Callie's First Birthday Weekend

It all started with a swim party at the Gardiner's house for Uncle Peter's birthday on Friday. The kids had a blast swimming with all their cousins. They swam the whole time!! By the end of the night, they were exhausted! There was tons of really good food and conversations with family we don't see that often.

Here's Jocee and Jillian playing on the Crazy Twister!



Jordan getting ready to jump in!

All the cousins eating their dinner. Katelyn, Jocelyn, Jillian, Chloe, Kenya or Kira (not sure which twin, sorry Susan!), and Bradley.
After dinner, we made ice cream in a bag! We had to shake the bag like crazy to get it to freeze the mixture. After a while, my arm was tired! But the ice cream was good though! We added chocolate chips to it too.
Daddy and Callie hanging out.
Katelyn enjoying her ice cream! Yummy!
Jordan and his best buddy (cousin) Kyle enjoying their ice cream in chairs in the corner of the yard. I went over to take their picture and Jordan said, "Mom, this is the greatest day of my whole life!!!" It was hilarious!
Here's me shaking my bag making some ice cream.
Then we sang to Callie and she got her own little cupcake (thank you Erika!).
She loved it!!


"Mmmmmmmmmm!!!"
"That was soooooo good!" She ate every last bite of it!
On Saturday, my mom and brother came in to town with my dad (he had to work) and we hung out and had a little party for her. I took Jordan to a party in the morning and didn't have to pick him up till 3pm! It was nice to have one less child to worry about for a while. So I hadn't had time to get Callie a present so my mom, Jocee and I went shopping while Chad worked in the yard with Katelyn and Callie slept. It was so nice to get out with only one child and get to hang out with my mom. Since gas is so high and she lives so far, we don't get out to Coolidge that often. And when we do, I don't get to just hang out with my mom with all the kids running around her house. It was a nice break from the every day mumbo jumbo. I think Jocee really enjoyed being with her Mom and Grandma by herself too. She was really good..


After we ate homemade tacos with all the trimmings I let Callie open her presents. She found us wrapping them in the bedroom and really wanted to open them. So I figured, "I'm the Mom. I set the rules. I can let her open her presents whenever I want!"

Grandpa got her some cute nesting toys.
Grandma got her some keys that had a little beeper thing on it that had buttons that play different sounds. She loved pushing those buttons! She also got this train that plays music, has games, and teaches numbers and even math! So it will be a great toy for all the kids! I'm gonna have Jordan play the math games on it so he will get better at math. I looked for toys at Wal-Mart and they were freakin' expensive! So we went to Once Upon a Child and got her some great musical toys for a fraction of the retail price!

This little phone book toy was so cheap and she loves it! I love a bargain!

Her beautiful birthday dress I got her to wear on Sunday.

My mom got her these adorable Levi's. They were on clearance at Mervyns and they were really cheap too!
She also got her this pretty pink dress for cheap too. We got some really good deals today, which is why she got so many presents. We are awesome shoppers!


After playing with her toys, she climbed into the little cubby in the entertainment center! She thinks it's so funny and she loves to climb in and out and just laugh at us! She's so stinkin' cute!!!

I got her these cute sunglasses at the dollar store. She thought they were so funny!


Katelyn helping her put them on upside down.

I love this picture of Katee. Look at her eyes underneath the glasses! So cute!


My adorable little 1 year old!!! I am the luckiest mom!!

Since I wasn't home much all day, I didn't make Callie's cake, my Mom made it for me while I was out picking up my dad from work and getting some last minute items. My sister came over too and she (along with some helpers) was kind enough to decorate the cake for me. The kids had so much fun 'writing' on the cake.

The final product! Isn't it pretty?!

After all the presents, Callie was really tired and wanted to go to bed. So she actually was asleep while we sang to her and ate her cake!! Oh well, at 1, she doesn't know the difference! Saturday wasn't really her birthday anyways!

Here she is in her new birthday dress with our dog, Rocky by her side.







Chad, Katelyn, and I sang to her and gave her a piece of her cake. (Jordan and Jocee went to Grandma's house for a while. Jordan's last day of summer school was Thursday and all he's kept wanting to do was "go on vacation to Grandma's house!" so she let them go home with her on Saturday night.)






Grandma Gardiner brought over some presents for her today. She liked these little bath puppets!

She also got her this cute My First Baby. She immediately hugged it and kissed it and held it. How can a 1 year old already have motherly instincts?


Then her finale present was this really cute farm toy that plays songs and sounds and stuff! She loves it! She and Katelyn played with it all night.

Katelyn was trying to sing along and repeating the words. So it's helping her with her speech too! Woo hoo!! Isn't she cute?!