Fun Book!

Ok, I said no more posts on the baby blog... but I found this fun site to make a book and had to share it. You can actually make a book that is up to 20 pages long and then order it for only $13. I thought this was so cool! :)

I've been trying to get it to embed in the screen here, but it won't work... so here's the link instead.



http://www.mixbook.com/books?pid=2601000

Enjoy! :)

First Birthday... finally!

Ok, so I realize that this post is LOOOONG overdue. But I had to sort through all of the pictures and pick which ones I wanted, and it's been a busy couple of weeks. THEN, I started trying to upload the pictures to blogger, and kept getting an error message. So then I had to go back through and resize all of the images, and THEN it let me upload them. So, as you can see, I have at least been trying to get this post done since Saturday... still really late, but, hey, better late than never! :) If I EVER had a weekend off, I might get stuff done faster!! :)



Anyway, on to the birthday festivities! As I already posted, the party really started on Friday. Since I already posted some pictures, I just found these two that were too cute, so I had to add them.

Elena, modeling the CUTE birthday hat Aunt Ruthie got her! She wasn't a huge fan, but it sure looked adorable!

Gotta love Uncle Charlie!

On Saturday, the day of the party, we actually started off with a playdate with Elena's friends Charlotte and Ella, and their mommies, my friends Liz H. and April. The girls are all 3 months apart, so it's really fun to see them all together. Extra helpful for me, because I can get an idea of what to expect over the next couple months! The other two girls were very sweet about giving kisses!

Hanging out with Mommy...

Truman was less than pleased to have not one, but THREE toddlers in the house! Especially when Miss Charlie was immediately infatuated with his tail! He looked like he had a mohawk within seconds, because she rubbed his fur backwards, too. Despite the look, however, he still lolled about in the middle of the living room, so he obviously didn't mind too much!
Yummy, yummy... nothing as delicious as a giant Lego! Check out the cute dress that Liz H. made! It's reversible, and totally adorable.
These shots just CRACK me up... so we wanted a picture of all 3 girls. Yeah, this is what we got...

And finally a good one! Or at least one where we can see all of the faces. But the girls were not very happy by this point because we took all of the balloons away!
I don't know when we took this one... but I think it's adorable! She's hugging the cow that Aunt Jessica got her for her birthday. It unfolds into a pillow, and is really soft and totally cute!
And now onto the party! The decorations were pretty simple, but looked great! Which means, obviously I wasn't in charge of them! Ellen took care of that, starting with this really cute "poster" that she made, that is actually a really cute blanket! What a good idea!
The cake... slightly more colorful than I had imagined, but still cute. And really good, even a week later (yes, we were still eating it). Thanks, Hyvee!
The birthday girl in her birthday dress. This was the EXACT dress that I wanted. And this picture just SCREAMED onery to me! I get the feeling we're in for an exciting life raising this little girl! Hanging out with Grandma Price & Great Grandma De!
This was Elena's favorite toy all evening-- it was a card that sang Happy Birthday. Unfortunately, it was so annoying that it eventually just "disappeared!"
Making faces with Grandpa Looten... and eating a club cracker, which she ate ALL NIGHT LONG. And, actually, is still eating, since we bought the Sam's Jumbo-pack! She loves them, though!
Sitting with Bro. Dave... and her new favorite drink, Aunt Ellen's famous orange koolaid. No sugar there...

Quite the social butterfly, here she is hanging out with, well, everybody!

Wouldn't be a first birthday without cake time! We stripped her down, spread a towel on the floor, and drug her high chair into the middle of the room!
She was really funny... she didn't dive in or anything. She just stuck her hand into the cake, pulled it straight out, and licked her fingers. Then jammed it back in again. It was pretty funny!
But, even if she was only licking it off her fingers, the sugar craze set in pretty quick!
Afterwards, we took her to the bathroom, stripped her down, and gave her a bath in the sink!

After cake, there had to be presents! Elena got a MOUNTAIN of presents, pretty much 90% of which make annoying noises. Don't worry, all of you who got her loud presents... your time will come! There will be payback!

A cute family photo in a moment away...
Elena passed out for awhile, so I thought she was ready for bed. I put pjs on her, nursed her, and was putting her to bed, when she was all of a sudden wide awake! So, she came back out to the party, and hung out in her PJs! She started off with learning to share with her cousin, Leila!
Showing Grandma Looten her new cow pillow...
And sharing Great-Grandma Looten's lap space with Leila! Aren't they a cute trio?!

Anyway, the party was great. It was so awesome to have all of our favorite people there... or at least most, since not everyone made it. It was very laid back, and I even got to enjoy it, despite the mass chaos of preparing for it! It's so hard to believe my little girl is one now! She has really grown up all of a sudden. She doesn't seem like a baby anymore, she really does seem like a little girl. And she has the personality to prove it! She can even talk, at least a little with sign language. She knows "please" "more" and "all done." We're working on "thank you" now. She is a good walker now, she practically runs. And she is into everything! I'm amazed at how she plays by herself- she just digs stuff out of her toy box and goes to town. She loves everything that makes music, and anything soft. One of her favorite birthday presents is a stuffed dog that Josh's Aunt Ruthie got her!

It's amazing how much our lives have changed in the last year. On one hand, it seems like she's been around forever, and we can't imagine life without her. On the other, it seems like it's not possible that it's already been a year since she was born. Becoming a wife was fulfilling for me in a way I'd never imagined. But becoming a mom has surpassed even that. And watching my husband become a father has made me love him more than I thought possible. What a blessing our little girl is, and I thank God for her, and for our family, every day.

Anyway, since my little girl isn't really a baby anymore, this marks the end of the baby blog. I'll keep recording our lives on the other blog, so make sure you check there! And be ready for another baby blog... sometime! :)