Halloween 2011

Halloween was so awesome this year!  Millie is at such a fun age right now and she thouroughly enjoyed dressing up and getting candy from all our neighbors.  We were able to trick-or-treat with Millie's cousins, Charlee Sue, Hudson, Isabelle and Sophia and our sweet neighbor little Liv Noonan.  It was a lot of fun!

My cool little Minnie Mouse

All ready to go trick-or-treating!

My sweet nephew Hudson.  He was his Gogo (grandfather) for Halloween!

My little nieces dressed as German girls!

Hi Liv!!!

Millie Mouse with her Aunt Adriane.



My precious sweetheart Charlee Sue.  A little clown.



My sweet family!

Millie's first trip to the ZOO!!!!

The weather here in Texas has been so very nice lately.  It's not 100 degrees, but a nice 80 degrees over the past few days.  So, we decided to venture out to the San Antonio zoo for Millie's first zoo experience.  It was a great family day and Millie LOVED seeing all the animals.  She told each and every one "HI!" and waved.  She was such a trooper all day and then came home and crashed...hard!  I think her favorite part of the day was seeing all the fish because she could stand right up to glass and get super close.  She was a little confused about the elephants.  They were so big I don't think she understood what they were.  Here are a few pictures of the adventure.

All ready to go see the animals!!

She loved all the fish!

The fish is bigger than she is!

She was a little confused about these guys.

New Career/New Home/Charlee Sue Smith

Since I'm waaayyy behind on blog posts I've decided to lump all of our recent updates together into one post.  Things around the Bird house have been quite hectic and busy lately and there is much to tell!


First things first, I have a new job!!  For the past three months I have been doing an online training course to get my license to become a Kindermusik teacher.  And I am proud to say that I have passed the course and I begin teaching my first class next week!  I'm super excited about this new venture bringing music and movement into children's lives.  What is Kindermusik you ask?  Kindermusik is about kids, parents, and teachers—coming together and having a great time! It’s about helping parents grow closer to their child. Enriching their environment and their development. Giving them a lifelong love of music and a foundation for learning. 


I first became interested in Kindermusik when I started taking Millie to classes when she was about five months old.  I was amazed with the things she picked up in class and I could see how her brain was working and developing.  Plus it has given her a great foundation and love of music.  Anytime she hears music she automatically has a huge smile and starts dancing.  This makes me overjoyed to see her love of music because I also have a deep passion for it.  I have always loved to sing since I was a child.  I've been in countless choirs and musicals my whole life and competed and won awards for my voice (which I will say right now is nowhere near where it was ten years ago).  So when the opportunity came along to teach Kindermusik I leapt at the opportunity.  Where else can I work one day a week teaching music to precious children where I have the opportunity to help enrich their brains and their social skills all while doing what I love to do...sing?  I feel very blessed and gracious to be able to do what I love to do while still keeping my "stay-at-home-mom" role as well.  If you or anyone you know has children between the ages of birth-18 months who live in the New Braunfels area, please sign up for my class!  You can go to the Kindermusik website and click on "find a class" and enter your zip code and it should bring you to the "Kindermusik with Rishanne" page.  You can sign up there.  As I get more established I will begin teaching different classes that range in age groups all the way to seven years old.   

Millie at Kindermusik when she was 7 months

In other news, we sold our house.  It's a little bittersweet because we are sad to leave this place where we started our family but we are excited for the next chapter.  We knew we were ready for a bigger home to fill with more babies and with the way interest rates are right now, we knew it was now or never.  We are lucky enough that the buyers of our house have rented it back to us for six months so we are still here and dont' have to rush.  We have decided to build another house in another neighborhood here in New Braunfels, Texas.  We are sad to leave Gruene but are confident this new place is perfect for us.  Kiddos running around everywhere, big trees shadowing the streets (reminds me of my neighborhood growing up), and friendly people everywhere.  We are hoping to break ground in November and move in by April.  So far, things are moving along swiftly.  We customized an amazing floor plan that we are super thrilled about and we have our lot selected.  Yay!

Only five more months in this home.  This is where Trevor proposed, where we brough Millie home from the hospital, where she took her first steps, where we have made all our memories.  When God closes a door he opens a window.  I know where we go next will be the next chapter in the Bird family.  And that makes me happy.

Lastly, I must give an update on my niece, Charlee Sue.  She is eight weeks old now and just got her wire NAM device inserted.  This is what it looks like:

Isn't she beautiful?  This little angel has already endured so much in her short life and she is incredibly strong.  Not to mention her mother is probably the strongest and bravest mother of all time.  I went with my sister to Charlee's appointment at Dell Children's Hospital where she goes once a week to get her devices tightened.  I've never seen my sister so strong when it comes to that baby.  She knows Charlee is going to cry and hurt but she holds it together for her so well.  Of course I was losing it watching my niece go through all of this but my sister is one amazing woman.  Adriane, I am so proud of you for the mother you have become.  Charlee is so blessed to have someone so strong and loving as you!  For all of you who would like to keep up with my niece's story and progress, my sister has started a beautiful blog to document Charlee's ride through the first year of her life with surgeries and changes.  Click here to go to Charlee's blog.



