Happy St. Patty's Day!

Here are a few updates from the past few weeks:

At 1 year, 1 month, and 1 day old, Mollie Michelle took her first steps walking to her sweet little friend, Natalie! She and her momma were over joining us for dinner and Natalie was having such a good time exploring and walking all over the place, Mollie decided to join her! By no means is Mollie "all over the place" at this point, but she can walk! She certainly needs to work up some courage, though. This is a very cautious, careful little girl who prefers crawling because it's "safe". We'll just have to keep practicing and get better at it!

Mollie and her sweet friend Natalie!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day! As most of you know, this is a big deal in the Fellers' home. Jason's proud of our Irish roots and my parents live in Shamrock, TX, where they celebrate this holiday in style! So how can we not be excited about wearing green?

I made Mollie's shirt! Fun! And look at those teeth!! hehe

We went to Shamrock this past weekend to enjoy the St. Patty's Day festivities. However, the weather had other plans...crazy wind, snow, and ice covered the area and canceled the parade and race (which I actually was going to run!!). So we hung out with the 'rents and all the other family and friends that joined us (Kyler brought about 10 people with him!!) the rest of the day, which was so much fun. That evening, we had the pleasure of listening to the Texas Crossroads Band perform in Shamrock! This is where my good 'ol dad rocked the drums and Jason jammed on the guitar/ vocals/ and harmonica. They did great and got the whole place dancing! They actually were opening for Trent Willmon (country artist out of Nashville), who was quite good. We had a great time listening, dancing, and staying out late (thanks Mom for watching Mollie!!)

Unfortunately, Mollie chose the night we stayed up late anyway to decide she didn't want to sleep in her pack-n-play. That girl kept me up till 3am! Goodness. We've got to work on this sleeping in other beds thing...it's starting to become an issue. Needless to say, we were exhausted, we all took long naps on Sunday, and are still feeling drained today. However, it was worth it :o) We had a blast this weekend. Good time with family, friends, and some great music. Can't wait till St. Patty's Day 2011!!

This pic says it all!!!

Also, she's in a forward facing car seat now! Such a big girl!

Here's a video of Mollie walking...sort of :o) If she's thinking about it, she won't go far. Otherwise, she'll just take off!

Tag!

I've been tagged in this fun little game! Here are the rules:

1. Open your first photo folder on your computer.
2. Scroll to the tenth picture.
3. Post that picture and the story behind it.
4. Tag five or more people.

I tag...anybody that wants to do it :o)

Aaahhhh, this is a sweet 4D sonagram picture of my little Mollie Michelle! If I remember correctly, this was from about 20 or 24 weeks (gestational). I loved how she always had her little arm up by her face when she slept, which is just like I sleep! And her nose, I thought from the beginning, was my brother's nose! She's such a sweet little thing, even while in the womb.

Although, I think she's much more beautiful out of the womb :o)

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Here are a few updates from the past few weeks:

At 1 year, 1 month, and 1 day old, Mollie Michelle took her first steps walking to her sweet little friend, Natalie! She and her momma were over joining us for dinner and Natalie was having such a good time exploring and walking all over the place, Mollie decided to join her! By no means is Mollie "all over the place" at this point, but she can walk! She certainly needs to work up some courage, though. This is a very cautious, careful little girl who prefers crawling because it's "safe". We'll just have to keep practicing and get better at it!

Mollie and her sweet friend Natalie!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day! As most of you know, this is a big deal in the Fellers' home. Jason's proud of our Irish roots and my parents live in Shamrock, TX, where they celebrate this holiday in style! So how can we not be excited about wearing green?

I made Mollie's shirt! Fun! And look at those teeth!! hehe

We went to Shamrock this past weekend to enjoy the St. Patty's Day festivities. However, the weather had other plans...crazy wind, snow, and ice covered the area and canceled the parade and race (which I actually was going to run!!). So we hung out with the 'rents and all the other family and friends that joined us (Kyler brought about 10 people with him!!) the rest of the day, which was so much fun. That evening, we had the pleasure of listening to the Texas Crossroads Band perform in Shamrock! This is where my good 'ol dad rocked the drums and Jason jammed on the guitar/ vocals/ and harmonica. They did great and got the whole place dancing! They actually were opening for Trent Willmon (country artist out of Nashville), who was quite good. We had a great time listening, dancing, and staying out late (thanks Mom for watching Mollie!!)

Unfortunately, Mollie chose the night we stayed up late anyway to decide she didn't want to sleep in her pack-n-play. That girl kept me up till 3am! Goodness. We've got to work on this sleeping in other beds thing...it's starting to become an issue. Needless to say, we were exhausted, we all took long naps on Sunday, and are still feeling drained today. However, it was worth it :o) We had a blast this weekend. Good time with family, friends, and some great music. Can't wait till St. Patty's Day 2011!!

This pic says it all!!!

Also, she's in a forward facing car seat now! Such a big girl!

Here's a video of Mollie walking...sort of :o) If she's thinking about it, she won't go far. Otherwise, she'll just take off!

13 Months!

I still can't believe I have a one year old. I have to say it's been a blast and I'm amazed at how much Mollie's growing, developing, learning, etc. She continues to amaze me!

Here's what Mollie Michelle is up to at 13 months...

1. Still trying to walk...she still refuses to let go of your hand or the furniture or whatever, but she is gaining confidence and ability in this area! I have to say, she is a lot like me: very cautious and timid at trying new things sometimes. I think she's just perfecting her skills and will let go when she thinks they are good enough to show off! (Hopefully we don't have another perfectionist on our hands, though)

2. Into everything! Currently, her favorite thing to do is throw things out of drawers, baskets, bags...however, she's starting to enjoy putting things back in! I'm definitely encouraging that behavior...

