Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl!

There really are no words to express how we feel about our little Lila turning one! We started our celebrations on Friday evening at Grandma and Grandpa Eddins' house! We had a nice dinner together while we celebrated both Mike's birthday and Lila's, equipped with a cake!

At 7:00 on Friday night I leaned over to Mike and said, "can you believe a year ago today we were walking into Mercy Hospital...anticipating our induction?!" That is how it all started, we went in on the 16th to have cervadil placed that evening, hoping to meet our little girl the next day. Boy o' boy, we were in for a surprise! A year ago, that Friday we were expecting to meet her came and went and at 11:40 am on Saturday, April 18, 2009 we greeted our beautiful daughter Lila Louise!


Which brings us to today our baby's first birthday! We got our first message from family this morning! Celia and Ruby wanted to be the first to officially wish Lila a Happy Birthday!

We invited our family and closest friends to join us in celebrating the big day! We put together brunch and with the beautiful weather had the ingredients for a great party! Mike and I were overwhelmed at how wonderful it was to have our family and friends with us and how gracious they all were with their gifts. We will have to build a bigger wing on the house so Lila's toys will all fit!

Opening Presents!

My Grandma Harvey makes amazing cakes and has since before I was a little girl! We had decided on cupcakes for Lila's cake, but low and behold she put together a masterpiece with a bear holding a balloon to go along with her amazingly decorated cupcakes!

We ended up having around 35 people with us at the house today. Lila tends to get really quiet when there is so much going on around her and even more quiet when it seems as if all the attention is on her! After everything settled down she was able to sprawl out on the floor with her puppy, her best friend, and tell us how she felt about her party! We got an earful, according to her, she had a great time!

Thanks Everyone! I had so much fun!

After the last of the guests left it was Daddy's turn to start assembling some of Lila's gifts! She got a lot of great toys that she can use both indoors and outdoors! She was so little last year we didn't have many outdoor toys, so a lot of new, fun things to start off her collection!

We spent a little time this afternoon letting Lila open up her gifts from us. We were most excited to have her open a baby named Stella and the stroller that doubles as a walking toy! She thought Baby Stella was pretty neat. She has a pacifier that she can take on and off and it sticks to Baby Stella by a magnet! We spent quite a bit of time taking the pacifier off and putting it back on...amusing!

I have had some time to reflect back to a year ago and think about all the anticipation that we had for this specific day, the day our daughter was born. No one could have told me how absolutely wonderful it would be. We get so wrapped up in the party aspect of birthdays and never, until now, had I thought about the fact that it is really the TRUE celebration of life. Of course I knew that the day she was born, but to celebrate a year later, I am there celebrating for Lila, but the real gift is the gift she has given me/us by being in our lives.

Happy Birthday Lila Louise!

We look forward to the many birthday's to come and to watch you grow into the amazing person you are destined to be! We love you more than words can say!