Happy Birthday to you!

today is the first of many happy birthdays! it is still hard to believe that you are officially one year old! one short year ago, we were at the hospital, marveling over your long fingers and lots of hair and sweet little tiny face.

tonight, you had fun opening your presents from mommy and daddy and sam.


you loved the paper, and you loved getting the stuff out of the bag. when you'd gotten out your frog and winnie the pooh phone and cookies, you were looking in the bag to see if there was more!

a lot has happened in the past year.

you get around anywhere you want to go, even though you're not walking yet. you get into all sorts of things, all the time. just today, you were eating dirt out of the potted plant, while i put up some more Christmas decorations. you also let go of the table and stood on your own two feet for a second, before you grabbed the table again.

you have 11 teeth. that is a lot of chompers, for just one year!

you wear size 12-18 month clothes, pretty much right on target for your age. and size 4 shoes. you go to the doctor on Dec. 11, and we'll see how much you weigh and how tall you are.

you say dada, mama, hi, bye, and baby. you've been jabbering a whole lot more just in the past week. most people don't get to hear you speak, as you are pretty reserved around non-family members.



you are a sweet and beautiful little girl. we can't wait to see what the next year brings!

love, mom

you are 52 weeks old!

that makes this your last "weeks" post. wow! it went by so fast. you can look under the "weeks" label to see all 52 weeks, dating back to week one. my, you have grown!

*we'll still be doing "month" posts at least through the next year. and at least another letter to elisabeth every week.*

this past week, you celebrated your birthday several times. tomorrow is your real birthday.

you say "baby" now, and it's very very cute. nany got you a cabbage patch baby, and you started saying "baby" pretty much as soon as you saw her. sometimes you throw her on the floor in the car, and sam gets on to you for that. "you should never throw a baby!" he says. he's probably right. but mostly, you love her. you give her hugs and kisses.

today, we went to chuck e. cheese for sam's birthday. you liked dancing



and riding all the rides.

you were having a conversation with dipsy, here. (don't worry, i had to look that up.)

and you love love love balloons. in the picture at the top of this post, you are singing and jabbering about your balloon.

you love cake.

we went to oklahoma to see daddy's side of the family, and to celebrate thanksgiving and birthdays again this last weekend. it was pappy's birthday, and sam's birthday, and your birthday, and you all got to eat cake and blow out candles. i'm not sure i really need to explain the next few pictures...... by the end, you were a mess and needed to be thrown in the tub again.

Happy First Thanksgiving!

i was looking at "baby's first Christmas" stockings at hobby lobby yesterday and thought we should get you one, when i realized that this won't be your first Christmas. But! this is your first thanksgiving! it is your last major "first" holiday. you definitely enjoyed yourself.

thanksgiving will always be extra-exciting for you and sam, because we end up celebrating your birthdays on thanksgiving as well as celebrating all the things we are thankful for, like family, health, Jesus, food, etc. i suppose it is perfectly fitting to celebrate your birthdays this day, because your daddy and i are certainly thankful for you and sam. next year, your birthday will actually be on thanksgiving. this year, pappy's birthday is on thanksgiving. it will always be a crazy day for our family.

we went to see your grandma and papa, and we ate lots of food and had fun together. you ate some turkey, and some jello stuff, and also the top part of your cake. daddy helped you blow out the candle and made sure you didn't grab the fire, like sam did on his first birthday. you wanted to. we had to strip you down afterwards, since there was pink icing smeared all over your arms and face.

you got a unicorn to ride on, and a rocking chair that matched sam's, and also a balloon that you loved. but you let it go outside when we were leaving. you didn't mind, but sam was super sad about it.

tomorrow, we'll go have more thanksgiving and more birthday, with grandma and pappy and your cousins and great grandmas and aunt and uncle and great uncle in oklahoma.

i'm so thankful for you!
love, mom

you are a super model!

not a supermodel. but a super model.

your 'aunt' amber and i finally decided to try and make some money with this art thing that we both like so much. we made a shop on a site called Etsy, and we've been adding things lately. yesterday we added a bunch of stuff that didn't end up selling at Effiepalooza, a benefit bazaar/chili supper for our friend Felicia. included are a few of hats, which you modeled so sweetly the other day. thanks, by the way! usually you just rip them off or cry. you did neither, which is good for two reasons:

1. people are probably more likely to buy a hat that a baby looks happy to wear, rather than angry about.
2. if i make you a hat, you might actually wear it this year. i was a little worried, what with your non-compliance with wearing the other hats i've tried on you in the past.

the pictures in the little Etsy ticker to the side show a few things we made and have a link to the Oh Lemon shop.

thanks for being a super model! and for being patient while we work on stuff. well, sometimes.
love, mom

you are 51 weeks old!

wow, just one more week until your birthday. and it's going to fly by, because thanksgiving is on thursday, and the family party for yours and sam's birthday will be this weekend.

you are getting so big and silly and fun. you like to make a silly face a lot, where you scrunch up your eyes and open your mouth all funny. here's a picture of you doing it for daddy. you make that face at him more than anyone.

you love to give kisses, and you make the "muh" sound when you do it. they are very slobbery and sweet!

your friend abby taught you to point, so you point at lots of stuff now, especially the ceiling.

you say ma-ma a lot. i think that's what you're saying. of course it is!!

you're still pretty hard to take a picture of. mostly you want to crawl away or stand up!

we survived the week without daddy here, and we were all very excited to see him come home on saturday. when we went to pick him up, and you saw him, you were waving your arms and trying to jump out of my arms to get to him. it was pretty cute, and he was surprised that you reacted that much to seeing him. you love your daddy!

and everyone loves you. sam randomly comes over to you to tell you that you're "cute" and "beautiful." he's right!

love, mom

you are 50 weeks old!

wow, 50. we still can't believe you're almost a year old.

you are pretty and fun and funny.

you've been a bit cranky and needy lately. i think there are more teeth coming. but you've been going to sleep pretty easy at night, which has been great. you still wake up 856 times per night.

one of your favorite foods is chocolate. i suppose i am probably partially to blame for that. i wanted chocolate a lotttttttt in the months before you arrived. well come to think of it, maybe it's your fault! because i was never a chocolate freak before.

we went to see your cousins, and they loved you as usual. they shared their m & ms.

you're even cute with chocolate all over you.
love, mom

you are 49 weeks old!

gosh, baby, you are getting old! people ask me how old you are, and i just say "almost a year" now. and it's true! before we know it, we'll be throwing yours and sam's birthday party.

you still love to dance. sam played some music for you at cracker barrel today, when we went to see nany, and you were dancing and raising your hands in the air. you really do that at church, and daddy says you might be charismatic.

you're very sweet, and you love to give kisses. you make a "mwa" sound when you do it, and it's very cute.

you eat so much and aren't picky at all. you love cheese and hotdogs and green beans and corn and bread and pretty much everything we put in front of you. i'm surprised you aren't getting chunky. on the contrary, you seem to be thinning out more and more.

the time change has you a little bit tired and cranky, but you go to sleep now by yourself really well.

can't wait to see what you do next week!
love, mom

you love your brother.

you have the best and the sweetest big brother in the history of time. you love him a lot, and he loves you. the nice thing about being the youngest is that you always have someone to look out for you and to look up to.

i love this picture of the two of you. my little sweet clown babies!

love, mom