Ella's 1st Birthday

I'll start this post off with my FAVORITE picture of Ella from her birthday celebrations...acting like she is shy or something...LOL


This post is a little late but better late then never huh! Ella's 1st Birthday was more than just 1 day of celebrating the amazing miracle God blessed Chris and I with...it was 3 days! )I think everyone is allowed a birthday week! LOL) First of all, we celebrated on her actual birthday by giving her her first taste of sweets...refined sweets that is. I picked up 1 cupcake personalized just for Ella from Whole Foods during my lunch break that day and couldn't wait to see her attack it when we got home.

So, after dinner Chris and I sang happy birthday to our little Ella Bear and then gave her the cupcake in which Chris and I both had a little taste of...Chris more than me...LOL Ella LOVED it! She took it with both hands and smashed it in her face immediately! It was great!

After getting Ella all cleaned up, we let her open a couple presents from us and from her babysitter, Mrs. Gloria.

Of course she loves eating the paper.

And she loves climbing on top of boxes! After she got on top of it she started going round and round like a dog trying to find a comfy place to curl up. It was hilarious!

Tissue...one of the best toys around...LOL

Then Saturday we had a BIG family party for her which turned out totally awesome! It turned out even better than I could have ever imagined.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Ronnie (Big Ron) for all the awesome food he made for the party!

He got there Friday night and started preparing the meats and put the brisket on to smoke overnight. We had the best baked beans I've ever had, brisket & chicken. It was so awesome not having to worry about cooking so that we could enjoy our family, friends and Ella!

Thank you to our parents for being the best grandparents on earth and loving our baby girl so much! Thanks Grandma for picking up the cake and thanks Granny for getting the balloons and helping me clean up afterwards!

Thank you also to my wonderful brother for bringing the tables, chairs and for taking all the pictures!!! I am so grateful for that and am so glad that we have these pictures to remember this special occassion.

Thanks to my sister-in-law Leaher for helping with clean up afterwards as well!

Thanks Aunt Jojo for video taping Ella opening her awesome gifts!

And thank you to all of you who came to celebrate our sweet baby girl's first year with us! We are so fortunate, blessed & thankful to have all of you in our lives!

Suzy Beez Cakes & Sweets did an amazing job on Ella's cake!!! Not only was it beautiful but it was the best darn cake I've ever tasted! Oh and it was very affordable too!

I will be going back to this Bakery for all my dessert wants and needs! :-)

Ella loves her little Sofia! I can see them being very close growing up!

I love this sequence of pictures I took of Blake and Ella below...

Her little birthday outfit may look familiar to you if you browse our blog often because I took her 6 month pictures in the same outfit. Granny gave this outfit to me at my shower and I loved it and thought hey if it still fit at 1 years old then that's going to be her birthday outfit! And of course she had to wear her Chucks (Chuck Taylors - Converse)

She loves crawling up the stairs...

She knows she isn't supposed to be doing that though...LOL

Once again climbing on the boxes

Her little chunky monkey legs are so darn squeezable!

Helping me open her gifts...

Climbing on a box again.

She loves the little gift bows too...she was so happy to see her

Auntie (Aunt Carmen).

I think we've got a problem on our hands...she wouldn't stop sucking all the sugar off her hands!

This was her "smash cake" which was pint sized and delicious. I wanted her first cake to be semi-good so I asked Susan at Suzy Beez to make her an organic smash cake which she did and it was yummy!

Ella thought so too.

Then the next day (Sunday) we had a little girls get together for Ella with some of my closest girlfriends. I just can't tell you how completely happy I was to get to celebrate Ella's first birthday with all my favorite girls and their kiddos! I want Ella to grow up knowing how important girlfriends are in our lives and I pray that she will have the amazing bonds with girls that I have with my girlfriends.

This was the cake & cupcakes from Sam's...it was really good!

Unfortunately, I didn't get very many pictures at all from Sunday's party. My brother wasn't there to capture all the moments.

