Ain't no Party like a First Birthday Party....

And a First Birthday Party Don't Stop!

(much like this post....be prepared for overload...)

One year of this sweet little face surely called for celebration!

And celebrate we did.

Birthday morning, we set up for a family party. G was on-call that evening, so the morning was our big birthday-day celebration. I just LOVE birthday mornings, and Caris took to her first one with the same wonderment and joy. Seriously, she crawled right to her little set-up and gave such a sweet smile, like 'this is all for ME??!!' She knew right away it was a special morning. Caris' present from Mom and Dad was her own outdoor table and stools...unfortunately only the stools were represented on the morning excitement.

And our first birthday candle! Caris even attempted to blow it our herself.

**picture disclaimer...well, I tried. But not all pics made it in correct format or in correct order. and as per usual, I forgot to take all the pics I wanted. and also per usual, Aunt Alli's pics are the best! so I borrowed Thanks ALLI!!:)

And then to the BIG SHOW! The Birthday Party!! We celebrated year one with a Garden Party for our garden girl.

Our little peony :)

And seriously. Is this not a garden birthday flower dress if there ever was such a thing?

Caris' favorite thing that day was splashing in her new butterfly pool! (thanks Aunties Tara&Shelby!)

Family pic at the dessert table.

And Mom and her ONE YEAR OLD!!

Sisters. Aunties. We are lucky to have such great ones! Seriously. They all spoil C so much and she has so much fun with all her Aunts!!

Grandparents. LOVE these pictures. Caris seriously is a lucky lady in this department. We have such generous, loving, and fun grandparents!

The Cake.

*I started shopping for cakes. And was shocked at the cost. And so with my Mom and Garrett's convincing, I decided we could undertake the task ourself. Plus I thought it would be fun and a great memory to have of the first birthday. And so we set out on the task.

Our finished products!

Big cake and mini C cake. It really was a fun project. But I COULD NOT have pulled it off with my Mom (color guru and icing extrodinaire) and sisters (creative vision and bug maker supremes). HUGE THANK YOU to them!!!

Even the boys got in on making bugs....theirs are on the back

-except Bobby's bee which took top honors!

Which got a little crazy at 1:00a.m...

Caris and her cake.

She knocked the candle off and then wasn't sure what to do with the cake...

Also you can see in this pic the super cute birthday banner that Grammy Jane made! Turned out so cute! We will love using this over the years :)

This was the point where Caris had a mini-meltdown.

Poor girl had been sick the week/end before and our napping schedule was a little off. But she pulled through. However, she refused to sit in her highchair.

So we ate cake on the floor.

Still good, right C!

Some 'after' pics of our party decor.

Which includes a good view of our finally FINISHED backyard project!! Which really deserves a post of it's own, but who am I kidding these days, so now is as good of chance as any! Garrett has logged some serious man hours redoing our back porch over the past year. With the gracious help and hard labor from our dads, brother, and brother-in-law, he was able to pretty much finish it off in time for the garden party! (good incentive :)

G extended our back porch and put in flagstone (above pic) and made an additional patio on the far back side under our oak tree (below).

The new patio is one of our favorite places right now. Perfect little place to enjoy our garden. We put the kid's activites here, put in all my craziness and non-existant knowledge of how to operate a first birthday, we didn't really get too many flower pots planted and sent home with the kids...

Loved the lanterns!! So fun.The brick paths were the other major yard improvement project. Garrett found a great deal and hauled 3,000 bricks over from an old house. Then spent MANY hours (with his dad and brother) cleaning the bricks, removing mortar, and getting them ready.

(did I mention he decided to do this when Caris was 2 weeks old? In the middle of finals?? CRAZY)

I LOVED how the brick paths turned out!! The really set the yard off I think. My favorite part :)

And our Garden Party was the perfect time to break in the yard!

We had a great time celebrating year one. We really wanted the party to be a way to say THANK YOU to all our family and friends who have made this year possible. Seriously, we feel very blessed. From work friends who listen to me vent to sweet mom friends who work around our weird schedules for playdates to new school friends who make the drop-off easier. And family who travels to visit when we aren't able who understand when life gets a little hectic and are willing to drop anything to help as needed; this last point so exemplified in our party as we literally could not have finished the yard or pulled off the party without their help. Love you guys! Thanks for making year one the best of my life!

Happy Happy Birthday to our girl!!

Vingette: Caris and Books

Lil' C has long shown an affinity for the written word. I can recall many times, even in her earliest of months, reading books on repeat to soothe our girl. She always seemingly earnestly listened and followed along.

We are big supporters of books and reading in our abode. Amazon deliveries frequent our doorstop with G as one of their biggest supporters. We have an array of text spanning from politics, finance, and oral surgery. We now have two Kindles in frequent use. And school books abound.

