Kendall is ONE

I blinked... and just like that... Kendall turned ONE!

Kendall is a smiley, fun, happy, laidback, loving, sweet, and social (as long as mommy's around) little girl. She is definitely a mommy's girl. She likes to look at people and check out other kids, but she doesn't want to get anywhere near them unless I am holding her or sitting right next to her.
She loves her brothers very much. It is very apparent to me in the way she looks at them, like she has so much admiration for them. She also likes to touch them and smile at them. And no one, I mean no one, can make her crack up like Logan and Taylor can. I love to hear her laugh. It is the most contagious laugh I have ever heard. It can turn any frown upside down.
I few days before her birthday, Kendall decided to crawl. She hasn't mastered it, and still prefers to roll over to wherever she wants to be, but she has moved on all fours a few times.
When Kendall wants to look at something or hold something, she points to it and says "pop." She especially does that with pictures. She loves it when I hold her and take her around the house to look at pictures.
She also started pulling up this month. The first time she did it was in her crib. I think it kinda freaked her out, actually, because she was screaming at the top of her lungs when it happened. She probably didn't know how to get down. She does know how to go from a sitting position to a crawling position and vice versa, though.
Kendall loves to play with cars and books. She also loves to splash water and jump in her jumper. She likes to be outside and look at everything, but she's just as happy sitting by the window. She is very observant and notices things I wouldn't have expected her to, like birds in trees and squirrels in the backyard.
She enjoys it when I sing to her, and she sometimes sings along. Her voice is much louder than mine, though. The girl can squeeeaaal! She often turns heads in church with that beautiful voice of hers.
Kendall is such a blessing to our lives. I cannot imagine life without her. She's such a joy to be around, my little baby girl. I love her so much!!!

(She's actually turning ONE on May 1, but we'll be on vacation - Disney World -, and since all the kids are napping right now, it's now or never!)

Kendall's First Birthday

We just celebrated Kendall's First Birthday! We had some friends over to party and had a blast!

There were a lot more - I just couldn't get them all in this picture

It was a balloon party, of course

The kiddos loved the balloons

Kendall wasn't sure what to do with all these balloons surrounding her

Mommy and her baby girl

Daddy and his birthday girl

"Let me just lick this thing..."

"Mmm, that stuff is gooooood!"

"I'm trying to stuff this whole thing in my mouth. It's not easy."

"Thanks, mommy. I love it."

"Taylor, go away! This is MY birthday, MY party, MY presents."

Kendall loved her presents

See what I mean? I mean, look at the excitement

Logan and Taylor were just as excited as Kendall to be playing with new toys

Forget the toys. Let's play with the bins

Yep, 10 kids in all (not all pictured) and 6 adults

Logan loved rhe cake pops

And I think Taylor had at least 4 or 5

The rainbow cake that I forgot to take a picture of until it was cut (oops)

Looks pretty good - my biggest baking success

Smokies wrapped in bacon with a brown sugar coating

Eat your fruit

Eat your veggies

Eat your heart out! These cake pops tasted better than they looked (I had a hard time coating them for some reason)

Overall, I'd say the party was a huge success. The kids and adults had fun. And most importantly, Kendall loved the cake and her presents.

What a day...?!?!

It all started with my talk in church... Actually, the talk went well, but Billy had to take Logan and Taylor out, and the sister sitting behind Billy had to take Kendall out, as well. They were ALL freaking out because I was at the pulpit and not sitting with them. And THAT's why I haven't born my testimony in church in two and a half years...
Then tonight, while Billy was out on the deck with Logan and Taylor, I went upstairs to give Kendall a bath. I poured some baby shampoo in my hand. Without looking, I put the bottle back on the "whatever-that-thing-is-called-on-the-side-of-the-bath," but I let go of the bottle too soon, and it fell on Kendall's head. Outch! Of course, she started crying. Then I noticed the cut on her head. I felt TERRIBLE. I apologized to her about a thousand times. Fortunately the cut wasn't very deep, but it's definitely going to leave a bruise for a few days.
Then I went outside with Kendall to get the boys and give them a bath. While I showed Billy the cut on Kendall's head, Taylor sneaked inside the house and locked the door. When we realized we were locked out, Billy started to worry, and I started to laugh. "Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. He is full of tricks." It would have been fine if Taylor had stayed within eyesight, but he decided to go upstairs. That's when I started to worry, while Billy stayed in perfect control. I hadn't drained the water in the bath, thinking that the boys could use the same water (cheap, I know) when they took their bath. There were a ton of dangerous things in my craft room, in which they are never ever allowed. And the outlets in our room were not covered, since they are never in there without supervision. We kept calling his name, but all we could hear was Taylor banging on the wall in the bathroom. Then silence. Then some more banging. Then silence. There was no way into the house. Not through the front door, not through the garage, not through any windows. And no one had a spare key to our house. I thought about breaking the window with the outside chair. Logan beat me to it and attempted to do so with his tiny plastic chair. No luck. Billy suggested calling the cops. And that's when Taylor decided to come down and see what we were all up to... 25 minutes later! As I had feared, Taylor had gone into my craft room, but fortunately he hadn't touched anything dangerous. Then he had gone into the bathroom to play in the water, until it got cold I guess. Anyway, he came down and directly went to the door. We told him to unlock the door, and he did. *sigh* Needless to say, I promise it's never going to happen again, ever!
What a day...?!?!

Kendall, the Bunny

Ok, so I went a little overboard with the pictures... But isn't Kendall just to die for? She is the cutest bunny, ever! I know in 10 years she'll hate me for doing this to her, but I couldn't help myself. When I told Billy what I had done to our baby girl, he just said, "Did the cottonballs cover her crack?" Yes, Kendall has had many explosions in her days. Our conclusion is that her crack goes up slightly higher than most. I did my best to cover it up, though.

Happy Easter

We were very fortunate to have Billy home for the weekend this Easter. We convinced him to leave his medical books aside for 2 whole days so that we could celebrate Easter as a family.

Saturday morning, we went to the zoo. They had a bunch of businesses pass out candy to the kiddos. Every time the boys saw someone with a bucket full of candy, they'd say, "Trick or treat?" I didn't correct them because it was just too funny. And yes, Kendall had a basket, too, because mommy and daddy wanted some candy.

They had a few activities for kids to participate in. The boys were too young for most of them, but Taylor did want to jump on the trampoline and had a blast.

That night, we picked up some pizza and had a picnic at the park. What we thought would be relaxing turned out to be exhausting. Logan and Taylor kept running off in different directions. Needless to say, they didn't eat much pizza.

Oh yeah, that's what my car looked like after our trip to the zoo.

The next day, after coming back from church, we had an Easter Egg Hunt. It only took the boys about 3 minutes to collect all the eggs.

I got Kendall a super cute Easter dress. She looked so beautiful in it. She had an adorable little bow in her hair, too, but she doesn't like to keep anything in her hair these days. After her nap, she got her own Easter Basket filled with eggs to play with. She enjoyed banging the eggs together.