Happy 1st Birthday Isabella!

Wow, what a weekend we had! I didn't realize how much work went into a 1st birthday party! :) I feel like I've been planning this thing forever. But in the end, it was so much fun and she was all worth it. I guess it seemed a little hectic because my sister-in-law and I made the birthday cakes. Only a mommy would work on a birthday cake for 2 nights and 1 morning starting at 5am! Kim and I baked the caterpillar cakes in two nights and then the morning of her party we iced them. Here's a before and after picture of the cake. I think it turned out pretty great. I knew what I wanted and didn't think I could get someone to make it like I wanted, so I knew I just had to make it myself. Thanks to Kim, the expert, I couldn't have done it without her! Thanks Kim! It was perfect.

After baking these, we spread them out on the table to get a feel for what we were into.

You don't even want to know how much money I spent on icing! Here's Aunt Kim working hard.

The finished product.

This is Isabella's cake for her to dig into. A smaller replica of the big cake.

She woke up that morning at 6:30am and I thought maybe she'd take a little snooze before we headed out to the park. Did that happen? Of course not! It was her party and she was not about to sleep. Needless to say, even without sleep she did not cry once! It was miserably hot and muggy. I felt so bad for my grandparents that came. I might need to rethink an outdoor birthday party for next year. Everybody was sweating! We hired a guy to do balloon animals and the kids loved it. Abbie and Lillie are playing with their swords. Here's some other sweet pictures from the party.

This quilt deserves special mentioning. My Grandmother "Granny Beach" hand quilted this for Isabella. She's made one for the grandkids and the great grandkids. Isabella was the final great grandkid that she is doing one for so this is extra special to me. She is in her 80's and still does beautiful work like this. She is a very special lady in my life and I love her so much! Thank you Granny for this gift that will be cherished forever. We love you.

It covers most of my kitchen floor.

Thank you to everyone who came and blessed her with a birthday present. Not seen here is a Kangaroo climber her Gigi got her and a River Run Water Park her Gram Gram got her. Thanks you so much! She loved it all!

Somebody's turning 1!

Isabella will be 1 on Friday! I cannot believe it. It feels like I've blinked and she went from being 1 hour old to 1 year old! Here's a newborn picture and a picture I took recently. No wander babies need so much sleep. They more than double in size in such a short time.

She's my sweet angel. I love her so much. The theme for her birthday party is caterpillars and butterflies. Here's a picture of her first look at her birthday shirt a sweet friend of mine made for her. Alison Harris of "Maggie Moo's Designs" made this for her. I worked with her last year at MCE. She designs custom made clothing and baby items for children. Love her work! You'll have to check out her blog.

I think she likes it. What do you think?

Laughs, Elmo, the 4th and the Fridge

Isabella does so many of the cutest things all the time that I could post all day if I had the time. But here's one of the cutest videos I've ever seen. She LOVES dogs! I'm not a big dog lover myself, or any type of animal lover for that matter. I love to watch fish in a tank, but I end up killing them all. Poor things. I just don't have the touch, but I think she does. She laughs, talks to them, and crawls after them when she can. So, here's mommy playing hide-and-seek with a puppet doggy. (Probably the closest thing she'll ever have to getting a dog. Not to mention her daddy is allergic to every kind of animal hair! )Hope you enjoy her sweet laugh as much as I do........

Some more funny pics of my little love bug.......

Would go to any length to kiss Elmo!

"4th of July here I come! Even though I'm scared of fireworks!"

Mom used to tell stories of when Amanda and I would shove each other into the refrigerator. One or the other would push the other in and close the door. She ended up having to tie the refrigerator door closed to keep us from torturing each other. This reminds me of those stories. Lucky for her, she gets the fridge all to herself....

"Yay! I finally got in! Mommy didn't close it before I could get there! Whew, that was close."

Fountain Fun

Today Amanda and I headed to the Polka Dot Market open house in Hendersonville and then went to the fountain at the Streets afterwards. Tessa loved the fountain. She played and played until one of the sprays went straight up her nose. She was pretty much done after that. Isabella didn't much care for it. I think she thought it would make boom noises like fireworks. She kept grunting and making an unhappy face so we just stood around one hoping she might not be afraid of it. By the way, if anyone ever plans to go out there, just so you know the water had a "wind sensor" and if it's really windy they won't come on. We found that out the hard way today. We had to wait about 15 minutes and it finally came on when the sun came out and the wind calmed down. Just enough time for us to eat lunch and then get wet.

She liked the "little" water fountain spray.

Hiding places

I was in the living room this week hanging out with Isabella and Peter. Isabella was playing so quietly with dominoes on the floor that I never noticed what she was doing with them. I usually make sure she doesn't put them in her mouth so I pick her up to get her ready for dinner and she had about 20 dominoes in the bottom of her onesie. I laughed so hard! I dug forever to get them all out of her clothes. She learned how to reach her arm behind her head and put them down the back of her shirt. So, yesterday we're eating lunch and she started doing it with her food. I caught her in the act and she just laughed and laughed. If you look closely you can see a piece of ham starting to go down her dress. What a creative, unique little girl I have on my hands. Not to mention a very messy eater! Bib? Hello? Don't know what I was thinking.

Grandpa Terry

Never does two weeks go by that we don't meet up with Terry for lunch at the Mexican restaurant. It's our spot to hang out and try to catch up from the weeks as much as possible with two wild, high energy little girls. :) The girls usually make it about 45 minutes before we've made a complete mess of our eating area and the girls are squirming to get down and play. It's always a fun time to get together. We love him so much! I'm so glad the girls and soon Harrison will grow up with their Grandpa Terry. Soon, there will be 3 little ones in the picture!

This week's swim lessons

What fun we had this week! Thanks to Peter, we got pictures of Isabella's first swim lessons with her friends, Wade, Brock, and her new friend Luke. She was the only girl. She had great success with swimming. We used ping pong balls, cushy water balls, mini surf boards, hoola hoops, water rings/sticks, and a slide. She took off today kicking really well. At first she'd just let me float her around on her belly with her legs just laying there, but now she's kicking them great. She's learned to turn around and grab the side of the pool and pull her little body up out of the water (with my help). Stephanie Finch did a great job teaching all these sweet babies. Here's a few pictures from this week.

After a long hard day at the pool, she was exhaused! Love the lady-like legs. :) At least she's being modest with the blanket.