Reagan's First Birthday Party!

How fast a year has gone by!

We just celebrated Reagan's FIRST birthday!!!

Our baby girl is one and we can hardly believe it!


We had Reagan's first birthday party on Sunday, July 10th. The day before her birthday. I decided on a polka dot theme, and had a lot of fun with it!1

Here are what the invitations looked like:

I went a little crazy with decorations and spent a lot of time making the banners, but like Todd kept telling me, you only have your first birthday once! ;-)

This banner had a picture of Reagan for each month of her life.
Thank goodness we had a tent! It was a pretty hot day the day of the party.
I had my heart set on a pull-apart cupcake cake, and decided to make them look like giant polka dotted cupcakes. I really had fun making and decorating these as well! I was really happy with how they turned out.
Reagan's chair was decorated as well!
I made some polka dotted party favors too!
I also couldn't resist personalized M&Ms. They just look so much like polka dots, and how cute is it that you can get little pictures of Reagan printed on them?I did always want to eat that cute little face! ;-)


After eating lunch, which included chicken salad on croissants, meatball hoagies, fruit salad (which I may add looked very polka dotty as the watermelon, cantaloupe were scooped out with a melon baller), pasta salad and potato salad (thanks Grandma 1). We all moved inside to sing 'Happy Birthday' to the birthday girl. She resisted the highchair at first, but gave in after being given a spoon to play with. Everyone sang, which Reagan really seemed to enjoy, and then we gave her her first-ever piece of cake, which she also enjoyed!



After she was cleaned up, she got to open all of her presents! Reagan had a really good time at her party. The funny thing about it all is that we were all there to celebrate her and she hadn't a clue. She didn't appreciate the decorations or the cake (besides the fact that she got to eat it), that her grandparents had driven up from North Carolina and New York to celebrate with her, she just loved being around everyone she loved. I'm so happy we were all together to celebrate our little Reagan!

The 4th of July

This was Reagan's first 4th of July!
She wore the most fitting shirt: Little Miss Firecracker!
Jocelyn got to try sparklers for the first time!

We went to the Brentwood 4th of July parade--who would miss it?!?

Jocelyn's friend Ansley came too!

Meme and Papa were here as well!

Later that night we went to Kennywood. We stayed for a couple of hours before the rain came and closed the park down. That was a real bummer!

But at least Jocelyn got her first taste of Potato Patch french fries while we waited out the rain!

Reagan got her first taste too. I don't think she liked the ketchup!

We were planning on watching the fireworks at Kennywood, but ended up back in Brentwood for the show. Reagan's reaction to them? She could have cared less. She sat on my lap and watched them and at times seemed irritated at how bright they were, turning her head into my shoulder. I was most amazed that she stayed awake for the entire show and even the walk home. She didn't go to bed until 10:45pm! What a trooper!!

It was a fun 4th!

Our Littlest Walker

As of June 28th, Reagan has decided that walking is her #1 mode of transportation. She no longer tries to crawl. She immediately gets up on her feet and walks. As you will see in the video, she sometimes falls, but she gets right back up again and carries on. It's so funny seeing that short little thing walking around the house! How amazing that only 11.5 months ago she couldn't even hold her head up and now just look at her!

Housework

Hey Kid,

When you're done with that vacuuming would you mind getting on top of ironing those clothes on the couch? Thanks!

Love,
Mommy

Father's Day

Happy Fathers Day Daddy! We LOVE you SO much!!!!

We have a swing set!

We went to Home Depot to buy a door, and ended up with a build-it-yourself swing set as well! Jocelyn was so excited. Todd and I thought it would be pretty easy to build--the directions said it would take 1 to 1.5 hours for assembly. Well, an entire DAY later, we finally had a swing set. The girls LOVE it!

Reagan

Reagan is 11 months old!

My Peach!

Jocelyn is still loving her favorite fruit!

August 2008
7 months old


June 2009
17 months old

August 2010
2 years old

June 2011
3 years old

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an eventful Memorial Day weekend this year!

Our weekend started off on Saturday with a 9:30am flight to New York to visit with the Aston-Reese side of the family. Kristen recently Graduated from Suny Cortland and we wanted to celebrate with her at her graduation party. Since we were just going for the weekend we thought it would be easier to fly there rather than drive the 380 miles. It's only a 7 hour drive, but with two kiddos in tow, it would have been more like 10.

The flight was an hour long and besides lugging two car seats, two kids, two suitcases, a diaper bag and a carry-on through the airport, it was a relatively easy trip. It was a first for both Jocelyn and Reagan--their first ride on an airplane!

Jocelyn was very excited to sit in the seat and use a "big girl seat belt". Jocelyn behaved like an angel through the airport and on the plane. She's definitely our easy child!

Reagan didn't realize what was going on. She didn't know we were 20 thousand feet in the air. She also didn't understand why she wasn't allowed to shake or climb on the seat in front of us, but overall, she did well--We didn't have to leave her at the airport! ;-)


Sunday was the Graduation party at Carolyn's Sister's house. She has a pool--a great location for a party, especially when it was as warm as it was that day! Jocelyn was excited to swim (after she was done eating appetizers). She doesn't get too many opportunities to swim, and her need for swimming lessons shown through now that she is a bit older. She has a slight fear of the water, but she got used to it just in time to swallow some water and become scared all over again. I'll put in a call to the YMCA sometime this week!

This was Reagan's first time in a pool! Reagan didn't like the water at first, but by the time Todd was ready to get out, Reagan was finding any Aunt or Uncle who would hold her, allowing her to stay in. She didn't want to get out!

I took the opportunity to get a picture of the girls with their Aunt and Uncles. A rare occasion to get everyone together at the same time!

I couldn't resist one of the entire family as well!

It was a great trip to NY! We had a blast! The trip home on the airplane went a little smoother than the trip there. Todd and I were a little more prepared for all the lugging, train-riding and waiting around this time. Thanks for having us Will & Carolyn!


When we got home on Monday, we almost immediately turned around and headed to Grandma's house for a Memorial Day picnic. Reagan was a trooper and was all smiles even though she only had two very short car naps that day!

The girls did a little more swimming.

In a pool that was just the right size for fearless play.

By 7:15 Jocelyn was ready and asking to go home to "sleep in her own bed". Poor Grandma & family were upset that we had to leave so early, but after an eventful weekend, we were all pooped and ready to get home to relax a little bit. It was so much fun!

Last Day of PALS

I can't believe today was the last day for playgroup! The girls had a blast at the party! When it began Reagan was only a month old...now she's nearing her first birthday! Time flies when you're having fun!