Happy Birthday, Karys!!

Thursday was one of those surreal days in my life. My sweet Karys turned one!! It is so hard for me to believe that she's actually been in our lives for a whole year. I'm really excited about all the things that are to come in her life, and yet it's also a little sad that her first year is already over and she's really not even considered a baby anymore. It feels like a lot to take in all at once!

Over this past year I've learned a lot about this sweet little girl:

• She is funny!! She'll do anything for a laugh. :)


• She has a really easygoing personality. I've thrown changes in her schedule at her for various reasons and she's really good about just going with the flow.


• She loves people and loves for people to love her. :)


• She's the only kid most people have ever heard of who sucks both of her thumbs at the same time!


• She is loved by a lot of people!

We decided to have her birthday party on her actual birthday because my sister is going to be in a wedding this weekend and wouldn't have been able to come if we had waited until the weekend. Prior to the party we had her open the presents from us and ones that had been mailed to her. Ryan was most excited about her opening a push toy that we got for her to hopefully motivate her to start taking some steps. She has the capability and has even stood independently for a few seconds. But when she catches herself standing independently she feels the need to sit down, or balance herself in some way. Now that she has tried out and liked this push toy, we're hoping walking is just around the corner. (Although, I'm sure once she starts walking we'll be chasing her around even more!!)

In hopes that we'd have a happy baby, we scheduled her party for the evening knowing that naps would be done with for the day and she should be good until bedtime. And for the most part, everything went according to plan. This was my first time doing a child's birthday party so I felt a little like a fish out of water but everyone seemed to have a good time. (Especially since we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner!!) Here's one of our party pics:

I posted this one on facebook and had people ask what was on the walls. It was my way of saving money buying party decorations. :) I typed up a sheet for every month of the last year and listed the important things she did that month and put up pictures from that month around it. This went all the way around the room. We also had everyone play a game where we had two funny pictures of Karys and everyone was supposed to write a caption for each picture. The winners of each picture got a prize. :)

Here are some more fun pictures from the party:

This one is funny in a sad way...I picked her up from crawling on the floor so we could start opening presents. Can you tell that idea was not well-received??? :) But she got the hang of it and got happy again!

And now, the best pics from a one-year-old's party....the cake!! I made cupcakes for the party. At first, she was really excited about trying to touch the flame!!... ...And then mad that we wouldn't let her!!Then she played in the icing for awhile...


...but when she finally touched some icing to her lips, it was on!! :)

Happy birthday, sweet girl!