Thank you ALL for the generous and thoughtful gifts for Ella and for spending the day with us. We love each and every one of ya'll very much and thank God for family and friends like you!

My friend Tracy does this with all her kiddos on their birthday (on her blog) and I am totally stealing the great idea...

Ella

At 1 years old, this is who you are...

• You are the sweetest little lover...you give the best hugs and the best kisses ever - open mouth of course! LOL You are so friendly and say "Hi" to everyone!!! This has got to be the sweetest thing ever to hear "Hi" in your beautiful little voice. We all love it and hope you continue to say it over and over! Daddy loves it when you lay your head on his shoulder and give him love. His heart melts...you've got him wrapped around your little finger...you have since day 1...oh who are we kidding, you've had your whole family wrapped around your little finger since you came into our lives. You are very gentle...you pet things with a gentle touch...well most things except daddy...sometimes you get rough with him but that's just because ya'll like to play hard but you seem to know the difference between the two.



• You LOVE your food...you loved nursing for the whole first year and would have loved it after that too if momma would have coninued :-) But, you really love all of your solids! I don't think there has been anything you haven't liked. You do make funny faces when you eat some cheeses like cheddar...it's hilarious! Here are just some of the staples in your diet...sweet taters, avocado, acorn squash, chicken, ham, turkey, broccoli, green beans, lima beans, apples, bananas, pears, peaches, blue berries, yogurt, grapes, butternut squash, oatmeal, etc. I can't wait to cook some new things for you in the coming year...first up banana pancakes in the morning...inspired by the Jack Johnson song...


• You like for us to sing to you...pretty much anything but there are a select few songs that you love more than others..."You are my sunshine," "Sugar...awh honey honey," and "Twinkle twinkle little star." You also like when your Grandma hums to you...it's like a waltz that her grandma used to hum as well...I like to hear it too...it's very soothing! You like music in general though. You love listening to Baby Einstein traveling melodies in the morning on the way to Mrs. Gloria's house and then Classic Rock on 93.7 on the way home with your daddy. You also love to hear your daddy play on his guitar.



• You aren't in any hurry to do anything but eat...you haven't started walking yet but have taken a couple steps. You are perfectly happy cruising around on your hands and knees. Your first tooth started breaking through after your first birthday and it is still trying to make it's way up. We can feel it in your mouth but it's still barely visible. You like to play with your toys and can be content with one toy for several minutes and then move on to another one.


• You are a GREAT sleeper...we are very thankful for this one! As soon as we start walking up the stairs whether it be one of your nap times or bedtime, you lay your head on our shoulder and wait for us to put you in bed. Once we lay you in bed, you roll over with one of your lovies and quietly drift off to dream land listening to your classical music (Bach in the bathtub and Pachabel...these are my CD's that I have listened to for the past 10 years and listened to them as I was falling asleep while I was pregnant with you too)



• You have the coolest little personality...which has been emerging more and more every day and we are loving it more and more! You have been copying your daddy by laughing when he laughs...by the way you have the most awesome laugh ever! You sound like a little woodpecker. You have been pointing at everything and saying something which has a meaning in your special language. You like for us to chase you while you are crawling and go even faster when we say, "I'm gonna get you!" You are ticklish. You have an amazing smile that stops strangers in their tracks! Every time I take you to the grocery store, you make friends with pretty much the entire store by saying "Hi" and smiling.

There are so many other things that you are at 1 years old but most importantly, you are so LOVED! God loves you, Momma & Dada love you, Granny & Poppa & Grandma & Pawpaw love you, Aunt Jojo, Uncle Blake, Aunt Leah, Ethan, Aunt Marsha, Uncle Nick, Sofia & Roman, Nana & Pappy and Poppa Joe & Naner and many many more all LOVE you so much. Momma's friends and Dada's friends love you too...Aunt Nesie even asked me for a framed picture of you to put up in her new apt, for her upcoming birthday! That's pretty special!

OK...enough of all the mushy stuff...you are the BEST!

Pictures from our trip to Costa Rica will be coming soon...hopefully before Christmas...LOL