Happy Bday Hannah and Jacob!

Friday we got to celebrate 2 of our favorite kiddos bdays on Johnny's bday!  We swam, ate some yummy food, opened some awesome presents and sweated it out in the Texas heat :]  The kids had fun, and so did we...

Kelli swam and lifeguarded the multiple children :]

Jackie and Amanda made some great food!!

I got to be in the pictures for once...that's me with my back turned to the camera :]

Kelli smiling so big after popping one of Brewer's baby zits...

Despite Isaiah's squinched up face, he had a great time with his mama Carolynn :]

Jacob turned 3 july 14th...

Johnny turned 35 July 15th....

Jonathan was tired from all the festivities...

....and Hannah turned 2 July 13th! Whew, that's a lot of bdays..no wonder Jonathan's tuckerd out!!!

Sammy was standing by Hannah like a dog waiting for crumbs to drop :]

presents were opened :]

....and everyone had fun!  Thanks for having us and helping us celebrate Johnny's bday too!!! Can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays to come with these families and all these wonderful children!!!

We Made it a Year!!!

That's right folks, Sammy is a year old and we celebrated our little hearts out!  It's hard to believe that just a year ago, our sweet girl was in the NICU and I was checking to see how long our insurance would let me stay in the hospital because Sammy wasn't able to come home with us :[  It was a weird thing to have a baby and not get to take her home when we left the hospital! For Sammy's birth story, click here......for Sammy's NICU posts, click here!  She's been such a blessing to our family this year, and I just love the dynamic she adds to the Stout family.

Since our family and friends are so many, we decided to split up Sammy's party into 2 parties...family dinner and friend party!  It was a great time, and we had a blast!  Here's some pics from our family party on Sammy's actual bday...

Aunt Vicky and Ricky came by to say happy bday to Sammy :]  Isn't my nephew so cute???

Yummy cake!!  Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!

Here's Sammy's little smash cake :]

All the cousins brought their bikes and scooters, and went to town :]  Our back ally is great to riding!

{aunt lisa would be proud of the helmet :]}

Then it was cake time!!  

hmmmmm, what's this???

Daddy had to help get her going :]

Then she got the hang of it :]

When the cake was gone, she started in on the plate :]

It was fun to be with the family!  Our friend party was today, and it was a great time too!

Yay!!!  my friends are over :]

Kiddie Korner

Little banner on the cupcake stand :]

So we live in a town home as most of you know, but that didn't stop us from having an awesome outside party!  We just filled up the kiddie pools in the side yard, put up the volleyball net, turned on the sprinkler and had a great time!

Brewer brought the "boy" pool :]

Sammy just loves her Holli, and so do we!!!

It's my bday and I love it out here :]

I get more cake??  Sweet!!!

Joey Barr was chasing the kids with the sprinkler :]

Well, we had a great time celebrating Sammy's bday!  We are loving the girl she's turning out to be!  She's so crazy and not scared of anything!  She's really on the move these days, and I'm going to close this post with a video of her movin' right along :]  No walking yet, but check it out anyway!!  Thanks for all the awesome gifts and calls and cards from everyone, we love y'all and Sammy does too!!!

Happy Birthday sweet girl...love you!!!

The End of an Era

Well, I suppose you can say that :]  I have {in partnership with several great folks} hosted 4 baby showers in the past 6 months! It's been so much fun to create fun parties for all of my friends and families, but I'm glad it's over :]  Most recently my sister's shower went down.  It was a blast and I'm pretty sure I never blogged about it.  All these showers have made me super crafty too!  Here's some of the things I made for Vicky's shower....

{diaper cake}

{diaper wreath}

{diaper motorcycle}

{the baby's name on some onesies}

I loved helping throw this shower with my mom, kathryn, and susan!  Vicky is so deserving, and I can't wait to meet our new nephew in a week or so!  

This past weekend I helped throw a shower for my SIL Amy, and it was super fun too!  Tons of family and friends were there, and I got to make some stuff for this one too :]

{tissue paper pom poms...thanks for hanging the tall ones brit!!}

{diaper tricycle}

{baby luedke banner}

Amy gets so excited, and that's what made this shower so much fun!  It was great to host with Jackie and  Becky!!  The food was great, and the company was awesome!  We get to meet our niece in about 3 weeks, and we can't wait!

These two showers were so special since they were thrown for my sistas!  It was an honor to spoil them, and Johnny and I are so excited to welcome our new family members!!!  

Love you sisters!!!

Holy Cow, we have a 3 Year Old!!

That's right folks, John and Christy Stout are the proud owners of a 3 year old!  She walks, she talks, she's potty trained, and more!  We are so proud of our little girl and who she is becoming.  Joey is in school these days and comes home with lots of fun information.  She loves to tell us all about her bestie Cooper and she loves to sing the songs that they are learning at the moment!  The other day she came home singing about how Jesus rose from the dead and is alive forever more!!!  I love that :]  

Anywho, it wouldn't be right to have a birthday pass without a birthday post, so here goes....

The day starting with a birthday breakfast with cousin Mily!  The girls were both in their leotards ready for gymnastics class!!

 We got Joey a Strider Bike for her birthday!  It's awesome :] No pedals so that she can learn how to balance before adding the pedals into the mix!  Joey loves it!

The girls wanted to play a game before leaving for class......

.....then entered the Sammy monster....

....so the girls moved the game to the bed so the Sammy monster couldn't distruct :]

We dropped Mily off at her house and went to gymnastics.  When we got home, it was time to decorate the cupcakes.  I iced them and Joey sprinkled them :]

She would stick her entire hand in the sprinkles, sometimes eat a few, sometimes not, then she would dump them onto the cupcakes.  I would shake them off then put them in the cupcake holder :]

 All Joey wanted for her party theme was "pink and purple" and she wanted her cupcakes to be "chocolate with pink icing". Note all the sprinkles on the counter...

....and on the stool.....

....and on the floor....

.....and on the counter from another angle....

so I put Joey to work cleaning up her mess :]

 after the clean up, it was nap time, then off to the gym for Joey's party!!!

 This picture explains it all!  The party was super fun :] Go Brandon!!!

So another year is ahead of us, and our sweet girl is having moments of not so sweetness.  We pray that the Lord gives us the strength and persistence to continue raising Joey with Him in mind!  We love you Joey and we love everything about you!  We love that you can make us laugh every day, we love that you talk about Jesus, we love that you put on concerts on the landing of our stairs, we love that you are a book lover, we love that you are such a sweet sister to Sammy, we love that you love going to church, we love that you have the craziest hair, we love that you discipline yourself {true story, you will go and sit on the step if you even think you should be in trouble regardless if we make you or not}, we love that you are independent, we love that your favorite color is pink despite our best efforts :], we love the sweet little girl you are, and feel so blessed to have you in our lives!

Joey's stats for those interested...

Weight: 28lbs {21st %ile}

Height: 34.5" {34th %ile}

She did great at her 3 year old check up and kept asking for a shot.  She obviously doesn't know what a shot is :]  Anywho, Dr. Frank says she's doing great, and she even told Joey that she was quite the conversationalist!  Joey was so excited and said "thank you!!!"