Chloe is our princess and her party was a reflection of that. With pinks, yellows, flowers and frills, Chloe was celebrated today by those who love her.

And so it's official, our darling Chloe is one. What a great year filled with toothy smiles and squinched up noses.

When we first found out we were pregnant we thought it would be so great to have a boy. It would just be easier with clothing and toys and beyond that it was what we "knew".

Well, well...God had different plans and are we thankful He did.

God blessed us with our beautiful baby girl and life without a girl just wouldn't be right. We love every second of having a girl and have quickly grown fond of ribbons and bows.

Chloe-Belle, Bellie, Bella, Chlo-Chlo, Cleo or whatever else anyone wants to call you...

We LOVE you. You complete our family and are a gift from God.

Thank you Lord for this blessing. The blessing of a baby girl.

Meanwhile, while Brooks made his fruit salad...

Chloe enjoyed some lunch.

Brooks is Mr. Independent. He wants to do everything by himself. Lately, he has been enjoying making fruit salad. He does a really good job cutting the fruit and making a pretty good salad. Tonight at dinner (out) he was able to cut his pancakes and his fruit by himself with a real knife. He did a really good job, too!

Earlier today, Brooks made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on his own, too! He put TONS of peanut butter on it and when his cousins arrived they ate the whole thing and loved it.

My little boy is quickly turning into a little man.

Brooks is finally old enough to play games. Well, some games. Games that don't take more than 5 minutes and games that he is playing with people who don't care about the rules. We had fun tonight before bed playing his new "bee" game. He strongly dislikes all kinds of bugs (like really dislikes) but he got over his fear and decided this game was pretty fun. I don't know who had more fun though, Mommy and Daddy or Brooks. It's just so wonderful seeing such joy in a child's face.

She is about a week from walking. She is less than a week from being a year old. I am dying. I can't believe it. Our last baby is already one. So, I don't really miss the recovery from the C-section, I don't really miss sleepless nights (although Greg did most the night stuff) and I don't really miss feeding every 2-3 hours BUT I am going to miss having a baby in the house.

She no longer holds still. She no longer snuggles. She no longer wants to lay on my chest for a nap. Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! I can't stand it. I think I am going to go eat some ice cream and cry...

It's so funny how when your house is going to be appraised the next day, you start to get the "TO DO" list accomplished. Our house is always pretty tidy, but today we did some projects that we have been talking about for a few months now. My closet is perfect, our shed is getting painted and the stain for the play set is ordered!

Greg helped me put this verse above the kids pictures in the living room tonight. It was a PROJECT, but only because I made it one. I thought it would be a great idea to cut out each word from the template while Greg was at Home Depot today. Instead of just leaving it as one big piece, I carefully cut out each word so it would be easier to put up.

That was not the case, and cutting each word out made for a gigantic project. Greg had a forgiving spirit about the whole thing. He said it was actually fun to have to use the level, measure and try to get all the words to line up top to bottom, left to right. He said it created a "good memory" for us.

This verse and song is special. It is not only placed above pictures of our two greatest blessings from God, it is also the song that was sung at my Grandma Bunny's funeral. So it has a double meaning and it already makes me smile every time I look at it.

We don't allow comments on this blog for lots of reasons. One of them being that we don't really want others to get all bent out of shape about a post and decide to tell us how to parent. This might be one of those posts that you think it would be best to call us up and tell us we are not parenting correctly. I guess we will find out if we are doing a good job, but in the meantime here we go.

Brooks loves his babydoll. We have only had two or three in our house and he is very drawn to them. One of them is in the bathtub and he can often be found scrubbing the babydoll and taking really good care of babydoll in the tub.

Today we got out a second doll from Chloe's closet for Chloe to play with. She really doesn't have any (or many) "girl" toys, so we thought it might be time to get another babydoll out for her to enjoy.

As you can see, Brooks took to the babydoll right away. He loves her and takes such good care of her. Today he spent lots of time changing her diapers (wipes and all), feeding her, changing her outfits, putting her to bed with her special blanket and pillow and snuggling her.

I suppose some would say, "Take that babydoll away and get that kid some tools!" I disagree. My little Brooksie is so amazing. He is such a "man's" man and at the same time has traits that are super sensitive and might be looked at as feminine.

Do I think that letting Brooks play with this babydoll will confuse him about his sexuality? Na. I don't. A high strung Mama might panic about it, but that just isn't me.

Brooks is going to be a strong man someday. I can see it now. He will be the protector of his family, the man who does the grilling and mows the lawn and the man who tucks the kids into bed while singing them a lullaby. Don't you just think the world could use more men like I just described?

I adore that Brooks loves his sister's babydoll. Will I let him bring it to school with him next month? Na. I'm not that adoring of it!

Love to all who read our blog.

XOXO

My beautiful baby girl.