Loves her blanket at nap time and still wants to be rocked to sleep
*Overall Jane is a very happy little girl

The pumpkin patch and Halloween

I figure I should blog about Halloween and the pumpkin patch before Thanksgiving! Time is flying by. We did our annual trip out to Hawe's Farm with Mary and her family. It's always still so warm so in our pictures we are still wearing summer clothes. Dawson always has a blast and Jane enjoyed it this year too. Dawson picked out pumpkins for everyone in the family. We only carved two. Dawson carved a warewolf and we carved Jane a butterfly. Jane was a butterfly (of course!) and Dawson was a skeleton/ninja. He put together 2 old costumes we had and made up a new one so we didn't have to buy another one. I was happy about that!
The night before Halloween we had our annual chili cook off/trunk-or-treat at church. This was the first year since Brad and I have been married that we actually went. It was so much fun and although it was raining the kids loved seeing the church classrooms decorated and just walking in a large circle collecting their goodies. We also spent a couple hours at the annual school carnival. Dawson had fun as did Natalie and Cora but not any of us adults or babies. We might just take them all out to do something else next year. Too many long lines and after 2 hours and 10 pieces of candy and a cupcake it just wasn't worth it.
On Halloween night it was sprinkling and cold so Jane didn't go out. Dawson went out with Mary and her family because Brad was sick and I was taking care of Jane, their son Asher, and Brad. We didn't have as many trick or treaters as usual which we were okay with.
All in all we had a fantastic Halloween once again!