Our Little Lady Turned ONE!

I cannot believe it.  One already.

I 

She is full of personality and loves to laugh and run around.  She loves shoes!  Imagine!  She couldn't get enough of her new "flower power" rain boots!  I have to get these photos up while I have 2 seconds as she naps, but I will post again later.

Halloween

Grady's 2, Part 2

Boy did Grady have fun yesterday! He and his cousin couldn't get enough of the four-wheeler! Thank goodness one of them knew how to control it, for the most part!
What could it be? A tractor? A dumptruck? A loader? Grady received a lot of nice gifts. Thank you everyone!

And, thank you Mimi for making an ice-cream cake! Yummmmm...

Grandma Nora's water gun was a refreshing hit after the party!

Can't believe how fast my babies are growing!

Choo Choo!! Grady's 2

Grady turned two yesterday. Two?! Wow...my baby is growing up! Every day he says new things and is right in the midst of repeating everything he hears. Look out. He doesn't stop...talking, moving, learning, laughing, eating, Loving!

The base of this cake was going to be a brownie pan with room for more cars and a cute little scene, that is until the pan shattered into a billion peices because I had left it in the oven while it was pre-heating and when I realized it, I promptly set it on the stove top and luckily had just told Grady to back up because the oven was hot and the POP, SMASH! ughhhhh Out went the brownie batter and big plans.

It was perfect anyway. Grady blew out his candles, and because I had my camera lense on, we did a re-do as seen above.

He's a lucky boy. I got him a couple Monster Trucks...

Gram Deb & the kids got him some John Deere tractors...
And Daddy & Grandpa Rory? Well, they went ALL out and got him a...

"Fooour WheeeeLerr!" as Grady says. He just makes it to the pedal, but he figured it out pretty quick. So, at one he got a little sit & scoot ATV and now this battery powered monster...I'm not sure we'll have room in our garage for his 3rd birthday!

Anna was wiped out. Get ready honey, round two celebration tomorrow!

Easter

Brunch with Grammie "Mimi" & Nelson.

Dinner with Grandma & Grandpa "Moma"

Chris & Tanya

I had the honor of photographing a wedding this past weekend for a friend.
Chris was just a baby when I met his family as their babysitter. I was a mere 12 then.
Boy did I cry when he danced with his mom...and I had to take photos with my lense fogging up!
I thought about how fast their 3 kids have grown up and how it will be me & Grady dancing before
I know it.

I was nervous about being "the" photographer of the day, and I thank you Sarah for easing my concerns.
Then, the morning sickness hit me early in the week and I freaked out thinking, 'what if I get sick there?'
So, I tried to recruit Armond to help, but it was the first day of bow season. Then, I called my friend, Laurie
just to ask if I could borrow her Nikon as a back-up and to my delight, she said, "Wouldn't it be fun if I came with you?" YES!

We had a lot of fun. I had some flash trouble and the lighting was tricky, but we both took tons of photos, and in them are some real gems. Of course, in retrospect, I would have done this or that (like taking more time with the formals) but overall, I think we did a pretty good job. You can view the teeny "sneak peek" I created for the couple here: www.cornforthwedding.blogspot.com

We're Growing!

That's right - mommy's growing, baby's growing, our family is growing!! "Baby #2" will be here in May!

Will Grady have a sister or a brother? We don't know yet, but we'll be sure to let you know when we find out.

Love & Hugs,
Jen, Matt, Grady & Baby

Fun to be One

We celebrated Grady's First Birthday a couple weeks ago (I know I'm dragging with posts)

He had fun all week long - first Grandpa stopped by on Sunday eager to give Grady his gift - -

A John Deere wagon! I'm loving taking him for walks in the wagon, beats the stroller. He likes to go fast and hit bumps!

We celebrated with Grampa, Deb, Aurora & Devlyn on Grady's Birthday. Grampa and Dev were heading off to Alaska, so it worked great to have them over on his birthday.

I poured too much milk and ran out of powdered sugar to even it out, so we had glazed cupcakes - which worked perfectly - just enough chocolate mess! My camera battery died after a few photos, but Aurora took some precious photos - I'll be copying those.



Here's Papa giving him his gift - -

His first 4-Wheeler, John Deere, too! There's all these cool buttons, but Grady hits the "Song" button over and over and smiles every time. We've hooked up a leash and pull him around the yard - it's the cutest thing ever!


Then, Julie invited me down to the house on Thursday to have cupcakes with Grady and the kids in the front yard - good messy brownies!



To top it all off, we had a BBQ on Saturday!

I resurrected the duck-mold from the Groom's Cake at our wedding and made Grady's first birthday cake on a frosted brownie base (I used to ask for this on my birthdays - yummy!)


By now, Grady was an ol' pro at eating sweet goodies!












Armond captured these last 2 shots - how about that sugar crash!

THANK YOU to everyone for celebrating this milestone with us, and for the fun gifts!

Soak it Up

I took this picture 6 days before Grady was born (and it happens to be the outfit I was wearing when my water broke) Looks like he was about to fall out from under the shirt!

Incredible what happens in a year!

I didn't expect to be so emotional at the eve of his first birthday.

It's like my body has hormonal memory or something! I tear up just looking at him.

He's zips around on his hands and knees now and tries to climb every chance he gets. He'll walk holding one hand and look up at you with a big proud smile. Yesterday I turned around and he was standing up next to my knee holding on with one hand. I was dumbfounded. It seems like all I've said all year is, "Where's that little baby we brought home?"

Dad. Dog. Duck. These are his favorite words. Go figure. He surprises us by copying other words we say, but then he clams up and won't repeat it.

He really surprised Dad & I yesterday by cursing me when I tried to adjust him in his swing. I swear - he swore! I can't repeat it here because that wouldn't be proper, (OK, it was G.D.I. and he said it with gusto!) Dad & I both stopped and looked at each other and Dad said, 'did you hear that?" Then we both just cracked up!

Oh, we're in for a ride!

So, tomorrow is his first birthday! Time is such a strange creature. Right now it is easy to say, "that went sooo fast!" But, during each stage there was this blissful sense of time standing still. Holding him for the first time, his first smile, the sweet sound of his laughter, the first word, watching him discover something new...all of those moments where nothing else in the world mattered and time paused if even for an instant.

Thank you...

...for a great birthday weekend!!

You wouldn't believe it from looking at these pics (taken Saturday) but it actually spit snow on Sunday!! (On Laurie's "mountain" at least!) That's OK, hot molten chocolate cakes kept us warm!