Kate's Birthday Celebration!

Let me tell you that Kate's first year flew by! To celebrate our bundle of joy we threw her one heck of a birthday party. She had a three-tiered cake with different flavors, which I didn't even get to taste - but heard it was really good. This was one fancy cake and it was worth every penny!




Kate had "monkey" cookies shipped from out of town for her big day.



She had a monkey pinata which was three to four times her size (well, maybe only twice her size), which looked more like a rodent than a monkey. I can go on and on about her birthday but I will let the pictures do the "talking."




It was a GREAT day. The day started off a little windy which worried us since the party was going to be outside, and neurotic me wants everything to be pretty and perfectly placed. But everything turned out really well! Kate had so many guests at her party including her loyal blog readers (and parents) Molly and Grayson. Her great-grandmother came in honor of the birthday girl from Mexico. Of course all of her family members were there including all of her cousins. We really enjoyed seeing all of our friends and family celebrate Kate's big day- so THANKS to everybody!







The kids had a FANTASTIC time. The little ones played with Kate's new birthday ride, whereas the older kiddos had a blast choosing from the assortment of goodies I spread out for them at the kid's table.





Everybody had so much fun watching the kids, including one adult, beat the s%!@ out of the pinata...poor thing was shredded to bits. But soon after the candy fell out from it nobody cared about the pinata anymore.



What was really great was seeing Kate smile and clap in delight when EVERYBODY was staring at her while singing Happy Birthday to her. I thought she was going to have a meltdown and start crying...(1) because who are all of these people? and (2) it was so close to bedtime. However, she was in a great mood! Sadly nobody got to see her open her presents because she was ready for bed after her birthday cake (and who wants to watch a one year old "open" their gifts?). So overall I would say the party was a big success! We all had so much fun and I am already thinking of the 2nd birthday party...

Happy 1st Birthday Kate!

I can't believe that this day has arrived...Kate's 1st Birthday! This sounds like such a cliche but it is so true - where did this year go?! One year ago today I gave birth to her at 9:23am and our lives have not been the same since. Most days we are exhausted and look forward to the end of the day when Kate goes to bed so that we have time for ourselves. This year has not been easy - who knew parenting was so tiring, draining, frustrating and SO enjoyable - our parents made it look so easy! We feel so blessed to have a happy (most of the time), healthy, and very energetic little girl.



So tomorrow is the Birthday Party....I capitalized it because this is going to be an event. Chris on several occasions has used the words "out of control" to describe the party. I am really not THAT out of control. But come on, it's Kate FIRST birthday party. Sure she won't remember it, but the first birthday party is for the parents....to celebrate, of course the child, but to say "We survived the first year!" So while Kate is at the sitter today I am preparing the house for the celebration. For those of you who can't make it be sure to check back for the birthday pictures. I am sure most of them will include tears and frowns from the birthday girl scared of all the people staring at her while she takes a bite out of the birthday cake or the scary pinata that is almost as big as me! Should make for a fun day tomorrow!

March Madness

Kate turns 1 in 9 days! What a year it has been...I never would have imagined that this tiny little person could make my day the way she does (who could resist that toothy grin?).

Nothing new to report other than Kate stands. Loves to stand. She has been doing this for a while now, however, she is getting pretty good at standing for longer periods of time and does it all of the time. Standing during bath time is what she does - no sitting still for this child! Needless to say bath time is a bit nerve-wrecking and takes some skill on my part. While I am trying to clean and rinse her with one hand, the other hand is holding on to her making sure she doesn't fall and hit her head. She loves it as you can tell by the picture.



So yeah, Kate gets into shit, um, I mean stuff, all of the time. She loves to get things out of anything she can...shelves, cabinets, baskets, toy containers, bags, her laundry hamper and the list goes on and on. Now if I can just teach her how to put it all back...which may take a long time because I am still teaching Chris, hmmm.



I am certain we have added baby locks to all of the cabinets but it looks like toilet locks are in order.


(no Kate, we don't lick the toilet...yuck!)

So other than that nothing to report other than Kate is fantastic and we feel so blessed to have this beautiful child in our lives. Stay tuned for birthday pics...