Happy First Birthday Lillian Grace

My sweet Lilly,
I have no idea where the year has gone. All of a sudden you are a year old and I feel like we just brought you home from the hospital. I cannot put into words how much I love you and how much you have changed my life. I used to get very annoyed with people who told me “you will understand when you have kids”, but they were right. There was no way I could know the kind of love and happiness that comes with being a mother. It is the most rewarding, most fulfilling and most difficult thing I have ever done and I have never regretted it for a second. Every day you remind me to cherish innocence and absolute love. You remind me what it is to be truly blessed by God.
I have a hard time writing you this first birthday letter because the words escape me, I want to write pages and yet I cannot. I feel the need to get this all down for you to know how much I will always love you even when you are 16 and start calling me by my first name. But it’s more than I could ever express.
I love you because of the joy that you bring to me every day, even when you are working my last nerve.
I love that sense of wonderment that you have as a small child that reminds me to take the day slow and enjoy it all.
I love that I can see so much of your daddy in you.
I love the way you smell after a bath and the way that you raise up your arms to sit in my lap and cuddle.
I love your stubbornness that is my legacy to you.
I love how your first words after dada and mama were Spenser and Ella.
I love how you smile at me and that beautiful laugh when something strikes your fancy.
I love how you bring me books and plop on my lap to listen to me read them.
I love that in one short year you have changed me forever.
My sweet buggie, I wish that I could keep you young forever, but I know that the job of the parent is to eventually let go. But since that will not happen for a long time, I promise you that I will cherish you always, that I will try to let you do it yourself and I will forgive you someday for the stretch marks.
My love always,
Mommy
And now, for your enjoyment the first year of Lillian Grace in pictures.

Any excuse for a picture

I have really good excuses for not posting for awhile, which includes: a sick husband, a sick baby with a double ear infection, a sick husband again, the start of school, insane snow and ice, and a power outage. I think those are good reasons, but I do have pictures. These first ones are what happens when the power goes out for 3 hours and it's cold outside. Basically this means mommy dresses you up in several layers with no concern about your fashion sense.

I am especially proud of this one as I was able to photoshop out the runny nose and all you can see is Miss Lilly's pretty baby blues.

Of course we are getting excited around here for our trip to Disney World in March, which prompted another photo shoot with Lilly in her Disney outfits. Now Jeff and I do have one bone to pick with Disney, they do not make many outfits small enough to fit Lilly, but we do have a Minnie Mouse we bought on super sale after Halloween and a Tinkerbell from Auntie Shell.

And of course we watched the Inaguration here, very happy with our new President. Lilly drew up her chair to pay close attention, I am so excited that we now have a White house featuring complete and grammatically correct sentences. Yes We Can!