Blakely turns 1!

Blakely turned one on Sept. 19th.  Nathan had to work nights the week of her birthday so we didn't do a whole lot of celebrating on her actual birthday.  We waited until the next day.  

I can't believe that she has been in our family for a whole year.  I swear I was pregnant with her twice as long as she has been here.

Such a happy girl!

I let her open one present from Gma Whiting.  My mom was rather creative with the wrapping job.  Haha!  She must have had insight into what we were going to be for Halloween this year...

Train set!

Dyer has the same train set only different animals so we combined the tracks.  You wouldn't guess from this picture but it was a total melt down for almost everyone involved.  Easton of course took total control of everything which made everyone upset.  Dyer was ticked because he wanted to play with his train set.  Blakely was upset because she couldn't even touch, let alone look at her gift, since Easton kept blocking her.  Blair tried to be the in between person and well that didn't work out too well for here either.  I had to laugh about Easton being so possessive of the train set because it wasn't even 10 minutes before this picture that he was complaining that all of Blakely's presents were probably going to be "stupid baby toys".  

Cupcakes for Blakely's birthday.

We invited all the neighbor kids to come over and hit the pinata and eat cupcakes.  

Blakely was up first:

Blakely's friend, Anna.

Dyer

Blair

Easton (we kind of gave up on the blind fold).

Candy!

Ms. Rebel with the birthday girl

Eating cake

Eating someone else's cake

Trying to get Blakely to walk for us on film.  I swear every time we try to get her on film she won't perform.  By her first birthday she could take up to 10 steps.

Tug of war

And the Kelsey kids take the win!

Opening presents (or at least attempting to).  Blakely had three really great helpers.

We sure love our sweet baby girl!  So grateful that she has blessed our lives this last year.

Gymnastics "practice" meet

Blair had her first "competition" for gymnastics.  I didn't think that she was going to be able to compete because you have to be enrolled in the class to compete.  Blair decided that she wanted to play soccer and well, soccer started halfway through the session that they were holding the competition.  I was talking to Blair's coach about how sad it was going to be that she was going to miss it by two weeks because we generally don't let our kids play two sports at once.  The next week her coach informed me that they were offering a half session for those who wanted to compete.  I'm pretty sure she arranged it just for us!     

Lining up before the competition.

Close up.

I'm sure this will sound petty but I don't care...Technically each group is supposed to compete against the girls in their class.  The girl in the back used to be in Blair's class but they moved her up 2 sessions (12 weeks) before the competition because she was too advanced for the class.  The girl's mom didn't like the coach or time she was being put in so her mom put her in a semi private class with two other girls who moved up with her.  Long story short...She should not have been competing with Blair's class (Pre-Team A) and instead should have been competing with Pre-Team B because that was the level she was supposed to move up to.  I know I shouldn't care, but it was annoying... 

I was really glad when we first got there because Blair's teacher was actually there.  Little did I know her coach was going to be with the older girls (Pre-Team B and C).  Lame!

Beam: sorry it is so dark...

Blair missed a practice the week of competition because she got sick and stayed home from school.  That day they worked strictly on beam.  Blair had no idea what the routine was.  She had worked on most of the moves in practice but never in the correct order.  She did pretty well for not knowing what to do.

Floor:

I was a little annoyed with the floor because the coach helping them changed things up last minute on them.  She left out some things they had been practicing and I know it threw Blair off.  Did I mention that the coach helping them also happens to be the coach for the girl who was competing with them that shouldn't have been competing with them?  Hmmm....

Vault:

They were supposed to do two vaults but only ended up doing one....Not sure what happened there!?!

Bars:

Again the coach helping them changed things up on them last minute.  Blair's class had been working on their dismount for a couple weeks and they didn't do it like they were supposed to.  Kind of disappointing.

This is what their dismount was supposed to look like (only Blair was supposed to land on her feet : ) 

Blair landing on her feet:

Dismount on bars:

Results:

Blair ended up doing really well and would have done even better if she would have competed against just her classmates.  The girl who shouldn't have competed with Blair's class (in my opinion) ended up getting 1st in everything....no surprise there.

Vault: 3rd! 9.3 (not sure if Blair would have still gotten 3rd or if the two of them would have moved up to 2nd?)

Bars: 3rd! 8.7 (should have gotten 2nd)

Floor: 2nd! 8.95 (should have gotten 1st)

Beam: 2nd! 9.2 (should have gotten 1st)

All Around: 2nd! 36.15 (should have gotten 1st!)

