Easter 2012

As I mentioned in Autumn's birthday update, Easter weekend was jam packed for us this year.  Saturday we had Autumn's party and also celebrated Easter with Nick's side of the family.  Then sunday we celebrated with my side.  I don't think the kids minded since they got some quality time with all of their grandparents and cousins, not to mention lots of goodies in their baskets!


Paige sporting super funny bunny glasses from G&G Church. 

 

...and Autumn swinging with her bunny glasses on :)

I'm pretty sure if they weren't cousins they would marry each other.  (Someday one of us is going to have to tell them that can't marry each other.) 

Brady and Autumn coloring eggs

Riley and Paige enjoying their first Easter together.  Last year at that time Riley wasn't even born....I never would've guessed that she would be walking around a year later while Paige still drug along her leg doing her strange, I mean unique and special, crawl :)

Cutie pie :)

Happy girls Easter morning when they saw that the Easter Bunny had come!

This was literally the best picture I could get of the two of them in their Easter dresses.  It is amazing how challenging of a task this is sometimes.   It might be a toss up which is harder - birthing them, or taking a picture of them together.

Getting ready for an egg hunt with Maddie and Jacob!  All ready to go with her traditional Mickey and Minnie Mouse baskets!  (Paige was napping during this egg hunt.  All the fun of the weekend wore her out).

The powers that be at Disney should be thrilled with this picture.  Autumn, hunting for eggs, while wearing a Belle dress and carrying a Mickey basket. 

Autumn's 4th Birthday

Well this year was a big birthday year for Autumn.  It was her golden birthday.  In fact, she turned 4 on 4/4, so it was doubly golden!  She had school the morning of her birthday, and she got to bring in a special birthday snack and the famous birthday bucket.  She had been waiting all year for her turn to get the birthday bucket, because it meant that she got to fill it with all of her favorite things from home and tell her class all about them.

After school she had a special birthday lunch with Mom and Dad, and then she and I had a girls afternoon including her first mani/pedi, going to see The Lorax and hanging out at Barnes and Noble.  Then Shannon, Brian, Maddie and Jacob met up with us for a birthday dinner.  She had a great day, and even asked if her birthday could be on April 5th next year so it can be her golden birthday again.


                                         Autumn's first manicure!

 

....and then her first pedicure!

 

              Having fun hanging with her cousins for dinner

 

We had her party the weekend after her birthday.  It was a busy weekend with both Easter and her party, and she was one tired girl at the end of the weekend.  Her party was at The Little Gym just like last year.  We had a few more kids there this time around, and I learned that four year olds are much braver and louder than three year olds :).

 

She was thrilled to get her own yellow baby, after begging for one since Christmas.  Paige got one for Christmas and Autumn did a very good job of taking care of it until she got her own :) 

 

Having a blast on the double bars with Grace and Owen D.

 

Autumn and her friends were good listeners at circle time.

 

What a cake - she asked for a princess castle cake and that's what she got.  It was no small feat holding it in the car from home to the party, but she LOVED it! 

 

One final gift was waiting for her at home after her party, courtesy of G&G Latta.  She was so surprised she barely said anything, and kept asking what it was for and if it was really for her.   

Paige's First Birthday

Just as we were winding down from the holidays, we blinked and it was Paige's first birthday!  I say it a lot, but I cannot believe how quickly time goes and how fast this first year went.  I remember not being ready in some ways for Autumn to turn one, and I had those same feelings as Paige's birthday got closer.  At the same time, we are so excited for all of new experiences that are ahead and all of the things she will learn in this next year.  She has been an amazing and entertaining baby, and I can only imagine the laughter we will have in the months to come. 

Unfortunately she was sick with croup on her actual birthday (Jan 8th), so we laid pretty low that weekend.  Thankfully her party was scheduled for the following weekend, because she was in no shape to celebrate that day.  We felt so bad for her...we asked her how old she was (Grandma Church taught her how to hold up one finger) and she did it with the saddest little face :(

We made the most of her birthday and made mini cupcakes with our new cupcake maker the girls got from Christmas.  I'm pretty sure we made about 56 cupcakes....took a little while, but super yummy!

The following Saturday (Jan 15th) Paige was feeling back to her normal silly self and was ready to party!

