Holly's First Birthday

I can hardly believe my baby is a year old! The past year with her really flew by. It's scary how quickly it went. We enjoy her more and more every day. We had a family barbeque and some banana cupcakes to celebrate. I think everyone had a really great time--I know we did!


Holly was extremely skeptical of her cupcake at first, especially with the candle. We actually couldn't find a lighter in the entire house and Holly was going crazy for her cupcake, so Andrew was resourceful and lit it using our grill.


After she realized how tasty it was (if I do say so myself), Holly dug right in. She was a happy girl!


Time to open presents! Holly got the hang of opening gifts quite quickly and really had a lot of fun with it.


Please excuse my misshapen self in these pictures. I happen to be in ninety percent of them, since Holly was sitting in my lap.


Although Holly loves all of her birthday presents, this Elmo doll holds a special place in her heart. She never lets him get too far. She will even say his name, which sounds like "Ah-do" and makes me want to die, it's so sweet! She will also say "mama," "dada," and "uh-oh." She tries to say lots of other things, but unfortunately it all pretty much sounds the same to my adult ears. She will also fold her arms when we say a prayer, and I'm trying to teach her to say "Amen" when the prayer is over. Right now when I ask her to say "amen," she folds her arms again and gives me the sweetest little smile. It makes my heart melt.

Our little girl is learning so much! It's so fun to be her parents and get to participate in everything with her. And a big thank you to our family who shared her birthday with us.