Minnie's 1st Birthday Pah-ty!!!

The day dawned with a RING!!! Aunnie Becker, Uncle D and PQ called to sing Happy Birthday to her first thing... she was THRILLED!

We scooted from church a little early so that she could get home to get a good rest before her friends started showing up. I whipped around and hung up the decorations... do you see the timeline banner of pictures and the "Happy 1st B-day" there on the deck doors? :)

The food table before the food :) Grammie R brought one of her WORLD famous fruit platters, L&L brought their cheese, roni, cracker plate, and J brought a yummy taco dip!

The cakes!!! The big one is vanilla, the cupcakes are chocolate and the one just for Minnie was an over-sized CHOCOLATE cupcake ~ Husband and I decorated them ourselves! :) We were pretty happy with how they came out :)

My "big" birthday girl just as she woke up from her nap and realized she was starting to get a houseful of people! :)

Clearly still 1/2 asleep :)

Pretty psyched to see her BFF, Dani though :)

and her cousin Brando... uh... or David Ortiz. Tough to tell...

Once we told her she could open her presents, that NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO BRING, :) She seemed to liven RIGHT up

I love the concentration...

She figured out the fun of paper pretty quickly

Probably the gift she had the most fun with... as did everyone else... can you see the sheer giggly-ness on her face?

and the love of her family and friends all gathered around to watch her on her very FIRST birthday... melt.my.heart.

After presents it was cake time, OF COURSE!!!!

MMM just a little taste...

oooooo

yeah, this is PRETTY GOOD! :) YUM!!!

She had so much fun with her cake it was a hoot to watch her :) Makes me look forward to Dani's b-day this coming weekend :) hee hee hee ~ Might even be more fun when I don't have to clean up the mess :)

After cake it was all about playing with the presents!!!

And then they settled down...

and it was time to say bu-bye... and give Brando... or David... kisses goodbye

snuggled in with 2 of my 3 favorite redheads :)

So Minnie, what did you think of your very first birthday party? Pretty sure she loved it...

We asked Laura Jane to stay for dinner earlier in the week and it was so nice to have an extra set of hands... to give Minnie a bath to clean off the rest of the cake and relax her while I started to put the house back together... Minnie LOVES her time with Aunnie Lu-Lu...

a little light reading of the Little People Nativity directions and it was off to sleep for our big ONE YEAR OLD girl...

Wow that went WAY too fast... I'm just trying to hang on for the ride and enjoy every SINGLE moment.

*cake pictures courtesy of Dawsky Photography

*present opening pics courtesy of Dawson

*Minnie and I pics courtesy of J.T.

~ Thank you ALL for jumping in and grabbing my camera to capture these moments!!! They are priceless to me! ~

Thanksgiving and O-Boyz GETS HITCHED!!

You try getting them all to stand still and look at the camera. :) Almost 3, Almost 18 months and a year old... yeah. Right. :) I love CJ's side profile and how Minnie is just TESTING him... oh yeah... TRY to hang onto me big boy! :)

ADORABLE headbands that their Mama made with them... so stinkin' cute!

Ah, the FEAST. We had a great time hosting Thanksgiving... the CountryRents, cousin Tod and his GF, JJ, J and the boys, Betsy and Brando, MIL, Husband, Minnie and I made for a rowdy, fun bunch where everyone pitched in and made it a HUGE success :) Fun times and GREAT food. Pretty sure my kitchen STILL smells of turkey. Pretty sure Husband doesn't mind :)

After lunch and Minnie had a nap it was off to MIL's for sandwiches and time with all the cousins...

Pretty sure you can tell by this picture that my girl didn't get all the rest she should have and our evening was a little tough but she's a trooper and next year we'll be able to stay even longer :)

One of my FAVORITE parts of the night... GA and her college roomie showed up :) She needed to get her bridesmaid dress measured and what better time to come then when we can ALLLLLL see her and love on her!?!?! :)

College Roomie is our new friend... she was a FUN GIRL!!! HIP HIP!!

Friday was pretty low key which was nice since Saturday we were BACK party-ing again!!!

Sweet C-line's Aunt O-Boyz got marrrrrriiiieeeeddddd!!!!

She's thrilled can you tell? :)

Awwww.... O-Boy-z big brother walking their gorgeous Mama down the aisle.

The youngest but pretty sure not the littlest Boy-z...I wonder...do you think....

these two are related much? :)

Missing here is a pic of GA... she looked drop dead gorg but the pic of her was NOT flattering with her MOUTH gaping open and looking very confused :) A better pic of her will be in a bit... here's the stunning bride and her Papa...

Can't believe this is the same girl that I have a picture of on my fridge wearing froggy pjs?? :)

Try to make the picture bigger so you can see the groom's face. Always my FAVORITE part of a wedding... he looked SOOOOO proud!

Most definitely my FAVORITE picture of the night! Could she BEAM any brighter? :)

Meanwhile....

Thankfully she snapped out of it for a bit but we had one tired girl on our hands so TiTi, MiMi and BriBri came to pick her up to take her home so she could go to bed. Didn't go QUITE so well but Aunnie Becker to the rescue and I *think* BriBri is no worse for the wear... I hope. :)

What are all the little people looking at??

The first dance of course... how SWEET is THAT?

AMAZING cake. It was SOOOO YUMMMYY!!!

HAPPY couples! I'd like to take a moment here to give special thanks and a shout out to Glory and Mama H for the dress, earrings and pashmina that brought this whole outfit together. I could NOT have done it without my amazing girlfriends who are willing to let me raid their closets and come home with options so that I feel pretty :) Love you girls. Thank you!!!!

What, you might be wondering, is going on here?

Why a rousing game of "shoot out" of COURSE! Isn't that how everyone finishes a wedding?? LOVED IT!! :) It was SO FUN to watch!! Course I'm always a big fan of watching this guy compete :)

Gorgeous Boy-z girls...I am blessed to call them my friends... I love these girls!!

It was a FANTASTIC few days, so awesome to have Husband home and hanging with us and celebrating all weekend long... next up... SOMEONE turns ONE!!! :)