1st Birthday Party

On March 27, 2009 I went to my last doctor's appointment and my water broke that night.

On March 27, 2010 we celebrated Olivia's first birthday with our family. We had a fabulous time! Olivia enjoyed her birthday lunch and LOVED eating her cake. This was the first time she had eaten cake (or anything sweet). I can tell that she is going to be like me and have a sweet tooth. Here are a few. I smile every time I look at these pictures. It was so fun to watch her devour the cake!
She started out touching the cake with just one finger.

And then she realized that cake is yummy, so....


she started using both hands.


And after eating a good amount of cake, she decided she was done. So, she started throwing cake off of her tray.
Here she is telling us that she's done.

Olivia with her grandparents

Opening presents

Birthday Party Decorations

As you know, I was off on spring break last week. When Olivia went down for her afternoon nap on Thursday and Friday, I worked on decorations for her party. It was fun to be crafty and I think the decorations turned out better than I imagined they would!

Cups and napkins

On Thursday night, my wonderful hubby helped me make a banner for Olivia. It has a picture from each month of her life on it. I know it wasn't something that Jeremiah was just dying to do, but I'm so thankful that he helped me create it. I love it!

We took these pictures at the party, but I need to take better pictures of the banner.

I've been planning Olivia's party for about a month. I wanted the theme to be "animals" because she loves playing with animals. I decided to do mostly zebra print and hot pink decorations. I didn't want to spend alot of money, but I did want to make a few decorations for the party. Anne was nice and offered to sew table runners (out of very cheap material) together for the tables. They looked awesome! Thank you, Anne!! Here are a few pictures of the tables decorated before the party started on Saturday.

I made this cake for Olivia. It looked a little dorky, but she loved eating it!

Grandpa's Girl

On Wednesday morning my dad had a meeting in Champaign. After his meeting he took Olivia and I out to lunch. Then we went and played at the park. Anyone in my family will tell you that Olivia just ADORES my dad. There is definitely a special bond between my dad and Olivia. The second Olivia sees my dad, she smiles and reaches for him. She doesn't want to be with Jeremiah, my mom, me, or anyone else. Olivia just wants my dad. If she's grumpy, I will just hand her off to my dad. She immediately perks up and starts showing off. I hope this bond continues to stay strong as Olivia grows up.

In just 5 days....

My baby will be ONE! I can't believe it. During this week last year, I was on spring break. I was cleaning our house and preparing for our little girl. This year I'm not spending my break cleaning or preparing for our new arrival. I'm preparing for Olivia's first birthday and spending time playing outside with her. We've thoroughly enjoyed the nice weather this week. Olivia and I went to the park yesterday. She loved swinging and feeling the breeze in her face. She loved it so much, that Jeremiah and I took her back last night. Here are some pictures of our happy girl and her first time swinging at the park.:)

Lovin' the park!


Doesn't she look so old!?


Hanging out with Daddy


Pure happiness....

*On a different note..Olivia has been walking alot lately. She still crawls, but would rather walk to get something. She is getting better everyday. It's fun to watch her walk around and explore new things. She has started standing up, looking up at the people in our picture frames, and talking to them. It's adorable!