My baby is one!

What a sad week. I don't like seeing my baby girl grow up so fast. Seriously, can a year have come and gone already? Having Ariana in our family has been THE BEST! On Saturday we celebrated her first Birthday with a party. My mom, sister,and I had been planning her party for over a month. Last month, I took Ariana and Jace grocery shopping. We needed to buy some time so I decided to go browsing down the baby toy aisle to see what kind of toys Ariana would go for. Anyways, I showed her a little bit of everything. She had no interest in the noise makers or electronics. However, we came upon a big tower of rubber duckies and she immediately grabbed the first one she could. I decided to buy it for her since it was less than a dollar. She absolutely giggled and smiled and hugged that thing. So, that's how we came to the idea of having a rubber ducky Birthday party. We began googling and searching pinterest for every idea we could find. I don't know why moms plan such big parties for their one-year-olds. It's not like they're going to remember it. Anyways, we did lots of preparation and I think the party was a success. I wish I would have done better with pictures. My sister did all the desserts which included the Birthday cake, cake pops, cupcakes, and lemon bars. We did blue foamy punch. The idea was to put some rubber duckies on the top to make it look like they were floating in a bubble bath. We made the punch and didn't put the ducks on because we didn't know how dirty they were. My mom made some salads and we put together sandwiches and wrapped them in wax paper with yarn around them and a rubber duck cutout on top. We had a couple games that I put together that included pin the bill on the duck and a beanbag toss with a duck's mouth cutout so it was like feed the duck. Then we did a relay. Anyways, the games didn't go as planned because we didn't have as many kids as we planned on come and it was raining cats and dogs through the party which blew the games down. We had the party at the park, but luckily we had a pavilion to keep us covered from the rain. I didn't plan a backup place for the party, so I'm very glad the pavilion worked out and kept us pretty dry. Anyways, that was pretty much it. It was a successful party despite it raining so hard.

Yep, I went all out and even put curlers in her hair to get ready for the party (even though it didn't really stay curled).

Showing off her Birthday outfit. The shirt and hairbow was made by yours truly (with a little help from my mom and sister).

My baby is a doll!!!

The cake and cupcakes

Eating dinner

Pin the bill on the duck. Jace was excited but he kind of freaked out once I blindfolded him. He didn't understand why he wasn't supposed to see.

Ariana is an eater! The second I put the cake on her tray, she started picking at it. I seriously don't think I've ever seen a baby go at a cake the way she did. Jace was completely opposite. We had to feed him his cake.

The kids having fun catching the rain.

I seriously love this girl!

Ariana really got into her presents. She was very interested in what was in each bag.

Today was Ariana's one-year checkup. She now weighs 21 pound-50% and is 30 inches long-90%. She's tall and skinny. As always, they asked about her head. She's had a big head since birth. She looked really good. She's been crawling for a couple months, but it was a really awkward crawl where she'd push her head into the ground and scoot. In the past 2-3 weeks, she has finally learned she can be up on her hands and knees and get around like that. She can pull herself up to things, but doesn't do it a lot. I think it's a security thing. She worries about falling. I've said it from the beginning, but my baby is a slower bloomer. She does everything at her own pace. Hopefully in the next few months she might be walking. Ariana has turned into a real babbler. She's talking nonstop. I have no idea what she's trying to say. She's still a good sleeper and a very good eater. We put her on whole milk a little early, but she's taken to it really well. She's also been on a sippy cup and has done well with that. She still loves anyone and will let anyone hold her, although she really loves her mommy. We sure love having our little girl in our family!