And so it begins!

The other day my Mom was talking to Marc and she said "Some day when you have a girlfriend....". Marc's response was "I already do." She asked him who it was and he said, with a shy look on his face and an awe-struck tone of voice, "Kylie". Kylie is a friend from his preschool class. During speing break she invited us to her house to go swimming, play, and have lunch.
This was Marc's first "play date". He had a great time and I enjoyed watching him with his "girlfriend". :)

Growing Girl!

Samantha has been getting "people food" off and on for awhile now. We discovered the other day that she is now refusing to eat baby food. I tried to give her some and she stuck her tongue out and let it all fall off. We were just going to use up what was in the cupboard and then bot buy anymore. Now I have to see if I can find someone I can give our left-overs to. If we are eating something she can eat, we cut it up small enough for her. If we are eating something that she can't have (like tacos or something) we have been giving her Little Graduates Pasta Pick-up ravioli. We sometimes give her some cut-up fruit and cheese for dinner. Her birthday dinner consisted of watermelon and cheese. She loved it! :)
On her birthday we gave her her first taste of real cow's milk. It took a little time, but she began drinking her milk from a straw cup.
We have changed her schedule around now that she is eating differently. For breakfast she gets a fruit bar (baby Nutri-grain) and a bottle with formula. For lunch and dinner she gets table food and milk. And for her bed-time snack she gets a bottle. We will continue with bottles until we are out of formula and then she will be strictly on cow's milk (as long as the doctor approves).
So much is changing so fast.......and Mommy is getting weepy. ;)

It's the Easter Bunny!

While at the mall on Monday I decided to take the kids to see the Easter Bunny.The Easter Bunny even gave Marc his own set of bunny ears.

Family Pictures

We got pictures taken this past weekend for Samantha's first birthday. Here is one of the family....
and one of Marc......
and one of Samantha.
The studio suggested we bring in a piece of birthday cake and we cold strip Samantha down to her diaper and let her go at it and snap some pictures of it. They all turned out so cute that we got a collage of them all.
You can look at all of our pictures on our picture website. pictures.stoufer.com

Big Girl!!

We have started gradually giving Samantha "people food". If what we are eating is something she can eat, we cut it up small enough for her to eat. For lunch today, we went to Red Robin. We always get a burger there. We didn't think she was ready for a burger yet, so she got her very first kid's meal. She had a grilled cheese sandwich. She loved it!!!!!

Birthday Girl!!

Well, believe it or not, our little baby girl had her 1st birthday party on Saturday. Time has flown by so fast! It seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. It has been as lot of fun watching her grow, change, and develop over the year.
We hot her a horse that she can sit on and schooch across the floor.
We gave her a piece of cake. When we put it on her high chair tray, she wasn't sure what to do at first. Daddy put a taste of it in her mouth and then she "dug in". We enjoyed playing with it more than eating it. It was soooo cute. Here is a video and a couple of pictures.

Of course, once she was done making a mess by putting the frosting all over her face and in her hair, Marc took her upstairs and gave her a bath.By the end of the day, Samantha was exhausted! It didn't take her long to fall asleep.On Sunday Samantha had a chance to play with all of the awesome presents she got at her party.

Hide the Kleenexes!

While I was in the kitchen getting breakfast for everyone this morning, Samantha found the box of Kleenex. I asked Marc to go see what his sister was doing. He came back in the kitchen and said she was pulling out Kleenexes. He was right! She had about half the box out on the floor. I had to take a picture before telling her "No!"

Yummy!

Samantha had pizza with the rest of for dinner the other night. She LOVED it. We have never seen her eat so fast! Oh, how times are changing. She is eating more and more "people" food.

Beach Day

Marc had beach day at preschool last week Wednesday. He got to wear shorts, his crocs, sunglasses, and his hat to school. Each child brought in bite-sized fruit to share for snack. The kids got to sit on their beach towel on the floor eating fresh fruit. It was a nice change to go in shorts during 40 degree weather.

Preschool Carnival

Marc had his preschool carnival Friday night. He woke up at 4:00 from his nap with a fever of 103 degrees. So, I went to the preschool early and rushed his through most of the games before most of the people got there while we waited for Daddy to pick him up. I was on them planning committee so I had to stay. Here are some of the pictures of him playing the games.
Playing the golfing game....
Playing the football toss game.....
Playing the Plinko game......
Even though he was only there for about 20 minutes, I think he still had a good time. :)