Knox

Today is Knox's first birthday!

Knox was our 6th great grandchild and our 4th great grandson.

He's a very important part of this large family.  (Of course he's not in this picture because he wasn't around yet when it was taken but he's still a very important part of the family.)

And a very important part of this large family.

And, of course, a very important part of this wonderful family.

I wrote about Knox's birth last year where he told his version of the whole experience.  You can read about it here.  And, here's a picture from that momentous day but this link will take you to lots more.

And here are a few pictures to show how he's changed this year.

But of course his appearance isn't all that's changed.  First of all, in one short year, he's gone from zero teeth to fourteen!  Wow!

And he's gone from not being able to do anything but lie there to walking around like a boss!

And he's gone from saying nothing to saying things like Mama, Dada, bye-bye, and ball.

And he waves and claps and gives great high fives!

He's a very good eater but is not a fan of green beans or peas.  He is, however, a fan of birthday cake!

So you can see he's learned a lot and changed a lot in his first year.  He's easygoing and laid back

and cheerful .... but he seems to be always thinking so when great grandma approaches with a camera, he tends to look at her like this.

Like he's really trying to figure out what I'm up to which makes it hard to catch his beautiful smiles!

But he is cheerful and sweet and friendly and patient.  And he's VERY interested in everything his siblings do and tries to mimic them in every way.  And although he doesn't love TV, he does love the movie Trolls.  It pretty much the only thing he'll sit and watch.  All in all, Knox is a wonderful boy and we love him very much so we're wishing him a very happy birthday and a beautiful year ahead!

Happy Birthday, Knox!

Aubrey

Today is Aubrey's 6th birthday!

Aubrey was our 3rd great grandchild and our first great granddaughter!

She is a very important part of this very large family,

 a very important part of this smaller but still large family,

and of course a very important part of this smaller yet but still large family.

I wrote about Aubrey's birthday last year in this post and going to that post will show links to all her previous posts.  In those posts there are many pictures and lots of information about Aubrey 'through the years'.  So in this post, I'm just going to talk about Aubrey today and what changes have occurred in her life during the past year.  But first, a few pictures to quickly show how she's changed in the last 6 years.

 

And how she's continuing to change.  For example, she lost her first tooth this year and has now lost a grand total of three!

She's become quite the fisherman too and actually has caught some of her family's largest fish.
Maybe not this one.  That was when she was a beginner.

But more like this one!

And this year not only did she start kindergarten where she's doing VERY well,

but she now gets to go to the same school as Jack and Dane.

And perhaps the biggest change in Aubrey's life this year was the addition of a brand new baby brother and he was born the day after her birthday last year!

So those were the big changes for Aubrey but some very important things remained the same.  She is still one of the sweetest, smartest girls EVER!  She's an amazing big sister to Emma

and a very helpful sister to all her siblings.

She brave and adventuresome too.  Here she is after she made the leap into the lake last year. 

and she's amazingly insightful and intuitive for such a little girl.  Last summer, as I kind of dreaded the monotonous job of transferring fish food to a smaller container, Aubrey suddenly showed up and made the job easy. 

and I can't fold wash cloths and towels without thinking of how quickly and cheerfully she helped her mother fold mine last summer. 

And she has a very sharp, observant eye - just like her brothers and her dad. 

Just last summer she spotted a spider on a tree with a large egg sack - something none of us would EVER have spotted.  She doesn't miss a thing!

 Plus she's creative

and fun

and loving.

All in all, we couldn't ask for a sweeter, smarter, more helpful, or cooperative great granddaughter!  For all these reasons and many, many more we're wishing her the best birthday EVER and an awesome year ahead but one only half as great as the many more too come!

Happy Birthday, Aubrey!