Here are some of Asher’s one year portraits.
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| From April 2009 |
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| From April 2009 |
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| From April 2009 |
Here is Ella at 1 year
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| From January 2007 |
Here is Rilyn at 1 year
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| From June 2005 |
Archive for April, 2009
30
Apr
09
smile
We had Asher’s first birthday party at a local park on Saturday evening. A few of his baby buddies came along and it made for some cute pictures. You know how when one baby cries, they all start crying? Well, I’m not sure who even started it…but it went something like this…
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| Halle, Malachi, Caden, Asher, Halle, Gracie, Ella, Gavin, Cole, Dee, Reece, and Rilyn |
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| Malachi Suh getting his cry on |
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| Asher getting his cry on |
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| Caden Richardson and Asher getting their cry on |
Happy Birthday Buster, we love you!!!
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| From April 2009 |
28
Apr
09
some favorite pictures
I love photography. Maybe one day, I’ll find time to buy a really nice camera and lenses and take some classes. Until then, here is some of my favorite shots of our trip with my little old Sony camera.
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| James took this on The Jungle Cruise |
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| Ella on the Casey Jr. Train |
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| Rilyn on the teacups |
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| Those are Asher’s great grandparents in the backgroundI love the generational ‘gap’ that this picture displays |
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| Not very picturesque, but too funny not to share. Ella tried to spell her name inspaghetti noodles at one of the restaurants |
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| Ella exhausted on the plane ride home |
Needless to say, the girls did not want to go home from our Disneyland vacation. Rilyn told me, “There is no magic in Texas! There is only magic at Disneyland!” Ella wanted to live at our hotel forever. A great time was had by all and we want to thank my mom and dad from the bottom of our hearts for a ‘magical’ vacation!
27
Apr
09
how to ride like Ella
I believe the perfect age to take a child to Disneyland is around 5 years old. They can ride all the rides and they understand pretend vs. real. They can wait in a line better and their legs don’t get as tired from all the walking. Rilyn did pretty well at Disneyland. We took her on Splash Mountain and she freaked out on the big drop and said she will never ride it again. She wanted to go on the Haunted Mansion and again was scared, but just held us tight. Ella proved to us she couldn’t handle rides that required ‘going in a hole’ as she put it. (Indoor rides such as most of the Fantasyland rides.) We tried a couple rides and she just cried and cried. Here she is on Pirates of the Carribean (yes, big brother told me ‘No flash photography!’ after I took this.)
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
So then we tried more outdoor friendly rides such as The Jungle Cruise. She would love all the animals, right?
Here she is mesmerized at all the friendly animals.
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
Uh oh, here comes a hippo!
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
Apparently, Ella does not care for hippos. So, for the rest of the ride she rode like this…
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
26
Apr
09
can I get your autograph??
When you get to Disneyland, the new rage is to have as many characters as possible sign your autograph book. (yes, we left their books in a rented stroller over night but Disneyland found them and we quietly retrieved them the next morning without the girls ever knowing!) Ella didn’t really get it, but loved it all the same because Rilyn was into all the characters signing her book. And so began our hunt for as many characters possible…it helped that we had four character meals (paying enormously too much for food so characters will stop by your table, chat with you kiddos, take a picture, and of course, sign your book.) So, here is the evidence of everyone we met! (Note: check out Ella’s hand in all of these-she seems to have a hand ‘spot’. Not sure if this is natural for her or she just wanted to feel ‘closer’ to them in some way. Watch out, sometimes her hand lands on inappropriate places…(sorry Mickey and Jasmine!)
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| Snow White (Ella starts her hand thing) |
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| Goofy |
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| Baloo and ‘the hand’ |
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| Minnie and ‘the hand’ |
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| Mickey and ‘the hand’ |
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| Jasmine and ‘the hand’ |
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| Ariel and ‘the hand’ |
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| Mulan and ‘the hand’ |
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| Cruella DeVille and ‘the hand’ |
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| Cinderella and ‘the hand’ |
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| Belle and ‘the hand’ (trying to hide but I still see it!) |
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| Sleeping Beauty |
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| Chip and ‘the hand’ |
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| apparently Tinker Bell knew how to control ‘the hand’ |
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| Alice and the Mad Hatter |
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| Aladdin and ‘the hand’ |
25
Apr
09
a day at the beach
I have finally gone through all my pictures from our southern California vacation and have narrowed them down to 188. I think that is pretty good! So, here are the pictures from the kids first visit to the beach last Sunday afternoon (Bolsa Chica beach). The water was freezing so no one got in. They enjoyed playing in the sand, that is, until Ella saw ladybugs in the sand and then she started to melt down. (She doesn’t like bugs crawling around her.) Then, Asher started eating sand and getting it in his eyes…well, you get the picture…the beach is a fun place in theory…but with 3 small kids, it is a little bit of a nightmare!
