Kelsie-bug's Ladybug party!

We had Kelsie's 1st birthday party on Saturday,which also happened to be...her actual birthday! I started planning for the big day a while ago and had so much fun putting it all together. We chose a ladybug theme for our little "Kelsie-bug" and I think it turned out really cute. We had so much celebrating Kelsie's first year with all of our wonderful family and friends. We are truly blessed and so thankful!

The set up

Table for the little bugs

I had a little wooden ladybug photo frame for the kids to color

 

My little bug

The CAKE!!!! Nathan and I decided last minute to make the cake ourselves. 

It took a LONG time and we were up until 2:30 am the night before decorating!

The cuties

Pin the spot on the ladybug - it got thrown together last minute so 

there wasn't much of a ladybug to it and wasn't how I envisioned it but the kids 

had a little fun with it anyway at least. 

I just love these pictures of all the kids together!! 

They sat there much longer than I expected but

 still didn't take long to disperse

The food and decor

Punch

 Red Velvet cheese ball

Fruit kabobs, cut up fruit with dip

Chips and dip (salsa and spinach artichoke dip)

Pigs in a blanket, red/dark chocolate dipped pretzels, 

oreo truffles decorated like ladybugs (my favorite),

 and sugar cookies (only as few got decorated as I ran out of time!) 

And of course a party staple: cheese/crackers, and veggies with ranch dip

The treat bags for the kids

The birthday girl's seat.. Had other ideas here as well but again, ran out of time! 

Ahhh, as usual, too many ideas to fit into my limited time!  

My first baby and my first 1st birthday party to plan, and I had so much fun with it! I enjoyed every minute of celebrating with my growing little girl! She is a very social little girl so she loved all the commotion and attention at the party. And even though I didn't get to do everything that was in my little party planning brain, I still think it went just perfectly! :)

February day

75 degrees. In February. And spent it with my little love bug. How much better could it be? It was just a beautiful day. Kelsie and I spent most of the day running some last minute errands and making some sweet treats for her birthday party - which is coming up in just TWO days! I can hardly believe it!!!! But we also took some time to enjoy the gorgeous weather. I gave her a little ride in the swing. She cried at first and didn't want me to go too far but she quickly warmed up to it and got excited when I would push her higher. Such a sweet girl.

First snow

It snowed on Sunday night for the first time this year, actually. We went out to dinner in Siler City before it started but when we walked out, it was just POURING sleet and snow. It came on very fast and the roads got bad very quickly. I was a little nervous with Kelsie in the back seat riding home on such messy roads but Nathan did a good job and got us home safely!

So we actually got enough to cover the grass and we woke up to a beautiful white blanket if snow on Monday morning. I took Kelsie out to get a few pictures of her in her first snow. I was excited for this memorable moment but she didn't seem to care. In fact, she hated it. I don't think she understood why I was standing her up in this new cold white stuff that she had never seen before and then walking away (so I could snap her picture) leaving her to plop down and get all cold and wet. Oh well, I got a few pictures nevertheless and it still makes for a good memory.

Sleeping better

A little over a week ago, Nathan and I were ready to hire a professional sleep trainer to help us overcome Kelsie's TERRIBLE sleep habits. But then last week, she had a few good nights of (almost) sleeping all night but then that was followed by her worst night ever!!! But for the last 2 nights, she has slept ALL night, with her brace on, in her own crib!!! Don't know why the change but I hope she keeps it up! Momma needs her sleep!!!

My fun little girl

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby girl will be ONE YEAR old next week!! This time has flown by! When I was expecting, I imagined what my little girl would be like and couldn't wait to meet her and get to know every little thing about her. And now for the past year I have watched her change and grow into this sweet, adorable, spunky little toddler.  She is so busy and is on the move all the time! She is also already showing off her little attitude, and can have quite a little temper when she doesn't get her way. But most of the time, she is the happiest, sweetest, most loveable little bundle of joy and I just can't get enough of her. She is so full of personality and I just fall in love with her more and more each day! I couldn't even count how many times I kiss her or tell her I love her in one day.  Oh, a mother's love... there is just nothing else like it!

Here are 3 great videos from today!

This laughter is just priceless!



The sweetest kisses in the world!

This is her new "thing"...swinging her arms around like crazy when she is frustrated!

(We just put this little stove together so she hasn't played with it long enough to figure out how to open the oven door. But, as you can see, she sure wanted it open!



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