He's one!

A year ago...

Today, on his first birthday!
Happy Birthday, Will! We love you so much!

Saturday at the camp

R & A swinging on the porch at Robert's parent's cabin

Aubrey's first canoe ride at the camp

Hiking through the woods together

Checking out the campfire.

We went to the camp where Robert's parents spend a lot of time volunteering this weekend while they were helping out with a retreat. Both the kids loved being outside and exploring all the rocks and sticks they could find. Aubrey also had a big first for her -- her first night to spend the night away from home without me or Robert! She stayed with Robert's parents Saturday night and they brought her back to us Sunday morning. The only other time I'd been away from her overnight was when I was in the hospital after Will was born & my mom stayed with her at home. All in all, she did great and had fun roasting marshmallows and playing with Grandma Pam & Grandpa Isaac!

Since A only naps once or twice a week these days, this is how I often find her room after her hour of "rest time" or "quiet play time" -- she loves to take everything out of her shelf and set up a zoo or school all over her floor.

Aubrey wrote "Will" all by herself!

Making a napkin hat at dinner

Love the mohawk!

The Zoo

We went to the zoo last weekend for a friend's 5th birthday. We hadn't been back to the zoo since A was 1.5, so she really enjoyed it...

Climbing the gate with the goat in the petting zoo area. She loved feeding the animals and didn't mind them nibbling at her fingers.

Riding the zoo train with her good buddy, John.

Admiring a peacock

Favorites

Will is showing his likes (& dislikes) so much more lately and I'm really enjoying watching his personality grow & develop more & more each day. I just wanted to record some of the things he likes and what he's up to, so I don't forget!

-After being fed for so long, Will now loves to feed me food off of his tray. After eating a few cheerios or whatever, he'll start holding them out for me to eat.

-He loves bringing me things I ask for -- if I ask him to get a diaper, he'll go get it & bring it to me. Also, if he finds Robert's glasses, he'll bring them to him & try to put them back on. Or if he finds one of Aubrey's bows around, he'll try to put it on her head like "Hey, I know where this goes".

-If I ask him to point at my eyes, nose or mouth, he gets it right! But when he points to my eyes, he keeps trying to stick his fingers right on my eyeballs, which isn't very comfortable...

-He definitely prefers real food now over baby food. His favorites are lasagna, grilled chicken, pasta & cheese. He's still a great eater and eats all his fruits & veggies, too. He likes to say "mmmm" while eating and "ahhh" after taking a sip of his water.

He always wants to go outside! He likes to play in the gravel, sand box, swing, peek-a-boo in the play house, etc... If we get anywhere near the back door, he'll start saying "out" and pointing outside.

-Some of his new words are "eat", "ruff" or "woof" for dog, "upt" (combination of up & out he sometimes uses), & the funniest new one is "aa-A-oo-ya", which is "Alleluia". We sing "The Doxology" a lot and after we sing the Alleluia part, he'll start saying it over and over again!

Will loves the stacker now that he has mastered it! Working hard to get the ring on...

He did it!

His other favorite toy is the ball popper -- he'll drop the balls in over & over & over again...

Banging on things that make noise is still a hit -- the AC vent is still his fav!

Poor baby's had a fever virus for the last couple days, but thankfully, it hardly slowed him down. He's still been eating, playing, smiling and pretty much his normal, happy self. His fever has been lower today, so I'm hopeful that he'll be over it tomorrow and we can enjoy our weekend more. Right now, Aubrey & Robert are on a Daddy/Daughter date to dinner & the first RR Express game (with fireworks -- Aubrey's favorite). All winter, she's been asking to go to the baseball game to see Spike (the mascot), so she was super excited that she finally got to go! I hope y'all have a great weekend!

Fun weekend

We had a great time with some good friends who came to visit from Louisiana last weekend! Here are the girls enjoying some ice cream after dinner on Friday night.

Pretending to drive a bus at the park on Saturday.

Playing dress-up and listening to music at home.

We just ordered pizza on Sunday night and ate outside while the kids ran around & played. These are 5 of the 7 kids -- the other 2 are only 5 and 7 months old, so they weren't in on the Barbie Jeep rides...

Park pics