Mom Blogging:

I am late blogging this but our family has been busy with so many exciting new adventures that time got away from me.  The past two months have been filled with lots of milestones for our kids and it all started with our daughter’s first birthday!  She is so loved and so precious and it has been a gift from God to have her in our family and to share in all the amazing moments of her first year.  So much changes during that first year.  I think back to the day she was born and all the emotion Jason and I felt when meeting her and holding her for the first time.  When we took her home and saw the boys with her it felt as if she had always been there as a part of our family.  Now I am amazed whenever I see her chase her brothers around the house or feel her grab my hand to make me walk to the door to let the dogs out (yes, she is a born animal lover and she is that concerned with our dogs!) or hear her call out “Mama” when she wakes up in the middle of the night.  Though the night wake ups and the cries and the dirty diapers and the lost sleep can be frustrating as well, the first year goes by so fast and then they keep growing and I don’t want to miss a second of it.  I know it is a blessing to have this little girl who needs me!

For her birthday we had a “Look Whoo’s One” owl themed party.  This poster was hung at the party and shows images from each month of her first year:

Jason and I were up all night before the party making dozens of owl cupcakes to give to our party guests:

The birthday girl’s owl attire:

Here are images from her first birthday session.  I thought it would be really fun to share outtakes from her session too 🙂 .  Hope that everyone gets a smile from them!

I had so much fun picking a dress for her first birthday session.  Shopping for girl outfits is a completely different experience than shopping for boy outfits!  When I bought her dress I found a cute birthday hat to go with it.

Unfortunately the hat had a ribbon to tie instead of elastic to keep it on.  Outtake #1:  The struggle to put on the hat and have her keep it on!  It did not go well as you can see by her face.

As I said, she’s an animal lover so the only time she stopped pulling off her hat was when the cat walked up and she went over to her.  Outtake #2:  Kitty!

Not all of her faces are pretty smiles.  Outtake #3:  Her scary face!  This picture freaks Jason out.

Outtakes #4 and 5:  She walked up to Jason and put her face right into the camera.  Too funny!  EXTREME CLOSE UP!

Thanks again to Rachel for the adorable hair clip!

Outtake 6:  When I first had a girl I imagined hair bows and braids and headbands, and then I quickly learned how impossible it is to keep anything in her hair for more than few seconds.

Time to smash a cake!

Outtake 7:  Whenever there is cake, you have to let big brothers into the pictures too.

We cannot wait to see what our little girl has in store for us during this next year!  To everyone who follows our blog and follows us on Facebook, thanks for letting us share our family with you.