Happy 1st Birthday Grey-Bear

You are ONE year old today my little man.  You came along and filled a hole in our family we didn't even know existed. You made our perfect little family seem complete.  Your smile never ceases to illicit a smile from myself or complete strangers.  You are most certainly our eater. You are walking more and more each day and I am counting down the days that my toddling little baby morphs into a running little man.  You adore your brother and he loves making you laugh.  You have been trying to do a somersault for a while now but you can't get past the downward dog yoga position.  You hate to sleep...which seems so appropriate in your quest to be like the rest of the boys around here.  You can say "hat", "Mups", "Mama", "Da"(Papa), "Brud" (brother) and "Bye-Bye".  You are quite adept at signing "more"....as in more food.

A very proud mama and papa....

We had a low key celebration for your birthday and it was perfect.  After devouring your dinner and making a mess with your cupcakes, your brother taught you how to open your presents.  You made out like a bandit...as usual.  Your very own train set, which resulted in timeout for your brother (which is a whole other blog post), some new clothes, a guitar, your very own hammering toy and a bike seat and helmet.  You have already perfected the art of pointing at your helmet as a way of "telling" me you would like to go for a ride.

Such serious cake consumption....

 Whoa, this stuff is GOOD.

 See, you pull here.

 As always, the box won BEST GIFT award.

 On your first bike ride!

 

Your one year photo shoot:
(In your new overalls from The Nairns)

 

We love you little bear and that love grows exponentially with each passing hour.  Thank you for teaching us once again that is does not matter how nice our cars nor how big our house, it matters that we are filled with love for each other and that we recognize how greatly we are blessed.

Things I'll Miss....revisited

I get such a thrill from watching these two little boys play together.  This afternoon we were outside in the garden planting cabbage and Kimber was using the little hand shovel to shovel dirt into Matthew's dump truck.  Matthew kept saying "thanks Timber" and of course Kimber would look up at him with such complete adoration.

At mealtime Matthew has started pulling Kimber's chair over really close to him so he can "eat with Timber".

They have also started wrestling which scares me most of the time but they both get such a kick out of rolling around together, jumping, climbing, etc.  The squeals of utter delight make the short nights seem like such a small price to pay for the front row seat I have to their silly adventures.

Way Back Wednesday

Some pictures from the past....a fun weekend with friends....before kids....before single incomes...before life was so....well......different!

Girls in Camo

Dove Hunters

Party Animals

Santa is busy.....

Don't tell the boys....but Santa told me he is busy making the boys one of these for Christmas.  I am sure they will be thrilled!!

Gardening...Riggle Style-2010

We had our first Alabama garden this year and though we got our plants in super late, we enjoyed the fruits and vegetables of our labor all summer long.

Kimber enjoyed eating dirt fresh tomatoes and watermelon.  Matthew enjoyed digging in the dirt with his tractors as well as munching on corn and "watermellow".  Willie was overjoyed to have banana peppers in every salad he ate the past few months and I loved the cantelope. 

It's a wonder some of our seeds made it with all of the destruction help I had from Matthew while planting them....and then digging them up and then planting them again.  We have learned the hard way to designate a place in the garden for the tractors and their operators to dig.

Mixed Emotions

Matthew had his first day of preschool this week and amazed me by how grown up he was.

He wore his new big backpack, walked right into his school, shrugged his shoulders out of his BIG backpack, happily sat down at the table and started playing. I kissed him on his head and told him I would see him in a little bit.....and I swear....he didn't even blink!

Don't get me wrong, I am glad he didn't get upset....but part of me was sad that he is growing up so very fast and that he is already gaining that independence that we so desperately want our children to acquire.

Wordless Wednesday