Hamburgers and sand... yum yum!

We went to the park for an evening picnic the other day... and we had one big fat good time! The kids can be entertained for hours on the swing, and mom can be too, if she has her camera in hand. (WARNING!!! This post is super long with millions of pictures - ok...33 - but still. You may get bored. Sorry. Even Grandpa's and Grandma's of these sweet little munchkins may get bored. Sorry. But seriously, I could not let even one more picture go without being put here and saved in our "blog book" for generations to come. Their faces are just too precious to not be included in our blog, and the following book. So, you get a long long long post, but I get memories captured and kept forever. I win out. Here it goes...

As you can tell, the kids giggled their little hearts out swinging. Sterling was cool going just as high as Stella, only making the "HOLY CRAP" face a couple of times. Stella didn't even mind having Sterling squished in the swing with her... until the end, but she couldn't stay upset about it, not for long. Just another push "way up high" was all it took to make her forget all about her squished situation.

Sterling was having so much fun in fact, that he left a puddle of drool under the swing because he had no time for swallowing, or closing his mouth. Too many laughs to laugh and smiles to smile. LOVED IT! And he didn't mind Stella in the swing with him one bit. He loves his big sister soooo much. In fact, when Stella has been not such an angel, and has to spend some time in time out, Sterling quickly runs to her door, and waits there for her to come out. Often while waiting there, he will cry with her, or yell into the door - probably trying to say..."I will rescue you, one minute, if I keep screaming loud enough mom will surely come and get you outta there just so I'll stop being so loud!" Sweet little boy loves his big sis sooo much. They are going to have great memories together - the two of them - best little buds.

I know, I know, poor Stella got the short end of the stick when it came to seating arrangements. She had to constantly contort her head to one side to see where she was going, and she had to be basically 100% vertical in the swing. I wanted them both facing the same direction, and so I couldn't criss-cross them like usual, so she had to pretty much stand on air the whole time. Poor little girl. But she didn't seem to mind one bit. In fact, she even thought it was kind of fun because her feet would drag in the sand.

They just couldn't stop giggling! So much fun on the swings!

This next one is my new second favorite picture of all time...

And this one is my new favorite picture of all time. Sterling was turning around to give Stella a kiss. HOW SWEET IS THAT! He is such a lover boy!

Finally we made it off the swings and onto the slide.

Look how sweet he was being again. Waiting for Stella to make her way back down the slide so they could chill together again. He is seriously so in love with her!

This next one is totally blurry... I know. But I love it anyway!

If any of you were wondering how Andy likes to make me a paranoid wreck... now you see. He was actually telling the kids to get closer to the burning coals. Yes, closer. I'm not sure what I will do with him.

Ohhh... but he did make some delish hamburgers. Sterling would have been cool with just the sand. (don't worry... he didn't eat too much) Thats what I call a good time!

We've been having fun...

More to come...

what a difference a year makes...

Can you believe this was him just one short year ago??? This year seems so short. So much shorter than Stella's first year was. He has grown up way to fast.

Sterling, a little about you at one year old...

You love to laugh, shake your head like a wild man, and yell. Lots of yelling. Actually, I don't even know if it can be considered yelling, because it is more like screaming your head off at the top of your lungs, and it's high pitched too. You make dad's ears hurt. You make me feel like I am back in my childhood.

You love your food... but you love it from the floor. Somedays I think meal time would be much more productive if I just scattered your food all around the house. I guess you like the hunt.

You love sippy cups - but mostly just because Stella uses them.

You gag on milk.

You refuse to sleep through the night, or for longer than about 30 mins per nap, and you only take two of those a day if I'm really lucky. Sleeping is your biggest enemy yet... lets hope you make friends with it quickly!!! In fact, today, you did not want to nap. We left you in your crib anyway, and FINALLY you fell asleep. When you woke up - you had little white flecks all over your face. I went and looked at the crib to discover bite marks, and chipped paint all over the front railing. (I was really hoping the crib would stay in good shape dude - not cool) You bite when you are angry. Hmmm...

You walk... and it is adorable. We call you Franken-Sterling because you hold your arms out in front of you the way he does.

You wear size 4 shoes, and size 9-18 month clothes.

You weigh 22 and a half pounds - about 50th percentile. You are about 90th percentile for both your height and head circumfrence.

You love toys. You could fiddle around with them all day. You also love videos. Especially ones with music on them. You will dance your little heart out - and shake your bum... too cute!

You try so hard to talk. You say mama, dada, and a sterling version of thank you (tay-too), peek-a-boo ( peh - peh), Stella (tella, della or lella depending on the day), and most other things are grunts or ohph...

You love to pull hair, stella's hair to be more specific.

You still love to cuddle, and we LOVE that!!!

You giggle when you get what you want. (especially when what you want is to get in our bed around 5 or 6 in the morning...)

You play fetch with yourself, throwing balls around the house, and then chasing after them, and you love to roll the ball back and forth with me or with Stella.

You know some sign... but mostly only use all done and more for communication purposes.

You love to scratch. Everything, everyone, you don't care. This morning your were even scratching my thumbnail - so much it was driving me crazy!

You don't even know what quiet is.

You are about the sweetest little boy there ever was

WE LOVE YOU little dude!

pummeled...

South Carolina pretty much never gets snow. That all changed last friday...

Needless to say, Andy was livin' it up.

We went out for Valentines, and when we left - the roads were clear, the snow was sticking a little on the grass, but nothing much to worry about. Right after we got our food, we got a call from Chadd (thanks Rozmus's for watching the kiddos!!!) saying their power was out and wondering if we were in the same situation at the restaurant. Luckily, everything was fine at Kovachi's... We were however, the only ones there for the first 20 minutes or so... but then some other crazy's came and joined us for a night out in the winter weather. By the time we got our bill, there were cars sliding all over the road right out the window, one accident, and 2 cop cars trying to help out all the stuck folks. Our poor waitress lived far away, and had never driven in snow before. (we gave her a few tips before we left... she was freaking out, and I was right there with her) On the way back to the Rozmus's to pick up our kids, the car behind us going down the hill on main street almost rear ended us, but luckily slid of onto the curb instead. There were about 7 or 8 cars that had slid off the side of the road, and lots of trucks just spinning there wheels. The sweet missionary's were out pushing trucks up the hills. (I said a silent prayer right then that none of my boys would ever do that on there missions... I could just see the trucks sliding back over them...) I yelled out the window to them, saying "BE CAREFUL!!!" and they assured me they were, all the while wearing huge grins across their faces. Like I said, snow is a really big deal here. We finally got the kiddos, and made it home safely.

Then next morning the kids and Andy made a few snowmen. Stella was in heaven along with her daddy!

Snow: thank you for coming and making Andy so happy. He turns into a giddy adventurous little kid when you come and fall gently on us. You are welcome any time... unless we have travel arrangements... during those times please stay up north where you really belong. Oh yeah... and thanks for the crazy fantastic memories this valentines weekend!

Celebration

We celebrated Sterling's big day on Saturday, and he had a blast. He loved his cake - which was rewarding for me - because you would think a one year old would care less - but he sat by the sliding door - staring out at his cake (we stored it on our back porch to keep it cold since it didn't fit in our fridge for a few hours before the "party") and kept grunting in an effort to make us see he wanted it. Made all the effort worth is and so funny.

He also loved opening presents. He kept clapping, and smiling. He was spoiled by the Rozmus's and his buddy Dominic.

Stella was a great helper!

He pretty much thought his birthday ROCKED!!! And we did too. Super fun times!