February = Fun with Friends!

february has been quite the month!! many of my best friends celebrated some major milestones in their lives and i/we were so lucky to be a part of these special times! first, we had jill's bachelorette party...such a fun night! some of our sorority sisters were able to come in from everywhere (st. louis, minnesota, and california!) it was so great to spend time with everyone and celebrate jill's upcoming marriage to the love of her life, mike! congrats!

bride to be opening the cookbook everyone helped create...we each put in a favorite recipe and our recipe for a lasting marriage (adorable idea!) along with pictures of ourselves with jill. she loved it!

college crew

she will be one beautiful bride!

the next morning we had emily's baby shower. she is having a baby boy (due the beginning of april). we could not be happier for her and wes!! the theme was a "bun in the oven" to go with their halloween costumes this year of being bakers/chefs (em wore a sign on her belly about having a bun in the oven, so cute!) we held the shower at a quaint little cafe in parkville. everything was perfect...nursery song game, estimation station of the "buns in the bottle" (carmel candies), and super cute party favors, muffin mix with sugar cookie lip gloss attached! afterwards all the girls went out for pizza down the street at stone canyon. it was a wonderful weekend with the girls!

they officially decided on baby wilson's name too, grant!

soon to be mama!

hostesses

mizzou girls!

the following weekend was another jam packed weekend celebrating friends! friday night michelle was in town from arizona so keri and i threw her a mini-bachelorette party here in kc since we won't be able to attend her official party in napa in a few weeks (so sad!) we went to rumor's and clancy's (where her and scott met years ago!) it was such a fun night out and made me miss her even more! brian and i are really looking forward to our arizona trip in a few months to celebrate her marriage to scott!

love this girl!

two of my longest and greatest friends

fun, fun night!
saturday night was jill and mike's wedding at the hawthorne house chapel and then reception/dinner in briarcliff. jill was an absolutely stunning bride! it was a magical night watching her and mike tie the knot...a long awaited day! i know they will have a life time of happiness ahead. we loved helping them celebrate, it was a blast!

bride! she wore my wedding viel as her "something borrowed" i LOVED that!

my love

the girls! love that jen was able to make the trip back!

the happy couple

Tired Girl

this picture was too hilarious not to put on here...she fell asleep in the car on the way home from running errands and would not wake up! usually once we have to get her out of her carseat and come in the house she usually makes some sort of movement and opens her eyes...not this time! she was OUT cold! we laid her on the floor figuring she would surely wake up from that, nope! she laid like this for a good 15 minutes, too funny!

1st Birthday Party!

well, after months of planning (i know, a little crazy since she won't remember any of it, but, hey it was so much fun!) lilian's first birthday party was saturday, february 5th at our house. we did a "cupcake" theme which turned out adorable! i ordered a banner with her picture on it and really cute plates, napkins, etc. from a great site called 1stwishes.com. i recommend it to anyone planning a child's birthday! of course we had the one of a kind homemade cupcakes from fonda (mona's sister in law)...she makes incredible cupcakes with cookie dough filling, they are as amazing as they sound! here are some pictures of the party set up before all the guests arrived!

the cute banner, loved the way it turned out!

the other mantle had a string of pictures of her first year...one from every month of her first year! you can also see the new picture we ordered for our nook above the fireplace, we had her one year pictures done a few weeks ago!

cupcake theme!

the sweets table...filled with chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter centers and vanilla cucpakes with cookie dough centers! oh, and don't forget the pink sorbet punch!

check out these cupcake toppers i found on etsy that matched the theme perfectly!

more cupcakes and i set out her first year scrapbook and photo albums for guests to see. you can also see another one of her first year pictures in this shot.

some of the food...we served meatballs, veggies and dip, tortilla roll-ups, and corn dip!

lily received this wagon from grammy and pops! my mom came over the night before the party to help me set things up and brought the wagon for us to put together. it served as a great place to store all the presents before they were opened. lilian loves it! we cannot wait for the weather to get warm to take her on a real walk in it! for now, she is loving the carpet rides in it though!

our family! happy birthday, lilian!
the party was a great success...it started at noon. everyone came in and grabbed a plate of food and drinks. while everyone was finishing eating we played the slideshow of her first year filled with pictures from birth to present day set to music...this was my favorite part of the party! although i almost had a breakdown trying to get it finished (we had lots of technically difficulties and i had several patient friends help me out, thank you!!) it turned out beautiful and was such a neat way to show how much she has changed and grown over the past year. we gave copies to all the grandparents and family members. after that we opened gifts...and i do mean we as in brian and i...lilian was just happy walking around to everyone at the party and seeing what they were doing! she received many nice gifts...clothes, books, puzzles, dolls, bath toys, an adorable birthday plate, and so much more. afer that we attempted dessert...we had a special big cupcake for her to eat. we sang happy birthday and after we blew out the candle i gave her the cupcake...she stuck her fingers in the icing and was not sure what to think. after a few dips in the icing she was done! she didn't know what she was missing, ha ha!


she is very loved and we are so lucky to have such a great family and close knit group of friends! thank you to everyone who helped celebrate our little girl's special day! i'll never forget it! here are some more pics of the party.

12 month check up

lilian had her 12 month check up today, big girl! well, quite literally...her percentages were 15% height (i was optimistic and hoping for at least 25%, no luck!) and her weight was 66%! she weighs 22 lbs. and is 28 inches tall. i am hoping now that she is walking everywhere maybe she'll shed a few pounds and sprout a few inches would be nice too! ha! the doctor said she looked great and is doing excellent with her words and walking!
at 12 months her tricks include
words-dada, baby (this is her best word), go go (for doggie), ball, bye
animal faces-pig and lizard (sticking out her tongue quickly a few times in a row)
walks everywhere great, starting to pick up her pace to almost a run at times
gives hugs on demand (love this!) still no kisses though
enjoys
reading her books (brown bear, brown bear is her favorite) she will find this book in her basket of books and bring it to me (basically hitting me in the face with it at times) until i read it to her! must be a teacher's kid!
dancing (which consists of shaking her butt and that is about it, must have gotten her dance moves from her dad!) whenever music comes on
baby dolls (will go get her baby and bring it to you when asked)
chasing balls around the tile floor
taking everything out of baskets/drawers and throwing them on the floor (quite fun for me to pick up each night, ha!)
watching yo gabba gabba
KIDS, lights up when she is around kids, gives them hugs, etc. she cannot get enough
dislikes
her car seat (even though she is turned around front...bummer for us!)
being held most of the time (another bummer, now that she is mobile she wants to be down walking all the time...creates a problem when we are grocery shopping and she wants out all the time now!)
food/eating habits
she has transitioned to whole milk just fine (mom and dad love the savings from formula that's for sure) she is drinking from a sippy cup during the day and gets a night time bottle still, we are trying to break that habit soon
she eats oatmeal, cereal, bananas for breakfast (a combination of one or two)
for lunch she eats a variety of things from mac and cheese, hot dogs, potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, etc.
she has an afternoon snack of anything from grapes, puffs, banana chips, potato straws
dinner is similar to lunch
she has been getting more picky and it truly depends on the day for what she will eat and how much so we are always trying new things!
physical development
she has 4 teeth and is working on her top eye tooth now
she is getting more hair (finally!) it looks to be a light brown/dirty blonde
sleep schedule
she goes to bed around 7:30 each night and wakes up between 7 and 8
she still takes 2 naps a day, the first one usually 30-45 minutes and the second usually 45 minutes-an hour an a half depending on the day
overall, she is one happy, healthy baby who we are very proud of! her photo was on channel 4 for the 1st birthdays...here is the pic we sent in!