Again, having so much fun opening presents and tearing off the paper.  She looked like an old pro!

Paige loved her cake.  It took her a little while to realize what it was and that she was actually allowed to eat it, but once she got going she didn't want to stop.  She also managed to get nice and messy!

Super silly birthday smile! 

I think she was pretty darn proud of herself and had no problem being the center of attention for the day.  She did a great job and had lots of fun, and it was so nice to have our whole family there to celebrate her birthday!

Christmas 2011

Yes it's almost Easter, but I thought I should wrap up my updates for 2011 with some pictures from Christmas.  We had our best Christmas yet as a family.  It was Paige's first Christmas, which made it all the more special, and we had so much fun hanging out as a family and enjoying some time off work and school.  Autumn was so excited for Christmas this year and it was awesome to see her reactions to all the traditions of the season.  We felt very blessed to have made some wonderful memories as a family, and we even managed to all stay healthy through the holidays.


Family trip to the lights at the Columbus Zoo. 

Three tired girls - Autumn, Paige, and Macy.  Relaxing over Christmas break.
                                       

That is a fine looking gingerbread train if I do say so myself.  I think it's clear by Autumn's expression that she may have eaten a little too much of the candy. Can you say sugar high?!                                                                             

All dressed up for Christmas Eve church.  Fancy shmancy!

They must have been pretty good girls because Santa made it to our house!  Autumn's Christmas list wishes were fulfilled and Paige was happy just ripping off the wrapping paper :)

Santa brought Paige a matching sled and Autumn a Scout dog to match Paige's Voilet dog.  I think we only got to use the sleds one time this year though.  What a strange, warm winter.

 I love Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Opening presents with cousins Madde and Jacob.  Santa brought them all yo-yo's so Grandpa Latta can teach them some tricks!

 ...And more presents with our other cousins Brady and Riley.  Talk about some lucky little girls.  Their grandparents and aunts and uncles sure were nice to them this year.

Fall 2011

So here we are - one month away from Paige's 1st birthday already.  It's amazing how quickly 2011 has gone and we only have one month left.  We've continued to have so much fun with the girls, especially as Paige is getting older and her personality is really developing.  It's hard to keep track of all the new things she has done since August, but some of the highlights include crawling, getting 3 more teeth, started so say a few words like "hi", "mama" and "dada", feeding herself, and just tonight pulled herself up to a stand.  She's constantly on the go, never wanting to sit still for very long, and cracks us up with all of her hilarious facial expressions.

Autumn is still amazing us all the time with the things she learns, says and does.  I keep telling myself to start a quote book so I can remember more of what comes out of her mouth.  This holiday season has been so fun with her as it's the first year that she remembers what Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all about.  Last year she didn't really anticipate them much, but this year was a different story and she's already very excited for Christmas and for Santa to come.  Every day we listen to Christmas music in the car and she loves it.

We are looking forward to celebrating our first Christmas as a family of four, and had a wonderful first Thanksgiving for Paige as both sides of the family came to our place to hang out.  We hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the year and I'm sure you'll hear from us again after Christmas and Paige's birthday in January.  


The first of so many school pictures.  She looks so "grown up" and, honestly, it scares me.

Grandpa Latta set up all of their trains in the the basement.  They found little conductor hats for the kids and Autumn loved controlling the trains.  And...all you kids from the 80's....notice the popple Autumn is holding?  Ah, brings back memories. 

And the presidential infatuation continues.  She stood there for a good 10 minutes watching it very intently. Paige, on the other hand, was busy pulling on the dog's tail :)

A big day for Paige...she was baptized on September 11th.  Thanks to all of our family for coming to support her.  Great Grandma Lucy even made the trip, which meant a lot to us, and somehow we made it through the service without any of Paige's typical screeches, grunts, or squeaks!  She did such a great job during the ceremony too, even giving the pastor a big smile after he got her head all wet.

Paige with her Godparents...she and Autumn are both very lucky.

Here are some pictures from Fall/Halloween.  We had a great time this fall....went to a pumpkin patch, fall festival (note the face painting), carved pumpkins and of course trick-or-treating!

