First Birthday

Last week we celebrated Bonnie's first birthday! With the pandemic still going strong, we weren't able to do a big party like we hoped. We are so thankful we live near some family that were able to celebrate with us.

Our last picture with our zero year old.

After breakfast Bonnie opened some presents. She was spoiled by family nearby and as far as Texas, California, and Alaska.

We got a couple pictures in this sweet dress that was passed down from her Aunt Alison. Her older cousin Sienna wore it on her first birthday.

After a nap, grandma showed up with lunch then we met up with Katie's crew for a walk nearby. 

We brought Bonnie back home for another nap while everyone came to our house. Benny took the kids on a ride on the golf cart.

When Bonnie woke up her cousins were so excited to show her the cards they worked so hard on, and help her open presents.

After dinner it was time for cake. I believe she was a little overwhelmed because she did not love this part of the day.

Thankfully she came around but still never ate much cake. She was either still full from dinner or it's a testament to my baking.

Some of our neighbors showed up for cake as well and Bonnie loved playing with all the kids.

 

The next day after Grandma left we got to FaceTime with all of Benny's family. While we were FaceTiming his sister and cousins, we gave her another shot at her cake.

She seemed to enjoy it much better this time. She still barely even got into a quarter of it, but maybe I'll have her Aunt Katie bake her cake next year.

Thank you to everyone who came or reached out and made this day so special for her!

Bonnie is ONE!

 

Bonnie is officially one year old!! I can't even believe it. We had a great day celebrating this girl with family, which I'll share more on later. She is 18 pounds, 6.5 ounces (27th percentile) and 30 inches long (78th percentile). She now has 6 teeth, and 2 more coming in. She is still taking two naps a day for about 1.5 hours each, and sleeps from 7 PM to 7 or 7:30 AM.

She has come a long way with her communication skills this month. She now tries to imitate sounds and motions from us. She makes all kinds of sounds, but still isn't saying a lot of words yet. She can say dada, mama, hi, woah, and other things that sound like words but we don't actually thinks she knows what they mean yet. She has started signing "all done" which is mostly just waving her arms up and down. And when we point at something, she now looks where we point.

We have been working on getting Bonnie to clap. She still isn't there yet but has at least started waving one of her arms back and forth, now we just need the other one to do the same so they can meet in the middle. She has started shaking her head back and forth as if to say "no" but again, we don't think she knows what it means. It actually came about from dancing. She loves to dance when she hears music and sometimes shaking her head is one of her moves. She isn't walking yet, but can stand unassisted for a few seconds every once in a while. She has also learned to climb the stairs, so a baby gate is the newest fixture in our home.

It's been fun to reminisce over her birth and where we were a year ago. We can now look back on that time and realize what an incredible story she has and what a bonding experience it was for us. I am so proud and just so incredibly grateful for this girl. Being parents to her is so much more than we ever imagined it would be. Keep on smiling and spreading your joy Bonnie Jean-Marie!

Bonnie's dedication

Last week at church we had Bonnie dedicated! She was the first baby to be dedicated since everything was moved outside for Covid. We were waiting to see if things were ever going to get back to normal but with no end in site, we didn't want to wait any longer. It couldn't of been a more beautiful day!

When we went up on stage Ben and Rosie came too, it was so sweet!

 

Bonnie did a great job. She wiggled around quite a bit but never cried so we're calling it a win.

Sadly we didn't get a group photo with family or small group, but it was so special to get to celebrate with family and friends!

Halloween

The day before Halloween we got together with some friends for an outdoor dinner. It was a chance for the kids to dress up and get together, since trick or treating was up in the air for a lot of people.

It was a lot of fun and actually the first chance our whole small group was able to get together in person since the pandemic.

Later that night we finally carved our pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds.

 

 The next day we got to take Bonnie trick-or-treating for the first time! We were excited to see what Halloween was like in our new neighborhood, we had been told it's a pretty big deal around here.

We had a pretty happy snail on our hands.

When all else fails and you don't have a costume, pull out the old Army gear.

Ready to go!

There were lots of fun decorations.

A lot of the houses had goody bags for all the kids and then drinks or food for the adults. Every one got really into it! Although we heard it was very tapered down this year.

There were hayrides, tractor rides, and trailer rides hitched to the back of golf carts.

Our girl worked her magic to score us some good candy too!

It was great to spend time with neighbors and be a part of our first Halloween here!