First Birthday Party

Baby Girl,

I can't believe it is time to write this post.  It seems like just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital and today we are celebrating your first birthday.  You have brought such joy to our lives and I can't think of anyone else's birthday I would want to celebrate!!

Where to start….

Your birthday started about a week early with Mrs. Christen, Ben, and Mary Hyatt.  They had to go out of town for your birthday so they came by with cupcakes and a cute placemat with your name on one side and owls on the other, for an early celebration. They weren't able to stay long  because it was a school night but we got to enjoy cupcakes together and sing you "Happy Birthday."It was your first time trying a cupcake/cake, and you seemed to really enjoy it!  It was a special night, for a special girl, with special friends.

Your theme was "A Winter ONEderland" so everything was centered on a winter theme.  The tables were decorated with snowmen and snowflakes, we had snowballs (donut holes), snow flake ice cream, and hot chocolate as food (along with fruit, juice, and cake - of course).  We gave snowflake ornaments with a tag that said "Thanks snow much for coming!" as party favors.

                 This is a tree with pictures of your "firsts".               The food table

The ice cream shaped like snowflakes.

 Your smash cake and cupcakes

We were lucky that your birthday fell on Thanksgiving weekend because all of Mommy's family was already in town for Thanksgiving so they were able to come to your party.  Here is a list of all the people who came to celebrate with us:

Uncle Dusty, Bogan, Aunt Nell, Aunt Reagan, MiMi, Ry, Nanny, PaPaw, Aunt Jamie, Uncle Craig, Grant, Gracie, Donna, Landon, Uncle Clayton, Aunt Kristin, Micah, Mrs. Shundra, Kennedi, Uncle Andy, and Dinah.

You weren't all about the gifts.  You still weren't able to open them by yourself and after about a few you had just about had it.  You got so many wonderful things: a dino ball popper, baby doll, shopping cart with wooden food, a grinch village, a rocking giraffe, ball, puzzles, Mickey Mouse, clothes, headband, books, car, Little People Farm, tea set, Little People Little Mermaid coach, drum and other instruments, and your own chair!

Here are a few other pictures of you and your friends and some of your favorite gifts…..

You enjoyed your smash cake, until you got it in your eyes, then you weren't such a big fan anymore.  You did like sharing with Daddy though.  You shoved your fingers in his mouth before we could get you cleaned up.

                        

This was such a special day for everyone.  It took us so long to get you and, at times, felt like it took forever to keep you.  You are a beautiful, loving, fun-filled personality little girl.  I can't imagine life without you and can't remember life before you.  You make me smile first thing in the morning and continue to make my days bright.  This year has gone by so fast and I wish I could make time slow down.  You are going to be grown up and gone before we blink our eyes.  Baby girl, we fall in love you with more as each day passes.  I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you.  I know it is supposedly "your day" but it is mine and Daddy's day too.  It is a day for us to remember how many times we prayed for you and longed for you.  How many nights we talked about you, before you were ever you.  And the day we finally got to hold you in our arms and call you ours!!  HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!

Love,
Mommy

Thanksgiving

Baby Girl,

It is hard to believe this is (almost) your last first.  We have celebrated all the holidays with you and are so close to celebrating your first birthday.

This was an exciting year to be your first Thanksgiving.  We don't celebrate Thanksgiving with the extended family every year, but this was our year!!  Not only did everyone come down, we also got to spend Thanksgiving in our new house!!

Unfortunately, right before Thanksgiving break you got RSV so you weren't feeling great, but you seemed to enjoy everyone being here.  Your week started off not going to school and spending Monday and Tuesday with MiMi and Ry.  We weren't going to send you to school anyways because we didn't want you sick for your first birthday, but you beat us to it! Since you had RSV you couldn't go.  We also spent a lot of this week getting ready for Uncle Dusty and Bogan to come stay with us and your first birthday.  Mommy and Daddy didn't go to work on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday so we enjoyed getting to be off with you and spend some time with you this week as well.

Wednesday Uncle Dusty came down.  We enjoyed showing off our new house and they enjoyed seeing how much you had grown since they had last seen you (7 months).  You had really changed in their eyes.

Thursday everyone (Aunt Nell, Aunt Reagan, Uncle Dusty, Uncle Andy, Dinah, MiMi and Ry) all came to our house for Thanksgiving lunch.  We rearranged the dining room so everyone could sit together at the table.  Aunt Reagan and Uncle Dusty weren't fond of your eating habits (you were a mess).  We had lots of goodies, but you mostly enjoyed a sweet potato, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, and rolls.

We normally try to go to Nanny and PaPaw's for Thanksgiving dinner, but since you had RSV and were running a fever we decided not to go this year.  

After lunch we just hung out around the house.  Some of us decorated for your birthday party (next post), others napped, and some played games.

Here is a picture of you and Uncle Dusty with Paisley (she did NOT like you sitting on top of her)

Here is a cute picture of you playing Thanksgiving night while everyone was kind of doing their own thing.  You love to get in this drawer and play with the pans.  Uncle Dusty thought he would drive Mommy crazy by giving you wooden spoons to hit the pans with, but little did he know that we had already given these to you and it doesn't drive Mommy crazy at all!!

And finally, Aunt Reagan stopped playing her game to take a photo with you before you went to bed!

It was a fun first Thanksgiving spending time with family we don't get to see often.  Luckily we will get  to see them again in a couple of weeks for Christmas!!

Love,

Mommy