It’s been an amazing past couple of days. On Friday November 16th our tiny love turned one. One!

One of the things that I have always loved to do as the current year is about to end is to look back on all the events that have happened throughout the year because I’m always amazed by everything that has happened, and how a year ago I never imagined what was in store and where I am at the present moment. Well it’s no surprise that as our little one’s special 1st birthday approached I got the same feelings I get when I’m about to greet the New Year. So the days leading up to her 1st birthday I was thinking back to “a year ago today” and one of the days that stood out was November 14th 2011 because that had been our Doctor’s estimated due date. What I remember particularly about that day is that I was typing on my laptop (probably blogging) and all of a sudden our baby completed stretched out in my belly so that my stomach took the shape of a bullet, it was the funniest thing to look at. My husband even snapped a picture of me and my belly, and it’s one of the pictures that I often look back on because little did I know then that just two days later, at 1:00 am, our little one would be waking me up and telling me the big day was here, November 16th.

And now it’s amazing to me to think that a whole year has gone by and to look back on everything that we’ve been through. From the immense love, exhaustion, laughter, frustration, understanding, flexibility, and so many more emotions and blessings that we’ve experienced, because even those really difficult times have helped to teach us so much. I suddenly found myself just a couple days away from her 1st birthday, excited for our daughter’s big milestone and also doing the last minute preparations for her birthday party.

My husband and I are usually pretty low key about birthday celebrations, as in pizza and cake and having our immediate family over. We just don’t do big, but celebrating our daughter’s 1st birthday felt like such a special and big moment that we were really excited about having our family, friends, and neighbors join us in celebrating. So with a lot of help from my mom, cousin, sis in law and two nieces, the party turned into something magical for us.

I can’t even do it justice with words to describe what a fun and phenomenal day it was and how much we loved everything! Everyone was so happy and enjoying themselves and we just felt so blessed to have so many special people celebrating with us and a part of our lives. And the best part, our daughter was SO happy. She spent the evening waving at everyone and being handed from one person to another. I think I held her all of like 4 times throughout the party. One of my most memorable moments was when everyone gathered around to sing happy birthday. I was wondering if she’d maybe cry to see everyone gathered around but she was totally unphazed by it and then when everyone applauded she paused for a second and then waved at everyone with both her little hands. I wanted to melt! It was a great day, so much fun, and my husband said it so well the morning after, it was truly a wonderful example of community and having people in our lives from such different generations and realms of life.

Here are a few pictures from the special day…