Violet Turns One!

Our pretty Violet turned one yesterday.  Allan and I can't believe how quickly this last year has raced by and that our sweet new born is already so big, or rather, so grown up.  She certainly isn't very big. At her year old check up last week she weighed a whopping 17 lbs and was just shy of 27 inches tall, that puts her in the 5th percentile.  She gets prettier every day and has such a sweet and cheerful disposition.  Everyone who meets her adores her and it's hard not to with her infectious smile and easy giggles.  I think her siblings were more excited for Violet's birthday than they have ever been for any of their own.  They spent all morning yesterday decorating a cake for her with Violets on it.  Then they counted down the hours until her big birthday BBQ with all our nearby family.  

It's always difficult to open gifts with a one year old.  She was far more interested in crawling around and trying to get her hands on this baseball than in looking at her presents.

Before church yesterday I got some pretty birthday pictures of her.

We sure love this sweet baby! Happy Birthday Viley!!

Sunny Days

Shortly after our snowman melted we had a week of gorgeously sunny, hot weather.  For four days straight the kids spent every possible moment out in the sprinkler soaking up every ray of sunshine they could. 

Even Lillian braved the sprinkler for the first time ever this year and got a little damp.

In hopes of saving a few hundred dollars in annual flowers this year I decided to divide our huge backyard flowerbed in two different smaller gardens for the kids.  The girls' side is a fairy garden and Walker's is a dinosaur garden.  They did all the planting all by themselves and my hope is that the cute little fairy houses and dinosaur toys will fill in the bare spots.  I'll post lots of pictures of both gardens once they've filled in a little bit.  That will include an insanely adorable Grandma and Grandpa Fairy house that my parents made for the girls.

They cooperated so well together as they planned out and planted their gardens.  

We were all so exhausted by the end of this day.  By the time we were done preparing all of the flower beds, planting and watering them and the kids had their fill of playing in the sprinklers I think we spent a total of 5 hours outside.

A couple of Sundays ago Lillian insisted that both she and Violet wear their "Belle" dresses.  It was a photo opportunity that was too perfect to pass up.