happy birthday sadie :)

well my friends, here's here and gone. sade's first birthday. so many changes have happened over the last year, it seems to have gone so fast and yet time still seems to stand still all at once. what a beautiful wonderful, tough, crazy, chaotic, joyful time to have a child. it's so amazing to be able to watch a tiny form come from nothing. to be able to witness life from the very beginning to now. i remember one day bringing baby sadie downstairs for a middle of the night bottle putting her on the couch and thinking one day she won't be able to just lay here. she seems to change daily, right before our very eyes. one seems like a very large accomplishment, it's a great big deal around here. working for a church i have been witness to some great tragedies in the last year involving children who have passed away, to be able to spend one more day, to have been given charge of this beautiful sweet baby is a true blessing and gift. i hope i always take the time to appreciate who sadie is and who she will be. her birthday didn't start out exactly the way i wanted it to, but it was great nonetheless. i had been so excited about her birthday, i had stayed up almost all night just waiting for her wake up, what a great wonderful day. my dad ended up needing to go the doctor so i helped him to go. josh dropped sadie off to me, what a way to spend her big day, but it was fun because she got to see her grandpa. we ate lunch with our friends annie and emily then came home to spend the rest of the day with josh and josh. grandma flaherty came over for a visit and we also went next door to see grandma wilson and uncle joe. grandma and grandpa wilson gave sadie a toy rider, one of those devices you can push or ride with lots of buttons and noise. from the minute it got opened and almost ever since she LOVES this toy. she's constantly pushing it, throwing it, examining the tiny figurines on the front, pushing the buttons, dancing and looking to see if we are too. we ended up not having a huge birthday bash for sadie with her birthday being right after thanksgiving but also i had to leave REALLY early the next morning for a youth ministers conference in cleveland. i really hated leaving my newly turned one year old, but i'm so glad i had the opportunity to go. it was so good to be reaffirmed in what i was doing, my eyes being opened to the direction i need to go and energized to get started again. when i came home sunday morning, exhausted, weary, tired, worn out, etc i went up to sadie's room she had been taking a nap. as i came up to her room she was awake standing up in her crib. i pulled her pacifier out and she said "mama" it just about tore my heart. she's such a sweet baby :)
sade had her 1 year appt today, she's 90% for her height (wearing 12-18month clothes) 95% for her head and 25% for her weight. we didn't realize she was such a skinny minnie. sadie eats like a horse, which is a good thing. we are starting her on whole milk now. we have gotten her off the bottle basically and are working on cutting out the pacifier. that seems to be really difficult. sadie has used a pacifier every night since the day she was born, so to listen to her cry at night when she never did that is hard. we are working on it though. here are some pictures of her birthday. enjoy!

trying to give some to daddy

hi mama

yes she's actually giving some to willie

want some?

i think i'll pick up the biggest piece....

this is so fun!

where do i go from here

yumm

look at all this frosting

yes, this is the best day ever

i love all this frosting

oh sugary goodness... come to me

yummm

she doesn't seem to understand why we are holding her hands, what with the open flame and all..

the birthday cupcake

messing with daddy

so happy with her presents

a present from grandma

she loves the rings

more interested in the paper than presents

the birthday girl

a very typical scene in sadie's room

she loves walking with her grandma :)

she can't decide what to open first...

walking with grandma

it's a big ole present

so excited

she was "yelling" for us to get it out.

she loves to push all the buttons and watch the figurines

getting help from daddy

some of the pictures are recently added from a birthday party we threw to raise items for birthrite, an organization here in cedar falls that helps unwed or disadvantaged women/couples who are pregnant. the teens from the parish brought items to donate, they are awesome :)