Can it be?

Charlotte turned 1 today! I can't even believe it! Was it really a year ago that I held this newborn in my arms? It seems like just yesterday. I will post much more later, but for now, here are her monthly pictures for nostalgia's sake.

Newborn

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

1-year-old!!!

We made it through our first year!

Lessons from Charlotte

This is the best way to eat a bottle!

Days like these

When I dreamed of having a family with Mark, this was the kind of day I dreamed of. There are many days that are frantic, tiring, and trying. That's life. But, along comes those days that are just perfect and I can't help but stop and thank God for the amazing blessings in my life. I am thankful for my family on any day, good or bad, but I especially cherish days spent together in laughter and joy. We woke up this morning and while Daddy did the lawn, Charlotte and I played. She is so funny and fun to be around. She likes to take her plastic box filled with shapes and dump it over her head. Another thing that I love is that she loves to roll a ball back and forth, and she will go find a ball and initiate the play. Then, we packed up and headed to the Dallas Arboretum. It was such a gorgeous day! We roamed the trails and looked at the gorgeous flowers. Then, we sat on a blanket under a tree and ate a picnic lunch. The temperature was so wonderful in the shade. Mark and I both commented that we could have laid down on the blanket and taken a nap right there! After the Arboretum, Char and I both took and nap while Daddy worked on a present he is building for Char's birthday. Then, we had some more playtime, dinner, bath time, and now baby girl is snuggled up in her bed. What a wonderful Saturday! Of course, you can't go to the Arboretum without taking pictures. Here are my favorites!

A good bug

Over Spring Break I caught a bug, a sewing bug that is! For some reason, I just really wanted to try a few projects. I realized that I hadn't even used my sewing machine since we moved into our house, and that was three years ago. And, since I was busting out the sewing machine, I figured I should make it worth my time. The first project I tried was some burp clothes. I made some to practice for my friend Alli's new baby boy, Beau. Then, I used the same material and made some for another friend whose baby shower I attended yesterday. Overall, I like how they turned out. Next time, I want to cut the fabric wider so that it takes up more of the burp cloth and less white will show.

Then, I moved on to some shirts for Charlotte. I knew I wanted to make her some shirts with a "1" for her upcoming birthday, but I wanted some other cute shirts too. I used iron-on backing to get the material to stick to the shirt. Then, I went and stitched around the edge. On the flower one, I used a straight stitch. Then, on the other shirts, I used a zig-zag stitch. The benefit of the zig-zag is that it will encompass the outer edge of the material to keep it from fraying. Don't inspect them too closely because the stitching isn't perfect. However, I think it was a good first try! I look forward to more sewing projects this summer!

This is the cutest model I have ever seen! I love this one because it looks like she is pointing to her shirt to show it off!

This "C" stands for cool . . .

and cute!

We are SO in for it!

Please watch to see what happens when we tell Charlotte "no".

And she's off . . .

On Sunday night, Charlotte took her first steps! She unexpectedly took about 5 steps in a row. Then, when Mark finally got the camera, she would only do about 3 in a row. Tonight she was practicing some more. Oreo, our cat, is a good motivation for her. She took 10+ steps down the hallway to try and get to him! I will keep you updated on her walking progress. Go, Charlotte!

Getting closer!

Charlotte is getting closer to walking these days. She can walk around just holding onto one of my fingers. Please ignore the stark white legs in this video and just focus on the cute little girl!

Happy Birthday, Poppy!

Today is Tom's 60th birthday! He didn't want a big party, so we had a nice quiet celebration at their house. As always, Charlotte was happy to see her grandparents and happy to provide the entertainment for the evening!

Charlotte and the birthday boy

Play with me Poppy . . .

Charlotte was recently introduced to the beanbag chair and she loves it!

Off to Great-Grandmother's we go

This past weekend (the first weekend of Spring Break) we went to go see my Grandmother, who lives in San Angelo. San Angelo is not exactly a bustling town and isn't on the way to anywhere, so we knew that we had to make a very specific trip to go see her. This was Charlotte's first time to see her Great-Grandmother, although we have been sending pictures since she was born. My brother rode along in the backseat with Char and we were so thankful for that! It is a 5 hour trip and her Uncle Jeremy really helped to keep her entertained. We also met my parents there.

Four generations of girls!

We couldn't get Charlotte to stop sticking out her tongue!

Probably the funniest story of the weekend involved going to church on Sunday morning. My grandmother goes to a very small church of less than 100 people. There were about 3-4 other kids, but they were extremely well-trained and quiet! During the Lord's Supper, the church was quieter than I have every heard a church be. Seriously, you could hear people breathing. Then, the air conditioner cut off and it was even more quiet! All of the quiet was only to be interrupted by my sweet daughter going "Aa" every few seconds because she just wanted to talk! Mark leaned over and whispered, "I really hope she doesn't fart!". I just about lost it! I could just picture it. Thank goodness our daughter controlled her bodily functions throughout the church service.

At Great-Grandmother's, her favorite things to do were look out the storm door to the world outside, and play on the spinning brown chair. Such simple fun!

She discovered how to make the chair rock!

11-months-old

Last week, Charlotte turned 11-months-old! I can't believe she is almost a year old. Time really does slip away. We are enjoying our time with Charlotte at this age. She loves "talking". Whether she is crawling, sitting and playing, or in her car seat, she almost always has something to say. She is favoring the d, m, b, and t sounds at the moment. She understands a lot of what we say to her. She understands the signs for eat, drink, more, and all-done. She has only tried to do "more" a little bit, but definitely not consistently. The word "no" has become very ingrained in our vocabulary these days. She is into everything and does not like it when we tell her no. She knows that it means she is supposed to stop doing whatever fun activity she has started and most of the time she is not willing to stop. We usually have to pick her up and move her and distract her with something else. She is completely on table foods now! No more baby food! It makes meal times so much better because we can all sit down and eat at the same time, instead of one of us having to spoon food into her mouth. She is eating a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with bottles and snacks in between. We definitely have a picky eater on our hands. Something she likes at one meal she may want nothing to do with at the next meal. Red grapes are by far her favorite. She uses a sippy cup and feeds herself her own bottle. She isn't walking yet, but she can get anywhere very quickly by crawling and can make it across the whole room "furniture cruising". Charlotte can stand up and squat down without holding on to anything. Sometimes she will stand there and it seems like she is thinking of taking a step, but then she drops down and crawls to her destination. We love it when she sits and plays on her knees. It is just too cute! More than anything, she makes us laugh on a daily basis. She has such a silly personality and loves to explore new things, whether it by a new room, toy, or sound she is making. Giggling is one of her favorite things and she does it often! We are so thankful each and every day for our sweet baby girl!

Wishful thinking

If I keep carrying around my empty snack cup, will more snacks magically appear in it?

Our Texas Girl

Happy to be a Longhorn!

Giggles at Bathtime

Pizza time!

Charlotte hasn't always been the best eater. She didn't want to take to a bottle when she was younger. Then, her body didn't react well when we started rice cereal. We had to switch to oatmeal. Then, when we started baby food she loved the veggies, but didn't want anything to do with fruit. When we started table food, she was loving both veggies and fruit. Then, this week she decided that she no longer likes vegetables! Tonight, it was just Char and me while Daddy is at a guys' night. So, I ordered us ham and pineapple thin crust pizza - a kind of pizza Mark would never want to eat! Char loved it! She just sat there and ate and ate and ate. No complaining, and no throwing food on the ground. What a nice, peaceful dinner time. That's Mommy's little girl!