Presley's First Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESLEY!

December 20th, 2008

We had a "Gingerbread House Decorating" themed First birthday party for Ms. Presley! We decorated Gingerbread houses -adults more so than kids- but everyone seemed to have a great time. Our house is now a living toy box. I was needlessly worried that my daughter, being born so close to Christmas, might be a little bit neglected. Never fear, though, she is still completely Spoiled!

The cake was interesting - not as messy as it could be. I'm pretty sure she didn't think that she was allowed to be sticking her hand in the middle of a cake. She was a little suspicious that this might be a trick. : ) That, combined with the fact that she doesn't really like sweets yet, made it pretty tame cake eating. She enjoyed it a little bit more once we cut off a piece of the cake for her.

This expression was her general theme of the whole day - she LOVED it all!

Let's be honest. The bows, tissue paper, bags, and wrapping paper were almost as much fun as the things inside of them.

I am not exactly sure if it was the appeal of the bag or if she just wanted to get away from all the excitement for a minute.

Here are a couple of the Gingerbread houses.

I love the front porch evergreen trees on this one.

The front porch, chimney, and second story window of this house are all custom built...

And this was her at the end of the day.

She is always still awake when we put her to bed, but that night she couldn't keep her eyes open.

SHE'S WALKING!!!

We tried to capture it on video, but I guess she's not ready to perform for the world. She is standing really well now and will walk for 4 or 5 steps before giving it up to crawl. Crawling is still the preferred method of transportation since it gets her there much faster, but she working on it. She started walking the day before her 1st birthday.


Since there is no video, I'll just put a cute picture of her standing and going for the 3-point shot...

(It has been a really busy few weeks...I'm going to try to do a little each day to try to cover it all.)

Santa!

Presley was able to go and visit briefly with Santa before Christmas. I don't think she got around to telling him what she wanted - she was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing! She didn't cry, though, so they were able to quickly snap a picture.

ELEVEN MONTHS!!

Somehow, we must have written her birthday down wrong. Or maybe it's not already really November. Surely, there is no way that this girl is a month from being 1 year old! But apparently she is!

We tried to take some pictures out by the pond near our house, but it wasn't really working out. The setting was nice, but it was a bit cold. So we finished off with some pictures inside. : )

Having a birthday feast...Dakota's nose constantly alternates between checking the highchair or checking the ground! It's a tough job, but he seems to enjoy the fringe benefits.

Bath Time

We have moved to sitting in the big tub (and crawling around in the big tub). So to keep her from flying backwards or falling to the side and smacking her head, we got these cool tub bumpers!
They're helpful if for no other reason then to make me feel better! I don't have to freak out every time she leans to the side to grab a toy. : )

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch a few weeks ago to take some pictures. It was a really sunny day so most of our pics are of her squinting against the sun. She seemed to have a good time, though. This pumpkin patch is right around the corner from our house and they have all kinds of fun stuff. There is a hay ride, a maze made out of hay, pumpkin launching, and lots of other cool things. Maybe next year we'll be able to participate in a bit more.

Trick or Treat!

Presley's First Halloween didn't go as smoothly as we would have hoped since she was suffering through a round of the stomach bug. Because of that (and because people tend to believe that we are going to eat the candy instead of her) we had to be a bit choosy as to where we went Trick-or-Treating. So if you're limited, you need to pick the right house to visit. Luckily, we went to Presley's Aunt Kim's house where she racked up lots of goodies. I mean, food and a new car? Does it get better than that? I would have settled for a snickers bar. Obviously, my expectations are too low!


Presley admires her new wheels!



Even on Halloween, you need to check the nutritional facts before just diving in...