A couple of weeks ago we went to Sarah Kate's first birthday party! We had a GREAT time and SK was so cute at her party!!!! Nobody knows Daniley like her Momma does...so I translated a few of her expressions for you. :-)

This is a little wierd and cold...but I can handle it!

Climb that??? No problem!

SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME!!!

LOOK EVERYONE!! I can climb!

There are several entries I'm behind on...it's hard to keep up with everything else I have going on. But nonetheless, here's SugarBooger enjoying her trip to the Beach!

Here are a few more pictures from the birthday party. I know I'm a little slow on my blogging.

Now I know what you're thinking....OMG, she's riding on a bike. Yes, she is...and I'll admit I was a little nervous...but it was her birthday and that's her LeLe and she just looked so cute I wanted to watch it myself. :-)

This is Daniley's first cousin James, who I can't seem to call James for whatever reason, so I have permissions to call him Dexter! :-) I guess he'll always know when it's me calling....
They are 6 weeks apart. He was born very early but he's all caught up now.

Pictures after the rain! No less happy, might I add. :-) Thanks to Aunt Brooke for the cute outfit!

Thanks to GPaw for the great pictures!!!!!!

Have you ever just wanted ONE thing to be perfect...when you know there's no way you can pull it off? For Daniley's birthday, all I wanted to do was to make my baby her first ever birthday cake. Now I'm sure most of you know, big cakes aren't just thrown together. But that's okay, I've got cake baking experience...my largest was a 6 layer wedding cake, and it turned out beautiful. So, I carefully chose the cutest cake I could find for Daniley's birthday. It was so adorable in the book, and I had big dreams. Friday morning around 8am, I woke up and got started. I use these silver cake pan insulators that make your cake come out level (as opposed to humped at the top). However, any good cake baker knows that you NEVER overfill the cake pan. Well, I just wanted to get all that good batter in there, so I overfilled, ever so slightly. No problem. Until the SMOKE ALARM started going off. As many of you know, I have no sense of smell. So the alarm goes off, and I look into the living room only to find Daniley sitting there watching her cartoons ever so content, IN A GREY ROOM OF SMOKE. The overfilled pans spilled over into the oven and baked onto the side. I can only imagine what it must have smelled like. So, to prevent my precious angel from getting CARBON MONOXIDE, I dump her out into the garage while I locate the fire extinguisher and prepare myself for a major ordeal. I'm fanning the smoke out of the house, praying Daniley doesn't slip off down the hill or eat the dead bugs in the garage floor. Finally, I got the smoke under control and got the nasty cakes out of the oven. I had to redo a pan or two because I had to remove them from the oven before they were done. Anyway, upon taking out the next cakes, one didn't come out of the pan just perfectly, and a little bit of the edge fell off. No problem...usually this is fixable. Well not this time. I had 6 layers put together and the middle one was acting like a combination of quick-sand and a sinkhole. By this time, it was 2pm and I was disgusted...the cake was pitiful. Usually a cake like this is an 8 hour ordeal, so there's no time to start over (but there's still time to call Walmart!) I contemplate how I'm going to fix the cake...but then Dan calls. He and Daniley have gone for a haircut. Dan proceeds to tell me Daniley has this rash breaking out all over her. I wasn't overly concerned because we had been to the beach and she usually reacts slightly to the sunscreen. Back to cake baking. Then Dan calls me and tells me that Daniley is slightly unresponsive, he can't get her to wake up, and her temperature is dropping. Okay, now I have a new perspective. By this point, I have mixed colored icing and it's ready to go. But screw the icing, I find myself freaking out rushing to the Dr. to meet them there. When I get there, she's acting normal (thank goodness, but now we look like idiots. lol.) It turns out, she had an allergic reaction to Penicillin (sp?) she was taking for her first ear infection. So, get meds, and back home...back to the cake. Now since I left all the icing out uncovered, the icing has set up. Stirring it only creates large nasty looking air bubbles. At this point, it's 6pm and I am ready to cry over my cake. I have gone through 6 boxes of cake mix and 10 lb. of icing. There's no chance in you-know-where that I'm mixing more icing or baking another layer. I removed the middle two layers and shortened the cake (I was scared I would tump it over on the way to the party anyway, since it was leaning like CRAZY anyway.) I did a tragic fix-up job and left it alone. By 8pm, my crooked, whop-sided, but very good tasting cake was ready for the party. It's too bad it doesn't look ANYTHING like the picture I picked out. But next year, I'll be.......baking another one, even if the cake is ugly, whopsided, and lumpy. Happy Birthday Sweet Girl...and I hope you liked your cake!!!

Here are some pictures from the party!

HAVE YOU HEARD???

