Our Big Birthday Girl!

We had an All-American Girl party for Maisy's first birthday. We went to the park and had burgers, homemade root beer, potato salad (thanks Cody and Erin!), and lots of fun. My sister/party planner was a HUGE help - she made these fantastic little cupcakes I really wanted that were red, white, and blue inside and were frosted with her yummy buttercream frosting and decorated with sprinkles and foam stars(non-edible of course). She also made the most amazing birthday banner that had pictures of Maisy throughout the year and said "Happy Birthday Maisy!" She really is the best aunt ever! I made Maisy a tutu to match her onesie and Aimee and I made red bows which she REFUSED to leave in so she ended up with mad scientist hair for the remainder of the day.
Joey was the activity coordinator for the day :) He brought a basketball for the guys and filled up water balloons for almost the entire afternoon so that the kids could have a blast for about 30 seconds! He pulled the Jeep up and put on some tunes and made the BBQ complete.
Maisy really enjoyed her little red, white, and blue cake once she knew what to do with it. At first she just sat there, which is exactly what Duffy did with his first cake, but then she really dug in. She enjoyed it so much that she even had it in her hair. Actually, she enjoyed it too much because later that night she woke with a killer tummy ache and I had to make an emergency trip to Smith's to grab some gripe water.
Thanks to everyone who came: Grandma and Grandpa Great, Grandma and Papa B, Grandma O, Cody & Erin and the kids: Derek, Cheyenne, Connor, and Rylee(I spell her name wrong I think!), Jeromy, Shari and Shae, and of course our big brother Duffy. I think that's it, hope I didn't miss anyone!

It's Parade Season

Not much to say about this other than we LOVE LOVE LOVE to go to parades and city, county, and state fairs. Especially my sister and I, we go to any one we can find! These are just some pics from Syracuse Heritage Days and Layton Liberty Days, I'm sure there will be more to come, in fact Clinton Days is this weekend, see ya there!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Last week my mom was lucky enough to get some free front row seats for a couple of the Raptor's games. They went on Thursday and we got to go on Sunday. The Sunday games start at 4 so it was HOT, HOT, HOT!!! Maisy stayed home because we knew there was no way she would be happy for that long but Duffy got to come with us. He fell asleep on the way there so when the game started he was super grumpy but gradually warmed up to some big smiles. We sat right next to the Raptor's dugout so he thought it was really cool to see all the players walking right past us. Duffy got a little restless halfway into the game so Joey took him back to the playground they have there in the park and when they were back there Joey got a foul ball. Joey got a bunch of the players to sign it after the game and Duffy thinks it's the most amazing thing he's ever had, he constantly wants to know where it is.
I love being at the ball park, it's one of my favorite summer activities, and now it's even better with Duffy being old enough to start enjoying it.

We LOVE East Canyon Resort!

My parents are members at East Canyon Resort which means you can usually find us up there nearly every weekend from Mother's Day until almost the deer hunt! I could stay up there all summer if it was up to me. There are a couple of pools, mini golf, shuffle board, a cute little store, a playground, and lots of grass and trees to enjoy. I've decided Maisy gets the BEST camping hair I've ever seen (proof in these pics!). Both kids, and even the adults love to swing at the playground, Duffy gets to fish with the guys, throw rocks off the bridge, and we've even had movie night using my dad's projector on the side of the Easy-Up.

Hill Air Force Base Air Show 2009

We haven't actually been on base during the airshow before so we decided to go this year. Parking was kind of a nightmare, as well as the security checkpoint (try getting through quickly when they have to check everything in your diaper bag: snacks, formula, wet wipes, drinks, etc!), and it was SUPER crowded inside. With all that said we still had a great time, we always do! Duffy loves planes so he was intrigued with all of them, kept saying "There's a soldier!", got some fun toy airplanes (which he's actually playing with right now), and even met Smokey the Bear which I thought was kind of random, but oh well! Maisy fell asleep most of the time, even though the planes were LOUD!!! We left before the Thunderbirds flew but we got up on the roof of my dad's shed and watched from there. We really are lucky to have the opportunity to see these amazing jets and have the base so close to us!

Summer is Great!

Here is another collage of random summertime pictures. We take so many pictures of random things I can't really write a blog on all of them so I'll just bunch them together. Some things here:
Duffy playing with the new beach ball sprinkler, Maisy's first popsicle, Duffy in the hot tub, Maisy's first corn on the cob, the playground, the water table, the pinball table, and some cute black and white pics of the kids!

Slippin' and Slidin'

Joey decided we should buy this slip 'n' slide for Duffy's birthday so a few weeks ago (I'm WAY behind on blogging) we got it out and took it for a test drive. Duffy absolutely loved it. Duffy, Maisy, Aimee and I all tried it out. It wasn't exactly hot that day but we still had fun. In fact, I think we'll get it back out today!

Happy Birthday Maisy Grace!

Where has the past year gone? I can't believe a year ago we had a brand new baby girl and couldn't imagine how fast her first year would go. She has the cutest little personality, a complete diva, and all girl. It's amazing how fast you can see the difference in your kids, she is a princess, Duffy is our little macho man. Some first year milestones: Maisy sleeps through the night in the room with her big brother, she takes about three steps, climbs up onto anything she can reach, says "Hi", "Bye", "Got", "Dada", "Papa", some form of brother-kind of sounds like "Bubbu", "Mama" (only when she's sad though), and "Baba"; she also signs "more" and "thank you" and shakes her head "no"; she drinks out of a sippy cup, feeds herself small foods, waves hi and bye, claps, and blows kisses. Maisy smiles more than any baby I've known and almost always seems happy, which is a BIG change from when she was a newborn; although she is learning to throw a really good fit!
I feel so blessed to have my little girl, she really does bring such happiness into our family. While I'm sad that she's one already and I feel like I'm going to blink and she'll be 25, I look forward to all the fun times we have ahead.
I love you my little "Lou", thank you for being my daughter.