Birthday Girl!!

As hard as it is to believe, one year has already passed since we laid eyes on the most beautiful baby girl we had ever seen. It's been so easy adding pink into this family and we were ecstatic to be celebrating a whole year with her. Here's the birthday girl (who is still not walking, barely pulling up, and can't stand to stand on her own! What's up with that??) She's still super cute though:)

Pictures were great for a time but quickly lost their luster when she didn't want to be in the grass anymore. Hey, it's her birthday she can cry if she wants to.
I got all crafty (crafty for me, anyway) and made some of those cute tissue ball puff things for party decor. I was impressed with myself since I'm certainly not even close to being a Martha Stewart.
Add some balloons to the birthday girl chair and we're set! I tried to get glitter ponies, a small pink ferris wheel, and all the disney princesses to come but quickly realized I'm not on Real Housewives of Orange County so I stuck with the tissue balls and balloons from Kroger. Oh well.
Birthday girl didn't seem to mind. Put her in her swing and she's golden!
Here she is with her grandma.
Danielle made the cutest birthday sign for Elaina. It's going to be a yearly staple for our birthday decoration. I loved it!
Here's a pic of the actual crafty person with my birthday baby:
One thing I did splurge on was her cake. I'm always looking for a reason to get an IveyCake so I jumped at the chance for this special occasion. It was strawberry and it was delicious!
The most interesting thing about this cake is that it weighed more than Elaina. I'm not even joking. It was the most dense, heavy cake I've ever seen! It weighed in at 19lbs and Elaina was only 18lbs! Crazy ! Isn't it pretty though??
Elaina would have been happy just playing with her balloons.
She was clueless about what in the world was going on with all these people singing at her and all.
She had her own cupcake but I didn't dare light it until the last second because she's got the grabbiest little grabby hands.
She needed a little coaxing to take her first bite of sweetness. She'll learn soon enough!

She still wasn't too sure about it!
It didn't, however, take her long to smash it to pieces even though very little of it ever made it to her mouth. Babies are always good at making messes. Too bad she didn't realize she just destroyed a little piece of heaven in that cupcake goodness.
The big kids at the birthday didn't waste a minute digging into dessert. They are well versed in birthday parties!
Lanie had only two friends her age at her party: Carris, her bff.
And Ms. Logan who was born just a few days before her.

I did catch her trying to stand up next to the picnic table. Maybe walking really is going to be in her future! (Right now I'm doubting it!)
Aunt Tracie made the party just in time. She had to come straight from work.
Mommy and Birthday girl:
Daddy giving birthday kisses!
Party attendees (minus Logan and Keaton).
She actually enjoyed opening all of her presents. She got a kick out of pulling things out of the bags and tossing them. I love her little smile in this picture!

Dear Jesus, thank you for this beautiful first year of my life. Thank you for this great party with all the people I love, and thank you for a mommy and a daddy that will love me for ever and ever no matter what.

Happy First Birthday, Elaina!