One

Today my baby turns one...

I can't believe that a year has come and gone already. Today was, for me, a day of reminiscing and reflecting about this little life that has blessed our family. We have had quite a year that is for sure. I spent the past few days thinking about the weeks leading up to Lily's birth...the two weeks of bed rest spent on my left side...family here helping with chores and caring for Hannah...Matt working day and night to complete our home renovation.  With bags packed we left the house at 5 am on November 10 anxious and ready for our baby girl to arrive.  Lily was born at 8:30 in the morning weighing a whopping 5 lbs 3 oz. She was a tiny thing but healthy and thankfully was able to come home with us from the hospital.

I will never forget the look of amazement in Hannah's eyes when she first met her sister. She couldn't speak. She just stared at her tiny sister mesmerized. Lily has graced our lives in so many ways since her arrival...she is loving, happy, independent and now mesmerized by Hannah. You can already tell that she wants to be just like her big sister and that there is so much love in her heart.

The past year has been full of many challenges and even more accomplishments in our world of parenting.  We now have two girls who are learning how great it is to be sisters and what it means to love.  We have learned and grown so much as a family and I thank God for the gift of Lily in our lives.

We celebrated Lily's first year this past weekend with family and friends...

I chose this invitation because I thought it was cute and it ended up becoming the inspiration for the party.  Our "theme" as you will see became cupcakes and our colors brown and pink.

Here is the food table before the eating commenced...

The kids made cupcakes out of play doh...

And other fun stuff too...

Ann Monroe took a break from play doh fun to swing...

 We loved spending time with our out of town family...

Here is more family...

After everyone finished their lunch...

It was time to head inside for the good stuff...

A local bakery created these for us and they did not disappoint...

Our birthday girl got what they called a "Texas size" cupcake...

(Thanks to Aunt Bekah and Aunt Rachel for the cute birthday hat and bib!)

Lily is not big on "people" food yet but she did taste the cupcake (though she did not like it) and managed to completely demolish it...

Then it was on to presents...

where she was able to sit back and enjoy watching her older sister open all her gifts :)...

With nap time quickly approaching Lily thanked her guests for all the fun and gave each family a jar of their very own apple butter and each friend a brown and pink wrapped bottle of bubbles...

We had a wonderful time and I am looking forward to seeing the amazing things that Lily accomplishes in this new year of life.

 
Happy Birthday Lily!  I love you!