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| This was the only way we could keep track of Asher. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize how much sandwould end up in his diaper after unburying him! |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
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| From California Vacation April 2009 |
24
Apr
09
Happy 1st Birthday Asher!
I can’t believe that today my baby is one! I officially have no more ‘babies’ in the house (although there are plenty of times when they act like it!) He is still not walking, or standing on his own. He is content to crawl around everywhere. His favorite toy is our remote control and his favorite play buddies are his sisters! No one can make him laugh like they do! They have really taken to wrestling him!
So, we just got back from our California vacation and I can’t wait to go through our 500+ photos and post, BUT today is my baby’s first birthday and I just had to give him the spotlight! Of course I had a photo op in mind and it didn’t quite go as I had planned but still cute none the less. I baked him his own special chocolate cake and wanted him to ‘tear into it’ while I snapped away! Well, I don’t think it helped that he woke up at 10 a.m. (we’re all still on CA time), and we gave him a big donut for his birthday breakfast and he gobbled it all up! So, at lunchtime, he wasn’t hungry enough for his cake and we forced him to taste it and he acted like it was disgusting! I don’t think he appreciated the texture of sprinkles and cake crumbs either. Oh well!
Here is Asher at breakfast in his custom bib from Grandma!
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| From April 2009 |
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| From April 2009 |
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| From April 2009 |
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| From April 2009 |
20
Apr
09
and they called it puppy love…
I think Asher won’t mind when his sisters want to pop in the movie Beauty and the Beast…
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| From 2009-04-18 disneyland |
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| From 2009-04-18 disneyland |
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| From 2009-04-18 disneyland |
19
Apr
09
ummm…yuck.
We had a pretty good flight to Orange County from DFW. (For those of you who don’t know, we are on a Disneyland vacation for the next week!) We gave Asher a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10. The flight was during his morning nap and so he had some fussy moments where you know he just wanted to sleep, but there was too much going on around him (we were seated right next to the airplane bathroom-oh joy.) So, finally, after several attempts at rocking him, we decided to use the germ-infested airplane blanket to cover him while he laid across me and my mom’s lap. It worked!
So, of course, the ever-so-predictable beverage cart rolls down the aisle and the stewardess asks me about my mom “is she nursing?” I was like what?!? Gross!!! Okay, so I really told her, “um, no, that is my mom and her grandson is sleeping under there!” She said, “Honey, I’ve seen it all on airplanes. I’ve seen my share of 4 year-olds being nursed on planes so I’m not surprised that I thought she was nursing.” Again-gross.
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| my mom ‘nursing’ From 2009-04-18 disneyland |
**yes, my mother gave me permission to post this. In fact, the first thing she said after the incident was, “You want to put this on your blog, don’t you?” 😉
15
Apr
09
good thing I’m an expert
I knew being a former kindergarten teacher would come in handy in parenting!
At my parent’s house this last weekend, we were playing our traditional family poker game after the kids went to bed. After the game, at nearly 10 o’clock, my brother was going upstairs and he noticed a note that was pushed underneath the girls’ door. He thought maybe it was a piece of trash from earlier, but as he looked again, a second note was pushed underneath the door! So, he picked up the notes.
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| From April 2009 |
And my brother, having no prior experience in ‘reading’ 4 year old writing(it is a mastered skill after all), handed them to me to decode. I have to say when I saw the notes that I was pretty proud of Rilyn trying so hard to write 1. in the dark, 2. so late at night, and 3. because she really wanted us to know something and she knew she wasn’t supposed to get out of bed unless bleeding or potty. (Note to self: Don’t reprimand her for wanting to do her creative writing assignments for school late at night. She’s obviously a Knight Rider, night writer.) 😉
So, I guess we were being too loud while gambling having quality family time.
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| From April 2009 |
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| From April 2009 |
I would read 23 kindergarteners’ journals upside down and right to left every day so yah, I’m pretty good at this.
the paquettes 