One Year Older and Wiser Too!

 As  you probably know Violet turned ONE recently. I was going back and forth on whether or not to have a party but at last minute decided to have a mini celebration with our best friends! (At least, those who live near by).

 We did it in our backyard, a favorite place of Violet's because it includes her favorite pastime: gnawing on under ripe apples.

 The party was loosely "lamb" themed because a couple days before we saw some baby farm animals at the Pioneer Day fair and she was obsessed/only cared about the lamb. This is us with her lamb cake pops I made with the help of Aunt Adrienne.

 Violet and her Aunty 'Lis (my best friend from college, Alisa).

Aunts Bethany and Adrienne and Auntie 'Lis and cousin Porter-man.

 Cousin Michaelle and her gift to Violet (coincidentally a lamb!-I didn't tell anyone there would be a theme).

 We had Michaelle  re-give Violet her gift, for posterity's sake.

 Picture with her ma. I felt like I should be celebrated on her birthday too for all the hard work I did to get her here! Forget Mother's day!!

 Giving me a good ol' fashioned open-mouthed wet one. Hopefully she ditches that habit before she discovers boys.

 Another favorite pastime: sharing her food.

 On to opening presents!

 Violet is 1! As symbolized by her new bathtub foam letters and numbers.


At one year Violet is:
Walking (since just before her birthday)
Imitating our every move.
She loves to read, often she prefers to read to herself. Her favorite book is "What is Your Language?"
She says: Mom, Dad (dah!), Boo, Amen ("Nen), Bye (bah), Hi, Hey, Baby (kind of, sometimes)
She signs: More, All done, Thank you, Please, Milk
She gestures: blowing kisses, waving, Peek-a-boo (over her eyes..it's so cute), blowing on hot food (or any food, even if it isn't hot),folding her hands for prayers, and gives us lots of hugs and kisses
She likes to find our noses and honk them. She smiles as big as she can and shows all her (4) teeth when it's time to brush (then cries the whole time we brush them).
She LOVES her dad and can hardly bear her excitement when he comes home. She loves babies and loves to enjoy animals from afar.
She is so friendly and social and smiley and spends all day in intense, unintelligible conversation.
She's a gem! 

 She ended up getting lots of lamb-y things for her birthday. Hoorah!

 Porter helping (?) her with her new computer from Grandma

 The small gathering of favorite folks.

 Picture with  Grandma, also an honorary guest at said birthday bash.

 One of Violet's favorite foods is zucchini bread. So I made zucchini cake and chocolate cake for the pops and reserved a square of the zucchini cake for Violet, as well as a chocolate pop. Not quite a quintessential messy first birthday cake-but she did love it! (Also, that is our upstairs neighbor's collection on the patio..for the record).

 Happy Birthday Violet!

And, as a finale...I know this is blurry but Jonathan was throwing Michaelle so high in the air, and she loved it! Just thought I'd share!