Pinkalicious birthday!

We had so much fun celebrating Ali's 3rd birthday party! Ali's favorite book right now is Pinkalicious and I thought it would be fitting to have her birthday party at Cupcake Charm, decorating cupcakes. It is a precious little cupcake store on the Marietta Square. The favors were little aprons and I decorated them with each of her friends' name beforehand. When they got there, we had stamps for them to decorate their aprons. Then, we had pizza and the kids drank juice out of fancy cups! Finally, they got to decorate their cupcakes. Miss Mamie came around and they got to pick out a color and die their icing, then they could choose from all of the different toppings like candy corn, skittles, marshmallows, gummy bears, etc. We had a great time and the birthday girls loved being able to celebrate with all of her bestest friends!

Look how old I am!

Posing in front of the sign that greeted us at Cupcake Charm!

Luckily, Grandmommy & Granddaddy came in at the same in and helped us get in the door!The Princess was so excited about her birthday party and was a great helper getting all of the aprons on to decorate!
Mommy & Daddy with the birthday girl!
Family shot!
Ali, hard at work, decorating her apron
Ali and Libby
Ali, Libby, Bennett & Will


Drinking juice out of fancy glasses!
Rhodes was passed out throughout most of the party - thanks to Grandmommy & Granddaddy for taking care of the tired girl before her nap!
Decorating cupcakes...
Ali got so sweet & shy when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her!

Blowing out her candle!
More cupcake decorating...

Delicious cupcake covered with gummy bears, candy corn, marshmallows, m&ms - mmm??
Maggie B!
Will, Tate and Evan - some of the boys at the boys table
Little Mimi and Mary Mac
Mae, Charlotte and Bennett


I tried to get a few pictures of Ali's sweet friends hugging her goodbye! Ali & Bennett..
Ali and Evan
Cooper going in for a kiss!

Ali and her sweet best bud from school, Mary Mac!
and Caroline!

Three years ago today....

Alison Brooks Patrick was born and made me a mommy! I have tried not to think about it too much today b/c I know I will get an emotional - oh, how I love that sweet girl! She brings so much joy to our lives and she has my whole heart! We have had a fun and busy weekend celebrating our new three year old and making sure she feels extra special all weekend long!

My Ali B:

I don't even know where to start talking about where you are right now in life! It is hard for me to put to words how much I love you, sweet girl! You have such a sweet, gentle spirit with a little bit of a stinker thrown in there too! I get to be the one you want to put you to bed every night and I cherish that time with you. We have gotten to a point lately where you no longer want naps - which is fine by me! You still have some quiet time, but you usually pass out as I read you stories, usually around 7 pm at night! You will fight it and talk to me up until the last second and then, next thing I know, I will look over and see my little angel sound asleep, looking so sweet and innocent!

We like to say that you are "3 going on 30" b/c you are just such a little person with so much to say and you understand so much. You talk in full sentences and there's not much you don't "get!". We have to spell a lot of things these days b/c otherwise you don't miss much!

You have such sweet little friends and you love your friends so much! On Friday, we had dinner with your friend Mary Mac and as soon as we walked away you looked me so sad and said, "Mommy, I miss Mary Mac already!" You light up when your little friends are around and I love to watch it!

You are the best big sister to Rhodesy! You love her so much and, yes, sometimes she gets into things/plays with things you don't want her too and you can be rough and tumble with each other - but that's part of sisterhood and I truly believe yall will be best friends in life! You have so many little differences between the two of you that make you unique - but you get along so well. (I wanted to make sure I said this now b/c I know this may not always be the case! :)) She adores you so much and wants to do everything you do - and most of the time, you oblige and let her play with you! Today, you got a new car for your birthday and you wanted Rhodes to ride with you the whole time and got sad when she wanted to get out.

We potty trained you this year and you did great with it! It was so much faster than I anticipated and we are so proud of you! We went to St. Simons (to Mimi & Papa's swim house, as you call it!) for a week and it rained the whole week so we just pretty much let you run around without pants on for the week and that pretty much sealed the deal. Yes, there was still accidents, learning once we got home, but not much! You are a quick learner!

