Darcy's 1st Birthday

Yesterday was Darcy's 1st birthday!! We had quite the party for her. I made a much bigger deal out of it than I probably should have, because she won't even remember it at all, but I had fun doing it. Well, it was mostly fun anyway. The first half of yesterday was, true to Lindsey form, a little bit stressful. I told myself I was not allowed to get worked up about this party because it was supposed to be a fun happy day, but it just didn't really work. It didn't help that we started the day at the doctor where she had to get three shots. I told myself I will never schedule a doctor's appointment on my kid's birthday again. (That should have been obvious before I know.)

Back to the party. I debated between the ladybug theme (so cute) and a pink polka dot theme. For some reason the pink polka dots were just calling to me (not to mention the fact that decorating a cake with pink polka dots is much easier than a ladybug)so I went with that. I loved how it turned out!

Our friends Rich and Brittany, Linwood and Brooke, and Arie and Abi along with their baby Evelyn came for the festivities. It was so much fun to have them. They were all such great sports! Rich and Brittany have a big fancy camera and I asked them if they would bring it and take pictures and they were the best photographers ever. They were serious about their job! :) Unfortunately I didn't get the pictures from them yesterday so I only have a few pictures I took with my camera for today. I know the grandparents were anxious to see pictures so I am posting what I have for now, and I will post more when I get the other pictures from Rich and Brittany.

We L.O.V.E. our little one year old!

Things we want to remember about Darcy's twelfth month:

- 22 lbs 30 1/4 inches. Finally legal to be in her forward facing car seat, and she is loving it!! Car rides are so much better now.

- Her nap schedule is a little crazy right now. She still takes her two naps most of the time, but if she takes two they are not as long. Sometimes she just takes one longer nap in the middle of the day.

- She took her first steps between Drew and me this past Monday! She still definitely prefers crawling, but she's getting there.

- She is finally starting to be more willing to let other people hold her. She definitely prefers women to men. She especially loves Brittany and Brooke (the women she has been around the most besides me)!

- She loves balls! She got a few new balls for her birthday and she takes them everywhere. Rich and Brittany got her a giant tennis ball and the look on her face when she saw it was priceless! She likes to take a ball to the top of the stairs and throw it down and have us throw it back up to her over and over and over.

- She loves when we make animal noises and tries to duplicate them.

- She loves dancing to music. She has a few toys that make music and she loves to turn them on and dance. If I turn the music on in the car she dances while we drive. I love watching her in the rear view mirror. Latest dance move - flopping around while she does a waving motion with both hands. She is good!

We went and had a little photo shoot before the party in our favorite spot. I made her this shirt to wear for her birthday.
Opening her presents from us. We left them sitting out and she started ripping them, so we decided to let her open a couple before the party.
Her little pink polka dot cake. It was a chocolate cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting. It was delicious if I do say so myself.
The spread. Isn't it so cute? We had pink circle candies, watermelon balls, her cake, and cupcakes for everyone else. I wanted a cupcake stand, but felt too poor to buy one so I made one out of cardboard and spray painted it. Pretty good right? I thought so!
Digging into her cake. I was so sure she would be good at this and I was right! Some babies hate to be sticky, but not this girl! She loves food too much to be scared of it ever. I was SO happy about how into it she was. It was what I always dreamed of. :)
Brittany taking pictures.
Brook helping Darcy eat some of her cake.
Here are Darcy and Evelyn watching the volleyball game. Such cute little buddies!
I couldn't find party hats I liked so I just bought some cheap ugly ones and I painted them how I wanted them. Everyone made it feel worth it by wearing them proudly. Brook especially made me feel good. She even wore her's for the volleyball game! :)
There is a volleyball court right outside our back door, so we had a little game after all the other festivities.
Darcy got this awesome rocking/bouncing horse from her Grandma and Grandpa Christensen. We didn't have a chance to put it together before Darcy went to sleep last night. Drew put it together after she went to sleep and first thing this morning she went for a ride. She loves it!