ONE-derful!!



The birthday girl in her party dress.



Since Oak shared her actual birthday with her Aunt's wedding reception, we did her birthday party a week early.

I have had visions of what I have wanted for my children's first birthdays for years before we had kids. With Mac it ended up being a total flop. I won't go into it but I was very disappointed with the outcome.

 So I was going to make sure that I made it happen this time. I wanted her theme to be "Polka Dots!" Thanks to Pinterest and the blogging world I got some great ideas and for decorations and how I wanted her birthday cake. And we also had a crowd of at least 25 family and friends. It was perfect and so much fun!

And I was smart and asked someone else to take the pictures. SO glad I did, because they turned out awesome and I didn't have to worry about getting the perfect shot and just enjoy!

I couldn't believe that I was able to actually make her cake look better than I had envisioned it. I really loved how it turned out.

I really wanted to make her a party hat. And it also turned out better than I had envisioned it. And she kept it on!!

I put up my favorite picture that I took of her for each month.

Getting the party started!

Oak's friends:

Miss J

Miss S

My Aunt with one of my cousins sons.

Aunt L

My cousins little boys who turned one recently too.

My cousin P

Aunt J (who is now a married woman!)

All the fun!

We put the pool up and the kids had a ball. They also loved playing in the sand box.

Mac getting tickled

Don't you just love his farmers tan?

Mac diving!

Neighbor friend A

Oak LOVES to wear sunglasses. It is so cute!

Waiting patiently for me to feed her, when I kept getting distracted with hosting the party.

Finally some food in her belly, yummy watermelon!

This is our nieghbor and Miss J's (pictured a few pictures up) daddy.

Have I mentioned on here that Oak is a walker. She walks everywhere now. And on this day she started standing her self in the middle of the room.

Excited to party!

I want to frame this one of my babies and put it up on my wall.

Then on to presents! She was so spoiled...

And even though I look terrible, I am glad I remembered to get a family pic!

ONE today!!

Today, our baby girl turns ONE!

It is very bittersweet for me when my babies turn one! The first year always goes by too fast and then I miss the baby that once was so little. I worry that I will never have a tiny little baby again to call my own. And I think about how hard this last year has probably been for her birthparents.

But then I get to think about the miracle in her coming to us. The immense joy and sunshine she has brought to our family. Her most beautiful self that I just can't get enough of. I think about how I ached to hold her even before I knew she existed and then this past year of snuggling her and loving on her and kissing those cute chubby cheeks of hers. It is all very emotional think about.

No matter how hard infertility, adoption and motherhood are, the joy I have from these two miracles of mine is far exceeds anything I could have dreamed.

She went from this beautiful, chubby sweet thing...

To this beautiful, happy, sweet girl!

Your first year was awesome and we are so happy we get to have an eternity with you!

Stay tuned (after all the wedding stuff/birthday stuff is over) for picture from her rocking birthday party and her first birthday pics (which I will hopefully take tomorrow).

finally...a backyard!!

So sorry for the lack of posts. I can't believe I have gone two weeks without posting. It hasn't been that we have been having lots of fun. The first week was just a very terrible, no good, very bad week. I won't go into it, but it just had to do with a very naughty 3 year old, a mommy who was exhausted from attempting to run, who on top of that was not feeling very well and had very little patience. But we have gotten past that and then the next week was full of being productive around the house instead of thinking about blogging. We were preparing for Oak's birthday party and are preparing for Hubs's sister's wedding this week. And most of Hubs's time was spent doing this...

Making our backyard into a usable backyard!! He has spent endless hours, every spare moment of his time working on all of this. He actually built the deck in June and stained it in July. But he built the step recently and it still needs to be stained. I L.O.V.E our deck!! Hubs did such an awesome job on it!

He re-seeded the lawn in April and it came up awesome this time. At the end of the yard on the right in the corner you can see the sandbox that Hubs made for the kids.

Last minute we decided to put up a little fence to separate the garden from the backyard. We still need to get more stones for the path and stain the fence. I love how it turned out.

I don't have any before pictures. But imagine that it was nothing but clay when we moved in two years ago. And then imagine no deck and terrible looking grass that was planted last summer that didn't work out. And then imagine dense 3 foot high weeds all along the edge of the fence where the flower beds are now. It was sad, ugly and very pitiful.

I so love it now and love to just go and stand on the deck and look at it!

Sunday Gratitude...

photo by my neighbor G

I am grateful...

01. for a loving helpful husband!

02. that we were able to celebrate Oak's birthday with so many family, friends and neighbors.

03. that Hubs's sister will be married and sealed in the Temple this week.

04. to have had a better week this last week than the terrible one I had the week before.

05. that Mac will get to go to preschool at our neighbors house this year.

06. that all the work that Hubs has put into our backyard paid off and he was able to finish it (mostly, aren't they always a work in progress forever?!) in time for Oak's birthday party.

07. that the weather has been perfect this last week, not too hot.

08. that we are all healthy and happy!

09. that I have been in the cleaning/getting rid of mood lately. Feels SO good!

10. for my two babies! As I was getting us all ready for church this morning I was so overwhelmed with gratitude and love for them.