Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Sterling's First Birthday Photo Shoot

I was so excited for Sterling's first birthday shoot!!!  After talking with our very talented photographer Kim with modern bebe I was even more excited with all the ideas we came up with for the shoot.  I could not have been happier with the gorgeous shots Kim got of our precious Sterling.  Her personality is totally captured in these pictures and we just love them!!  I will just let the photos do the talking...














The cake smash portion of our shoot did not go quite as expected and Sterling 1.  Did not dig into the cake like it was her first taste of sweets and 2.  Cried most of the time.... I think by this point she was pretty over it and she was cold!!!  Nonetheless the pictures are still adorable :)






My face hurts from smiling every time I look at these pictures :)  SO in love with this sweet angel!
Happiest first birthday Sterling Grace!!!!

Happy First Birthday sweet Sterling!!!

Today we celebrate our sweet Sterling's very first birthday!  This past year since her birth has seriously gone by so fast and I just look at Sterling and think "where did my baby go?!"  She is such a big kid now and has grown so so much... Here is what our sweetest girl is up to at 1 YEAR OLD!!!

*She plays with/tugs at her hair while she is taking her bottle
*Sterling is really into looking at and poking eyes, mouths, and noses, when she is supposed to be taking her bottle.  She also likes to play with and pull at necklaces and hair.  I think she just has a fascination with eyes because she always pokes at and plays with her babies eyes too
*She got her first pair of real "walking shoes" this month.  It took me forever to find a basic pair of white shoes for her that didn't have glitter or lights or flowers on them!  We found the perfect little pair of keds and they look so adorable on her.  They also make her look huge!!!
*Sterling loves playing outside!


Sterling loves crawling up slides!  It is so nice  taking her to the park now because she no longer spends her time eating mulch an rocks.


*This month separation anxiety has gotten a little worse.  If Sterling does not see or hear me she will walk around the house looking for me, sometimes while crying.  She cries about 50% of the time when I drop her off at the kids club at the gym.
*Sterling loves snuggling her baby while she sleeps.  When she is tired she will pick up any "baby" (what we call all stuffed animals and babies" she will bring it to her face and suck her two fingers with the other hand.  Precious...


*She has a noise that she makes when she is saying baby, it is this little high pitched sound that is so funny
*Sterling loves petting with and playing with Mia.  Mia is really good with her and also enjoys nipping at and licking Sterling's hands while Sterling laughs and shrieks
*Wherever Brayden is Sterling wants to be and whatever toy Brayden is playing with that is the toy that Sterling wants....This often leads to some crying from someone but we are becoming better sharers!  If Brayden doesn't want Sterling to take his toy he sometimes will give her another one and tell her "here Ster-wing, you can have this one".  Some days Brayden REALLY wants Sterling to play with him in the closet or upstairs and he will tell her "Ster-wing follow me, or yell STER-WING!!!!" They are starting to actually play together and it is just so exciting to see and so much fun for them to have each other to entertain!


*Sterling continues to have the happiest disposition.  Literally all you have to do is look at the girl and she smiles.  She is just a lover and so incredibly sweet.
*Sterling doesn't have the heartiest appetite but we are giving her more and more control of her own eating these days.  Over the past couple of weeks I have been giving her sippy cups at dinner instead of her bottle, I also have just started giving her the sippy at lunch as well.  She doesn't drink near as much so she is beginning to take a little more table food instead.  So for now we will continue to give her a bottle when she wakes up in the morning and then one more before she goes to bed at night.  We have just started introducing cows milk as well and we are up to about 50/50 milk and formula in her bottles.  She doesn't seem to mind the taste and she hasn't had any bad reactions either so that is good.

What a mess!!!!!
*Sterling sleeps pretty consistently from 7/7:30 pm-7/7:30 am, sometimes she will go through a rough couple days and get up at night and take a bottle.  Last night I gave her a bottle at 4 am....I am hoping it is just a new tooth coming in that is upsetting her and waking her up!
*She is a very strong walker and no longer crawls at all unless she is trying to go down stairs.  Sometimes she goes to fast and gets tripped up and falls but man this girl is tough!  She falls, gets hit by Brayden or one of his toys, gets bruised like crazy and rarely cries!
*She is very curious and into everything!!!

