My Baby Is A Year Old

I can't believe that in just a year Kate went from this:


To This:

This girl has so much personality, and we love her so much. I can't believe she turned one. Some of my favorite things about her right now are:

~ She will totally cheese it for the camera. I LOVE it!

~ She gives me full on, wrap-her-arms-around-my-neck-and-squeeze hugs. And she does it all day! I LOVE her little hugs!

~ When she wakes up in the morning, she has to lay beside me with her arm wrapped around my neck. Oh, again, LOVE the little baby snuggles!

~ Kate loves her brother and sisters. She lights up when she sees them.

~ Kate gets excited when her daddy comes home from work. I look forward to seeing that reaction every day.

~ Kate likes to play the "back and forth game" right now. She will go to anyone, and then come right back, then go back to the other person.....It is the funniest thing. She would play that game all day long, I think!

~ Kate gets so excited when she stands up holding our hands. She thinks she is big stuff.

~ Kate growls (as you heard some of in the previous post) and it makes us laugh all day long.

~ Kate loves her babies. She is so sweet to her dolls. She snuggles them and says, "Ooohhh," while she rocks them.

~ Kate loves to "be soft" to everyone. (She rubs people's heads and faces. We had to teach her this one because it started with hitting and scratching heads and faces.)

~ Kate is our little puppy dog. She makes puppy dog sounds sometimes and she has been known on occasion to carry her babies in her mouth while she crawls around the floor. Cute thing!

~ Kate is into pointing right now. She will point to who or what she wants. Why is it so darling when they do that?

Kate, we all love you so much and have had so much fun with you this past year. We look forward to what the future brings with you! Happy Birthday, Dolly!

Now, bear with me. I have to put pictures of her birthday on here. It was so much fun, and this is our family journal, so I gotta do it!:)

Kate handing me some tape from the doll she just opened. Ew, sticky!




Kate trying to open the next gift while making sure she doesn't put down her doll! I Love her face in this one (kind of a, "Hmmm, wonder what's in here," face.)

"Aw, man, just some dang clothes."

"Oh, well, as long as I have my baby I am happy."

The sweet birthday girl and her sweet daddy. (Oh, and we better not forget the doll!)

Kate in her new big girl car seat. *Sniffle, sniffle.* I am so sad that she is already moving into a bigger car seat. She is getting too big too fast. She is obviously pretty upset about it. Oh, and she ended up in a onesie most of the day because she kept getting food all over herself! So, pardon my lack of dolling her up. I tried, and it just didn't last. Oh well.

Kate sitting on my mom's lap as they open the gift that she brought for Kate.

Kate and my dad. She was so tired by the time we had her little party. I think that if I would have let her, she would have just gone to sleep right here. But, oh no, the fun part was yet to come... CAKE!



Aunt Tai was trying to help Kate have fun with the cake, but everyone laughing just upset the poor birthday girl. She REALLY needed that afternoon nap.

I called Target to order her cake because I love their cakes, but they had some dude working there who had no idea what he was talking about, so I resorted to making a cake myself.
She wasn't too excited about the cake. She just wanted to go to sleep!

See, by the time we got her out, she was not happy!

And my poor sister, Brooke, had frosting all over herself. Look what a good aunt she is. She didn't even care that she had super messy hands. She just wanted to take care of Kate. We love Brooke!

And at least other people enjoyed the cake! McKenzie, Lana, and Kailie went to town on the cupcakes! So fun!

Brooke and Andy with a bunch of the kids! I LOVE this picture!

Hayden was so excited to be able to play with his favorite cousin, Brielle! They are such good buddies. I LOVE watching them together.

And Mike and Isaak were matching and looking so comfy together. So I just had to get this shot. How adorable!

And we were so excited to have a special guest at Kate's party. My great grandma (my dad's mom) is in town for a week to visit, so she was able to come. We love her and are so excited to spend some time with her. She is the grandma who makes all the blankets for my kids when they are born. Those blankets have all became each one of my kids' favorites. They LOVE them! And we all love you grandma! (And Rylee loves to be a goof ball. She is showing off just a bit for my grandma and my dad - and the camera!)

We had such a great day. We love you, Kate! Happy Birthday!