It's A Party

And now I'm finally posting the REST of Kate's birthday party.  You know, the one with the pictures where there are actually PEOPLE in them. :)  Sorry for the delay.  It's been a crazy week.  Kevin was out of town, but Kate and I were on the go the whole time.  So without further delay, here are the rest of the pictures from last Saturday at Kate's 1st birthday party. 

After Kate's breakfast, we laid her back down in her crib and hoped that she would sleep until just before the party.  We knew it would be a very long day for her, so we wanted to have her as rested as we possibly could.  It worked.  She went back to sleep and woke up around 11 as a couple of people were showing up to get everything set up.

Then I got her dressed and ready, and she entertained everyone as we got all of the last minute things taken care of.

After everyone had arrived, we ate lunch.  We ended up having around 20-25 people, including 7 from Kate's birth family.  We're so glad they could come and I think it meant a lot to them to be able to be there and celebrate Kate's 1st birthday with us.  

As we were finishing up, Kate noticed the stack of presents.  She has never really opened presents before.  She was only 4 months old at Christmas, so this was her first real experience with presents.  She only sort of figured it out.  I think she knows what to do with bags.  Wrapped presents are a different story.  Anyway, she had fun and got WAY more than we know what to do with.  

Hmm.  This is turning into a longer post than I thought!  I've still got lots of pictures of Kate eating her first birthday cake.  I'll post that one tomorrow, so check back.  Let's just say she enjoyed it... but we never really doubted that she would!  

Party Time!

I'm finally getting the chance to blog about Kate's party, and I think I'm going to break it up into 2 separate post...  one post with decorations and one with everything else.

I had lots of fun planning Kate's party.  We didn't do a real "theme" this year.  I figure that there will be plenty of years ahead where she begs us for a Dora party, or a Disney party, or something else!  So while she can't talk, I figured we would do something not really theme related.  BUT, it was definitely a girly party. :)

Here is the entry way.  I found a cute poem online and wrote it on the chalk board that we used for Kate's 1 year pictures.  I also printed out two of my favorites from her 1 year pictures.

And the food table.  The party was from 12-2, so we had lunch.  We had burgers, chips, and fruit salad. Kevin's brother Ken cooked the burgers and they were so good.  In keeping with the pink theme, we had pink lemonade and water to drink.

The cake!  One of our friends from church did Kate's birthday cakes.  She did a great job, so if you live in the upstate SC area and want to know who made her cakes, send me an email!  I'd found a few "inspiration" cakes online that I liked, and gave them to Brandee.  I love how it turned out... and Kate did too.  The bottom layer was cinna-bon flavored and the top layer was marble. 

I also had some decorations in the living room but now that I went through my pictures, I realize that I never got a picture of the final decor.  I think you get the idea from these though. I printed out Kate's monthly pictures, put them all in pink, teal and white frames, and put them on the mantle.  The half-finished mantle is the top picture.  Then I hung pink, white and teal/blue pom-poms from the ceiling.

And last, but definitely not least, is the birthday girl!  I couldn't share a whole post without mentioning WHO this part was for! :) 

Giveaway Winner & Kate's 1 Year Pictures!

First - the winner of the Veggie Tales DVD giveaway is Comment #10- Rachel!! You can check out Rachel's blog, and see her sweet twin girls here!  Rachel, can you send me an email at kelleyandkevin@yahoo.com with your mailing address?  

Today was Kate's party and we've been SO busy.  It's actually also our 5th wedding anniversary, so needless to say, this has been a busy day.  No time to blog about the party, but I will definitely get to it! Until then, here are some of my favorite pictures from Kate's 1 year pictures.  I had a hard time narrowing them down, so sorry if it takes 10 years to load on your computer. :) 

Happy FIRST Birthday!

Kate is ONE.  Wow.  I am happy and sad at the same time.  This past year has flown by, and been filled with tons of firsts, with laughs, cries, and smiles, and lots of fun.  So much has changed over the past year.  We have gone from a family of 2, to a family of 3 with a newborn, and now a family of 3 with a toddler who is into everything!  And I do mean EVERYTHING.  So, with all that being said, here is Kate's final monthly update.

Eating:
Great.  Kate wants to eat anything and everything that we are eating.  Forget baby foods.  She doesn't want it.  The problem is that she's not really good a chewing.  She likes to put way too much food in her mouth and doesn't chew it well enough before she wants to shove more food in.  I saw a picture of one of my friend's little boy.  He is a few months older than Kate and was eating a banana.  He was holding the whole thing, and was obviously chewing/biting off of it.  How I WISH that we could do that with Kate.  We can't.  She would try to put the whole banana in her mouth, and at the very least she would take a bite that was WAY too big. (Update- in the time since I started writing this post, I tried to give Kate the whole banana.  No bueno. She definitely tried to stuff way too much in her mouth.)

