Birthday Party!

Katilyn had a great first birthday party yesterday. She seemed to have a lot of fun.

First she got to eat lunch.


Then it was time to open presents!







She loved having Daddy throw her down into her new bean bag chair.


Then it was time for cake! She didn't eat a whole lot, but did taste the frosting a few times.




Here is the cake I made for the party.


Kaitlyn was very lucky to have both sets of her Grandparents at her party. Here she is with my parents and then Paul's parents.



My sister, brother-in-law, and niece were there too!


And of course her Mommy & Daddy!


Kaitlyn had so much fun and got so tired she fell asleep in the middle of the floor!


We had a great time celebrating our little sweetie. It's hard to believe how much she has grown. This morning I was working in the nursery at church and was amazed at all the new things she can do in there now. She crawled into the play house and was opening and closing the windows playing peekaboo with the other kids. She was climbing up the slide, and opening the microwave and cupboards of the play kitchen.

I am so happy to be her Mommy, and can't wait to see what the next year with her will bring.

1 Year

Today is Kaitlyn's First Birthday! It's so hard to believe that my little sweetie is growing up.

This morning I read through the account I wrote of her birth (here), and it brought tears to my eyes. I remember it all so well, and it is still hard to believe that I was part of such an amazing miracle.

Yes, it's been a difficult year. And a wonderful year.

I love you so much Kaitlyn. I hope you have a fun day.

Here she is, one picture from every month...

4th of July

To celebrate the holiday we went to a picnic with friends from church. We had a good time, though Kaitlyn was kinda fussy due to teething. She did get to enjoy watching the other little kids play, eating cheerios, and swinging!

Playing Ball with Daddy

11 Months!

This month we celebrated our first Father's Day. Kaitlyn loves her Daddy!

I love this picture of Kaitlyn because it shows her 3 teeth! Then about 3 days after Father's Day Kaitlyn got 2 more top teeth, so she now has 5 teeth. We have had a few rough weeks of teething, crying, and trouble sleeping this month. And I don't think we're done yet, as a few more look like they may be coming soon.


Kaitlyn loves to play! And she has learned some new things this month. She has a set of cups that nest inside of each other. She loves to chew on them and bang them on things. But last week she was holding two of them and starting putting one inside the other! We quickly found a few more of the cups from around the room and she went to work on stacking them. She often tried them the wrong way, but kept working hard to put them together and take them apart. Paul started playing too, and would hold one of the big cups and let her put the smaller ones inside. We were so proud of her for figuring out how they work!


Also this week Kaitlyn has started a game of handing a toy to me and then taking it back. She thinks it is hilarious and giggles while we do it. It is a fun game.


Another new thing this month was climbing stairs! Since we don't have any stairs in our apartment, Kaitlyn hasn't been around them. When we were at a friend's house we let her give their stairs a try. I thought she might climb one or two, but she took off and climbed the whole way up! A few days later we were at another friend's house and she climbed another whole flight of stairs. I guess she knows how now!

We let Kaitlyn try sitting in the grass again this month, and it went a little better than last time. She wouldn't put her arms down though, ha ha.


This month Kaitlyn has started standing on her own. She will let go of the furniture for a few minutes and then will usually sit down carefully. She also loves to make funny faces and noises.


Here is a video of Kaitlyn laughing. I was getting out a new garbage bag to put in the trash can and gave it a shake to open it up...and Kaitlyn starting laughing! So of course I shook it again and again. I don't know why it was so funny, but it sure was. Unfortunately I couldn't hold the camera still while I shook the bag, but the laugh is the important part!



Today I finally did something I've been meaning to do for months. Before Kaitlyn was born I sewed a cross stitch picture for her wall with her name on it. Today I finally took it out of the frame and sewed on her birth date and weight. It only took me 11 months to spend the 15 minutes it took to finish it! It's nice to finally have that checked off my to do list.

I can't believe Kaitlyn's birthday is only a month away!