Grace is the Word: Our Baby is 3!!! :)

I just can't believe our baby turned 3 years old last week. :( I already had my traditional Birthday cry on her Birthday (September 22). In order to not repeat that emotional meltdown, I will try to refrain from being too overly sentimental. :) It just amazes me how fast time flies. I can look back at pictures and it seems like I JUST took them yesterday. It really does. Like this one.....

Awwww!!!! There is nothing more precious to me than a sweet new baby sleeping so peacefully. I can still smell that brand new baby smell when I see this.

Then there is this one.....

Here she is with all of her big sisters! :) I remember this so vividly. (My poor girls. Due to the fact that I have no idea how to match colors and patterns, I made them wear the same things. :) They just hated that. I am so awful. I didn't want them to clash for the pics. I still think they look adorable. My three oldest wanted to shoot me. Lol). :)

Anyway, we had a special time in the hospital when we had Kianna. We got to be hospital neighbors with our dear friends, Rob and Meeghen. They had their 6th Baby 2 days before Kianna was born. :) So they were still there for a night while we were there. :) It was so nice to get to share such a special time together and so exciting to welcome two new blessings into the world together. :) Here is a photo of them. :) Eva is on the left and Kianna is on the right. I am loving Eva's hat. :)

I remember that John and I couldn't agree on a name for the baby, so Rob kept coming in and writing them on the chalk board. All of our girls have K names, so he would write down random names and stick K's in front of them. lol. The nurses said that we couldn't leave until we named her and we had nothing that we agreed on. :) So, finally, I found the name Kianna on a website and it said it meant "Living with Grace." I LOVED that because we had a miscarriage before we found out we were pregnant with her and I felt like the Lord had given me so much grace to allow me to have another little one. So, we named her Kianna Tess. Tess was the name of my Grandmother, so it is very special to me. We call her "Tess" or "Tessie" a lot. :) Sorry for going off on so many tangents.

Tessie has been such a blessing. She has a very calm temperament and she just kind of goes with the flow. She makes us laugh all the time and brings so much joy to our home. We are so thankful for her sweet spirit and the blessing that she is. :)

Tessie at 1 year old. :)

Tessie and Eva at 2 and a half. :)

Here I go again with the tangents. I am so sorry. This blog should really be called "The Queen of Tangents." It would probably be more appropriate, huh? Hmmm.....maybe I will start another blog and name it that. :)

We ended up celebrating Tessie's Birthday last Saturday because her Daddy had to fly out of town on her actual Birthday the following Monday. We had such a special time celebrating together. :) We ended up making a trip Here. It is such a beautiful place. We have so many special family memories at this park. It is just beautiful. :) We love to take the girls here to feed the ducks. It is the prettiest when the Rhododendrons first bloom. We were a bit late for that, but it is beautiful anyway. :)

WARNING......THERE ARE A TON OF PICTURES BELOW THIS SENTENCE. :) BELIEVE IT, OR NOT....I EVEN NARROWED IT DOWN. :)

Tessie and Daddy in one of my favorite spots. :)

Happy Birthday, Princess!!! <3

She was so excited because Katie let her borrow her Cinderella costume for her special day!!! :)

In the next few photos, Tessie had been putting food in her hand and the ducks were eating out of her hand. It cracked her up!!! :) She was laughing harder than I have ever seen her laugh and this girl loves to laugh! :) She had such a great time!!! :)

Here's the family! :) Most of them weren't ready for the picture...Can you tell? :) Lol. They wouldn't be very happy with me if they knew I was posting this. Thankfully for them, I don't have any followers right now. I haven't even told anyone I have a blog yet. I'm waiting until I get better to share. :)

Here's the clan feeding the ducks! Sorry for so many pics.

We forgot to bring nuts for the squirrels. This guy wasn't very happy with us when we tried to give him duck food. :(

Love my Baby!!! :)

This cracks me up. Ducks were diving down and swooping over Kyla and Khloe's heads when we were walking on the bridge. They were cracking up and screaming.

This is one of the guys that went right over their heads. :)

My parents and John watching the duck feeding going on. :)

This picture cracks me up!! The ducks were swarming around Karly. We were saying, "Who are you, Karly, Snow White?" They seemed to love her. I'm sure that HUGE bag of food had nothing to do with it, either. :)

As you can see...These ducks weren't shy. :) Look at the one floating on the right side of the picture. Hahahaha! :)

My parents. They had to leave a little early. It was fun having them there with us to celebrate with us.

Can you tell that Tessie had a BLAST? :)

A final picture of my Babies before we left the park. I have a sweet picture of all of the girls from about 6 years ago in this spot. If I could find it, I would have posted them side by side, but that would probably make me cry. They are growing up way too fast.

It was really sweet of Kaylee to come with us as she was recovering from having her wisdom teeth pulled. She was so sore, but was such a trooper. I think she looks great! :)

After we left the park, we headed back to my parents house for a Birthday dinner and dessert. The girls had a great time picking veggies from their garden. :)

Katie wanted me to take this picture of her with her new compass. :)

I told you....I'm the Queen of Tangents. :)

After Dinner, we had Mountain Bars made to look like little birds nests. Tessie wanted something that reminded her of her favorite book, "Are You My Mother?" So, we made these and put yogurt covered almonds in them. She LOVED her treats and they were very yummy. :)