Happy Birthday Sierra!!

Before we get to the birthday thing, we have to say a big, huge congratulations to the newly-wedded Travis and Ashley Stewart! Yay! We had a fantastic time in Austin celebrating their wedding last weekend- the wedding and the bride were gorgeous and the family and festivities were loads of fun. Unfortunately, I didn't make it out with any pictures of my own, so we'll have to wait for the full wedding recap post. Here's one Travis took of Sierra and GrandDoug waiting for the ceremony to start- 100% precious!

Also, is that not the cutest dress ever? Mamaw is credited with the find on her adorable silk Strasburg and Aunt Arlene for hauling it around Texas to get it all cleaned up and ready! Definitely more pictures to come....


aaaaaand... BIRTHDAY!
Little Sierra Elisabeth is now a BIG, toddler Sierra! Wow what a year it has been. By which I mean the absolute best, most love-filled, rewarding, exhuasting year of my life. I'm definitely sad to see the baby-days slipping away, but also excited for the fun toddler milestones that I know are in our future. Like talking. Walking is no longer a challenge, but her communication is still limited to "point-and-grunt." She's definitely a good-natured baby- almost always happy, sleeping through the night, sweet as sugar. She's up to 8 teeth now! We're just in a constant state of teething I think. She loves finger foods- no patience for Mama & that spoon- and she'll almost anything you put in front of her. How could her parents not be blissfully happy? :)

On her birthday morning, we sang her first "Happy Birthday" and opened presents in our jammies.

To celebrate her special day, we took a trip to Dewberry Farm to meet some farm critters, test our navigational skills in the corn maze (Mama failed, no surprise), and pick our pumpkins with GrandDoug, GeeGee, Uncle Travis, & Aunt Ashley.  

All day, we talked about the day she was born. And I remember feeling just like this.  :P Hard to believe I weighed 55 pounds more last year than I do now! (Well, my knees believe it.) Wow!

After a not-so-quick dinner out, we headed home to start working! what? Yep, cake & cookie time in preparation for Sierra's birthday party! Papa rocked the cookie decoration- pink butterflies & dragonflies. What a sweetie. :)

Our "theme" was girly bugs.  Overall pretty impressed with my first attempts at cake decorating.

 

 Sierra had her own little cake to maul. I looove the little leaf plate I found- if you look closely, you might see the "chewed" out holes along the edge.

Birthday Girl!

Super-cool gift from GrandDoug-  he made this little hippo that chomps his mouth when you roll him along!!

Birthday banner: "Baby year in review." High girly factor- the clips are hair barrettes!

 

Look how much she's grown! It's pretty amazing when you see it charted like this. (By weird coincidence, the bottom edge of this thing is 19.5 inches- her length at birth!) We'll add in the 1 year point after her official "weigh-in" at the pedi on Monday!

We had a great party and really, really appreciate all the loving friends and family that came to celebrate with us. Sierra loves you all! :) Thank you all for the sweet gifts and adorable outfits- we'll have a fashion show soon! 

And just to be nostalgic, her first picture!

And now... bed. Phew!