Reese's 1st Birthday Party (and Reagan & Ryan's)

We just had a family birthday party this past Saturday with many of Paul's side of the family visiting us.   We celebrated Reagan & Ryan's birthdays along with the big celebration of Reese turning 1.   Paul's mom, Grammie was here, along with her parents, Mommo & Poppo.  Grandpa Greg, Aunt Denise and her husband Bryan, Uncle Greg and his wife Laura, along with their son, Isaiah and Mama & Fay all came too.   It was great to have so much family around, especially because I never had any family around as I grew up.    We had fajitas, soft tacos, queso dip and some yummy cake & ice cream.   It was the last time I got to make the #1 cake.  For all four of my kids, I have made the #1 cake and used the same #1 candle.  So while I was joyful to be celebrating Reese's first year, I was a little sad for this ending milestone.  Not to mention, we stopped with formula this day too....but that will save us $$! :)  We are phasing out bottles too, so I feel by the end of next week, I will have given my last snugly, cuddly bottle feeding.  As far as eating her first birthday cake, Reese was a little neat about it all.  Or maybe it was all the strange people watching her, making her feel like she had to perform or something.  We have been so blessed with four wonderful children and this past year with Reese has been such a great year---with the exception of making me so much more exhausted!  She has fit into our family beautifully and I could not imagine not having her in our lives.   Thank you Lord for loaning these children to us "for such a time as this"!

 

Present time!

Reese opening her first present......

 

Of course, sisters and brother needed to help her....

 

Ryan got an awesome Indiana Jones LEGO set from Grammie

Riley in her new shades from Mama

 

Check out the cool hats Mommo got them.  Riley wants to wear that hat everywhere!

Time to blow out the candles!

And now for the sweet angel's turn.......

Testing.......

Thinking it is pretty yummy after Mommy had to help her push her hand down in it

  

This is an "I'M DONE WITH THIS MESS!" cry.....clean me up!

And the final look of the birthday girl!

Reese --12 Months!!!

  

Just a few hours old......

Yep.  It finally got here.   My tiny, sweet baby turned 1.   No more tiny babies around the Cornwell Household.  I'll have to wait for grandbabies (in about 20 years!) to experience that feel and love of a newborn.   For now, we will celebrate all of the LASTS as we say goodbye to the baby stage and celebrate all the FIRSTS that Reese still gets to experience.

 Three weeks old....

Happy First Birthday Reese!!

Gatlinburg, TN Vacation

We had a great time on vacation.  OK.  I'll tell the truth.   It had alot of great moments and some not so great moments.  Traveling in a car and staying in a 2 bedroom cabin is a little hard sometimes with 4 kids under the age of 9---one of those being a 1year old.  Don't get me wrong.  I love my kids and I am very thankful to have the opportunity to be able to go on vacation, but they can try my patience and stress me out.   You would think I would be use to it, but having Reese scream in the car, while we are driving 6 1/2 hours, is a little hard on my nerves.  Add the other kids trying to tell her to be quiet and we have chaos in the car.  Then the three older kids were crammed in one bedroom and then Paul & I were in a queen-size bed, with Reese in her play yard, sleeping in the room with us.   She could stand up and look at us while we slept---we would pretend to not be awake or move so she would not start crying.   Made for some early mornings.  Needless to say, I was so glad to be in my own king-size bed and own bedroom once we got home.   Then we were just praying we made it up the 1.3 mile hike to Laurel Falls as posted signs warned us "WARNING:  Keep children under tight control.   Severe drop offs ahead.  Risk of injury or death."----as Riley casually wandered around aimlessly and Ryan ran to every high rock he could find.   Only once did Riley get too close to an edge and as Paul reached out to grab her, he slipped, with tiny Reese in her backpack, looking on.   But, it was all worth it once we got to the waterfall.  it was beautiful and the kids loved playing in the freezing water.

And there were some great times in the hot tub, roasting S'mores, playing games in the cabin and just hanging out.  Making memories.   That is what it is all about.   The kids absolutely loved going to the NASCAR Speedway and racing go-carts.   They had a blast there.   We also did some miniature golf since there are 1000's of places to do that.  We went to Cooter's Museum---a place dedicated to The Dukes of Hazzard. (Waste of time, but Paul wanted to see it) Ripley's Aquarium was an awesome place to see and Reese loved looking at all the fish.  We did that on her birthday!  Yes, my little baby turned 1 in June 3rd!  And another cool place we visited was Ober Gatlinburg--- a ski resort, with many cool activities like a black bear habitat, with lots of other cool animals.  And there were some slides and rides there too.  Lots of fun was had by all there!  The kids loved it there and want to go back for sure.   In fact, they all want to move to TN because there are so many fun things to do.  I told them that if we lived there, Daddy would still have to go to work, and we would just do our normal routine---not go drive NASCAR go-karts everyday.  Here are some pictures to highlight our trip......

One way to keep Reese occupied in the car...Dum-Dum suckers.   She loved them!