Alena's first Birthday!

An important day came for Alena Lynn McReynolds on July 6, 2010. A 1st birthday! You only get one, so Ashley and Jason made it a great one for her. They had just moved out of their house a week before the party, so Brandy and David offered their home as the "party pad". Alena was surrounded by friends and family and got a ton of gifts.

Aunt Brandy made the cake for the littlest McReynolds (for the time being). This was both Brandy and my first niece (now we have yet another McReynolds baby girl).How fun have a princess party for the littlest princess!

As you can see, Sarah came prepared, at least for the princess portion. Check out the Sleeping Beauty get up.

I love to see little ones at first birthday parties. You never know how they will react to all the people, presents, and cake!

Alena certainly enjoyed opening her gifts!

Time to cut the cake. Such a shame to cut something so beautiful :(

Happy birthday baby, I mean big girl!

Leah loving life!

What a sweet little girl! We just love our little Leah. She is quite shy in large groups of people (very different than Sarah) but boy, when it is just Mommy, Daddy, or Sarah around, the wildcat comes out! Here is the view I get everyday as she catches my view. It changes from happiness to loneliness in 2.5 seconds! We love her curls, her smile, her squeals and her cuddles.

This smile can light up a room!
We especially love to see the special bond that Leah has made with her big sis. What a joy it is to watch these girls laugh, play, hug, and kiss. Leah thinks that Sarah hung the moon. Sarah is such a little mommy to her.

Although I have stayed away since she was about six months old, I hear that Leah loves Bible class! She is in a wonderful class that has special animal toys for each child to chew, wave, squeeze, and love. Sarah and Leah both learn so much from these classes even at this early age. They learn about God making the world, children, animals, flowers and they also learn about Jesus. What a gift for them to be able to hear about God's love from such an early age. Thank you to all those Bible school teachers out there who take time out of your busy schedules to share this with our little ones.
Yes Jesus loves me...the Bible tells me so. :)

Changing Leah ( I had to fit these in)

As I am fitfully trying to update the blog and catch up with the many photos I have taken this summer, I realized that I missed out on sharing some very cute photos. As always, these photos mark important times in kids lives, and I would hate to skip over them.


Back in the spring, Chris took a few photos on the iphone while dining out. I am shocked when I look at how much leach has changed in these. Check out the photo below.


She looks so little! And the hair is a lot less wild. But she has always been oh so cute!


This one is from mid summer. Leah had a stretch where she loved playing in the exersaucer (this has definitely ended abruptly by the way). This is the face I get every time I walk in the room. She melts my heart!

It is so wonderful to see the joy on her face these days. We went through so many months where a smile was a rarity for this little one. Now she is healthy and happy and I thank God everyday for this!






During our last trip home, we stopped at my cousin Melody's house for a birthday celebration for Uncle James. Leah is obviously the center of attention at all family events (babies usually are :)



Aunt Nancy and Leah



Mom taste testing Melody's good food.


On another day, Jason brought cousin Alena over to play in the bouncy house. Isn't she cute in her swimsuit? Many people say she and Leah look similar. What do you think?




Sarah loves for Alena to come over. She is in the toddler phase now where everyday is a new adventure. Sarah loves playing with her!
I LOOOOOVE this photo. My two sweet and beautiful girls sharing a moment one morning. They love each other to death and I couldn't be happier.


I pray they remain this close forever!


Saving the best for last. This photo says so much about our little leah. She loves to be out and about with the family and she loves to eat! We are so happy to have her in our lives!

Myrtle Beach 2010

And we're off! This year we had a whopping ONE WEEK window to have our family vacation due to Chris's current job responsibilities. I wasted no time in booking a family vacation to Myrtle Beach. I have been there countless times, and I knew it would offer the sand and sun that Sarah loves as well as the rides and shoppes that I need when I begin to sunburn (which happens every time I go to the beach!). After a two day jaunt with a 6 month old, we were happy to arrive and rushed to the Piggly Wiggly to grab our much needed groceries for the week.

Sarah was ecstatic to find a Sarah sized shopping cart in the store.

The first night there, we decided to hit the beach and let Leah see what all the fuss is about!

We opted to take a babysitter this year to give us a little kid free time. Our neighbor, Shelley agreed to come along. We have known her since she was little and the kids love her. It was wonderful to have her along!

Our baby girls first outing on the beach. Can you tell how happy she is to be out of the car and in the sun?

She was not so sure about the sights and the sounds at first.

It is so cool to see our girls experience things for the first time!

Cold but interesting...

I love the serious face, she is trying to figure this ocean thing out.

Sarah is the resident beach bum. She asks us to move to the beach all the time! I am glad she loves it as much as I do.

Mommy and baby sharing a breezy beach moment.

Leah loved the sand...A little too much! She had it in her eyes and mouth every time we visited the beach. And boy did this make her mad!

A nice transition to our mad face. I am quite used to seeing this day to day, but realized that I had deprived my readers from seeing Leah's full fury. This particular face was due to a hot day at Broadway at the Beach. I think I would have cried too if I could have gotten away with it! It was HOT!

Sarah and Shelley braved the heat to take time to ride the tea cups.

Sarah on the carousel. We all took turns riding it with her to get a nice breeze. Did I mention it was hot?

More fun rides for the big girl.

We stopped for a cool treat (ice cream). Since Leah couldn't share in the cool, delicious treat, she opted to play with the camera instead. Cheese!

Let me see this thing you keep pointing at me!

Look at the sweat, we all NEED some ice cream!

Sarah was a hoot pretending to be attacked by this bear. She is really developing a great sense of humor. (Just like her daddy)...

Shelley and Sarah had a great time hanging out on the beach. Chris and I were happy to take turns with her playing with Sarah while one of us either watched Leah back at the condo or on the beach. It really worked out great to have an extra set of hands!

What a Daddy's girl this on has become! She won't let Daddy put her down. If he is anywhere to be seen, then she sees no one else (this includes Mommy).

Papaw Coleman gave Sarah some money that they had been saving to spend on vacation. She wasted no time in spending this money. She purchased "Princess" from the Build a Bear workshop. She is princess crazy these days, so the name was quite appropriate!

Now for the "photo shoot"...We TRY every year to take an all white photo on the beach. I think they make the most beautiful photos. We have always had great luck with Sarah in terms of posing for the camera in the past. Boy how times have changed. We managed to eek out a few good photos of the girls, and zero good family photos. Who knew that adding one extra face would make the money shot so much more difficult to achieve?

This was my favorite shot of the day, and it came very early in the shoot. Sarah loves her sister so much and I can see it so clearly in this photo.

Time to explore. This can't be good when a 6 month old is involved.

Notice the facial changes, it is hot, sunny, and Leah is digging in the sand. How do you think this will end?

How cute. She gave us a few precious photos.

She looks so happy, it was wonderful to see her smile. She has had such a rough few months of life, we loved seeing her happy for a change.

She simply couldn't get enough of the sand.

The heat is beginning to roast us all...

Our little cutie. Sarah simply loves to pose for the camera.

Yes folks, this is the BEST family shot we got. When Leah was done, she was REALLY done!

Daddy can make it better.

Sarah couldn't resist getting the dress wet. I think it made for a cute ending to our adventure. We officially survived the first beach vacation with two kids. And had fun to boot! Yeah Coleman family!