I'M TURNING ONE THIS WEEK!!!!

and mom is.....so excited! In the back of your head you think you might feel sadness....but instead I'm overcome with excitement. It's difficult for me to understand that in just one year I've gone from a baby that could only eat and sleep to one that is walking, saying a few words, eating solid food, drinking from a cup...on and on. She's gone from laying in the Boppy to carrying around the Boppy. I would think that no year would bring such dramatic change as this one. We've had an easy year with no major challenges. I have been blessed with a healthy baby and for that I praise God! Daniley eats good, sleeps good, and sometimes she even minds. (She can respond to a few commands.) I have enjoyed every single minute with her. I have tried to not take a day for granted. I don't want to ever look back and say, "I wish I would have did this, or made time for that, or stressed less about this." So our priority is just to have fun together. And for the last year, that's exactly what we have done!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANILEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you SO MUCH!!!!

(Wait, I just said I was excited...then why am I crying???)

We had a nice time at the beach. Because Honey took the pictures, we didn't get any of these with her in them. But we're going back with the Connell family soon....so she'll get to have Daniley and Dexter and all the photos she wants!! Daniley is so blessed to have all the love from her parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents (and aunts and uncles too!)

My dad told me once, "I had you to make me coffee." So I'm just rolling with the punches!
(Thanks to Poppa Bear for the pics!)

IIIIIIYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (SHRILL!)

You caught me Momma!

Do I need to actually write that I have her picture in every single cabinet. She has to check them all...one by one...each day....one by one.... Then she gives you "the look." You all know the look. "Mommy, I'm so adorable." Need I say...I LOVE THIS CHILD! She's so perfect (in my eyes at least!) :-)

ANYONE INTERESTED IN LEARNING TO SEW?
I am taking sewing classes 4 nights in August (one night each week for 4 weeks). If anyone wants to sign up with me, please comment or email me, or contact me. All of my friends should have contact info...I'm not posting it here! :-)

Since my last blog...we've had a short vacation in Callaway Gardens (compliments of Dan's parents...thank you again!). We've done other stuff but it's just so hard to put everything on here! However, most importantly, Daniley has started walking. I'm going to get a video to upload. See you then!

There aren't too many dull moments at the Connell household. Here's a surprise I got the other day when barging through a closed door.

I PASSED MY TEST!!
My PE (professional engineer) exam that I have been studying for for months is over and my results are back. I passed the exam, praise Jesus! I find comfort in knowing I will not be studying ever again....Woohoo!!! To those of you whose events, birthday parties, etc. that I had to miss to pass this exam...thanks for excusing me...and I'll see you next year!

Dan sent me this string of pictures he had taken...along with their names, as indicated below! I thought it was precious and it made me smile, so I am sharing it with you!

Cutie 1

Cutie 2
Evil Grin

Gonna Get You

Gonna Need Braces

Mean Face

What's Wrong with You?

So we had Daniley's first and only cousin Dexter (aka James, aka JD, aka James Dexter) over to spend the night. His visit was mostly brief, or at least it seemed that way. We picked Dexter up and then went to Pizza Hut.

While we were there, we let Daniley dangle off the edge of the table while Dexter tried out some cheese.
Then we went to Target, where Dan discovered his true identity (Daddy/Uncle/I-will-do-anything-for-you-Daniley-including-push-strollers-in-public).


We then discovered if there was going to be a trouble maker in the family, who it will be. :-) (Oh Lord, please help me, she acts sort of like me.)



Then we went to the pet store and checked out birds, snakes, fish, and lizards.

Then Saturday, we went to yard sales. Now most of you blog readers probably think at this point I'm out of my mind. But my real friends know I don't miss yard sales on any account. (I found a perfect Fossil wallet to match my black Fossil purse for only $2!!!! The purse was also $2 but Mom found that for me 2 weeks ago.) Well anyway, I didn't get pictures of us yard saling because I didn't have any hands or energy left but we had a good time. Come back any time, baby Dexter!!!

We finally made it to the zoo! We had a great time. Daniley enjoyed seeing the animals. The zoo always seemed a lot bigger when I was little. I can't remember the last time I went...I must have been 10. This time I felt like there wasn't all that much to it. Wierd how when you're small the world seems so big.
Anyway, we got this picture of a butterfly on Daniley's head.
(Photo by Jeanne, I have been scolded for not giving proper photo creds, but not by Jeanne, FYI)

It has sadly been almost a month since I have updated my blog...yes I'm aware. There just seem to be so many fun things to do besides uploading pictures! So what have we been doing these days? PLAYING HARD! Daniley is into EVERYTHING. Paper is her new favorite food! She pulls up on everything, opens any drawer/cabinet, unloads anything contained, waits for you to put it all back, and then starts over! Sounds exhausting, but somehow I'm managing okay. :-)





Daniley's injuries so far have been low key, including twice clipping alligator clips to her tongue, having batteries dropped on her head, slicing her knee slightly with a knife, and falling off the bed. So far we've had no swelling or bruises and the knee slicing only looked like several small paper cuts. So we've had no medical intervention. GO MOM!!! (lol)





We've been hanging out with friends, growing a garden, checking out the nursery at church, and just to sum it up, having a real fun time. Daniley isn't talking or walking although I expect either any day. Here is a pool photo from an afternoon out with the girls (and Dan!) :-*