Happy 1st Bday Brooklynn!!!

Well we survived our 1st b-day party for Miss Brooklynn - and had a great time! She loved every minute of all the attention she was getting over her birthday weekend. Friday, Andy & I got to take the day off from work and spend time with our beautiful daughter. We had so much fun with her visiting people that day as we were running some last minute party errands. Then when we finally got home that day, she got to open her presents from us......she LOVED her new school bus ball pit.....125 colored balls for her to throw all over the house - every mother's dream...lol!!!

After opening presents we got to sing 'Happy Birthday' to her and give her a trial run with cake - what a MESS!!! She loved it though - we only were able to get video of it but don't worry - we got plenty of pics the next day at her party with her cake.

Her party was the next day on Saturday at 3pm - the weather was perfect. We got everything set up and were ready to party. She had a blast - she had some other kids there to play with that were around her age - they are so cute at that age when they play together! Anyway....we had a great time - everything turned out very nicely - Im glad its over though....I had been planning this day for months so it was a nice relief to be done with it and to have it go well. We probably ended up having about 30-35 people attend - including kids so it was a great turnout. Here are some pictures from her special day...

All dressed and ready to party!!!

Daisy Party Room...



Yummy birthday cake...

Cruisin' around with Chloe in the new ride...

Present Time - where do I start???

Trying to figure things out with partner in crime, Blakelyn

Only 1 year old and already busy with the phone.....

Waiting patiently for round 2 with her cake....

Oops...taking too long - I waaaant my cake!!!!!!

'Smash Cake' - BEFORE

How the 'smash cake' got its name...

ewww....squishy!!!

Everything is always more fun with your big brother....

..And finally....the aftermath of the 'smash cake'

A First for Everything....

Hey.....well we've had a busy few weeks - who knew that October would be full of so many things going on?? Its funny - up until I met Andy, I never really knew anyone else other than myself that had an October bday....but that isnt the case in his family. October is THE month for birthdays......almost every week it was someone else's bdays so needless to say we got to eat out a lot to help celebrate! Im glad Brooklynn decided to wait for a November birthday so she could have her own month!!!

Well speaking of Brooklynn - she is now officially a walker. I guess technically she started taking her first few (wobbly) steps back in late Sept and has steadily improved since then, but in the last week or two she has pretty much fine tuned her new skill. She can even get up on her own from the floor and take off, she can lean down and pick things up and stand back up - I am so excited for her.....its funny - such simple things become magnified so much with children - you just take it for granted, but you really do have to learn how to do EVERYTHING in life.....how to roll over, to sit up, to crawl, to walk, etc.....I love seeing her reach all these goals - and you can see how excited she is to do them too. Its so incredible to think how far she has come in just one short year.....it has just FLOWN by way too fast. A few more days and she will be 1 year old...its just crazy to realize that.

I keep thinking back to what I was doing this time last year and how i was feeling and how excited I was that she was almost here and of course how terrified I was of actually having to go through childbirth.....but thats just such a short moment of time. When people ask me what I thought motherhood was going to be like and how it compares to how it actually has been, I tell them its absolutely amazing..I have loved every moment of it - yes the first couple of months were rough with sleep deprivation and recovering from childbirth and a dealing with the demands of a newborn but becoming a mother has been the most incredible thing I have ever done - I am sad each day when I have to drop her off at daycare so I can go to work but I know that she LOVES playing with other kids her own age. In the afternoons, I can't get to the daycare fast enough to pick her up.....the drive seems like it takes forever most days even though its only like 30 mins and the way she lights up and gives me the hugest grin when she sees me walking in the door...just melts my heart - makes even my crappiest days go away. It has been such an incredible year with her and experiencing all her firsts......defintely more than I could have ever imagined......she is everything I had been waiting for and defintely worth the wait.

Oh talking about daycare - she graduated to the Toddler Room...that room is a BLAST! They are hilarious in there - they go non-stop and are into everything - just watching them on camera wears me out! I am excited for her to be in this room - defintely more her speed. They even get to go play outside on a little playground. Oh and they do NOT have cribs in this room - they sleep on little mats wtih their blankets - and it actually has HELPED her nap longer!!!! In the previous 2 rooms, we were lucky if she took a 30 min nap the whole day! In this new room she sleeps at least an hour if not longer each day....its amazing. I never in my wildest dreams thought she would ever stay on a mat by herself - nothing holding/strapping her down either! So she's doing really well in this new room - she seems to love it and the teachers seem to be really good too.....

Another first this past week - HALLOWEEN!!! It was Brooklynn's first halloween - she did so well......we went trick or treating and everything. We went to our friends house and tagged along with them and their 2 kids - Zoey is 18 months and Jessie is almost 7 so Brooklynn and Andrew got to go house to house with their friends. Brooklynn held up really well - she walked and held out her basket at people's front doors - of course she had NO CLUE what she was doing but she loved doing it and was smiling the whole night. More candy for mom...lol!!! If she has 1/2 the sweet tooth that I do, we're in trouble!!!! Here are some of my fav pics from Halloween this year. Brooklynn was a lady bug and Andrew was a bloody grim reaper...lol. Gone are the days of the cutesy halloween costumes for him - now he things the scarier and gross things are cool.......lucky us...hahaha. Anyway...this post is long enough - enjoy the pics. I'll post in a few days after the big bday party on Sat...wish me luck!!