The big !ONE!

On July 6th our little miss turned 1! 

Unfortunately that was the same day we were driving back from our trip to Northern California. On Henry's first birthday we drove from Utah to California. I guess it's our goal to always have 6 plus hour drives on our kids' first birthdays. 

I felt kind of bad we weren't doing anything nice or special the day of, so my mom who had made it home a while before us whipped up some cupcakes so Thea could have birthday treat. She was not unhappy about it. 

 She was a little timid when she saw she got the whole cupcake but then quickly adjusted and plowed right on in. 

 The next weekend we had her little birthday celebration with family. Johann's parents were out of town in Washington so it was just our little family plus my mom, uncle Aaron and Uncle Kaleb and Apollo.

 (shopping for a few things for her party) 

I don't know who liked the balloons and decorating more-Henry or Dorothea-but they both had fun playing with the balloons while we got everything else together. 

 I did not make the cake because I was just not that together. We got it from a bakery here called The Cake Shop and man was it soooo good. We just walked in to get it the morning of and they had one with cute little polka dots just like a lot of her decorations. It was fate that I didn't get it together and make her cake, see? 

 Some of the decorations, garland made by Johann 

 Chicken and pineapple kebabs for dinner.

The Birthday Girl  

After dinner it was time to get down to the serious business of opening gifts.

 Every gift she actually stayed sitting down to open she would take over to Apollo and Kaleb to see. It was pretty cute. I hope they'll be good little friends to each other. 

Next we had the cake. She knew exactly what to do this time and went right to it. At first when we sat her in her seat she started whining because she wanted to go back to playing but when we started singing and she saw the cake she lit up. She is sooo different from Henry at this age who cried when we sang Happy Birthday to him. 

 I had to shower her off but that didn't stop her from sneezing frosting out of her nose two times later in the night. 

 Playing with some of the birthday toys.

Eggs and Cozy Coup from Grandpa and Abuella. 

It was nice to have a little get together to celebrate this little girl we looked forward to for so long. 

She loves giving little hugs, cuddling, babbling and singing; in temper she once threw a book at my leg when I wouldn't read it to her for the 5th time in a row-girl loooves having books read to her, especially her Elmo set and Goodnight Moon.  She's still a good eater, though she is starting to discriminate and prefer certain foods over others, like watermelon. If we have watermelon I can't let it be on her tray or anyone else's until after she's had her other food or else she will only eat that and refuse to eat the other stuff. She is definitely a fruit fan but will still eat a good variety of veggies too. She's walking and trying to 'run', and has started just spinning in circles for fun. She is still in our bed for most of the night and still nursing. I should work on both but she is a big fan of them so it's hard. Sometimes I wonder if she is just more baby than Henry was or if we treat her more baby because we have an older one, but it's probably a combination of both, she just seems so much younger at 1 than I remember Henry.  

But she is definitely getting into toddlerhood with all it's subsequent challenges but there have been days where she has just been my little light of joy and my comfort. We are so grateful and blessed to have this little girl in our family.

Happy one year Miss Thea Bea!