Maryland!!!

We took Kendyl on her very first trip to Maryland. I was SO excited to go and have her meet all my friends and family, but was definitely nervous to fly a very active one-year-old across the country. Lucky for us Kendyl did excellent! I have always been some what of a drill sergeant with "the schedule," but while we were in MD I kind of had to let that go and have her squeeze in naps whenever it was convenient. Generally speaking she is like clockwork, but she pretty much went with the flow in MD despite the hectic schedule, lots of time in the car and a 3 hour time difference. She had SO much fun playing with all of her cousins. Unfortunately, this is not something she gets to do very often in AZ because we don't have a whole lot of cousins here. It was so nice to have all the extra help with the kids. I would say that I forgot something upstairs and before I could get out the sentence one of the girls was running to go get it. We even got to go out to dinner one night and sit at the adult table while the kids watched Kendyl at the kid table! We also got to see my friend Lindsay's son again. The last time we saw him he was only a couple weeks old. It is incredible how fast kids grow, but he is one cutie pie! My friend Kelli also came by with her son Ryan who we hadn't actually met. Ryan, Kendyl and and flight of stairs do not mix well. We were definitely on our toes the entire time! We really had such a nice trip. I get home sick...a lot so it was really nice just to go and visit with everyone. I wish we could have stayed a little longer :( Thank you so much to Tina and Amy for making some extra space in their houses for us. We had an awesome time hanging out with you all!

Ryan and Kendyl. I have known Lindsay and Kelli since I was in 2nd grade. We ended up having kids within a couple months of each other so it was really fun to get the kids together to play. They look so happy don't they. Ha ha!

I didn't notice this until I was looking through the pictures. This is Ryan making this face...

...and here is Kendyl making a similar face.

The adult table at dinner :)

The kid table at dinner. I love these kids :)

Kendyl and Lauryn. Kendyl seriously loved these girls. They carried her around all night long and she was just loving life!

Kendyl and Hailey

This is my cousin Abby. She asked me to take a picture of her and this is the "pose" she decided on. She is such a little comedian. We were walking down the stairs and she looks at me and says, "It's so nice having people here for 3 and a half days." Another time we were watching the video of when Kendyl was born (Not the actual birth. We didn't record that.) and she looks up and says, "This is going to make me cry." You could seriously write a book of Abby-isms!

Kendyl doing her hand-flip wave.

Kendyl and Jeffery. We met up for lunch and then went to the library to this little play center for the kids. It was really neat. I love this picture of the two of them.

Kendyl's first trip to Jimmie Cone.

Kendyl's last trip to Jimmie Cone :(

Kendyl, Abby and I on our last day in MD.

Kendyl and Abby share the same birthday and my aunt Angelique also has an October birthday so my Aunt Tina had a little birthday party for all of them. Kendyl was not having this picture though. Look at the pitiful little face.

Hope we can come back soon. We had a BLAST!

1st Birthday!

Kendyl's first birthday was bittersweet for me. I mean on one hand it's a huge milestone and it's super exciting. On the other hand my baby is growing up. Either way she had a wonderful birthday with lots of friends and family around and she certainly did not mind all the attention :) This year has been incredible. She has brought so much to our lives and we are so thankful to be her parents. Matt and I look at each other all the time and say wow she is such a good baby. Being a parent certainly comes with it's fair share of hard days, but when she gives us slobbery kisses, waves goodnight or takes those first steps none of the hard days seem to matter. She is such a joy and a blessing and for all the people who told me it was all worth it when I was pregnant you were 100% right. Kendyl bear, we love you very much and thank God every day that you are in our lives. Happy birthday peanut! Now, on to the pictures. We are lucky enough to have a photographer in the family who was willing to take some pretty incredible pictures of Kendyl on her birthday for us. There were so many wonderful pictures to choose from. I tried to narrow them down, but there are still a ton!

She LOVED her cake!

I am letting my child reach for fire...hmm. Mother of the year!

3 generations of Crooke boys

The Crooke-Small family

Austin was so excited to pull Kendyl in her new wagon. I don't think we were prepared for how fast he was going to pull her. Ha ha.

Aunt Debbie, Aunt Sherri and Grandma

Grampy Mike and Kendyl

Giving the dinosaur "kisses"

Grandpa Mally

Granny and Aunt Meghan

PRESENTS!

This is my favorite picture!

Grandma and Uncle Jay

11 months

Yet again I am way behind on posting. Kendyl is doing fantastic. 11 months was really fun. She reached the major milestone of walking. Her first official steps have been taken although they are still not the preferred mode of transportation. Matt and I will sit a couple feet apart in the family room and let we walk back and forth to us so she can perfect her new skill. Plus, she has a lot of fun doing it because we clap and get all excited each time. She is starting to really understand small commands such as say hi/bye, goodnight or come here. She has the waving thing down and does it often. I especially love her queen wave. Though she still only has 2 teeth I am letting her eat more solids now. So far she is not a picky eater at all. I try to let her try all kinds of foods so she becomes used to different tastes. I am terribly picky and I definitely don't want her to be the same way. As she gets older she manages to get more and more mischievous. She has gotten really good this past month at opening cabinets and pulling things out. One day she spilled half a box of cheerios on the kitchen floor. She is still in a size 2 shoe for the most part and she is in 18 months for clothes. If she had it her way though she would just crawl around in nothing but a diaper all day. She hates when I put shoes on her and if possible will pull them off. One night it got cool enough to put her in pants and it was so funny because she was pulling at them like "what are these things on my legs?" Her favorite toy in the whole world is rocks. When she sees them she will make a beeline over to them. Poor thing has bruises on her shins from crawling in them, but she doesn't seem to care. We recently ordered her a forward facing car seat and she loved it. The night we got it we took her for a "test drive" and she was just looking all around and smiling and talking the entire time. It is so much nicer to put her in this car seat because she actually likes it now. She is back to letting me rock her again. I found that if I grab one of her blankets that she will sit with me for a few minutes and snuggle. Those are my favorite times. Though she is pretty independent she definitely can be a sweet heart too and I love that. Lastly, her new thing is to crawl around the house with my flip flops on her arm. She puts them on like they are a bracelet. It is the funniest thing!
Here are her pictures from 11 months. I never actually took and "11 month" picture :(

She loves getting into my purse.

First night in the "big kid" bath. Aside from bottle time this may be her favorite time of the day.

Right before we switched her to the tub she learned she could drink the water from the faucet.

We call this her Mowgli crawl because she looks like Mowgli in the Jungle Book. Normally though she will drag her knees in the rocks.

Snuggle time with Katie :)

"I found your flip flops mom"

"Now let me just put them on like this"

"I can crawl with them on different hands..."

"...or the same hand!"