But I will admit, with the business that is our hectic daily lives, we haven't read to Caris as regularly as I had envisioned. We read to her, but in our hour timespan getting ready, fed, cleaned up, etc. it is often fit in between the 'have tos' of our day. (weekends are a bit different)

So, back to the vingette at hand.

Caris, during our morning ready-ing ritual, follows me out of my room. I proceed to the hall bathroom. Caris to her bedroom. I find it cute that she decides to go to her bedroom and play; where I encourage to play while I finish morning chores.

Soon there after, I hear 'shuffle shuffle thump shuffle shuffle thump' and look into the hall and see Caris crawling down the hall, book in one hand, excited smile on her face.

C sees me, stops, holds up her book, smiles so big and says 'Buoou?'

I of course find this absolutely adorable.

So I stop. And we read. And then we finish. And then C crawls down, finds another, holds it up, 'Buoou?' And so we read.

And so on and so forth through the majority of her collection.

Fun new little activity. Which now completely preoccupies Caris' play. If she sees a book, beeline to said book. And then beeline to the closest reader inquiring their services. Book?

Enter phase two.

Time to put the books away.

Caris enters into SCREAMING fit. Back arch, hands and face down on the ground. Clearly did not approve of time for book to go away.

Everytime book time concludes, the girl is UPSET.

So our week/end has consisted of trying to appropriately manage this new little reaction while encouraging reading.

Luckily, it seems to work well to encourage Caris to sit still through diaper changes, clothing, other fun tasks with the reward of book at the end. And I am learning to begin by setting the limit (which, by the way, is a high limit...)

But hey, Lil' C loves her books. What's a girl to do?

"Buoou?" "Sure :)" And with that, C climbs on my lap.

Music to my ears

Lil' C loves making music...(noise?)......definately music to her momma's ears :) So it was a natural love at first sight when we happened upon this little guy.....

Who now graces our living room thanks to JJ and Susie's birthday present.

Lil' C Loves, loves, loves, to play here.......

Caris was also gifted a music set complete with xylophone, kazoo, harmonica, bells, and clappers. Oh my. We are in a constant state of music at our house these days. Caris loves all her new instruments, and has attempted to play them all.....some less successfully. But no worries, she just passes those on to mom or dad to play while she accompanies on piano.

And just because it's my all-time favorite Lil' C show (thus far)....a reminder to revisit this little dancer.....

More music

Another favorite is guitar with Dad. A cute little video of her first guitar practice :)

(I couldn't get this video to go on the previous post....so close enough...right?)

Fil-It

When Dad's away, the girls will play! At Chick-Fil-A! Yay!
(way too much rhyming there, but I couldn't resist!)

Last night, G was on call. And admittedly, we have had a few stressful weeks. Long days, coupled with a few virus invasions, Caris' transitioning classes and subsequently dropping a nap=over tired, birthday plannings, yard projects..... Anyways, our evenings have been a little rocky. Typically, they consist of trying to comfort Caris, cook dinner while holding Caris, feed her, bathe her, get to bed all after spending 30 minutes in traffic and within an hour time span. And usually flying solo. It's a little chaotic.

So last night, we had to run an errand and in efforts to avoid more stress after a particular hard work day, I made the decision for a girls treat to the Chick! Let me just say, great decision. Caris was all smiles and we were able to enjoy a meal together. People watching, playing games, silly songs, all the fun things girls do :) Caris was treated to a sip of mom's milkshake and some juice, as well as a pink balloon and games! A special dietary splurge, but well worth it.

Lil' C was a happy one. And thus her mom was also.

And one of us completely cleared their plate......and it wasn't me.

We may have to make this a regular occurance!

nononono

Birthday celebrations, pics and otherwise, forthcoming.....as soon as we recover from our whirlwind week/end....

But until then I leave you with our newest acquired skill.

Our One-Year-Old has officially learned the proper use for No. Complete with the head shake motion. Over the last week, this has clearly transitioned from accidental usage to clear indication of Caris' dislike and/or unwillingness to partake in requested activity. Particularly with food.

Caris, do you want more milk? (enter head shake and cure...'No') Do you want to try this food? (head shake, 'No')

I have to say, thus far, the 'NO' usage is implemented politely. Sweet little head shake, quiet smile. Simple No.

But I have a feeling that as she figures out how to apply this meaning in a broader sense, polite usage may not be the norm....

For now, I am kind of enjoying the increased level of communication and understanding this little skill brings us. I am HOPING we can appropriately foster this skill to be used in the right way....yes, I know that is a BIG hope. But, hey, we'll give it a shot.

Isn't amazing how toddler's master no so quickly? I read somewhere recently that toddlerhood mimics that of adolescence. Oh my. I am a little scared of both.