Sweet Charlee with her tape.  Happy as can be!

 

Charlee and Millie posing during their play date.

Well, I realize this post is never-ending so I will leave you with this precious face...

With her grandparents at the Gristmill after church.

 

The Millie Mouse Clubhouse

Ok, I know this is long overdue (over a month overdue) but here I am FINALLY blogging about Millie's first birthday party! 

I had been scratching my head for a few weeks trying to decide what I wanted her party theme to be for her first big birthday.  I struggled with it for a while and then I remembered how much Millie loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon on the Disney channel.  She would watch it every morning while she had her bottle and would end up dancing the "Hot Dog Dance" at the end of the program.  Then it hit me... why not throw her a Mickey Mouse Clubhoue themed party?  Then it hit me again... why not call it the MILLIE Mouse Clubhouse?  Jackpot!  That was it.  No need to search any longer. 

We held the party at Oma and Opa's house and invited all of our friends and family.  Millie had a lot of her buddies there and she got TONS of presents!  So many that I still have stacks of them in my house trying to figure out where I am going to put them!

She wasn't very sure about her cake...

Nope, don't like it!

Don't worry Millie, Daddy will get it off of you!

Charlee Sue was there too!!!

And there's Aunt Adriane with Millie and her cousin Reghan.

Happy 1st birthday my precious girl!  Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

One Year Old

I can't believe it.  I am a mother to a ONE YEAR OLD!!  It blows me away how fast time goes by and how much my little baby has grown in just 365 days.  She is no longer a baby but a toddler.  She is so close to walking and as much as I am proud of that, I wish she would slow down.  She is the sweetest little person who loves to say "hi" and wave to any and everyone who passes by and also loves to give hugs and kisses.  She still is very attached to her Scout and then today she opened a gift from the Gottsackers and was so happy to see that she now has the "big girl" version of Scout, or rather, Violet...

Pay no attention to the ghost in the background.  It was 7 AM and makeup was not an option.

We took the most precious video this morning where Trevor and I walked into her bedroom to greet her with the Happy Birthday song when she woke up.  She was bouncing and dancing in her crib and so happy that BOTH mommy and daddy were there to greet her.

After we opened presents Millie put on her birthday outfit and we strolled on over to the coffee shop to have blueberry pancakes in her new pink trike complete with a cell phone.  A precious gift from the Gottsacker family who are great friends and business partners with Trevor.   Thank you Gottsackers!  Millie loves strolling along while talking on her phone.

We then went over to Oma and Opa's house to have lunch and go swimming.  Oma and Opa were so thoughtful and got Millie her first "big girl chair" for her room.

About to go swimming with Daddy

Happy family!

It's been such a blessed day and we are so lucky that God has blessed us with the most precious gift that is Millie Grace.  She is so loved and you can see it in her face. 

Well, as I write this it is 7:47 PM and Millie has been in her crib since 6:30.  Notice I didn't say she was sleeping!  She's been playing in her crib for over an hour so we decided that she must have had an overdose of sugar from her birthday cupcake and needs to play some more so daddy just went and got her out of bed.  Time to play!! 

Charlee Sue Smith is here!

So I feel awful that I haven't posted anything in so long but we have been going non-stop this entire month!  August was loaded with major events in the Bird family including the birth of my precious niece, Charlee Sue Smith! My sister Adriane was so awesome throughout her whole labor and I am still amazed by her.  She allowed our mother and me in the delivery room along with Adam and we got to witness the most amazing miracle!  I had a C-section so I never got to experience a normal birth.  I labored for three hours though so I like to think that I tried my hardest. 

The only time Adriane complained at all was right before she got her epidural.  After that it was smooth sailing.  In between pushes she was making jokes and being her normal self.  I was in shock because my labor was soooo not like that.  She deserved a good labor considering the hell she went through during pregnancy!

For those of you who are not aware, Charlee was born with a double cleft lip and palate.  We knew about it from about 18 weeks along and were able to prepare as much as possible.  She will have to go through a few surgeries to correct the palate and the lip with the first one being at four months old.  There is no doubt in my mind that this precious angel will handle it very well because she is very strong.  Eating was the biggest concern for her right away but she showed us all how strong she is by nursing within minutes of birth!  She gets more milk through a special bottle though and doesn't have to try as hard so Adriane is pumping and feeding her through the bottle.  She is truly a precious gift from God and we are all so thrilled for their little family.  And check out her HAIR!!  There's TONS of it!  We were very shocked to see all that hair because we don't have babies with hair usually.  It was awesome.  She's perfect!

Getting ready to meet their baby girl!

Here she is!!

Adriane overcome with emotion by seeing Charlee for the first time.

Proud Auntie!!

Millie meeting her baby cousin.  She LOVES her Charlee!  She is so sweet and gentle with her.  It's like it's in her nature.

Love the baby.

Millie did NOT love sharing Charlee with mommy!  Or maybe she didn't like sharing mommy with Charlee!

Sweet beautiful girl!

Proud Papa!