You are probably the funniest kid I have ever met. You have this personality that is so intense. You are very strong willed, happy and hilarious. You have a smile that lights up a room. It is so big.
When you were just a few months old I would never have imagined you would have been like this. You were such a difficult baby, not your fault because you had colic, but it was tough.
You love your baby dolls, blankies and balls. You carry them around all day. Dancing is also a favorite of yours.
At your 12 month well visit you were 29.75 inches long and about 20lbs (I don't remember exactly). You wear 12 months clothes but can fit into some 18 months because of your length. Your waist is very skinny like Ace's. You wear a size 5 shoe and a 4 diaper (could be in 3s but we put you in 4s since that is what Ashlyn is in).
You are pigeon toed like my side of the family. Hopefully it won't be extreme since no one really is but you definitely walk like my Mom and your cousin and I love it.
You know signs for more and eat but we rarely work on signs with you, poor third child syndrome. You can already run which is hilarious. I need to get it on video because I have never seen such a little person run like you.
You are a wild child and have no concept of boundaries and getting hurt. You love to wrestle with Ace and will go behind him and try to pull him to the ground to wrestle. You will also throw yourself around when we lay pillows and blankets on the ground. You are just like Ace and Daddy. Ashlyn and I just hang out and watch you crazy 3!
Ashlyn is your number 1. You and her have such a connection and I love it. I hope you are always close.
You also love giving kisses! It is so sweet. You have really become the sweetest little girl.
Last week was Ace's Spring Break and Everly's first birthday. To say we were busy is an understatement. Get ready for picture overload.
Friday my best friend Kat, her Mom and her girls came down to stay with us and help with Everly's party prep. I wanted to do a dessert theme party so Kat made all these cute desserts. We did a Cinderella theme so everything was girly and princess-y. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect party for her.
I decided that instead of goody bags I wanted to give the kids crowns, tutus, wands, shields and princess beach balls. I figured it was more fun for them to dress up and play pretend then have a bunch of junky toys that their parents will just throw away when they get home (I am totally guilty of this).
We also had a Cinderella come to entertain the children. I had the hardest time finding a company that had really nice looking princesses for a good price and fun activities for the party. The majority just had really poor looking princesses but when I saw Princess Party Productions site I was floored with how gorgeous the costumes and princesses were! No straggly hair and skimpy dresses (yes, there were Elsa's with skimpy dresses out there). They also offered simple face painting for no extra charge. Since we had a bunch of 3 year olds they were so excited and didn't care it was crazy face painting options. My favorite was the butterfly.
After she did face painting she read the story of Cinderella, my kids love books so this was a must, then she sang a couple songs. After that it was time to do cake so she stuck around and sang Happy Birthday to Everly. She was very sweet to all the children and made sure to take pictures with anyone who wanted to. And can we talk about her voice?! I was blown away.
After Cinderella left we tried to have Everly do her smash cake. She had taken a good nap so when she started crying I was surprised. Then my sister noticed Everly was getting her first tooth!! There was a big white bump and sure enough a tooth popped through the next day or two. Poor girl. We gave her some pain medicine and she was happy after that. All the kids played in the backyard and the adults just hung out. It was a pretty laid back party.
After everyone had left we decided to try Everly's smash cake and she went to town!!! It was seriously so funny watching her eat it. She would try to pick the whole cake up, not to shove it in her mouth mind you, she just wanted to pick it up. After she was done she started walking around the backyard and saw our neighbors in the pool a couple houses down and started "talking" to them. I don't know what it was about that moment but it was just so funny to me. She just has the silliest personality.
Party Details
Cake & Treats made by my best friend Kat and her Mom
I have been planning Everly's First Birthday party for about a month or two now and I am getting so excited about it.
We are going with a Cinderella theme to tie in Happily Everly After. I have been pinning things like crazy and have already been busy ordering things to make it perfect.
I feel like since this is my last baby's first birthday I want to give her as much of a special birthday as her siblings. Ace had a fun Carnival/Circus theme and Ashlyn's was a Halloween dress up party. I love planning their birthdays but I know the older they get the less I will get to decide on. They will start having their own opinions and ideas of what they want. Ace is already planning his 4th birthday party which apparently will be super hero theme.
So far for her birthday we have a Cinderella coming to sing songs and tell a story and I ordered tutus, crowns and super hero capes for the kids to dress up in. I figured that was more fun than goodie bags. I also bought princess beach balls for the babies to play with. This is what I did for Ace's party and the babies loved it. I failed on that one for Ashlyn's.
My best friend is awesome and wants to make Everly's birthday cake! Oh and it will also be a dessert party since it will be at an in between time for eating. Probably not the best idea to do before dinner, sorry everyone!
I still have to figure out decorations but I have lots of ideas!
I still can't believe in just over a month my last baby will be One Year Old!
We decided to do a costume theme since it's so close to Halloween.
How cool are these soda covers? Party City has them!
Branden and I had planned on being Alice and the Mad Hatter but I couldn't find a good Alice costume and then we decided to make the whole family characters from Alice. Since it was Ashlyn's birthday she got to be Alice instead of me.
My friend Alyssa made us the cutest Alice and Queen of heart apron's for our costumes. I figured the apron would be cute for dress up too.
Ace and Everly were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and we just made up their costumes ourselves. When I saw Ace dressed up I almost died over how cute it turned out.
Bran bought his costume online and he looked awesome.
Ok so back to her party. We had some friends and family come over to celebrate and everyone dressed up in such awesome costumes. My friend Christel was Anna from Frozen and Ace called her Anna the entire night, so cute!
I still can not believe one year ago we were in California watching you come into this world. I got to cut your umbilical cord and see your cute chubby face for the first time.
There are no words to describe how incredible you are to us.
You are such a sweet, loving baby and I love that about you.
As my friend Andreina says, you are an old soul. You are an observer and do things at your own pace.
You can walk to us from the couch and "talk" but mostly your words are a bunch of gibberish. You will mimic some things we say like ugh oh, mama, bop and shhh.
You can sign all done, more and milk but you rarely do any signs. You just don't care to do them.
You also can also take about 10 steps and getting more and more steady but you prefer crawling.
You are very clingy and do not like when Mommy walks away from you. You love to be rocked before going to sleep, which I love too. It's probably my favorite time to just sit and be with you.
Everyone loves you and you are just the cutest little thing. We can't wait to see what your next year brings!!
All photos done by my incredibly talented friend Lindsay Lago!