But I think we are well on our journey into the first stage.

Birthday Baby!...I mean Big Girl!!!

Happy Birthday To Our Sweet Girl!!!!

You are a 1 year old little lady today.

We love your sweet, silly smile...that is sometimes a smirk. Your happy singing and crazy dance moves. Your little laugh and silly faces. We love your pouty face too :)

Your blue, blue eyes, so full of wonder and joy. Sparkling with life. Always observing their world and looking at each person with sincere intent. The eyes that carry with them traits of so many of your relatives, on all sides. So knowing, and so learning at the same time.

Your sweet and quirky personality. Silly and studious. Funny and full of joy. Caring, snuggly, and sweet to all people. Social little butterfly and nature loving.

Always ready for the next adventure. You love feeling the wind, swinging high on your swing, running fast, fast spins, fast rides in your wagon, and bumpy rides.

You are truly a joy and amaze me every day. I love watching the little girl you are becoming. What a precious and wonderful journey this last year has been.

Talkie Walkie

Hard to believe that talking and walking are up next on the developmental radar.

Miss Caris is quite a chatty little one and I continue to be fascinated by the development of language (all my speech therapist friends, feel free to pass on your expertise!). And defined loosely, Caris 'talks' A LOT. She has complete conversations with her friends at school and any engaged adult. I mean, it truly seems and sounds as if she's talking directly to us, we just quite understand all that's being said. And everyone once in awhile, it sounds like what's she's saying makes sense....

And on top of her 'practice' conversations, we are hearing quite a developing vocabulary emerge. 'Mamma' (which I think also means I want..) is a favorite word and said very clearly and enunciated. Love me some of this :)

'DAAA' usually accompanied by squeals of delight...

'UhOH' 'UhOh 'UhOH' is a very favorite word. Typically when she gets going with this, she loves to repeat over an over again. And usual also repeats the action that instigated the 'UhOh' as well....I love to get her going on this one.

'Oh Wow' we hear this from time to time, but not as consistent. Usually when on her swing...

'Bye Bye' also a favorite. Mainly because Caris loves to wave. And once (I

have 5 witnesses to prove) Caris said 'bye bye Bobby to her Uncle when he left. I mean it was a clear little sentence. And along with this, Caris has associated the word wave with the action. So now if you say wave, that's what you'll get.

'Yaash' as in Caris do you want more food? 'Yassh' More milk? 'Yasshh' and sometimes interchanged with a simple 'Ya' as in Caris' are you done with your bottle? 'Ya', I guess you can take it...

We've also heard a few 'Ball' 'Milk' and 'Dog' in the mix.

But the best is her little conversations. Seriously the funniest thing.

We are also teetering on the verve of walking. Caris will 'walk' around every room by holding onto whatever she can get her hands on. She also really loves to walk around holding someones hands. But I think we have a ways to go in terms of balance....So we'll see when she decides she's ready to make an independent move. Who knows with this little one...

I love to watch Caris learn. It is so amazing how these little baby minds work and process. Lately, lil C has been really picking up new skills and is so observant. When we took her fishing, it took her all of 5 seconds of watching her Dad reel the rod for her to push his hand away and take over. Same when she first witnessed mom try to clean her ears with a Q-tip; now anytime she sees one she sticks it in her ear. It really just amazes me how quickly new skills are acquired.

Can't wait to see how much she changes in the next year!

Aaaaayyyyyy, Sic 'Em!

Well, this post is clearly delayed.....but we had a great time cheering on our Baylor Bears this season! We are 'basketball' people when it comes to sporting events. And love any chance to support Baylor. So the combination of Baylor, Basketball, Sweet Sixteen -to- Elite Eight, and Houston created a perfect alignment for a FULL weekend of BASKETBALL!

Caris' first pigtails.....

She was a great little cheerleader

We bought tickets the second Baylor advanced. It was so fun to have the chance to see Baylor play in this venue. We attended MANY games in the Ferrel Center back in Waco, a little different!

Friends and family came to pre-party; our house is just a few miles from the Reliant Center. Alli even bypassed Aggie loyalty to cheer for the Bears!!

Fun times with the Baylor alum

Way to go Baylor and Lady Bears! All the the road ended in Houston, they were great. And we are excited for next season! Caris loves to watch the games and cheers along :)

Bunny foo foo

Sweet Caris, or our very own Little Bunny Foo Foo, celebrated her first Easter. You may recall she attempted to make it in time for Easter last year, but her plans were foiled :) The Easter holiday is one that is just so much better with the presence of a little one; especially this pretty little Easter Baby. We have soaked in the beauty of the Texas Spring the past few weekends, with the opportunity to spend quality time in natures splendor. Welcoming the arrival of new life and growth.

Happy Easter and welcome Spring!