I guess she was hungry?  Found her in the pantry digging in to the cheerios!



*Sterling loves music and will often stand there and bounce up and down smiling when she hears it.
*She is not talking yet, still just saying Da-Da but she also walks around saying Ba-ba...which really could be anything, bottle, baby, ball all three things that she really likes!
*Sterling started clapping this month and continues to wave at everyone
*Sweet girl has just not grown very much hair!!! Brayden already had so much hair on his head at 1 put poor Sterling jus doesn't have much at all!
*Sterling loves being around and playing with other kids.  She does great at the kids club at the gym just walking around and finding new toys to play with

Sterling got into her first fight at the gym!!  I couldn't believe how mad I got when they came and told me someone had bitten my baby!!!!  Luckily it did not break the skin and she was over it pretty quick, so was I!








Oh Sweet Sterling, we love you to pieces and are so happy to celebrate you and your very first birthday today!
xoxo

Sunday, March 2, 2014

February 2014

We started February out with Brian's 33 birthday!  Brayden always enjoys birthdays and especially likes helping unwrap presents, blow out the candles, and of course eat cake!!!




Brayden enjoyed playing in his first "snow"!  It was more than Brayden has ever seen and he definitely enjoyed playing in it, throwing it, and slipping around in it.  It was cold though so we didn't last outside for long!







February was probably our sickest month as a family to date....We fought off several sinus infections, a couple lingering coughs, a bad case of croup, and pink eye made it around our house as well... Brayden got to come home with a nebulizer which we call the "penguin machine" around here because looks like a cute little penguin. We have been so impressed with what a trooper Brayden has been wearing this thing for 20 minutes at a time twice a day.  He is so patient and just sits so good while it is on....of course the TV that he gets to watch while doing it is definitely a bonus!  We are hoping this will help prevent any future illnesses to turing into croup once again!  We are also hoping for a MUCH healthier Spring!


This was the day Brayden was the most sick :( you know he is feeling bad if he falls asleep in the car which he never does!!
Brayden had a fun valentine party at school and came home with lots of goodies.  He loved waking up on Valentines morning and opening his cards from his Grandparents and cousins!


"this one has a bad guy!" (about a star wars valentine from cousin Carson!)

"money!"  piggy bank money from Grandma and Grandpa

 Brayden had his first experience at build a bear on Valentines morning and had just as much fun at the mall playground and out to a special lunch with Dylan :)







 We spent an amazing day at the rodeo on Presidents Day.  It was the second year in a row Brian has been able to have off work and come with us, it was really a great day.  Both kids enjoyed seeing all of the animals, and Brayden seriously had a smile on his face the entire time.  He just ran and ran around the entire grounds and took it all in!






This goat would not leave poor Sterling alone!!!





They both could have spent hours in the petting zoo!!!

Brayden got to milk a pretend cow, stuff actually came out...



We have been enjoying some of the warm days this month and have spent quite a few afternoons at our community park.  Sterling is big enough now and active enough where she (thank goodness) does not spend the whole time putting the mulch in her mouth!  She has graduated to walking all over, climbing up slides, and climbing up all of the stairs.  


And if we are not at the park, we are either out back or out front playing weather permitting most days!  Sterling is perfectly content riding in the wagon while Brayden rides his four wheeler, scooter, or just runs!  Both kids also enjoy playing in the driveway where lately Brayden has been really into "tennis"  I feel like both kids are just so happy when they are outside and we don't get near as much crankiness from either one while we are out!

Isn't this just a beautiful picture?!

Brian and I went to pick up Brayden from the kids club at the gym the other day and were just so proud to see him sitting and reading a book :)

Grandma came for a great visit at the end of the month and I am so bummed this is the only picture I got of her from her stay!  It sure was nice having her though and she helped out a lot when we went for Sterling's first birthday photo shoot.



 And after finding many pictures of my son with no clothes on I am convinced he just prefers to be naked!!!  Here are just a few from this month!  This kid constantly cracks us up!  We have more than enough blackmail pictures on this kid for the rest of his life!!!

Prefers to go potty outside....

Who needs pants!?

And naked acrobatics!