Happy First Birthday Anberlin!

Birthday girl! <3

I was so happy that Anberlin's first birthday fell on a Saturday. Nothing better than being able to have your party on your birthday! :) I spent far too long obssessing over her party and really, I don't even know why! She was only turning one, this party is pretty much for the adults, but I found myself pining over every detail and dreaming of this beautiful, extravagant party. When really, I just wanted it to look pretty for pictures. Luckily, I don't think I went overboard and it was pretty cute and really simple. I think it was a perfect first birthday party for our little Bay. <3

I printed out Instagram pictures that I had from birthday until now and hung them up.

Cake & gift table.

I made the streamers by sewing them together. Super fun backdrop.

Chalkboard Happy Birthday sign!

All of her monthly pictures I took.

Brad made a special Blueberry Vanilla Wheat beer for her birthday. It was delicious.

Food island.

Her highchair with the bunting I made.

The BIGGEST birthday balloon I could find. Haha.

Flying kisses from Grandpa!

The birthday girl! :)

Anberlin's friend Roxas who is only 4 days younger than her.

This was a sweet picture of Madeline hugging her dad.

Opening presents!

Anberlin wasn't very good at it so her friend Madeline wanted to help!

Playing with her new toys! (Elmo is her favorite!)

All smiles!

Her favorite part of the whole day was when we all sang happy birthday to her. I spent the past few weeks singing it to her and getting to her to clap while I was singing so she knew what to do. But when we all started singing she kept looking around the room at every single person with the BIGGEST smile on her face. She clapped her hands along with us. It was seriously so adorable. <3

The cake!

Just a taste....

Yum frosting!

 I had wanted to give her a "healthy" cake for her birthday because up until then she hadn't really been exposed to sugar like that. So I made her this healthy banana cake with applesauce.... but by the time her party hit it was super rock hard and I didn't even think that she could "smash it" if she wanted to. So I ended up giving her a normal boxed cake, sigh. But she didn't even want the cake, she couldn't get passed the homemade buttercream frosting I made. Haha. That's my girl.

I can't believe that she is a year old now. I just feel like time is going to continue moving at this super fast speed and I am going to not be able to keep up.

Thanks to everyone who came to the party. I hope you all had as much fun as we did. :)

How time flies... {One year!!}

Anberlin is ONE YEAR old today! <3

My, oh my, where has this year gone? It seriously seems like yesterday that we even found out that we were pregnant. But here we are celebrating her first birthday! I can't even believe it.
Just look at her a year ago....

Siiiiigggghhhhhhhh...... This has been a fun an amazing year. Being a parent is as challenging and rewarding as everyone says it is and I would not take it back for anything.

Everyday Bay does something new, I swear it. Whether it's how to work a toy differently or how to do a new function on my phone, she is constantly learning and growing. It's amazing.
This month Anberlin has figured out how to put the rings back on her ring stack toy with ease. She got frustrated at first and would throw the rings when she couldn't get it on, but now she has it down. She likes taking things out of something and putting them back in. In the kitchen I have a plastic bowl full of Bay friendly items that she can play with when I am in there doing something. She will sit there and take everything out of the bowl and then clap, then put everything back in the bowl and clap. It's super cute.
Anberlin recognizes a lot of things now like her mom and dad, the puppies (or any animal if it's on TV), food, or her favorite Elmo. She now only makes one noise to signify any of those things and it's hard to describe but it's kind of like radio static. Haha. And she will point if she sees Elmo or a dog on the TV and make that little "kshh" sound.

 

She started doing this thing where she will drop her binky (or anything else) on purpose and then put her arms up in what we call an "uh-oh". It's adorable.

Uh-oh!

 She is not walking yet, but she did manage to take two little steps one evening. It must have traumatized her because she hasn't taken any since. We bought her a walker toy for her birthday but she would rather push it around while crawling. I don't think that she has recognizably said her "first word" yet, but she does have a few signs down and will use them accordingly (mainly milk and eat). But she can also say mama and ball in baby sign too.

Now that she has hit a year old we will be a introducing more new foods to her that we have been avoiding so far as advised by our pediatrician. I am ready to incorporate more finger foods for her to eat because they tend to keep her occupied longer and they help her with her motor skills. But we are going to wait to get the full okay from her doctor at her 1 year appointment in a week. And then.... the weaning begins. Dun dun dunnnnnn.......

Our little Valentine <3

She makes the best faces!

It's so great that Brad gets to work from home and spend time with her. :)

Finger food!

Too cool cruising around in her wagon.

The last picture of her as an "infant".

This year has been so busy for us with all the things that happened but I am so happy I was able to document her first year of life as well as I did. I hope that one day she appreciates having this blog (or whatever it will be in the future) available for her to look back and see every detail of her life.

We love you our little cray bay, Anberlin. Happy birthday. <3