Lottie and the Horse

Plus lots of other things we finally caught her on camera doing!

She got going on it so fast this afternoon she almost tipped it forward!

Random Pics/ Art Prize/General Conference

This is one of my favorite pictures from when we were working on the house:

She would find whatever we were working on and try to help. So she helped us paint!

General Conference. In a word, awesome. It was such a great weekend and our sweet Charlotte was so good and played with toys almost the entire time. She also wanted to join me and Peter in our cuddlefest.
She really likes to carry purses around lately and if she can't find a purse, she will find a grocery bag. Right over her shoulder it goes!
Her favorite activity--Baby Signing Time. That kid is obsessed! Not sure if that is a good thing or not . . We have even had to set a time limit.
Art Prize! We went up the weekend before conference with Ben and Kim and Dawn and Adam.

So Art Prize takes place in Grand Rapids, MI and thousands of artists submit their artwork and it is on display all over the city. Almost any type of art is accepted and there were such neat things to see! There is a huge monetary prize at the end for the winner (not quite sure how huge, but enough to make it worth it).

Kim carrying Lottie around. So cute of both of them! She was such a sweetie to cart our baby around.

I think this was all made out of driftwood? Not sure. Only picture I got but it was really neat.
How Charlotte spent most of the day.

So kind of sad, Charlotte was really good all day and didn't complain about being out and about. On the way home however, with a full mini van of people who don't have kids, she screamed nonstop. And I mean, nonstop. We felt so bad for everybody and for her! But she is always an angel and just must have hit the end of her rope. Hopefully our friends will want to see us again!

Charlotte went for her 12 month doctors appt and about an hour after, I noticed she was running really hot. I took her temp and it was over 103! So after freaking out and calling Peter and the doctor, we went back and lo and behold, she had her very first ear infection.

It was so sad, all day and evening she would just hold her baby doll and lay her head down on you. The only way we could get her to sleep that night was to keep her in our bed with us. (I'm not going to lie, it was kind of reassuring to have her little sick self in our bed!)

Birthday Party!

Some updates on our little tot and the fun things she has been doing lately:

-she can do a cat, dog, duck, and owl noise

-she carries a purse everywhere over her shoulder

-she can fold her arms, point to our noises, and knows where its tongue is

-she can do sign language for more, milk, and all done (sort of)

So because of everything that was going on with the house, Charlotte's birthday party was a little late.

Here are some pics from the days events:

Charlotte's first birthday present of the day. A super cute dog balloon that she can take for walks!

My horrid first attempt at fondant:

Getting sung to:

Cake time!

She did a good number on the cake!

And finally, bath time with her little buddy Jaxon.

It was such a fun day and I can't believe that she is already one!

Charlotte turned 1!

More pictures and fun to come later, but for now here is the absolute cutest video we have of her to date:

Love it!

Our House!

It is official! After many months of waiting, Peter and I are proud homeowners! We had put our offer in back in February or January and that is also one of the last times we had been inside the house before closing . . . so I was a little nervous. But other than massive greenery in the front everything was as we remembered it.

Here is the side view where we have enough trees to block any sort of neighbor:

The front of the house--so beautiful! We are excited to see what it looks like when we cut some of the bushes back and take a couple of the trees out.
A front view from the street:
Our back yard! By far the selling point of the house. Right where those trees start there is land owned by the city that includes a fun trail and an open field where we always see tons of deer.
The day we closed on the house!
Now the before pictures of the inside of the house. This is our family room/dining room. Don't you just love the oak trim everywhere? Haha.
Kitchen--some sweet linoleum and wall paper border.
Our front entrance. Again, don't you love all the oak?? And some more awesome wallpaper.
Another view of the kitchen . .
Our living room,
Guest bedroom
Guest bath and my helpers
Master bedroom--still can't figure out their placement of the fan? But it is humangous! I still feel like I will get lost in there.
Master bathroom. Super sweet wallpaper. Still haven't figured out what to do in here . .
Charlotte's room
Upstairs playroom
View from upstairs hallway
Stay tuned for some of the pictures of the after . . .

Let the wild rumpus start!

It's official. Charlotte is a walking, soon to be running, fiend. I left to go up to girls camp for then night and while I was away, Grammy and daddy gave Charlotte a graham cracker in each hand. Not wanting to drop either cracker, she decided to walk! Of course, she couldn't have decided to do this during the 12 hours a day I am usually with her :).

The proof:

I think our world will be changing mighty quickly. Currently, she just looks like a zombie walking everywhere with both arms out.

Charlotte and the cat

The cat apparently has been going through some womanly changes and it has made her super chill with the baby. Which is great for us--not so great for the cat. As you can see in this video, Lottie thinks she has found a new pillow.