Family Reunion Pictures

I am finally getting around to blogging about our Mattern Family Reunion that happened almost a month ago. Greg's cousin Briana took all these great pictures and was so sweet to send them to us. If you are in the San Antonio area you should definitely check her out her website. (All photographs below were taken by Briana).

It is amazing to see how big this family is, and how it grows every year. And it is a miracle that everyone has a free weekend to all get together!

It is also a miracle that the kids are looking at the camera in this picture.

Halloween 2014

A couple days before Halloween our small group got together for dinner and social time. The kids wore their costumes and exchanged candy. They all looked so cute. Top row: Mary, Elsa, Football, Football player, Sophia, Doc McStuffins, Knight. Bottom row: Angel, Bee, Fairy.

Halloween fell on a Friday this year and the weather was beautiful. The girls wore their cute Halloween outfits from Nana so I had to take a picture. Then we went to the park for a picnic lunch.

Greg got home from work in the afternoon a little earlier than normal. We got the kids in their costumes to head to First Fest, our church's fall festival. Cambry went as Mary for Halloween because she refers to herself as Mary all the time and one of her baby doll's name is Jesus. She will say things like "remember that time I was pregnant and baby Jesus was in my tummy?". So we dressed her up as Mary. She even chose this over Minnie Mouse. I thought she looked like the sweetest thing ever.

Lainey dressed up as an angel. I actually bought this costume at a resale shop before I had even decided on Cambry's costume. So it kind of worked out perfectly that their costumes went together. I declared Lainey as Gabriel even though Greg likes to point out that Gabriel was a man-angel. But how cute is she???

First fest was so much fun. It was our first year to go and I was amazed at how much stuff they had. So many fun things for the kids to do! Cambry's favorite thing was the trampoline jumping. We were surprised that she even wanted to do it because she tends to be on the very cautious side when it comes to things like this. But we were proud of her for being brave and she really loved it. She also did a pony ride, petting zoo, we rode a little train, she did several bounce houses, and collected lots of candy. I loved seeing all of the kids' costumes there. 

We drove through CFA on the way home, stopped by a couple of neighbor's houses, then called it a night. Happy Halloween!

Dewberry Farms, Dress Up, and Family Reunion

A couple weeks ago we went with a group of friends to Dewberry Farms. This was our first visit and Cambry had a lot of fun. They have lots of rides and activities for the kids. Lainey was toted around in the Bjorn most of the time and she did great. I definitely want to go back again next year.

Cambry really likes dress up...when it involves others. She does like to dress up herself, but she also really likes to dress up her babies and her newest thing is dressing up Lainey. She asks if we can dress her up like Cinderella. Then she wants me to stand Lainey up so she can see how she looks. She also loves putting shoes and jewelry on her babies. She is really good at it and it cracks me up.

It is hard to tell but please note in the last picture how Minnie and baby doll both have on headbands and baby doll is wearing a bracelet. The bear's bracelet fell off on the chair. I did not touch or arrange any of these. It is all Cambry.

We went to the annual Mattern Family Reunion a couple weekends ago. It is so neat that how there are so many people there and new babies every year. I think there were about 16 great grand kids. Cambry caught her first fish and was very excited. Lainey was enjoying all that was going on around her and did not want to sleep. She finally fell asleep on Pops but was only out for a short time. She did not want to miss anything. Greg's cousin Brianna is a talented photographer and got some really great shots of everyone so maybe I can post those at some point too.

Up next - Halloween pics! The girls looked so cute so I will blog about that soon.

Lainey's First Birthday Party

We celebrated Lainey's birthday at the beginning of the month when Greg's parents were in town. My parents came over after church on Sunday and we had a little family party.

Greg grilled fajitas for lunch, and we followed it up with cupcakes. The birthday girl had a small smash cake too. Dairy free soy free, of course :) I knew she wouldn't really eat it since she will not eat any solids, but I still wanted to make her one for tradition sake. It is possible that she has grown out of her allergy (we pray!), but we have not given her dairy yet. We will be trying that soon though.

Lainey mostly softly patted her cake, and showed general displeasure when we tried to put icing in her mouth. Maybe next year folks.

The grandparents gave Lainey lots of fun new toys, which she has been enjoying lately. Then birthday girl was worn out so she finished off the afternoon with a nap.

We are so thankful for this past year with our sweet girl! Love you baby bear!

Lainey 12 Months

Happy Birthday precious girl! I can't believe you are 1! You still seem so little and I am kinda glad because I just love the baby stage. You are so sweet and cute. I smoother you with kisses and hugs all day. I am so thankful for this past year with you and I am excited to see what this next year brings.

Your hair has lightened up so much since you were born.

Size: A couple weeks ago you were 18 lbs. 6 oz. (32%), 29 in. tall (59%), and head 17 in. (17%). You wear 12 month clothes and size 3 diaper. I sometimes put shoes on you but I can't remember what size you wear. You usually try to pull your shoes off and eat them.

Likes: You like to grab everything. You want so badly to go places but you are still working on it. You can get across the room by rolling and can go from sitting to all fours but then you go to your tummy. You like when Cambry plays with you. You like being out and looking around at everything. You almost never cry when we are out of the house. 

Dislikes: You do not like to be left alone in the evening. You are usually ok playing on the floor with toys while I am out of the room for short periods of time during the day. But for some reason when evening rolls around you are like I AM TIRED OF PLAYING WITH TOYS, YOU BETTER HOLD ME AND DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT LEAVING THE ROOM. You will cry dramatically until I pick you up and then you are fine. You also get frustrated and will cry when you are so close to grabbing something but can't quite get there. You are not the biggest fan of bows. You usually pull them out in the car. I am still pressing on.

Working on: You are getting pretty good at going from sitting to all fours. But you will only stay there a few seconds before going on your tummy. You haven't figured out the crawling thing yet. You are getting better at pushing up on your arms from your tummy, so we are working on the legs coming up. You are very close to being able to get in sitting position on your own (from laying). We are also working on you saying a word. You said "mama" for the first time this month. You haven't done it since but I did get the video proof!

Eating: You take about 3 1/2 bottles a day and baby food several times. You have made a little bit of progress with eating small bits of texture. You have tolerated small bites of bananas or puffs, so that is a start! You can suck down a pouch in no time at all.

Sleeping: I am SO SO SO thankful that you are such a good sleeper. You love your crib. And just this month you started sleeping on your tummy. You move around a lot at night so you don't always stay on your tummy, but you seem to like it. It is just crazy that you HATED your tummy the first 10 months of life and now you are actually choosing to be on your tummy. Bedtime is around 7:30 and you wake up around 7am or even sometimes 8am recently. You take 2 naps a day. When you wake up in the morning you have the craziest hair. I love it.

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Happy Birthday Lainey! We love you so much!