We Have a One Year Old!

And just like that our girl is ONE!  

We had Joel's sisters, Danielle and Rachelle, in town today, as well as his parents, Doreen and Ray.  My parents, Debbie and Jamie, came by around lunch as did my sister, Teren.  We ate lunch together and celebrated Charlee by eating pumpkin pie (made from our homegrown pumpkins!) and opening various presents throughout the day. 

The love this girl has brought to our lives since her arrival one year ago is unprecedented.  We LOVE you, Charlee Rae.  We love you so much.

Happy First Birthday, Sweet Girl.

Charlee's Birthday Table

So excited for presents!

Wasting NO time getting these things ripped open!

Her new golden Minimocs.

Check 'em out!

Getting a little help with the next present...

Taste testing

What could it be?

LEGOOOOOOO.

Allll mine.  *Note: Ben lurking in the background.

This is when Ben thought he was being sneaky with the ribbon.

And then Ben started eating the ribbon.

Just posing casually with this tower I didn't make.

A happy girl!

Nana brought some awesome balloons!

Joel requested a birthday pumpkin pie for Charlee's birthday - ha! We had to use up our garden pumpkins so I consented.

The cleanest, tamest "cake smash" in the history of baby birthday cake smashes.

It was more of a "cake scratch" really...

We adore you, Charlee Rae.  You bring such light and joy to those who know and love you.

Happy birthday, sweet girl.  May we keep on laughing forever with you!

And with a skipped afternoon nap, I think it's safe to say Charlee's first birthday was a huge, fun, entertaining success!  Thanks to all our friends and family who sent texts, Facebook messages, snail mail, presents, cards and money to Charlee for her birthday.  It means so much to us that our girl is loved by the people WE love, near and far. 

xxk&j&charlee rae

Charlee's 1st Hallowe'en!

We have discovered the reason for having children!

We've never been big Hallowe'eners ourselves, but now that our little Piglet is in the mix, I can see this getting better and better every year...especially because we have an authentic Hallowe'en cat.

 

But seriously.  Look at this!  How can we NOT love Hallowe'en now!?!

Is this for real!? How much personality can this kid possess?!?

Showing us her cool hat.

 Wrangling pumpkins was a debacle.  One of my less awesome moments, if you will.  Let's just leave it at this: Joel saved the day, as per usual.

There is a story behind this next shoot.  

Joel's parents gave Charlee this Ernie toy that talks non-stop.  We didn't love Ernie at first, but we love him now because of his sweet, sweet melody:

Riding on a train,

To the farm on a train,

Got a pig right behind me on the train,
OINK! OINK!

When the whistle starts blowin',

The train starts goin',

Back to the farm againnnn.

Yep.  We love him now.

And then we played and carved pumpkins.

Next up...trick-or-treating at Nana and Grandpa's!

xxk&j&charlee rae