She's not a baby anymore

My little girl is officially one. We went to the zoo today and managed to get some fun pics with the azaleas.

Birthday girl

Sweet siblings

Brode and Brady and the orangutan.

After church, we put Anna Belle's birthday gifts in her room (curtains, the shelf, canvas baskets, the monogrammed pillow, books and some toys). It's coming along!

Brianna's friend party was at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics on Sunday. The kids all had fun. I look forward to signing the kids up for gymnastics when Anna Belle's old enough for Mommy 'n' Me.

Happy Birthday Party Day

I looked at a lot of different themes for Anna Belle's birthday party, but decided fancy pink roses would be the theme.

I feel like I spent all week party planning and prepping; it's been a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time making these party hats and the fringe myself, but failed to get the right measurements for any of the "chin straps". Oh well. There aren't a lot of years where mommy can do exactly as she pleases for a birthday party, so carpe diem, right?

My little angel was ready for party time.

Relaxing with Grandpa

The buffet line

Aunt Allison and Aunt Ann. Aunt Ally's Alligater A, a, A.

Happy first birthday bloomers. The sweet dress Anna Belle's wearing was Brianna's, and Brianna wore it for her first birthday party.

Before we officially started opening gifts, Anna Belle was putting on a show for us. She was very sweet and very entertaining all night long.

The past few weeks, we've been buying birthday gifts for other kids and not for Brady. He's been asking for this plane for quite awhile, so it became his good big brother gift today. He was pretty excited.

The Bowers got Anna Belle this Minnie Mouse. Just like at Disney World with the real Minnie, Anna Belle went straight for the nose.

Anna Belle really loved this new Peter Rabbit tea set from Grandma and Grandpa. I was afraid of her breaking pieces, so I only let her play with one piece at a time. She kept pretending to drink from the tea pot.

Without words, this photo says, "Thank you Grandma, I love my new tea set!"

Blowing out the candle; a family affair.

She was eager to eat her birthday cake (she had some practice on Thursday, so she knew what was coming). My great great Grandma Russell's china matched her party theme perfectly.

I'm convinced that Anna Belle really likes to dress up. Look at this ham posing for a picture with the party hat?!

Anna Belle's really taken to Papa; see their 1's?

Anna Belle started playing with her tea set and decided to nurse the tea pot's lid. Obviously it didn't work out very well, and then she finally remembered that she hadn't nursed all day long. We're weaning slowly. I feel like she's ready, but moments like these I'm happy to hold on. She took this happy girl pic after nursing.

Having her first birthday party over floods me with nostalgic, bittersweet tears. The first of many milestones to come, but your babies are really only a baby for 1 short year. I really appreciate everyone coming over to share this special day with us. Having our family so close (literally and figuratively) is an immeasurable blessing.

Anna Belle and Brianna have birthdays just a few days apart. In future years, we will probably try to combined forces. Last night we celebrated Brianna's 8th birthday.

I wanted to get a picture of Brady and Anna Belle together. At first we asked Brady to hug his sister, so we ended up with a nice shot of his beautiful hair.

Approach #2 was asking Brady to help Anna Belle show how old she is.

...so they both hold up their pointer fingers,

...and Anna Belle poses for her praises.

Anna Belle's Almost One

I did a little photo shoot of Anna Belle today, in honor of her forthcoming birthday (March 5th). Here's her first encounter with the cake... not the thrilled expression I was expecting.

She prefers to use the fork.

...and here I asked her how old she is, and she put up that sweet little finger. What a doll.

Even as a stay at home mom, who let her baby sleep and nap at her side for all that time, I feel like the first year went by too quickly. There's nothing quite as precious as those first moments with your babies.

Winds of Change

I think this marks the first time that I have uploaded iPhone pictures to the blog. I really need to bring my camera with me more often. I guess we have spring fever around here, because we're getting ready for pool season. Here's a picture of my baby girl in her swimsuit for this year.

Anna Belle graduated to a big girl car seat. Where did the first year go?

Katie Beth and Anna Belle go to church together Sundays and Wednesdays and they're at the Y together. I love how they really recognize one another, even at this young age.

We're also in home improvement mode. This bed is my great great grandmother Russell's. Taylor's parents gave us the monogrammed sheets and mattresses and my mom let us borrow the art... so we have a guest bedroom!

When we first moved in, we had to have three dead palm trees removed from our back yard (Fannie Mae didn't tend to the landscape during last years drought and/or freeze prior to our purchase). This year we're replacing them with a canary island palm and a medjool date palm. The first 2 pictures are the medjool and the last picture is the canary. They'll be installed on March 8th. I always feel sick when we spend money, but I know they'll be beautiful.