Audrey has turned one!! The first year is such an amazing feat! The growth and change in babies in those twelve months is simply incredible. They go from eating every two hours, sleeping, and of course pooping, to rolling over, sitting up, standing up, and finally walking (if they are brave enough) within twelve months! That’s only the short list of things they learn! There’s the eating, the teething, the laughing, the playing, the babbling and beginning of learning words, and so much more that babies learn in their first year! It’s nothing short of a miracle really. The first birthday is also, and perhaps more so, a celebration of the survival of the parents! 😅 I don’t know about other moms, but for myself, I can barely remember the first four to six months! HA! It’s all such a blur on many levels. I remember a few of the mile stones, but the day to day is simply blacked out. LOL! It does get easier once they start sleeping longer stretches, and your sleep deprivation is appeased.

Audrey has such a sweet personality. She has the cutest smile, the biggest blue eyes, and can give the sweetest hugs. She has a mouth full of teeth, and she loves to eat! There is not much she doesn’t like food wise. She is a champion crawler, and can walk when she is brave enough or forgets about being afraid. Ha!😏 The girl has a set of lungs!! She is probably the loudest baby ever!! 😬😊HA! I thought David was loud as a baby, but I don’t know, I think Audrey might have him beat. She has learned to use that volume to get her way too!

Since her birthday was on Easter Sunday, we celebrated on Saturday. The theme was bunnies! Her cake was made with the “Flopsy” bunny theme from Peter Rabbit. It has been our tradition to have the first cake made special, (G-pa and Grand-mama’s treat). The cake was such a work of art! It was so beautiful, I almost didn’t want to slice it, but it tasted almost as good as it looked!

I was able to get a few pictures of Audrey in her special birthday outfit. It’s really hard to get her to pose right now. She loves tampering with our phones, and so anytime she sees me with it trying to take her picture she wants to grab it. LOL! I did manage to get some with the camera facing her so she could see her face. All of our kids have been funny about their first smash cake. David loved his, and I have pictures of him with cake all over him! Emma didn’t like hers, she barely touched it. Samuel liked his, and ate quite a bit, but wasn’t too messy. Audrey was a lot like Samuel. She had already eaten her lunch, and so she was not too hungry, which kept her from digging in and being super messy. She was fascinated by the giant cake in front of her, and seemed to really like the taste. We were able to get pictures with her while she was licking the frosting.🥰

David, Emma, and Samuel were helpful in the gift opening process. They loved helping her unwrap her presents, and were very helpful. All the kids were glad to spend time with grandparents and Auntie Leah and Uncle B! We had a fabulous weekend with everyone, and was so thankful to be able to get together for Audrey’s birthday and Easter!

I have started playing piano for a church here in town. So this Easter was bit busy for me. I had four services to play for! However, Andrew fortunately, did not have duties on post this year. Andrew, the kids, and Jim and Alesia were able to come to one of the services, and we were able to worship together on Easter. I always count it a blessing when we are able to sit together as a family in worship! Then Andrew was able to work on putting together Easter lunch for everyone! I have a great husband that I can say he prepared Easter lunch! HA!😄😉 He smoked some pork, made hash brown casserole, steamed green beans, and heated up rolls! Stuffed eggs, and fruit salad were prepared the night before. It was delicious, and we were so blessed to have everyone over for lunch again!

Audrey had her first egg hunt! She didn’t know what to do of course, so once again, the others loved helping Audrey find her eggs! Audrey liked the sound they made when she shook them.💗 I love that the kids had matching outfits this year. They look so adorable! I know they probably won’t always want to match, and so I’m going to take advantage of it for as long as I can!

We are loving and enjoying this beautiful spring weather as much as possible! One of the best thing about babies, toddlers, and young kids is their amazement and discovery of the world around them! A dandelion flower can bring about many minutes of entertainment! 😊 Spring time is so great, because there are so many things to see and explore!

Andrew and I celebrated our first date, April 1st, at Heavenly Ham (now Honey Baked Ham) seventeen years ago! I can’t believe we are fixing to celebrate fifteen years of marriage next month! How time does pass! Life has been good! I look forward to the next fifteen!

Love,

PK