Happy First Birthday Josie!!!!

I cannot believe that my littlest baby is a year old today.
How amazing is it that in one year they go from this.....
























to this.





















Seems they adapt to the world pretty quickly.



She is so much fun. I took her a week or so ago to get pictures done in Maggie's first birthday dress and she did much better for them than she had at home.

























We also let her dive into her first bit of cake. She enjoyed messing in it more than the eating of it.











Josie has been such a blessing to our family this past year. I cannot imagine our lives without her in it. She is not walking yet, but is definetly cruising around furniture when she feels like it. Tonight we gave her a little bit of the cake I am making her for her party this weekend. We sang happy birthday to her which she totally loved. Maggie and I sang to her this morning when we got her out of her bed and she danced and clapped her hands then as well.























As you can tell, she is a fan of the chocolate cake. She was so excited and everytime we'd say, "Josie's the birthday girl" she would crack up laughing.
She was supposed to have her 1 year check up today but after I got to Louisville I found out the office was closed because of the snow/ice storm and their electric being out. So we spent the day with our friends Sheila, Isaac, Nicole and Julia which was alot of fun. Sheila introduced Josie to oranges which she absolutley loved. We are just going to get ready for her party tommorow. I have a cake to make and we are going to all have to make the trip to the grocery store tommorow since I was too tired to get out tonight and go.

Here are the pictures from our photo shoot that went well. If you got a birthday mailer from Josie you have seen these....if not enjoy!! (Maggie was the reason for all the smiling and hand clapping) Maggie can have Josie cracking up in seconds. I LOVE watching the two of them interact.




















Happy Birthday to my perfect little Josie!!! We love you!

Josie's 1st with friends!

I had Josie's 1st birthday party today with all her friends. I typically don't do a first friend party for my kids...but between my friends here we have 6 babies all turning one within about 2 months so I thought it would be fun to do one with them all there....how fun to show them when they are teenagers. She must have been excited as she could not fall asleep for her nap this morning, she wasnsn't crying..just jabbering and laughing in her bed. Everytime I would walk in to lay her back down she would just laugh and clap her hands like she was so excited. Anyhow, it was alot of fun and with 6 almost 1 year olds, and 7 siblings under the age of 5 it was a full, fun, loud house this afternoon in the Burke household.

I made individual cakes which I thought would be cute, and easier, than a big cake. And since there were several others turning one as well I made all the one year olds to be their own cakes. I put a flag with their name on it, and the others I made flags with Josie's picture on them.











I thought they all turned out really cute...and more importantly they tasted great. My kids always want cakes that require white or colored icing, but my favorite is chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing...so since Josie isn't old enough to pick that is what I chose for her!

We ate first, while all the kids ran wild and then put the babies on the floor with their cakes. Josie began playing with hers but then realized there were others on the floor and went around stealing all the boys cakes.




















She ate a bit from each of theirs I think, but didn't fool much with her own. By the time they were done there was chocolate everywhere and surprisingly although they all were covered in it my light carpet shows no signs. Josie seemed pretty fond of the chocolate cake and icing and will be more than happy to eat some again next week at her other birthday party.

We let Josie get into her gifts and as you can see, they interested the bigger kids more than her.








She was probably headed off to find more cake.





She is going to have lots of playmates in a year or so with all these babies...and will have a great options of boyfriends later on down the road. Here she is with her buddy Holden.














Here is our greatest attempt to get a picture of 5 of the 6 of them. (Molly had already left) It was after a party, cake, and waaaayyyy into naptime. So none of them were into the photo shoot. But you know I had to try to get one! All I could think of looking at them was, "wow,,,,this is what Jon and Kate had every day...plus one and 2 more!"














It was a fun day, we love hanging out with all our friends and are so glad they all came to celebrate with us.
Here are some other pictures from the day.....

New Attitude

My dad reminded me today that I had lied on previous posts saying I was going to become a better blogger.....and i had not blogged since. Let me say in my defense Joe was in Mexico all last week, I didn't sleep much at all since I was scared at nights plus josie has gotten into a newborn schedule of sleeping latley and wants to nurse every few hours so I was battling that as well. And now I am preparing for her birthday party which seems to take a bit of my time.

So Josie has found a new attitude this past month that is making me nervous as to what her toddler years will be like. She is always a very laid back happy baby...but recently if you cross her or make her unhappy in any way she lets you know. A week or so ago I was attempting to get a picture of her for her first birthday cards. Well, I dress her up in Maggie's first birthday dress and get everything set. The dress has fur around the bottom and neck area. Josie is having nothing to do with this dress and at first attempts to smile somewhat at me. But after a few minutes gets so upset with the whole set up that she yanks the fur at the neck, tears it off the dress and throws it at me. After that this was all I got from her.















Hey, it's her party, and trust me.....she will cry if she wants to....




















these are some other outtakes I got.




























But a few days later, in a much more casual outfit I got lots of adorable pictures of her which I am not going to post yet until you all get yours in the mail. After that they will be here, along with the others, for your viewing pleasure.

Well, I am off to bed...just wanted to leave you with a few cute quotes from the week:

Owen was watching Maggie do some sort of "magic trick" in awe. He looks up at me and says, "wow, that is magicable."

The other day I was throwing some bottles and papers away as Maggie watched. She says, "mommy, that doesn't seem very green to me." I look at her laughing and say, "mag, do you even know what green means?" She says, "yes, it's like taking care of the earth and recycling." Thanks Noggin!!

And lastly....the other morning I told Owen to go downstairs I would bring his clohtes to get dressed, but I had his breakfast at the table. I come down to find this.....












He told me he was waiting to get dressed, and he was very cold.
Joe says you may want to avoid this chair next time your at our house. :)