Party time!

Sunday we celebrated Reese's first birthday.

I went with a yellow & gray theme since that's the color of Reese's bedroom & I happen to love the color combination.

I ordered clothes pins from Etsy to display Reese's monthly photo shoot pictures.

I loved comparing each picture & seeing her changes month-to-month.  It made me realize how much she changed between two & three months... you could really see her personality come out at three months.  Mike always refers to newborns as aliens, so I guess three months was her official non-alien month!

 Lauren was nice enough to let Reese borrow Taylor's "1" onesie & tutu for the party.

The weekend started VERY rough for my little birthday girl.  Papa flew in from Chicago on Friday so after work we headed to the park to enjoy the gorgeous evening & let the kids play.  As I was holding Reese I noticed some bumps on her neck & as I lifted the back of her shirt, I realized she was covered in hives.

 These pictures were taken a little over twelve hours apart.  Reese seriously looked like a burn victim, it was AWFUL.  I wanted to cry every time I looked at her & sometimes I did.  We put a call out to the pediatrician & talked to the nurse who said it was likely the way her body was responding to the end of a virus.  We tried Benadryl & that did nothing which meant it wasn't an allergy.  I was relieved about that!  By Sunday Reese was looking a whole lot more like herself, thank goodness!

My sister noticed Cam's Mario mustache from Halloween laying around, so she decided we should all take a picture rockin the stach!

We started the party off with appetizers.  We had cheese & crackers & I rolled a log of goat cheese in chopped dried cranberries & mixed nuts which everyone loved.  Simple & tasty!  Put it out with some crackers & you're set.  I'm going to make it again for Christmas & roll another log of goat cheese in chopped herbs for red & green colors.  Melanie & Lauren (my sister) were sweet enough to bring appetizers of deviled eggs & buffalo chicken dip.. yum!  For dinner we did a burger bar with caramelized onions, Gorgonzola cheese, bacon, lettuce & tomato served along side mac n' cheese & a salad.  We  prepped everything on Saturday so the day of the party could be more relaxing.

 

I ordered a yellow & gray cake & had no idea what to expect since I designed it off the top of my head with no pictures to go by.  It turned out really great & the girl at Publix was a huge help.

Reese was ready to get down & dirty with her smash cake!

"Let me at it!"

"Mmm, this tastes great!"

"Awe yeah, I can get used to this!"

My birthday girl is such a goofball!

As much as our girl loved her cake, she did not love the clean up!

After cake, it was time for presents!

Reese got so many nice toys & clothes!

The weekend was absolutely exhausting!  Hosting a party is hard work, but it was so worth it.

We ended the night with a comparison shot of the girls.  In the picture on the left, Tay was 6 months & Sam & Reese were 4 & 5 days old.  It's amazing how much babies change in just one year!!

And they become a whole lot harder to photograph!

I can't believe my baby girl will be one tomorrow!  One year ago today I was preparing to check into the hospital for my induction.  Today my little stinker is sleeping in the next room & I can't possibly imagine our lives without her!