Fun outfit :o)

3. Talking: She currently says ball, mama, dada, hi dad, more, dog, baby, butterfly (bu-bu), night night, nana (banana); she repeats some other words we say occasionally, and can sign "all done", "more", and "please". However, most of the time she's in deep conversation babbling away about something! Most of it is still indecipherable at this time.

4. Loves to hug! She's been hugging her babies, her Raffi, her blanket, my leg, and just about anything else she can get her hands on. It's very sweet!

5. Loves to snuggle! Lately, every time I get her out of bed she just wants to snuggle before putting her down to change her diaper. She lays her head on my shoulder and holds on with both arms. We could set there for a long time and she'd be quite content. I absolutely love this.

6. Trying things on: When Mollie comes across something clothing related, she likes to try it on by putting it on her head, behind her head, and on her belly. She also tries to put her shoes on! And sometimes food...

Trying on Mommy's bracelet and necklaces!

7. Taking things off: She can successfully remove her shoes, socks, bows, hats, etc. in record time...usually from the time we leave the house until we get to our destination, she has all these items removed. However, the other day I caught her with her pants off, too! She was just sitting there with everything removed except her shirt, which was button-down; otherwise I'm sure she would have figured out how to remove it!

8. Teeth: Mollie has 8 teeth now; 4 on top and 4 on bottom. She's been teething like crazy working on those 1-year molars...I've never seen so much drool in my life!!! We've had to bust out the bibs again, in fact. She has had some moments where she's clearly in a lot of pain and it's disrupted her sleep a little, too. Hopefully they'll break through soon and we can have some relief again.

Look closely and see all my teeth!

9. Appetite: This child MUST be going through some kind of growth spurt! I'm absolutely shocked at how much this little person can eat. And just when you think she's done, she says "MMMMMMMMMMMMMM" and wants some more! For example, a typical morning she'll eat a serving of oatmeal (regular, not infant cereal) with fruit (usually blueberries), a poached egg, glass of milk, and half of a banana or a clementine orange. Lately she's even been wanting more, but we've usually run out of time at that point and have to get going!

10. Dancing: I've caught her several times lately dancing to some kind of music...this usually involves her bouncing up and down or rocking back and forth if she's sitting. She especially likes the music her Leap Frog refrigerator magnets plays!

11. Good napper: Mollie continues to be a good napper...assuming those teeth don't get in the way, and she is at home :o) On a day that we're at home all day, she'll usually take a 2 hour nap, followed by another one in the afternoon. However, she has started the weaning process from the morning nap, which means the days we have no morning nap we can expect a 3-3.5 hour nap! However, when she isn't at home, sometimes this nap length is shortened. I guess there's nothing like your own bed!

Having fun after a nice long nap!

12. She likes other kids! I love sitting back and watching her observe other kids. She watches and smiles as they play! Sometimes she'll join them, other times just watch. However, the other day I watched her basically chase a two-year old boy around! She would crawl after him as fast as she could and he would run away squealing!! So cute! She certainly loves her cousin Maddox most of all, though, and absolutely lights up when he's around!

13. Turning into a toddler: This is bittersweet. Oh how I love my baby!!! But I guess a girl has to grow up sometime. I've noticed just little things about her that seem more toddler-like and less baby like; some facial expressions, sounds she makes, things she's interested in...and it's only going to get worse. However, she seems to only get sweeter! So I guess it's a good thing :o)

Having a Tea Party with Daddy! Such a big girl thing to do!

Cowtown!!

I am a little behind getting this posted. But, oh what a wonderful weekend it was! We headed to Fort Worth for the Cowtown Marathon and to hang out with some of our favorite friends: Jocelyn, Philip, Levi, and Sarah!!

Friends!!!

First of all, Jason's passion for running and his 4+ months of marathon training finally paid off! He finished all 26.2 miles in 3 hours 27 min. That's just about where he set his goal for this race, and blew his last marathon time out of the park! Not only that, he finished 9th in his age division, and 75th overall....out of about 1200 marathon runners! Wahooo! Way to go Jason!

Philip ran the half-marathon and did awesome as well! I'm also completely impressed by his "fearlessness". He hadn't been able to train as he would have liked and finished strong anyway. Here I am afraid to run a silly little 5K without being in ideal running shape, and he ran 13!! Wow.

After the boys finished their run, we enjoyed lunch at the Flying Saucer, where they could enjoy a well-deserved beer, then headed to the Zoo! It was an absolutely beautiful day and it was so nice to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. The guys were able to walk around a lot to prevent getting stiff muscles, we were able to let the babies check out lots of animals and enjoy the fresh air, and we were able to enjoy each others company. It really was such a great day!

This was also Mollie's first plane ride! We decided to fly so that Jason didn't have to sit in a car for several hours after running that much...he found that out the hard way last time. She did great! We just gave her paci when it was time to take off (it was technically nap time anyway, so I didn't really break a rule) and she did just fine. She entertained herself by reading the Skymall magazine, her new quiet book, and playing with the ice in my beverage. On the way home, she even managed to make a couple of friends with the ladies sitting near us! I was so glad, because she had a bit of a rough time this weekend...possibly more upset than I've seen her yet! I think it was a combination of teething (molars), missing a nap or two, growth spurt, and just being out of her element. Whatever it was, it wasn't fun for any of us! Hopefully we didn't scare Sarah and Jason away from having children one of these days :o) I promise Sarah, it's not like that all the time!!!! On Monday afternoon, Mollie slept for 3 1/2 hours and woke up like a new woman. Back to normal.

I'm very thankful for our super fun weekend! I absolutely loved hanging out with everyone and hope we can do it again very soon!

And thanks for the extra pictures, Jocelyn :o)