Kate's First Birthday

Our little girl is one... and has been for over a week. Mark started a new job this week, so our schedule has changed a little bit. Needless to say, it was a crazy week. We are just now getting pictures of her party posted. It was such a great day filled with family and friends that just love Kate. She had a lot of fun at her party and she kept going strong the whole day. No meltdowns!

The Friday night before her party, we spent the night at my parent's house to get everything ready. We cooked, decorated, and prepared. It was a very late night. This was me the next morning:

I had just rolled out of bed, but seriously, WHAT is up with my hair???

Then, I made Kate some pumpkin bread for her birthday breakfast. She LOVES that! She ate breakfast in her "over the top" decorated high chair.

We spent the rest of the morning getting everything set up and enjoying our little girl (who, by the way, only napped for an hour that morning... that's unheard of, but she still made it through the day). The table was set, decorations were up, and we were ready to party!

Everyone arrived and mingled for awhile. Later, we opened gifts... she got so many wonderful things! The majority of our pictures were from the gift opening, so bear with me, as I post an insane amount of them.

And yes, I have cut and colored my hair since that day. My hair was a disaster!!

This was one of those musical cards, and she LOVED it! Her face lit up every time she opened it. Thanks, Maddie!




And apparently, my face lit up each time, too.



























Kate and her friend, Brianna

Some of our friends enduring... I mean, enjoying... the gift opening. There's a good shot of the ribbon topiaries I made, though. Oh, and Megan's pregnant belly there on the left.

Then, it was on to cupcakes and ice cream.



Kate had her own little smash cake. It was a white cake (I wasn't brave enough to do chocolate!) that said "Kate is 1!" She LOVED everyone singing Happy Birthday to her.














We were trying to teach her to blow... that went nowhere!





She hates anything on her head... can you tell by the look on her face?



My dad can't stand it when she gets dirty. See him pushing up her sleeves?
Seriously, he probably would've wiped her hands and face each time she dug in if we let him!





Then, Uncle Brad came along and showed her how to get the job done.











Kisses, anyone?


Yuck!! Into the sink she went...





After the party was over, we realized we didn't take a family picture, so we put Kate's dress on again and snapped a few. That's kinda how the day went... I forgot to videotape us singing Happy Birthday to her, so about 5 minutes into the cake eating, I made everyone do it again!







We brought home one tuckered out baby girl.






She slept in our bed that night as a treat (for all of us). Ignore our mismatched bedding... we just got a California King mattress, but had no sheets or anything, so we are using the ones my parents gave us until we can decide on a color scheme. And, we have no headboard yet. And, our walls are still white. And, there's always a basket of clean laundry on the floor in our room. Shall I continue?

The next day was spent putting gifts away, washing new clothes, cleaning out Kate's closet and enjoying our one year old!









Kate is WAY into books, so that night before bed, she must've looked through every new book she got for her birthday.







Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our little Kate's first birthday.

Thank you cards are coming, I promise. Right after I get that headboard and paint the walls in our bedroom. Just kidding, they'll be in the mail this week! :)