Bubbles, Birthday, Bella, and Play!

Hi everyone...it's me...the one with the busy, busy, little girl! So busy that we can't keep up with this blogging...I am REALLY going to try and be better...starting in April! ;~) I am going to try and do a weekly post to keep all of us up to date on the happenings and whereabouts of "The Battens." Stay Tuned...

Well for now, I wanted to give you a a quick glance as to what has been going on with us the last couple of weeks.

First up...Caroline LOVES bubbles...what toddler doesn't right! So, Mommy bought her this little doggie, he's called a bubble belly because you fill his belly with the bubbles and he barks them out...pretty cute! It is difficult sometimes to get a good steady flow of the bubbles...needless to say, Caroline gets impatient with the doggie and says, "GO...GO...GO!"

Here are a few pics of Caroline and all of her BUBBLY fun!

BUBBLES, BUBBLES, all kinds of BUBBLES!!

oooooOOOOOHHH!! She's trying to catch them...

Daddy, Caroline and the Bubble Belly Doggie!

Caroline and her new Bubble Belly Doggie friend!

MORE BUBBLES...but these bubbles are different than my doggie bubbles??

Next...we have Daddy's Birthday, March 22. Daddy turned 34...we're getting old. I do remind him that I am younger than him, even if it is only by 5 months, still I'm younger! ;~) Only one more year and we will be 35!! That's hard to believe. I think we will then be in a different bracket, you know the age brackets that surveys etc...ask you for...we're moving up a bracket next year...oh well, age is just a number, right?!

We had a wonderful day celebrating Brian's Birthday. It started around 3pm that afternoon when we went for our couple's massage! Yes, extravagant...BUT...it was FREE...thanks to my gift card that I had won during a teaching event last year. I had never had the opportunity to use it, so I thought this would be a good time for us to both enjoy some relaxing time together. It was WONDERFUL!! It's amazing how all the stress of your day to day life seems to disappear in the first few minutes of the massage...well worth it!! After the massage we were off to have SUSHI...personally I'm not a big fan at all, BUT it's his Birthday wish, so we went. He LOVED it and I endured it! We then topped off the night going to a movie, which we hadn't done since Caroline had been born, actually this was probably the first REAL DATE we had been on since Caroline was born...sad I know...but true!

The next day, Sunday March 22 the "true" Birthday was celebrated with a cake with candles, ice cream and of course balloons...that's what Caroline had given her daddy...balloons...she LOVES them, so she knew her Daddy would LOVE them too...and he did!

Daddy's Birthday PAARRTAY!!!

Caroline watching as Daddy blows out the candles.

Caroline enjoying Daddy's Birthday cake!

So, needless to say, in order to have this wonderful Saturday night date, we had to have someone to keep our 'lil pumpkin, so who better than her Cousin Bella and Grandma! Caroline was so happy to see them both! She hadn't seen Bella in a while, so it was so exciting playing with her cousin and showing her all of her toys and her new playroom! She was so excited in fact to have them there, that Caroline did not want the day to end...she FINALLY fell asleep close to 10pm that night...but what an exciting day!! Thanks Bella and Grandma for keeping our little girl...

Cousin BELLA and GRANDMA visit...

Grandma with the two girlies!

Daddy, Caroline and Cousin Bella.

All of the girls...Me, Caroline, Grandma and Bella...and of course Bubble Belly Doggie!


Grandma and the Girls.

And finally...Play!

Yes, this is what we like to do best.

Play at home, Play in the Yard, Play at the Park...Play, Play, Play!

We had an actual play date with our friends, Maia Valenti and Ian Valenti, yes Maia Valenti...can you believe it, she was born on November 7, only one day older than Caroline. She even has the same name as her Aunt Maya! Crazy, I know...

We had a lot of fun playing with both Maia and Ian that day. Can't wait to meet up with them and play again soon!

PLAY TIME...

Caroline playing at home.

Caroline playing and exploring the Spring flowers in our backyard.



Mommy and Caroline.




Maia and Caroline swinging at the Park.



Maia's BIG BROTHER Ian giving Caroline a hug at the end of the day...so sweet!



And One Sweet Face!

Again, I hope you enjoyed sharing in our memories...more blogging to come in April...I promise!!

Love,
Caroline's Mommy

Happy St. Patrick's Day...Then and Now...

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

We made sure to wear our green today, did you? No pinching here!

I wanted to share with all of you how our little Miss Caroline has grown over the past year.


I can't believe it! I know I've been saying this a lot lately..., "Our baby is not a baby anymore!" BUT it's hard for me to believe that last St. Patrick's Day, March 2008 our little one looked like this...

Our sleeping beauty.

Look at my chubby legs! I'm so cuddly!


Caroline and Mommy smiling and laughing together.

AND NOW...she looks like this... St. Patrick's Day, March 2009...

Caroline posing for the camera.

Caroline wanting the doggie that I had to put on my head to get her to stay still!

Caroline and her sweet, heart melting smile! Look at all of those teeth...11 of them now!

Caroline reading by the fire...she LOVES to read books!!