It's almost impossible for us to eat at the same time as her.  It's not good enough for me to cut up or break up some of my food and put it on the table in front of her.  She doesn't want it.  She still wants MY food, off of MY plate, or if there is a big piece of food (like a sandwich) she wants to bite off of the big piece. It's like she thinks that the small, broken up pieces in front of her are not real food.  It makes eating WITH her almost impossible.  If we're at home, and she's in her high chair, and I'm not eating something at the same time, all is right in the world.

In the past week we switched Kate from formula to organic whole milk.  She didn't even blink at the change, so I'm guessing that means she likes the milk.

It probably sounds like I'm complaining about all of the food difficulties.  I'm not.  I know all of this is part of the learning and growing up process.  It definitely makes meal time difficult, but it is what it is.  She's only one!

Sleeping:
Again, great.  She still goes to bed around 8 and wakes up around 7:30.  She usually goes back to sleep right after breakfast, then takes a mid-afternoon nap, and another short nap around 5-6ish.

Walking:
Everywhere.  We had to get baby gates to contain her!

Teething:
Right now Kate has 9 teeth- 5 on top, 4 on bottom.  One of her 1-year molars just popped through in the past day and I think the others aren't too far behind.  I'm sure teething is no fun for a baby, but she's a trooper.

Personality:
Kate is so funny!  I love her little expressions and "tricks".  Here are just a few things that I LOVE about her:

1. She's getting pretty good at mimicking us.  If you ask her to blink, she'll squint her eyes at you.  So funny. She also tries to imitate sounds and words.  So much fun.

2. She waves "hi" and "bye".

3. She claps, especially when she hears other people clapping.

4. She's a little dancer.  If you ask her to show you how to dance, she'll wiggle and move her little body.

5. She says Mama very well, and will say Dada.  I'm told she has said bye, dog/doggy and Papa a few times, but I've yet to hear them.

6. She loves shoes.  Seriously.  A few days ago, she went in her closet and specifically pulled out a pair of MATCHING shoes.

7. She loves to share her food with me.  She'll pick up a piece of food and hold it out to me.  If I lean down to her, she'll put it in my mouth and grin really big.

8. If I tell her "I'm going to get you", she'll take off running and laughing.  Well, at this point it's more like walking as fast as she can, but at the rate she's going, it will probably be running pretty soon!

9.  Sometimes she walks with her arms thrown out behind her, like she thinks she's flying or something.

10. She loves remotes, cell phones, laptops and technology in general.  We had to give her her own remote to keep her away from the real ones.  It doesn't go to anything, but she doesn't know that.

11. Kate is such a happy girl.  Lots and lots of smiles and laughs.  They make my day!!

           

           

            

 

 

         

Kate's birthday party is TOMORROW so it will be a busy day, but check back to see Kate's one year pictures.  We used Linsey Wilson again and she did an awesome job.  If you live in the Upstate SC area, check her out!

Tonight

Today was Kate's very last day as an under-1 year old.  Of course I took pictures and we had fun, but I'm not sharing that tonight.  Tonight I was thinking about what we did a year ago today.  You're probably thinking we were washing clothes, packing bags, getting ready for a baby, etc.  You would be wrong.  We were at a concert.  You see, although Kate's due date was the day before (August 8th), we honestly didn't expect her to come on her own.  Kate's birth mom was set to be induced the morning of August 11th.  We pretty much thought that's what was going to happen. 

So on August 9th, 2011 we went to see Hillsong United in concert.  We had bought the tickets way before we even knew about Kate.  There was no reason to back out, our bags WERE packed and we were already ready.  Well, I guess as ready as you can be.  

We left the concert and I remember telling Kevin it was my favorite concert I'd ever been to.  If you ever get the chance to see Hillsong United in person, go!  The only downside was that they started about 30 minutes late.  But it was a great night, and kept my mind off of all of the "what ifs".  We got home well after 11... and it was a week night, people!  The next day we got the call that Kate was on her way. 

How different a year is!  Tonight, my house was quiet at 9:30.  I've spent the evening playing with a little girl, getting party stuff ready, and watching the olympics. And I wouldn't change a thing.  We didn't have 9 months to prepare for a child, I didn't carry Kate in my belly, and genetically her DNA does not come from me or Kevin, but she is OURS.  And she is loved.  No, I definitely wouldn't change a thing.  Not one single thing.

There's still time to enter my giveaway.  If you'd like to win a copy of the newest Veggie Tales DVD- click here. 

Beep Beep!

Well we have another driver in our family.  Kate got an early birthday present tonight and she LOVES it.  

It took me about a week to put this thing together, working on it off and on.  I finished it up tonight, and Kate got to see it when she woke up from her nap. 

I showed her how to push the horn and make it go "beep beep".  I only showed her a couple of times and then when I would say "beep beep", she would push the horn.  I think she's a fast learner. :) 

Her feet don't quite touch the ground yet, so I had to push her around the house.  She liked it so much that she was ticked when when I stopped.  This was the face we got...

I have a feeling she is going to have LOTS of fun with her new toy.  Kate wants to give a big "thank you" to the Elphicks! :)

5 more days to enter my giveaway... click here to go over to the giveaway post to enter to win a new Veggie Tales DVD.