Lovely's 1st birthday!

Time flies!  I can't believe our little baby is already a year old.  She's adorable and sweet, and perfect and lovely in every way.

She got to have more birthday festivities sprinkled through the weekend.  We don't mean to drag out birthdays just to spoil them unnecessarily.  We have a birthday party when the schedule allows and then try to do a special family dinner on their birthday.

But this last weekend was a crazy weekend full of fun.  On Saturday, we joined the Color Run.  Originally, I was planning on running this crazy 5K by myself.  I couldn't find any local friends to run with me so I planned to join some cousins once I got there.  But at the last minute, Grandma went down as a volunteer to help stuff registration packets and got the whole family signed up.  My cousin is one of the directors so our fantastic family teamed up to support him.  So on Saturday morning, we loaded the girls up, drove down and readied ourselves for the happiest 5K on Earth.  The start line is a mass of white.  3 miles and 4 color stations later, it's an explosion of color.  My little family, joined by grandma, grandpa and auntie all started together.  But my partner was Butterfly and she took off running.  So we stuck together, running when she wanted to run and walking when she was ready to walk.  Ladybug started in the (covered) stroller but quickly decided she wanted to run as well.  Lovely patiently hung out in the stroller the whole time, grinning or napping and generally being the perfectly sweet, easily content angel that she is.  We had a fantastic time and ended up plastered in the colored powdered.  The girls loved it and bounced around running and laughing and dancing and being silly.  We made it to the finish line, helped ourselves to the drinks and snacks, said hello to family and then hung around on the lawn watching the girls dance and play.

Eventually we decided to go.  The 5K (and accompanying party had all been hosted right behind the mall).  So as we got cleaned up and loaded our stuff into cars, we decided to head into the mall food court for lunch  (and Lovely's birthday meal).  We found food, devoured food and moved quickly onto dessert: crepes, churros and ice cream for a very happy Lovely.  We took the girls fro a carousel ride and Lovely loved it!  She was tentative at first, as I plopped her onto the horse and buckled her on.  But as it began to move she began to squeal and giggle and bounce.  It was make-me-melt adorable.  After our ride, she also got to open her last present from Grandma and one from big sister.  We took a few extra minutes to play with her new toys and eventually loaded everyone back into the car for some quick errands and the long drive home.

The rest of the evening was a little rough.  Lovely is an amazing baby with a very predictable schedule.  But we've learned that if we upset her schedule, she has a rough time adjust and recovering.  So the evening was spent at home, doing some cleaning up, taking care of some honey-do jobs and cuddling and playing with our girls.  After we put the girls to bed, Husband slipped over to a neighbor's house to watch the last quarter of the big game (go Utes!, a rather messy and weird end to any game but a well-earned victory nevertheless).

Sunday was her official birthday.    So we kicked off with breakfast (she got a whole chocolate chip pancake to herself and ended up a complete mess), had a quick round of baths, struggled through stake conference (she eventually fell asleep on me and it was a wonderful cuddle), went home for naps and then spent the evening at a friends' house.  They have three little boys for our three little girls to play with so the kids played, we feasted on the greatest chili rellenos ever and finished it off with caramel apple cheesecake.  We didn't bring a candle for Lovely we did have a quick round of singing and let her dig into her dessert.  She showed off her new standing skills, practiced racing up the stairs (always giggling as Daddy patiently followed since she can't go down very well yet) and even took her first unassisted step (it was just one so I don't think we will count it as walking yet but she's getting awfully close).

Finally at home, very worn out from our crazy fun weekend, she gave everyone kisses and I slipped in her to jammies.  We cuddled in her chair until she was asleep, having a rather sentimental moment reflecting on her growth over the past year, her amazing and sweet disposition and the wonderful perfection that she is.  Happy birthday my little Lovely.