Brylee turns 1!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

As you can tell, May (with the move and everything) was such a busy month for us!  Obviously a huge milestone in our household was Brylee turning 1 (which is still hard to believe...the first year absolutely FLEW by!).  So, while we still lived in Louisville, I did a rubber ducky photo shoot and sent out Brylee's birthday party invitations a week before we moved to Knoxville (so about a month before Brylee's May 22 party!).  I think they turned out cute... here was the front of the invite.  Oh, and if you're wondering why we did a ducky themed party for Brylee, go to this post from March here: http://samandbrookecrass.blogspot.com/2010/03/rookie-mom-mistake-84.html

And then here was the back (of course I deleted our address off of it before posting it on the internet!) =)

The morning of the birthday party.... we had been sooo busy the last three weeks getting our house ready!  But the party gave us a good deadline to have things done by.  Here is Sam and Brylee making sure the bounce house we rented was ready to go!  As of that morning Brylee officially turned 1 (she arrived a week and 5 days before her due date)!

Yes, everything was "ducky" themed... which I couldn't find a ducky themed bounce house.  I did find a birthday cake one... but when you call two days before the birthday party, it was down to an elephant or BBQ pig.  Lol, so if you just look at the blue part of the elephant, and use your imagination, you can pretend it's a "ducky pond." =)

Brylee and her birthday cake....I finished this thing IN A HURRY!  Lol, it was going to be much bigger, but with all the unpacking and everything I just didn't have any time!  Oh, and look at Brylee's shirt I made (iron ons from Hobby Lobby...best store ever =) ).  I put a pink scarfs around the duck(s) in the cake, like the duck on her shirt had =)  Also, Brylee's ducky is in the picture... the whole reason for a ducky themed party.

1/2 hour before the party... first year birthday kisses from daddy! =)

Granny Paulette brought balloons for the tables

Ducky blowhorns and plain white duckies for the kids to decorate

Ducky treat bags

Duck Feed... aka cheetos and pretzels

The duck pond... aka the punch bowl with floating rubber duckies in it =)

Ducky streamers

B/c of her allergies, Brylee never really got to eat normal food... here she is LOVING a strawberry.

More strawberries... Yum yum

Our little family =)  I LOVE Bry's face in this picture

Here's a close up =)

Ready for cake!

Not so sure about this frosting thing...

Brylee was too full from strawberries so this is about as messy as it got

Kids bouncing in the bounce house

Brylee wanting Ryne to play, while he just wants his bottle

Time for the younger kids to get a turn in the bounce house

Molly ready to pounce on Whitney =)

lol, what a face

Decorating ducks

The Knies family

Even though she's 1... she's still my little baby =)  -- Worn out after her party!

Since we had the bounce house for the weekend... Sam, Brylee and I spent a lot of time playing in it =)

A Month of Unpacking - May 2010

Yes, this is pretty pathetic.  For the entire month of May (except for Brylee's birthday party which will receive its own post) this is ALL of the pictures I took!

But anyways, our first 3 weeks of May were BUSY BUSY BUSY trying to get everything put away (I believe we had over 245 boxes/large items!) in our house.  It was harder putting things away this time, then when we moved to Louisville, b/c in Louisville a bunch of our stuff went into storage.  Here we actually had to find a place for it!  In the picture above, Sammy is hooking up an early b-day present from me.

Brylee ready to go to Sam's softball game

Brylee playing on the swings at the park before Sam's game started

Sam setting up the fish tank.... we've had so many problems with this thing.  Unfortunately our tank has killed 50-60 fish... but we're giving it a try again!  Our last two fish that were left living, are now happily swimming in the Ohio River - we left them in Louisville.

And we didn't know this... but our new house came with ducks!!! =)  Brylee loves when they come into our yard and we feed them bread (although Brylee eats some of the bread too!)

The ducks are full and headed back out to the golf course... I see them swimming in various ponds when I go for my evening runs

Shopping at the outlets in Pigeon Forge over Memorial Day weekend... we bought Brylee sunglasses from Children's Place, and she went through a phase where she NEVER wanted to take them off =)

Leaving Louisville - April 2010

Three of the last four posts have been about April 2010... our visit to Waterfront Park, Henry's Ark, and our trip to Berne, Indiana for Easter. 

Here is the rest of April...mainly weekly visits to Madison, Indiana (about an hour away from Louisville), to see Addy and the triplets.  And then a week of moving... by April 30 we were in our new house in Tennessee! 

April 7, another visit to Madison =)

Tub time... Brylee is eating her temperature frog instead of actually letting it test the temperature of the bath water -- It's always the things that aren't actually "toys" that became the fav play things!

Brylee challenging our Louisville neighbor's dog for a chew toy.... Brylee doesn't back down no matter how big you are!

Brylee's (and me and Sam's) first time at Boomsday (a huge Louisville festival that leads up to the Derby events) - right as we arrived we saw some people get run over by a golf cart... Probably the most crowded place I have ever been!

ChowWagon... enough said

the Air Show

Our last time at Fourth Street

On the way home from Boomsday (there was no way with the crowds we could have even attempted to stay for fireworks)... Sam and I discovered a little "hole in the wall" restaurant.  Sam loved their clam chowder.

Brylee 11 months old!!!! Taking rubber ducky pics for Brylee's birthday party invites =)

Hot air balloon festival downtown

Checking out the Ohio river one last time before the move

My last visit to Madison to see triplets

We left the triplets with Sam and Zack and Steph and I went and played Bunco.  I won 50 wings for Steph and Zack to enjoy sometime.

The movers came and spent one entire day packing everything up

The next day they load everything

Brylee has nothing to play with, except for a balloon the neighbor lady gave her.

Move-in Day in Tennessee.... Brylee taking a nap in the hot garage while the movers get our stuff in

A glimpse of the boxes in the kitchen we had to go through

Is there a dining room in here? 

HELP ME -- The Ostrich Chase!

Faithful Blog Readers (if there are any) -- Remember WAYYYYY BACK in April when I promised to post some pics of Sam being stalked by ostriches?  I believe I said I would post within a couple of weeks....well, a couple of weeks turned into a couple of months - but anyways the day has come! =) 

We discovered this place called "Henry's Ark" in our last few weeks left in Louisville.  Basically, a former correspondant for Time magazine opened up his family's private zoo to the public.  It's free (but if you ever go, please leave a donation. They may have to close due to lack of $$$), and has over 100 animals!   If you want more info on it, here's a link:  http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/388754/henrys_ark_a_private_zoo_in_prospect.html

Animals just hanging around the parking lot

And the start of the ostrich chase begins =) ... My husband took one for the team by carrying the bag of carrots, apparently ostriches LOVE those!

Zebras!

Lol, don't the ostriches look scary????  One lady told me they ripped her ponytail holder out of her hair!

First time I've ever fed a zebra! =) 

At this point Sam is contemplating dropping the bag of carrots and running!

Cute little duck

Like the caption?

Don't you kind of feel bad about Thanksgiving now?

You can't tell in the picture... but these camels had crooked humps!