Okay I'm done complaining.....  

Blair did an awesome job!  It was a great way to end gymnastics!  Maybe someday she'll get back into gymnastics.  I think she misses it a lot but I'm pretty sure after soccer she wants to try ballet.

Blair posing with her balloons and ribbons (thank goodness for Easton!).

Ribbons!

We need to work on that gymnastics pose.  Haha!

Just a cute little beam video:

Dyer's first day of preschool

Dyer actually got sick the night before his first day of preschool (fever) so he stayed home.  Blair was sick that day too.  Blakely got chicken pox a few days earlier so I was worried that maybe Dyer and Blair were getting the chicken pox too!  Dyer kept getting a rash off and on so I was worried.  It wasn't until Easton got a fever the next day that I realized they were sick with something completely different than Blakely.  I'm pretty sure that Easton got the chicken pox when he was in preschool (even though he was vaccinated) so I knew they had to have a different virus.  I'm pretty sure now that Dyer's rash was just a heat rash because it only flared up in the afternoon for two days and didn't stick around.  Plus he wasn't itching like Blakely was.

This is technically the second day of school but his first day going.

Such a cutie pie!

My little Bubba looks all grown up!

I found the videos!!!

I found the videos I took when the mom and sister were in town.  Haha!

Dance party!!!

Train ride at nut tree

Blakely at 11 months!

Such a bad mommy!  I wish I remember exactly what she was doing at 11 months but honestly it was so long ago that I can't.  I'll try but I might be mixing things up from when she was 12 months.  Oops!  I can't believe that she is almost 13 months!

I do remember that she was teething (working on her top two teeth) when my sister and mom were in town because she wasn't sleeping very well and she was very ornery.

I'm pretty sure that Blakely got the chicken pox.  Poor thing!  At first she had 2 blisters near her mouth which I thought were cold sores.  My sister got cold sores while she was here visiting and Blakely's blisters popped up the day they were leaving (Aug. 24th).  That Thursday she broke out in a rash in her diaper area so of course I assumed she had a diaper rash.  On Saturday morning we were supposed to go to the stake temple day but her diaper rash didn't look like a diaper rash anymore (they were blistering over).  That's when we realized that she had more dots (mainly on her legs and feet) and that she probably had chicken pox.  She was only 3 weeks away from getting the vaccination.

As you can see her hair finally came in and I've started putting her hair in ponytails and pigtails.  It's hard to see in these pictures with the bow I put in her hair that day, but she really does have just enough hair to wrap a hair band around it.  So Cute!  It was a good thing too because she started pulling her headbands (flowers) apart.  For the most part she leaves them alone but every once in a while she'll pull them out!  I think she's learning to just deal with them now.  I think I might actually have a curly haired baby!  It might just turn out to be wavy but there are definitely curls in the back of her head!  I'll need to take a picture of it one of these days!

I'm pretty sure she learned to give high fives.  She loves giving high fives.  She also loved clapping when she or someone did something well.  Usually it was just copying someone else who was clapping.

Right before she turned 12 months she started waving to everyone and everything.  She loved the attention she got when someone would wave back and/or start talking to her.  

She still loves to eat and I still can't figure out where she packs all the food she eats in her little belly.  Blakely started bear crawling (espcially when she was wearing a dress) to get around.

Blakely still takes 2 naps most days.  She is pretty happy most of the time as long as she is fed and Dyer keeps his distance.  I'm still not sure whether that little boy truly LOVES his sister or if he just LOVES to torture her.  Maybe it's both.  It's kind of sad that she almost instantly starts crying/complaining the second she sees him coming towards her.     

I just love this little turkey!

Blair starts soccer!

Blair decided that she wanted to try soccer out so she finished gymnastics the same week soccer officially started.  This was the day of her skills assessment test posing for the camera!  Valerie was right behind me telling her to work it!  Haha!

1st Day of School

The kids started school on Aug. 20th.  Easton is in Ms. Collins class (2nd grade) and Blair's in Ms. Howell's class (Kindergarten).  

Easton and Blair

I wanted to get a picture of all the kids like I usually do but we were running out of time and I actually didn't bring all my kids since my sister stayed home with the younger kids.

Blair so excited!

Easton

Back view

Valerie took some pictures too and sent them my way.

Oscar the crossing guard.  

Easton in his line.

Waiting with Blair in her line.

Both the kids seem to be enjoying school.  I help out in Blair's class every other week.  I was hoping to help out in Easton's class every other week as well but it seems like his teacher doesn't need much help.