You started a new school this year and I was nervous to take you away from your friends from Weekday (I prayed and prayed about it!) - but you have adjusted fantastically and made so many new sweet friends that you love to tell me about when you get in the car after school. You especially love Thursdays when you get to go to lunch bunch! It is the highlight of my day to pull into carpool lane and wait for them to bring you out - I literally get so excited to see you and hear you talk about your day and all of your friends. Makes my soul feel good!

You love to read, play dress up, play with your bears (or your "friends" as you call them lately!), take care of your little sister, watch Disney princess movies and Mickey Mouse, play with your friends, play outside & swing, talk, smile & laugh.

I'll end with comments written on your first progress report you got from school that described you so well to me and made me tear up to read. "An obedient spirit, gigles and listener are the words that describe sweet Ali to me! She is a delight to teach. She answers all of my questions during circle time - she is extremely bright! She is already very mature and dependable. She brings so much joy to our class!"

Thank you, Ali, for being you! We are so proud of you and love you so very much! God's plan was much bigger than I could have ever imagined when he blessed our lives forever 3 years ago and gave us you! I thank Him every day for you! Happy, happy 3rd birthday, sweet girl!!

Election Day 2009!

November 4, 2009 was a big day for our family - my dad (Papa) won his campaign and will be Mayor of Marietta come January! Hooray! It was a fantastic win too and we are all so very proud of him. Here are a few pictures from our day!

Red dressed sisters!

Ali loves her bear "friends"
Little Mimi came to Papa's results watching party which was a real treat for the girls! We love our friend, Little Mimi! The girls love to run around together...
Rhodes and her Mama - I think I made this lovely face after smiling for an entire minute and of course it is the one that gets caught on camera! I never have enough pictures of me and my baby Rhodesy!
Ali and her pal, Mimi!
Three little friends...sitting on the blocked off stairs!
Sweet friends hugging bye
When these results came in, there were big cheers throughout the crowd!! Later...a few more votes came in to give dad a firm 80% of the votes - which was such a relieving and exciting feeling!
So proud of my dad!
Campaign manager, Mayor- elect, Campaign treasurer :)

Pumpkin patch 2009

On the day before Halloween, we finally headed to the Pumpkin Patch! We had had plans for awhile to go with a big group but had been postponed due to all of the rain around here - and it was the final day of of pumpkin season at Berry Patch Farms! It was originally supposed to be a group of about 75 moms and their babies - but, on the day we went, only 6 of us were there with our little ones (15 total) and as soon as we pulled into the pumpkin patch the rain greeted us there!! It was quite the experience, but a fun little group - I hope to add more pictures later! We ended up just taking the hayride around 2 times (it is covered) and not getting out to see the pumpkins. There were only a few left anyway and some that were left were broken, etc. :) Afterwards, we stayed and picnicked under cover and got VIP treatment since we were the only ones there and the owners/workers were excited it was the last day! Despite the rain, we had a lot of fun - hopefully weather will cooperate better next year! One thing that made me laugh about the experience was that Ali refused to sit down if there was a speck of dirt so borrowed our sweet friend, Webb's baby blanket to sit on (thanks Webb!). Rhodes, on the other hand, was literally covered from head to dirt in mud from running off from me and getting into trouble! Her sweet little monogrammed bloomers turned from white to brown in the span of 10 minutes! :) The little differences between these two crack me up and keep me entertained - in lieu of all of the chaos!

Rhodes and her friends Lottie and Webb - who are about 3 months younger than her! Can you see the dirt/mud/water on Rhodes' sweet candy corn dress?

Sweet Als - on Webb's blanket!
Girlfriend/boyfriend - Rhodes & Webb!
Happy Fall!!

Everything happens for a reason...

