So many blessings

This is what Kylie does when we say "Yay!!!" We are so thankful to have this beautiful and amazing little girl to call our daughter. She is an inspiration and has filled our lives with lots of joy and many, many smiles. We are definitely blessed that He chose us as her parents, and all the love that He has for us all...nothing is greater than that!

All that we have been through this past year has made us see that life is in all the little things and we really need to treasure the moments we have together. Let's make the best of every moment and hope for a better year to come :)

With the many smiles, comes laughter...nothing is more precious than a child's laugh :) Here is a clip of one of Kylie's favorite games...running around the loveseat while one of us chases her. She usually cracks up laughing the whole time, but the camera kind of threw her off a bit. Lots of love and blessings to everyone!

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Boo-day contd.

So if you read the previous post, you saw that Kylie was definitely not interested in her pumpkin cake for her birthday. Actually she did try to go for it, but we weren't quite ready for her to take the plunge, so we tried to keep her back....so yeah, we think we are a bit of the reason why she wanted nothing to do with it. She is kind of like that...she wants something when she wants it and not when you want her to have it.

We decided since the pumpkin was pretty well in tact that we would keep it refrigerated until her actual birthday (November 4th). We got her down to a onesie and crowned her princess once again (I love that crown!) and we laid out a plastic tablecloth on the floor with the prize pumpkin in the middle. Here is some footage of what happened.

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Our local news station, Fox 4, has a weekend segment where they feature First Birthdays for those that send in a picture of their little one. Of course we had to send in her picture, because she is so darn cute, and everyone needs to see that she is having her first birthday! We must not have made the cutoff for the feature last weekend, so we got to see our princess this weekend...she is such a star! Here is a link to her picture...Click on Nov 7-8 Pt2

Kylie's Boo-day Party

We decided to throw Kylie a 1st Boo-day Party...Matt thought it would be fun to have her 1st birthday as a Halloween theme. Not a bad idea at all, afterall ,I was hoping she would have arrived on Halloween :) Anyhow, I just had one condition...she got to be a fairy princess or something totally girly for her 1st birthday :)

It was quite a bit of work, but I did enjoy searching for lots of fun and creative little touches for her party. Some how the pictures that Matt had taken of all my work got deleted or just vanished, so I will try to paint the scene for you all. We had a cauldron filled with pink potion, and just next to those were jars filled with magic wands covered in magic dust (pretzels dipped in chocolate and covered with halloween sprinkles). I also had slips of paper for guests to write a birthday wish on, and then to place in her pumpkin bucket....I intend to give these to Kylie on her 18th birthday.

The kids were entertained with a ghostbusters game. This was some plastic pipe cut to different sizes and painted white with ghost faces drawn on them, and a ball to throw at them (like bowling). Another game was monster toss, this was three plastic buckets (a ghost and two jack-o-lantern buckets), with plush monsters to toss into them. We also had a hay bale with a scarecrow and pumpkins to use as the back drop for taking some birthday pics....some how that really didn't get used..lol

Kylie really enjoyed being able to run all around the room, and she loved being around the other kids! She is definitely a bit of a social butterfly..sooo not like her mom and dad. We had her dressed as a fairy princess and even had a crown to top it off! I found the crown through another IS mommy's website. If you would like a crown for your little prince or princess, please click here, and it will take you to their blog. You can even get one customed made to match an outfit or costume like we did! All of the proceeds help offset the costs of any therapies not covered by their insurance.

Below is a slideshow of pics from her party..enjoy :)

Below is Kylie and her pumpkin cake at her party. Hmmm... it's not looking like she is all too interested in diving into it, so check it out to find out.

It was great to see everyone there, happy and ready to celebrate our princess and how far she has come. She is just amazing and so cute...I can't seem to say that enough!'

Happy 1st Birthday Kylie!

I spent some time Sunday night going through hundreds, and I'm sure it is well over a thousand pictures that we have taken of Kylie since she arrived 1 year ago today. I remember when we got home from the hospital we saw that we had already taken about 200 pics and that was just in the first couple days of her life.

I remember thinking I could not wait to see our baby girl, and then thinking wait..I'm not sure I am ready for this..maybe I will just be pregnant forever :) Her arrival just filled us with all sorts of emotions, and I couldn't believe she was here, our princess! I remember Matt calling her his little punkin and I called her punky because she was so feisty. Matt and I still talk about how beautiful a day it was when we brought her home. Our heavenly Father had this truly beautiful path laid out before us, and when we drove down our street it was so bright and sunny, unlike the other streets we passed on the way home, and the colors of the trees were so vibrant...like He was welcoming Our family home. It was very surreal, and so incredible. He loves us so much!

As a first time parent, you have no idea what to expect or what you are truly in for. It is definitely a rollercoaster ride for sure...one that is in the dark and you have no idea what twists or turns are coming up next. We had some difficult times from Kylie having huge troubles nursing, to our scare when she had an ambulance ride at 3 months with a hospital stay, to her diagnosis of IS just 2 months after that. She has also given us lots of happy moments with her continued development, and the smiles..oh those Sweet smiles! Despite all that she has been through we are not only still standing...sometimes leaning, but Kylie has been just amazing through it all.

I think all that she has been through in her first year of life should teach us something...something about how a little person, with no control, no say about anything that is happening to them can be so happy, and just constantly on the go. It is as though she she has been untouched by all the crazy stuff that she has been through. She very well may never remember any of this, but as her mom and dad we will have the wear and tear on our hearts...the places that she has since filled in with her love and amazing spirit. We are so glad that He has chosen us as her parents, how blessed we are to have her as our daughter! We thank God every day for another day with her and all the many blessing He has given us.

I'm sure I could go on and on...right now I can't find the words, it has been kind of crazy lately, and I feel like I am already stumbling through this. I will leave you with a couple slideshows of Kylie from her 1st year. There are two, since it only lets you upload so many pics per slide show. Enjoy the shows, and our beautiful princess :)

Part II