Birthday Girl

Somehow our precious little baby girl is already 1! It has gone by so fast, but we have had so much fun watching her grow and learn so many things! We went to bed last Saturday night thinking "this time a year ago we were in labor at the hospital with no clue how our lives were about to change." We woke up Sunday morning thinking "this time a year ago we were STILL in labor..." After 17 long hours, Lydia was born and we couldn't believe there had really been a baby (a REAL baby) growing in there all those months! I remember Necon kept saying "It worked! It REALLY worked!!" So sweet! In getting this blog together I realized that most of the very first pictures we have of Lydia must have been taken on my mom's camera. Our pictures pick up our first night in the hospital once everyone had gone home. Here is the picture we took of Lydia the morning we were headed home...the blanket she is laying on is the same blanket my mom took me home from the hospital wrapped in. She brought it to us that day to use with Lydia!

Some pictures of her once we were home. I can't believe she was ever that small (or still!)

We got up extra early this Sunday morning so we could have time to give Lydia a good bath so she would be nice and clean for her birthday. I was thinking the whole time about her first few baths! Thankfully she has grown more fond of bathtime than she was in the beginning.

But she always looked so pretty after...

I wanted to throw this picture in because it looks NOTHING like her now!
How fast they change!!

Lydia's Birthday Bath

After church we went to my mom's for birthday dinner. She made the traditional Sunday lunch meal in our family: Roast, mashed potatoes, carrots and gravy. It was even better than usual and Lydia LOVED it!! Then we came home, put Lydia down for a nap and put everything out for the birthday party. Our wonderful friend Jennifer gave Lydia a birthday hat to wear. We did manage to get a few shots of her wearing it...

Lydia of course had her very own birthday cake...

Every one else got cupcakes...

Time with Grandparents

and Aunts

This is her rocking chair from her mommy and daddy

We got a shot of her in the birthday hat...

But she wasn't very happy about it! I couldn't get her to sit in her rocking chair after this!!

Jude wasn't sure what she was so upset about...we were so glad he got to come!!

She really had fun listening to me read her the cards

and she got the hang of opening her presents!

I threw this picture in just to show everyone that even though she is one of the baldest babies EVER, we are making some progress in this area, AND it looks dark!! Just like we hoped!

A quick reminder of how beautiful her cake was before the demolition began!

I was really hoping to have some cute pictures to post of her blowing out her candle, but since she was deathly terrified of the flame, we had to give her the cake with the candle already blown out. Many jokes were made that I finally was able to blow out a first birthday candle. For those of you who don't know this story...my mom made me practice blowing out a candle for weeks before my birthday, and I could do it. When it came time for the big event, I totally choked and my mom cried. The family still talks about it. Seriously, both set of my grandparents who live in Oklahoma referenced my failure during their Happy Birthday phone calls to Lydia!!

You can almost see her thinking "Oooo...that's good!!"

Everyone was laughing really hard at how much she was enjoying her cake, and so she started laughing and really hamming it up to get and even bigger reaction!

She looks like she just got off the battle field...

After cake, she had another bath, then she got busy playing with her new toys! She LOVED the cradle Mama Jo and Papa got her to go with her Bitty Baby from Grandpa, Annie, Aunt Becca and Tia!! I can hardly get her to put her baby down...

At the end of the day I realized I hadn't gotten any pictures of all three of us. She and her daddy were watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, with her baby of course, before bedtime. These are the sweetest pictures of the day. (And can I just say I am looking forward to sleeping again now that the Olympics are over...)