The title of this post is something I firmly believe in. It would make life a lot harder if we don't believe things like this, wouldn't it? Yes, God has a plan for our lives and it may not always be something we clearly understand at the time and there may be times we ask "Why?", but, in the end, it all becomes clear. Today, I am happy to be at the end at one of these moments - I wish I could go back and tell the girl from this post, http://jrapatrick.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-thank-lord-for-our-blessings.html, that the feeling today is much better than the feeling from that day and it was all worth it.

And now, two happy articles from today!

http://mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-A+Thunder-ous+victory+for+new+Mayor+Tumlin%20&id=4304131-A+Thunder-ous+victory+for+new+Mayor+Tumlin&instance=home_news_left

http://mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-A+Who-s+Who+showing+at+Tumlin-s+victory+fete%20&id=4304081-A+Who-s+Who+showing+at+Tumlin-s+victory+fete&instance=home_news_special_coverage

Thank you, Lord, for your bigger plan and for all of these little moments!!

2nd Annual Maple Avenue Halloween Parade

On Halloween, we took the girls to the 2nd Annual Maple Avenue Halloween parade down the street from our house... Of course, I did not get very good pictures so here are a few I borrowed from Jill! :) The first one is my favorite! More Halloween pictures to come!

Click here to view these pictures larger

The 4th Annual Tradition Halloween parade

Halloween parades are one of my favorite parts of Halloween time - especially since the girls are so young and not too into trick or treating yet! For the past 3 years - we have gone to the Tradition Halloween parade hosted by the Hunter/Phillips family and it is always such a treat! Here are some pictures from this year (again - camera problems so I hate that the pictures look bad!) and the years past. Since Ali decided to hold off in 2006 and not make her grand entrance until a week after Halloween - we missed the first year but have enjoyed every year since! Also, Ali decided to change her outfit for the day from Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty for the day - b/c the Cinderella was too "itchy" that day!

Halloween Parade 2007

Halloween Parade 2008

Halloween parade 2009

October fun

Fall is a busy time and October has been a lot of fun! My girls are growing every day and I have started to hear the sweetest sound more and more lately - two little girls laughing while playing together! It's the best sound and it's one I want to record in my brain forever. They are turning into such sweet friends (most of the time) and their friendship makes my heart melt. I usually put Ali to bed while Ryan puts Rhodesy to bed and last night, Rhodes was not having it and started crying while Ryan was taking her to her room after leaving Ali's room where we had all been reading together. Ali told me, "Mommy, I think Rhodes misses me already. We are best friends and I think she just wants me to come in there!" (she seriously talks in complete sentences like this - I think she acts a lot older than she is sometimes!) Now, this was probably (definitely) just Ali trying to find a way to get out of going to bed - but it was still so sweet. They watch out for eachother and love eachother and I love every second of it!

Here are just a few pictures I got off of my Mom's camera from this month. FYI - I turned to camera to "kids" mode the last few pictures and they didn't turn out so well - but I like having pictures to remember the little things so here they are anyway! :)

We've been busy lately! Busy saying cheese..
Busy at friends' birthday parties!
Busy playing together! Rhodes' new favorite move is to climb on chairs (#1 favorite), couches, etc and then to stand up in them. She is quite the daredevil!

Busy matching!

Even in our play clothes!
I like this one...
Busy smiling and being huggable

Busy being silly

Busy carving pumpkins with friends

Although Rhodes was busy trying to get into trouble - climbing stairs, trying to eat pumpkin insides and seeds...

Daddy took the carving pumpkin job very seriously!
All of the little friends checking out their daddy's masterpieces!

Busy riding in pretend firetrucks
And busy riding in our first REAL firetruck at Evan's birthday party! (bad picture but fun time!!)
Lots of rainy days (and even floods!) so we have had postponed pumpkin patch visits and Halloween parades but plenty of time for indoor fun like finger painting! What a mess!


Rhodes just woke up from a nap with bedhead!
Busy Trunk of Treating at our church and ran into Papa!
Ali went Halloween shopping with daddy for a costume for him about an hour before Trunk or treating - and, lucky me, she surprised me with one too! A matching Cinderella dress to wear with her!
She picked out Big Bird for Ryan...

