Birthday Girl

Aliya turned one on Saturday!!! We can't believe how fast this year has gone. Unfortunately I have no pictures to post right now, but hopefully will get them up soon. (I couldn't find my camera so my SIL, Laura, took a ton of pictures (thank you!) and she emailed them to me yesterday. We are having issue again with our computer at home (I hate Vista) so hopefully I can get them posted soon. Anyway, on to the fun part!

Saturday was a BLAST! We were up late the night before getting the house ready and staged just right, I prepped all the food early in hopes to have a calm morning! YEAH RIGHT! Aliya was up early and into everything. She was mesmerized with the balloons (booms) all over the house and kept trying to bite them. We blew up several red balloons and drew black circles on them to resemble ladybug spots. My SIL, Kristi, and her kids showed up around 9:15a to start helping me cook! I am so thankful she was there, I couldn't have done it without her! (thanks Kristi) Quickly into our cooking I realized that we didn't have enough oven space to bake everything at once so I called our neighbors and asked them if I could use their oven around 11:30a for about 40 mins. They were so gracious and said "no problem". I was starting to stress out as the clocked quickly approached 12pm. Guests started arriving right at noon and kept coming and coming and coming. We prepared enough food for about 25 people and ended up having about 41 in our house. Our house was full of people!!!!!!!!!! How I misjudged the amount of people that RSVP'd I have no idea!?!?!?!

Aliya was wonderful Saturday! She was running on one nap and was pretty happy. She was beyond blessed with gifts and support! She received several books, CD's, a hand made "bear" rug that she LOVES to snuggle with on the floor, sippy cups, diapers and a ride and spin zebra. She wasn't very interested in opening her gifts, she cared more about the cards and envelopes (she likes to get her fiber from paper...). So her cousins and friend Gage helped her open her gifts.

When we sang "happy birthday" to her she clapped her hands and danced back and forth. Aveline helped her blow out her candle, I looked up and realized Jon was gone. He had run to Kroger to get more food! OOPS! So when he walked in about 10 minutes later we did it again. He never would have known but I let it slip! OOPS again! Aliya carefully studied her cupcake...and ate it like a lady. She was very clean and took small bites. Was this my child? I made her a ladybug choc cake, I'm pretty proud of myself! And white cupcakes with red frosting and M&M's for dots.

As 3pm approached the crowed started to say their good byes and head out. A few friends and family stayed back and hung out for a bit. I was beyond tired at that point. My feet and back hurt, I was done. My loving husband cleaned up EVERYTHING for me! (Thanks baby!)

So our little ladybug is one...I just look at her in amazement and thank God for bringing her to us. She is one blessed little girl to have so many friends and family who love her. We are thankful in so many ways!

Happy Birthday baby girl, mommy and daddy love you beyond words!