slow down

AJ is napping right now. We have Fox for the day, so he's taking a break and playing Minecraft while she's napping. Earlier today, we went out and explored the yard! He set a goal for us to find 43 leaves--red, yellow, orange and green. We got a little sidetracked and picked up all sorts of stuff.

You know? I really enjoyed it. I don't know the last time I went outside in our yard and REALLY paid attention to the details. It was fun! I was amazing at what we found in the yard. Sometimes you just have to keep your eyes open.

Mardi Gras was fun. AJ was a little overwhelmed by ALL the people and noise, but she did well. She wasn't really fussy, she just stared the whole time, expressionless. Maybe next year she'll be able to warm up to it a little better. It's become a really fun highlight of the Loup family year--all of us go and spend the morning and afternoon together. I'm so thankful Kerry and Eloise let us crash their place for the day every year!

The weather has been beautiful again lately. I hope it's pleasant for AJ's birthday. I really need to start working on her party details. Charlie still wants to go with our original plan of immediate family only. And I always felt that way, too until my sweetestbabygirlinthewholeentireworld almost turned 1! Now I want a big party and celebrate the fact that we all made it a year... and that she's just so special and amazing. I know the 1st birthday party isn't for the baby--we really don't want any presents because we're feeling packed to the brim in our house. But I just want to celebrate the amazingness that is AJ.

So we shall see. I'm pretty sure Charlie will be super-annoyed if we invite more people. Maybe I can just trick Mimi into inviting the other people and then I can get out of the blame :)