September 09 - better late than never!

So...I have been bad about blogging lately and am going to try to be better. Being the klutz I am, I broke our camera on Rhodes' birthday and luckily my mom has let me borrow hers in the meantime.....I just need to get those pictures on here to share! I just found some pictures on our computer from September that I never put on the blog and wanted to make sure to add them on here so I can remember some of these moments years to come! Pictures to come of October/more recently soon!!

A few pictures from cousin Savannah's first birthday party! She is exactly one week older than Rhodes and they had so much fun playing together!! Here are a few shots - trying to get a good picture of all four of the cousins-

Rhodes, Ali, Olivia, and Savannah


Ryan and his niece, Savannah - the birthday girl!
Rhodes playing some drums
Ali and Savannah, catching up
Some more random pictures from the month of September:

Sisters drumming togetherRhodes loves to sneak in some snacks of Baxter's delicious dog food! Yuck!
Why I call Rhodes my little escape artist.... She is always heading for this door and she is FAST!
Waving bye bye as she takes off!
Rhodes hanging out while the big girls play

My pretty princessTurning Libby into a pumpkin - "Bippity boppity boo!!"

Princesses Ali & Libby...best friends since zero

Rhodes' loved her first corn on the cob!

Homestretch

Nine more days until election day - and I really enjoyed this article today....

http://www.mdjonline.com/pages/full_story/push?article-The+Mayor-s+Race%20&id=4134419-The+Mayor-s+Race

Don't forget to vote! :)

What a difference a year makes!

Here is just a comparative picture of my two babies at one year - don't you think they look so different? (I know they are great pictures of them too - had trouble finding a picture where they were doing the same thing!)

Rhodesy's first cake!

Ali's first cake!

Today we went in for Rhodes' 12 month check-up. Rhodes got three shots (including the flu shot!) and she didn't even cry - amazing! Our little princess is growing steady and looked great! Here are her stats from today compared to her stats at from her two week check-up - exactly a year ago today:

10/13/09 10/13/08

Height: 31 1/4" (97%!) 20 1/4" (75%)

Weight: 24 lbs 7 oz (90%) 8 lbs (75%) - tripled!

Head Circumference: 18 1/2 (90%) 14 1/4 (75%)

She weighs 3 lbs and 5 oz more than big sis Ali did at her age and is 1 3/4 inches taller than Ali was at one year, too! She might be bigger than her sister before we know it! Ali's head, however, was 1/2 inch bigger (it was in the >100% percentile!) than Rhodes' is at 12 month - although it is obvious that both of my girls have big brains! :) If things keep going the way they are going, I will be a short Mama surrounded by tall little girls - does not look like these girls have my short genes!

Rhodes is so full of life at 1 year - she is such a little person - walking everywhere, never wants to be held! She just wants to practice, practice, practice and get herself into trouble by trying to go outside or anywhere she is not supposed to - I call her my little escape artist. We are going to have to keep our eyes on this one! She loves to "talk", laugh and smile and she is really a hilarious little person! She has five teeth at 12 months - 3 on the top and 2 on the bottom. As of this week, she has moved on from the bottle to sippy cups of milk. Not sure how I feel about this since it means my baby is growing up - but it sure does make life a little easier! She is a laid-back but extremely active little toddler that is always such a trooper to go along with us everywhere we go! We love our little Rhodeso so!

Rhodes' birthday bash!

In honor of our little princess turning 1 - we had a little party to celebrate! There are so many precious little ones born around here that will be Rhodes' future classmates, so we just invited a few of them and their families and our family and had a fun little party! Everyone we invited was able to come and we appreciate having our family and a few of our friends there to celebrate this big day in all of our lives! :) Lots of pink (of course) and brown balloons, paper lanterns (I love these!), desserts and decorations - and we had a great time!! Here are a bunch of pictures of scenes from Rhodes' little celebration!
Family shot:

Delicious First birthday cake!

Rhodes smash cake - still in the box

First birthday princess!

