Happy Birthday Isabel!

Good golly, where did this past year go? I read a quote somewhere that said when it comes to raising small children, "the days are so very long, but the years are so very short". This is so true for me!

 We had two celebrations for Little Miss. My brother Joel was in town from Washington DC so we had my family over the Sunday before her actual birthday for dinner and cake. 

Isabel's birthday was Thursday, September 25th. I don't think we did anything out of the ordinary in the morning. I got her dressed up in the same "Birthday Girl" outfit that Lexi wore. We took a few pictures and played.

 It was our day to pick up the Kindergarten carpool kids, so afterwards the girls and I went to the dollar store to buy some balloons for Isabel. Lexi was absolutely begging to carry the balloons, so against my better judgement I let her take them out to the car. I was on the other side of the van getting Isabel buckled in while Lexi was trying to navigate getting inside the van with all of them. She started to let go of them. I never knew I had such cat like instincts, but somehow I bounced around the van, jumped up and proceeded to grab every single balloon one at a time as it was floating away. We saved them all! 

While baby was sleeping, I made her birthday smash cake. Marc got home shortly after the boys came home from school and got everything set up for her "cake smash photo shoot".  First, she got to open some presents:

She got some new outfits, some new to her toys, and her own stuffed animal dog which she adores!

Then it was time for the real celebration. It's our favorite first birthday tradition. Here's some shots of the older kids:

 I was trying to video tape, Marc was trying to shoot with camera, Lexi was holding up the ipad so Grandma and Grandpa could watch. Marc couldn't set down the cake and run to the camera fast enough before she was racing towards it. We were surprised with how dainty she was. She picked at the icing for awhile and eventually found a handful of cake. It's fun to see how different their little personalities are even when it comes to eating their very own cake. 

I remember when I was pregnant worrying about how I would be able to love another. I think, if anything, I have learned that our hearts are meant to be opened up and filled with love without measure! This little girl has waltzed her way into all of our hearts. We have grown to love her so much! She just completes our family. We are so thankful for her spunky personality, for her fresh perspective and excitement. It's been a lot of fun to have a baby again, and it has been incredibly exhausting! I'll do a post soon about what she's up to as a 1 year old.