We had the absolute pleasure to work with Heidi McClelland Photography to capture some great photos of Audrey being one! Heidi suggested doing a cake smash and I was more than willing! How can you say no to pictures of a baby wearing a tutu smashing into a cake? Seriously, there's nothing cuter. I really wanted some photos that captured A's personality at this point in her life and Heidi couldn't have done that better. I was beyond amazed and how well A did with the shoot and that she just sat there and posed for Heidi like a champ. Heidi definitely knew how to get A to do exactly what she needed her too!!
The best part was definitely watching her dive into the cake. She was a little apprehensive at first because I think the tutu was itching her and she wasn't so sure about her headband but one little taste of that cake and she quickly changed her tune and just dug in. I was so pleased she did exactly what she needed to because she wasn't really into her cake at her actual birthday because I think it was all overwhelming so she really got to dig into some chocolate for the first time and loved every minute.
I can't thank Heidi enough for her incredible talent and capturing these amazing images that I will cherish forever!!
We are now knee deep into Ms. A being one!! She's definitely showing off her personality more and more everyday and we are soaking up her constant laughter and giggles. She's starting to test the waters more and more everyday by taking off around the corner to see if she'll be chased or doing things over and over even when she's been told no.
Each day, we are getting closer and closer to her taking off and walking. I think we are still a few weeks away from seeing her try and take those first steps on her own since she still pretty consistently will go from cruising along the furniture to turning around and just plopping right down on the floor. Since she can crawl so fast, I think that's why she just has no interest but she's definitely starting enjoying cruising with her walkers a lot more over the last week.
I try to keep us entertained with some sort of activity or adventure each day (mostly so we don't get stir crazy). We love spending time with her friends at playgroup each week and swimming is still going great and she loves every minute. I just can't explain how much I'm looking forward to the weather taking a true turn for spring. It is now officially spring and while I won't complain that the sun shines most days its still too cold for A to enjoy a walk or try and going for a swing at the park. The forecast is calling for 50 on Sunday and if that's the case we will definitely be headed outdoors!!
For now, we'll keep each other entertained by trips to Target and the grocery store or Mommy/Audrey lunch dates but I think tomorrow we'll make another trip to the Hands On museum since we bought the membership. We are having so much fun together and I love that I am able to spend each day with her. :) We feel so truly blessed by everything we are given and the opportunities we have.
Audrey of course has been 12 months old for a little over a week now but I still wanted to update the blog as we've now been to the doctor for a very fun (not!) visit. This one was rough with the vaccines but she did great and is pretty much perfect according to Dr. Thompson. She weighs 21 pounds, 8 oz which is the 75th percentile and is 30.5 in which is the 80th percentile!! She's a tall girl I guess! I don't recall exactly how big her head is but I know it was only in the 55th percentile. She's doing great developmentally with the exception of taking those first steps but Dr. Thompson assures us she's completely normal in that regards.
She's more than surpassed all of the other milestones they look for at 12 months and soon enough she'll just take off walking. In the meantime, we are just busy chasing her around the house since she is such a fast crawler. She's starting to learn how to get into a ton of mischief which is pretty much in her DNA :) We are loving watching her learn and explore new things and it's fun to see as she's starting to recognize objects when asked to find them and will scream "duckie!" when pretty much any rubber duck is in her eyesight. She's calling everyone Dada right now but is slowly starting to put everything together and I can see her trying to spit out the right thing it just won't come quite yet.
We are very much looking forward to Spring finally arriving in Michigan so that we can start getting more fresh air and spending time at the parks and playgrounds!!!
We were so lucky and fortunate that our besties from Texas were able to make the trip to the cold, mitten state to help us celebrate A's first birthday! We already have plans to head back to San Antonio for the first time since we moved back home to celebrate with Emerie on her special day in May so it was even more exciting that we were going to be able to see them twice in such a short time!!
Damaris and Emerie flew to Michigan on Friday and were able to spend a few days with us which was even more fun. I know Emmi and Audrey loved playing together but it was even more fun for me since I got to spend so much time with one of my favorite people :) We had fun just catching up but it was so cute to see the girls interact with each other and play so well together. I simply can't wait until we got to Texas in about a month and a half and see them again!!
In addition to them being here for party day on Saturday, on Sunday we made our first trip to the Hands On Museum with the girls. I'm so glad we did because it was a lot of fun for them and nice for us just to be able to watch them play. I can't wait until Audrey gets a little bigger because I know she will love everything they have there.
We were both so sad to send them back home but are so blessed that we are able to see them very soon (and in a nice warm climate!!)
Last Saturday, our little girl turned one!! It's been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks gearing up for her big day and unwinding since it happened because we've had several amazing days over the last week!! We started our celebration by picking up our besties Damaris and Emerie at the airport on Friday afternoon!! I was so excited for them to be able to spend the weekend celebrating with us since we are so looking forward to going to celebrate Emmi's big day in May.
We had a great day celebrating with Audrey's Brown Bear, Brown Bear themed birthday party on her actual birthday since it fell on a Saturday. We had a house full of friends and family and everything went really well. We had some great food made by Phil and Audrey dug into her cake that Phil and I worked together to make and decorate. My sister took some great pictures to document the occasion.
We loved celebrating with Grandma, Papa, Auntie M, Uncle Josh and the boys, Damaris and Emerie, Nana and Papa, Granny, Uncle Todd, Aunt Andrea, and Maybelle, Auntie Rachel and Gary and Deana Stewart, Meghan and Logan Malinich, Ed, Heather, and Max Chadd, Aaron, Christine, and Charlotte Przybysz, Jen, Ella, and Cora Fulton, and Jeff, Kelli, and Lorelai Beckley.
Audrey received lots of wonderful gifts including her new obsession, a pink rocking horse from Grandma and Papa, a new Fisher Price activity house from Granny, a fun boat for the tubby from Meghan and Logan, and new doll from Todd, Andrea, and Maybelle, and a super cute owl duffel bag from Damaris and Emerie.
Thank you to my sister for all the amazing help doing projects for the party and taking amazing pictures which will help us to remember this day for a very long time!!
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