Bye Bye Binky!!!

One week ago, on Cassie's third birthday, we asked her if she would trade in her binkies.......

(yes, I counted 31 in this pile, and I am sure that we missed a few that we will slowly find around the house)

...... for a kitten.  As you can see from the photos below, Cassie has done a great job at trading in her most prized possession, despite a few tearful nights, on the whole we are very happy to finally have gotten rid of the pacifier.

Cassie and her new kitten Cupcake (yes, Cassie chose the name)

Oh my, she moves quickly!

Little Brooklyn gets to know Cupcake

That is one proud Cassie!

Cupcake isn't quite sure how she feels about the twins yet

Poor Cupcake, she gets carried all over the place

Austin and Cupcake playing together

Brooklyn teases Cupcake with string, I'm not sure who was more entertained, Brookie or the cat!

Click here to see the new album: July 09

The big party re-cap

Last Sunday's big birthday was really great, it was so nice to have our friends and family over as well as some of Cassie's playmates.  We can't thank your friends and family enough for all that they have done for us and our three wonderful little ones, we are so bless to have such wonderful family, friends, and neighbors in our lives - thanks to all of you for making such a great and memorable day for us.  

Here are some of the photos that I have enjoyed the most:

The pulling of the pinata strings - Cassie is very particular about having the purple string

This is all I get out of the pinata?

Pull Cassie, pull!

Cassie and Rebecca collecting the pinata candy

Three very special birthday cakes

Happy Birthday to you......

Sorry Austin, this part of the cake is not edible!

Cassie is ready to dive into the cake

step 1:  neatly sample with fingers

Please remember this photo of Brooklyn, being seemingly very neat....and cautious....ha ha ha!

Cassie demonstrates proper cake eating form

mmmmm - frosting is tasty!

I think that I'd rather just eat my fingers

The madness with Brooklyn begins.... is starts with just a few squishes of the cake between the fingers

And escalades to a complete mutilation of her cake!

Nice... one pile of cake and one perfect cake

Uppie please!

The cake photos are at the end of this album, click here!

Happy 1st Birthday Austin and Brooklyn!

I can't believe that the twins are one today!!!

Here are a few photos from our little celebration:

Big sister Cassie is ready to help out the twins blow their first birthday candles!

We are SOOOO excited about having our first birthday cupcakes!

 

Little Brookie is playing peek-a-boo with  her cupcake!

 

Meanwhile, Austin is diving right in!

 

Cupcakes are fun!

Anyone want the wrapper?

The post-cupcake mess - time for a hosedown

Cassie dives into hers with no hands!

We had a great time celebrating today with our neighbors and our special little ones.  It has been the most amazing year of getting to know our wonderful miracles, and we are looking forward to the next year of amazing milestones!

Love the ABC kids!

From june 2009

Who replaced our babies with toddlers?

I can't believe that our twins are turning one in less than two days - my goodness - where has the last year gone???  We now have these very mobile little people in our house with completely different personalities that fill my day with absolute bliss.  

We will be spending this week preparing for our big birthday bash that we are having on Sunday to celebrate the twins first birthday as well as Cassie's third birthday (and wow, I can't believe that she has been in our lives for three years!!!).  Friday we also have Cassie's gymnastics show, so I know that I will have lots of pictures from that, and may need to post them before all the birthday party photos go up early next week.

Here are some of our fulfilling moments:

should I guess that we have yet another thrill seeker in the house?  Brooklyn is just so excited to be on the slide by herself

Here I go!!!

How do I get back to the top of this thing??

Taking a brief sitting break to re-fuel with milk

Austin, it's okay, they will feed us eventually 

the photo for the title caption - where have my babies gone?  And who replaced them with these little people???

Austin is rather upset that the train table does not yet have any trains on it

Cassie and her cousin Zach - thrilled to be having their photo taken as you can see

Don't get excited Brookie, you won't be getting your license until you are at least 18.

Mr. Austin enjoys the swings

Here comes our little handsome devil

Nothing like having spaghetti for dinner (and yes, I basically stripped them all down to nothing, I'm not stupid, I know that tomato sauce stains!!!) and watching Dora at the same time...

Cassie does not yet notice that Austin is trying to sneak his way onto her tray.....

Hey! That's mine!!! Get on your own tray!  And don't let Brookie's innocence fool you, she is far worse than he is at stealing food off of trays, she just doesn't get caught on film!

An early attempt at utensils - at least Austin has the right end in his mouth...

He knows that someone has to clean up that mess, and it isn't going to be him (time to get out the power washer)

Just the thought of sleeping like this makes my hips ache, but there is just something about Brookie's feet that keep her content... I usually go in and pull them out from under her after a while, you'd think that her toes would be numb!

But, she just loves to sleep close to her feet!

Find all these photos and more in this link:  june 2009