One of Paige's many faces....and there are many :)

It took all season, but we finally got Paige in her Buckeye gear.  We had some Michigan fans in our house so we had to represent OSU as best we could!

Our attempt to comb and part Paige's hair after her bath.  Within about 10 minutes it was back to the light socket look :) 

Summer 2011

As always time is moving so quickly, and I can't believe summer is almost over.  We've had a great summer, getting to relax some weekends and spend others catching up with family and friends.  After 5 years we were able to get together with Nick's college roommate and his family, along with a few other guys from the college days.  We also spent our annual weekend at Indian Bear Lodge with the whole Latta family.  For us it was the best year yet.  Autumn was in absolute heaven with her cousins and we are happy to report that Paige is sleeping through the night and did so both nights there! That was a big relief for us so we are more comfortable taking weekend trips as a family now.  Nick and I also had the opportunity to get away for a few days in June/July in Florida.  Grandma Latta got some quality time with the girls and we got some quality time with the beach and ice cold drinks, so everyone was happy!

Paige is getting too big too fast and we are having a lot of fun watching her experience all of her firsts (teeth, eating rice and vegetables/fruits, swinging, swimming, going to the zoo, sitting up, etc).  She has been trying really hard to crawl for the past few weeks, so we're expecting that any day now.  The girl just wants to move and is not happy sitting still.

Autumn has also had a few firsts this summer, like riding her tricycle by herself and riding a pony, both which she's very proud of.  A big first coming up for her next week is pre-school.  I can hardly believe she's starting already, but so far she is very excited.  Let's hope that is the case come Aug 29th.

Overall the girls are doing great and seem to adore each other more every day.  Again, I know this may come to a screeching halt when Paige starts having opinions of her own, but for now it's fun to watch and we are choosing to live in our happy state of ignorance :)



Our first family trip to the zoo with Paige.  Our friends Brian and Michelle came down to visit with their daughter Hannah and it was so nice to see them.  It was a hot day but all the little ones did great.

Grandma and Grandpa Church with all four of the grandkids.  Hmm, can you tell which two are half Italian?! By the way, that cute tiny one that Verna is holding is the newest member of the family - Riley Grace Young!  Riley was born on May 4th and she is absolutely adorable.  From what we hear Brady is an excellent big brother too.     

Paige at about 5 months old....still looking like a mini female version of my Grandpa Flynn.

We went to downtown Westerville at the end of June for their street fair.  They have it the 4th Friday of every month during the summer.  Autumn got her face painted for the first time and has been asking when she can get it done again.  She talks about the girl who painted her face like they are old friends :)

Paige's first time in a pool.  Hard to tell from the picture but she loved it! 

Paige at almost 6 months old...making silly faces and making Mommy smile on her birthday :)

 Move over Doogie Howser!! Autumn loves playing doctor and giving us all check ups.  According to my last check up I weighed 6 lbs.  I like this doctor!!

Macy and Autumn have become best buddies in the past few months.  This new relationship is primarily based on Autumn chasing Macy around the house with whatever torture method she chooses that night....the vacuum, baby stroller, toy leaf blower (which she does while dressed in a catepillar costume), etc.  We tried to make her stop for a while until we realized that Macy kind of likes it and it's good exercise for them both.  We can tell Macy approves because she used to go into our bedroom during storms, but now she goes right into Autumn's room.  So cute....

Just chillin' on the 4th of July.  Hey...where's my margarita guys?!

We stayed home for the 4th of July weekend and had a nice little family cookout.  When we explained to Autumn why we celebrate the 4th of July, she asked us how old America is.  When we told her she thought it would be a good idea to make a cake like we do for our birthdays.  Notice the cupcakes in the background with the 235... 

Paige's first time swinging.  Hilarious to watch her smile and snort for 15 minutes straight.  And although it's a little tough to see, she's also showing off her first two teeth on the bottom!

Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, boouunce, booouuunnnccee, and I'm out.  Goodnight.

Smiley girl at 7 months old.  Her hair is getting more awesome every day.  Love the spike!

Last weekend Nick's company had a big celebration for their 60th Anniversary.  It was nice to see Autumn be so fearless on the huge bouncy slides and have a blast.  That evening she also got to experience her first concert as the company had Blake Shelton perform.  She was showing us her best dance moves that night!