Getting some love from Libby!

Three Amigos

Caught in deep discussion about the cake

Singing happy birthday to the birthday girl!

I love these of our family of four - if only you could see Ryan's face too!

Sweet as sugar

Rhodes and her boyfriend, Christopher - two weeks apart.... (We tried to get a picture of the two of them so here are a few of our attempts)

Yummy cookie favors!

Rhodes and her Aunt Ashley!

First birthday fun!

We think birthdays are a BIG deal around here (doesn't everyone?) - here are some pictures from Rhodes' big day!

Starting off her first birthday right...balloon, birthday muffin, and some singing and dancing (to Birthday by the Beatles, of course)

You say it's my birthday?

Sisters celebrating/dancing!









Birthday strawberry muffin!



Happy birthday to me!!
Ryan, Birthday girl Rhodes, Ali and I went to lunch at Marietta Pizza Company for birthday lunch! Some days, I can not decide if Rhodes is trying to give up her morning nap or if she just prefers to go down later....unfortunately, she had not napped and ended up falling asleep...literally, while eating a piece of pizza.....

When I got her out of the car to transfer to her crib, she briefly woke up and realized there was still a pepperoni piece in her mouth and started chewing it up again, then fell right back to sleep! She was one tired birthday girl!

After lunch/naps, I took the girls to Build a Bear at Town Center (woohoo!) to make Rhodes a bear. Ali picked out two bears for the girls - a pink one for Ali to match her pink dress and a blue one for Rhodes. Ali named both of the bears too - Ali's bear is named Rhodes and Rhodes' bear is named Ali. They were so cute in there and had so much fun - Rhodes just walked around and around holding on tight to her new bear!

After dinner, we headed to our favorite neighborhood restaurant, La Parilla! At the end, they came and sang Happy Birthday to Rhodes and tried to put the heavy hat on her head. She was such a trooper and did not cry - just looked at them like "What in the world are you doing?" and "What are you trying to put on my head?" - too cute! She bent over as far as she could so they wouldn't put it on her!

Let me have some of that!

We came home for her first taste of birthday cake! Rhodes loved it every time we sang "Happy birthday!". Ali and I made her a big cupcake cake - not the prettiest thing that's ever been made, but I'm sure it still tasted good! :)

Rhodes was surprisingly very ladylike eating the cake - she ate it very slowly and did not make too big of a mess (or eat that much). The taste of sopapillas at dinner probably didn't help!
Yum, yum!
I love this birthday girl!
Me and my girls (best picture we could get - hard to get to active girls to sit down for too long!)
Daddy and the birthday girl!
We had such a fun day celebrating our FIRST birthday girl!!! Can not get over the fact that my littlest baby is 1 - loving every second of this little girl!

Happy first birthday Rhodes!

A year ago today at 10:31 p.m., we welcomed this precious blessing into our lives.....

This past year has been filled with joy, laughter, tears, some sleep, and lots of love! I thank God every day for this little girl and for bringing her into our lives one year ago today!!

One year later....

Happy first birthday sweet Virginia Rhodes - you fill our hearts with more love than I could have ever imagined and you brighten our days! Thank you for being you - I hope your first birthday is perfect! We love you!!!

And we're off!

It's official - we have a walker - watch out world! Starting Monday (9/21) - almost 2 weeks shy of her first birthday, Rhodes started officially walking! She has been cruising forever, standing on her own and the Monday before last she started taking 4-5 steps on her own over and over again (I don't count that as official walking!). But, this week, it's the real deal and all she wants to do is practice. Luckily, she is still taking it slow and steady so I am not sweating just yet - but I know she will be running all over the place before we know it! I forgot how much I love this milestone.....besides the fact that I may never be able to sit down again b/c I will be chasing her (and her sister!), Rhodes is already sleeping better - longer naps and sleeping through the night/going to bed wonderfully, and is in the best mood since she is so proud of her new accomplishments. We have a happy household around here! Welcome to the walking world, Rhodes! Don't forget to sit down and get some rest now and then!