C is for Cookie, F is for Fun

What a month February was!  We had many house guests, two birthday parties, endless amounts of entertainment and a lot of reflection time on just how quickly your days fly by when you have a child.  Here is Dakota's birthday month wrap up...be prepared there are TONS of pictures!

We spent some time in Missoula on Dakota's birthday.  Grandma Lynn came to Montana to celebrate with us and we took Dakota on her first carousel ride...this thing is FAST!  I was squeezing the horse with my legs for dear life and had a death grip on my baby!

 A Family of 3 for a full year...only about a million more to go!

Time to open gifts.

 Reading her birthday card...or admiring the pretty picture!

 Birthday cupcake and a little singing for our baby.

 Finally got the cupcake broken down and smooshed around.  What a smile!

My two favorite people.

 My turn with the Birthday girl.

 Hamming it up with Grandma.

 We also got to share a few days with Grandpa Allen this month.  Playing with her Valentine gift from her Grandpa.

Playtime with Grandpa.

A week of FUN!  The Hoyt family came over towards the end of the month and this house was filled with laughter, yelling, toys going off nonstop, little kids everywhere and the biggest smiles I have ever seen.
Dakota and Waylon sharing bath time together.

Good morning Waylon!  Can I come in and play with you? 

Cousins checking each other out...it's been a while since they last hung out.

Uncle Steve on baby duty while Jannae, Drew and I slaved in the kitchen to make cupcakes and a smash cake for the big birthday party.  What a fiasco!  A lot of baking, cleaning and decorating...all for a few hours of birthday fun.

An attempt to keep her occupied.  Worked until she wanted to eat the flour!

Waylon's turn!

Dakota LOVES Cookie Monster.  So for her birthday I threw a themed Cookie Monster party ("C is for Cookie, F is for Fun").  Drew and I made Cookie Monster invitations, I made this wreath to hang on the door, and then Drew, Jannae and I assembled these party hats.  It made my day to see the kids put these on for a few minutes.

My nephew is so handsome!

Birthday girl up from her nap and ready to PARTY!

Party skirt...check, cupcakes and cake done...check, ready for friends to show up...YES!

I really can't get enough of him.

Dakota and Lonyn.

Malia...what a beauty!

Baby Jillian even put on her party hat for a photo.

"Mom!  I want the Cookie Monster hat.  Stop making this difficult on me...I want to eat it!"

Vanilla bean cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting...YUM!  

Getting into the cake a little.

Demolishing the cake.

Fist fulls into the mouth!

Opening gifts with her friends.

Dakota LOVES her Aunt Nay Nay.  Loves her so much, that she insisted
Jannae hold her the majority of a week.

Hideout Mountain for some good old playtime.

Went down the big slide by himself.

I'm pretty sure he like it!

Dakota's turn.

Fresh air and fun!

Waylon discovering this little window in the slide was great.  We got a lot of funny faces out of him.

New slide but the same great smiles!

Taking the family pics in the truck.

Hoyt family 2012.

The Shearer family 2012.

Well, a very busy month and year for that matter is now behind us.  I really can't believe how quickly a year can pass.  It seems like everyday she is learning something new and her personality continues to blossom.  In general, she is a very happy baby.  Always smiling and laughing.  As of this week she points to her nose when asked where it is, is sleeping very well at night, eating like a champ, and walking along the walls and furniture.  We are enjoying our time with Dakota so much and of course are looking forward to year 2 of our journey as a family!  We hope you continue to check in on us from time to time and watch our family grow.  

How did that beaver get in the house?

A few weeks ago as I was getting Dakota's room ready for bedtime I noticed markings all over the rails of her crib. I was shocked!  My little girl would not have chomped down on her crib.  A beaver must have come in and decided these rails were delicious!

Baby or beaver markings?

So I immediately set to work searching online for rail protectors.  Disappointment!  I guess our front rail is not the average size as nothing was long enough to cover the rail.  As I became more frantic at the thought that at this very moment Dakota could be chomping away on her rails, Drew threw me one of his fantastic ideas.  "Why don't you just make one?" he says.  Really, are you kidding me? This is a project for my mom, Jannae, or my girlfriend Sarah who can actually use a sewing machine!  So I started searching for a sewing tutorial online for rail protectors and found this site http://www.babyrabies.com/2009/02/shes-crafty/ that had awesome directions and pictures on how to make rail protectors.  The next day Drew and I are out buying a sewing machine and a little bit of extra fabric so I can "whip up" some rail protectors.

The flower and butterfly print is from her original bedding set.

Making some ties.

Front rail protector almost finished.

Finishing my first project felt fantastic.  The sewing machine only got the better of me a few times and I already have a list of other projects I want to sew.  Here is the finished product.

Side rail view. 

 Front and side protectors.

 Here is the happy little girl that can no longer chew like a beaver on her bed rail!