Caroline tasting an avocado that Daddy had given her to try...YUCK! But it is St. Patrick's Day and it is green, so I guess it goes with the day!

Mommy and her Big Girl...Miss Caroline.

It's AMAZING to me...she's grown SO MUCH...right before our eyes!
Thanks for sharing our memories with us!

Here's hoping that you stumbled across a 4 leaf clover for some good luck...we've found our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...our little girl...Sweet Caroline!!

Luck of the Irish to you...
Caroline's Mommy

Sunday Pancake Breakfast & Sunday's Best!

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend despite all of our dreary rainy weather.
I'll be happy to see the sun shine again!
We didn't do much this weekend BUT I did manage to snap a few pictures of our sweet little girl!
We decided to have pancakes for breakfast yesterday before we went to church...they were very good! It was a nice change to have a special breakfast, since we have been eating cereal or yogurt each morning. Caroline LOVED it! She even had her very own miniature size pancake just for her...I think that's what she liked best about it! She did manage to share with her doggie Mattie as always....she's such a nice little sharer. I think this is why Mattie is OK with Caroline pulling on her tail etc...I guess she figures in order to get some food, she has to take the good with the bad! ;~)

After breakfast we went to church and Caroline went to the church nursery. She got upset when we first left BUT after the nice ladies in the nursery distracted her with a slide in the room, she was OK.

The message series has been about "40 days of Love - Learning to Love Like Jesus." The last two Sundays have been messages that have definitely been directed to us. We NEED to take these messages to heart.

We made it through the whole service without our pager going off...yes, Caroline made it. Not only did she make it through, one of the ladies that is in the nursery from week to week, even said that it was Caroline's best time yet! Yeah...maybe she is finally able to enjoy playing with the others and now knows that Mommy and Daddy will be back to get her at the end of the service. I'm so proud of her...she's Mommy's big girl!

Take a look at our sweet little girl in her pretty Sunday dress...there's no baby here...she's our toddling girl who is now by the way practicing the word "NO" very well. I think she is finally realizing that she is her own person with her own prerogative...here we go!!

Love,
Caroline's Mommy

OHHH...my very own pancake!!

Mmmmm...

I'm thirsty!!

What is this on my dress? Is it a ladybug??

Posing for the camera...I'm such a big girl!

Best Friends!

Caroline's Play Date at the Park

Yes, if you haven't figured it out yet, I have posted the last few BLOGS tonight. Just trying to catch up with our life...
This week has been busy...tomorrow is Friday already...I can't believe it!

Monday, Caroline had BabyGarten. This will be her last 6 weeks of BabyGarten classes. At 18 months, (May) she will be graduating from BabyGarten and we will begin Story time at the Library on Wednesdays. Our little baby is getting to be such a big girl!

We also had a visit from Grandma for a couple of days. Caroline had fun playing and taking her to her Little Tykes Gym class the next day!

Tuesday, Caroline had her Little Tykes Gym class. Again, the highlights of this class were of course playing with the bouncing balls, bubbles, and most definitely the stamps that each of them get at the end of class. This week Caroline got two stamps...one for each hand, one Mickey Mouse and one Minnie Mouse...she was SO PROUD!!

Wednesday, Caroline had a play date with Zaden. It was such a nice day so we decided to meet at one of our favorite places...yes, the park at Ida Lee. We had a great time...both Mommy and Caroline. Caroline and Zaden were on the move, so it was hard for me to get any pics, but I did manage to take one...as you can see they were very busy!!

Today we spent running a few errands and tomorrow we are planning on staying home and resting from our busy week. Well, did I say resting...who am I kidding...I should say playing...that's more like it!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Love,
Caroline's Mommy

Caroline and Zaden exploring at the Park!

More Park Pics...

Grandma B and Pops came to visit Caroline this past Saturday. We hadn't seen them since Christmas, so we decided to take them to the park for them to watch Caroline play, explore, and show off her new swinging and sliding talents!


Like I said in the earlier BLOG post, playing in the snow earlier in the week and then at the park in 70 degree weather now! How CRAZY is that!


We ended up going to two parks that day...the weather was just too nice to stay inside! We all had a fun day and visit!


Here are a few pics of our day...

Caroline with Pops and Grandma B.

Caroline showing off her swinging talent!



Caroline swinging with Mommy on the BIG girl swing!

Sliding is so much fun!

SNOW DAY for Caroline!

Hi again...
Here are some pics of our fun snow day with our little "Snow Princess." I can't believe we had this much snow and the next weekend we were playing at the park in 70 degree weather...March 2009 is proving to be very unpredictable! I don't know about you, but I hope this is our last blast of cold weather...we are ready for spring!! ;~)

Mommy and Caroline in the snow.

Caroline exploring...

Daddy and Caroline in the snow.

It looks like Caroline is saying..."No more pictures, please!"

And here it looks as if she is whispering to her imaginary friend! ;~)

Mommy and Caroline having fun in the snow!

MMM...this snow taste pretty good...COLD!!

Look at me in my cute snow suit...can't get much cuter than me!