ONEderful Celebrations!

Our baby girl is not so baby anymore...  Sigh.  Sniff.  Wow.

Lilee's first birthday sort of crept up on us, being so close after the holidays and what was a big whirlwind of a year, and I can't believe we basically have a little toddler on our hands now!  A walking, talking one at that!!! 

It has been quite a year with this little bundle.  She can be high maintenance for half the day then go-with-the-flow the other half, super sweet and cuddly one minute but fighting with all her might the next at diaper changes or when being told "no," giggling and adoring Maelee then loudly talking (screaming) back at any "offense" by big sis...  These two girls can both have some night and day tendencies but in very different ways, and it has been so fun to see how unique they each are!

Sweet Lilee Pie - as daddy nicknamed her just after she was born and we both affectionately call her now- truly has brought so much joy to our home and we are already loving this 2nd year.  Much of the challenges with sleep and various other "baby" issues are (Lord willing!) behind us and she is in the light bulb phase where each day she seems to understand and process more and more.

We can officially add "mama" and "apple" as frequently used words now and she is pointing at her nose, teeth, and hair when asked.  It is adorable.  And we seem to have now entered the stage where walking is her preferred mode of transport over crawling.  It is all happening a little too fast, but she's so darn cute that we really are enjoying each new development.  Now if we can just figure out how to teach her more patience...

But anyhow, onto the slew of pictures from her actual birthday, her big bday bash, and the photo shoot!

January 23rd was like most any other Friday, except we had the fun treat of having Nana &Pop-Pop over for pizza, cake, and presents that evening!  Little Lilee tends to crash in the evenings and was definitely fading by the time we brought out the sugar and final presents, but she seemed to enjoy the night...

Pizza is already a favorite food!

Two free cakes (one from friends who didn't need it and the other from our local grocery store!) plus the little banana muffin covered in whip cream for Lilee

Time for gifts!

Admiring another special pearl from Nana & Pop-Pop

So grateful they could be there!

I think it's safe to assume she's thinking, "What's that???!!!"

Happy Birthday, dear Lilee!!!

Not so sure...

Ooh, fun to play with!!!

Sorta tasty...

She wasn't overly impressed with the muffin...er, cake.  

She didn't spit it out but had more fun playing with it than eating it!

Happy girl!
(yes, our little "toddle-er" is all over the place now!)

More pics from birthday night:

The next week was even more full of excitement as my brother flew in from Japan for an 8 day visit!!!  It was so great to have him here and Maelee was pretty much beside herself each time she saw him.  He was very patient with her and indulged her goofiness so she is missing him dearly!  We wanted to take advantage of his visit by planning Lilee's birthday bash around it so we went up to DE to have a sweet celebration with family on the 31st.  Bless sweet Too-daddy's and especially Too-Mom's hearts for putting up with the crazinesss!  It was a full house but we loved getting to share her special day with everyone.

Sweet times with TD one we arrived

 

And some with Uncle Dan, too!

The cake made by an older sister of one of Maelee's classmates before Nana's skilled hands fixed it up...

And the beautiful butterfly cake after!

We didn't end up eating one of the cakes from the weekend before so thanks to the freezer, it worked great on top!

Maelee was especially thrilled that cousins Mason & Lane could be there!

Pin the dots on the butterfly!

She was so excited to participate :)

More sweet gifts!

 

Loved having both the adoring Pop-Pop AND Uncle Dan join in the celebration!

Priceless smiles...

Aaand... crash!

Thankfully some singing perked her back up!

This one loved the cake!

And once again, this one wasn't too sure...

But it was fun to play with!

 Fun night but definitely ready for bed!





The night ended with the escape of a balloon and the hysterics that followed.
Including Mason's matter-of-fact solution of how to get it down:
"Just use your imagination!"
To which Maelee responded:
"No, that won't work..."

Slideshow from DE celebration:

What a special night to get to have so many sweet family join in this big milestone for our little Lilee! I'll get another post up soon with more pics from January into February and more sweet times having Uncle Dan here.  This normally dreary time of year has ended up being pretty awesome this year for us so far!

And finally, a few more shots from our little "1 Yr Photo Shoot" with this sweet girl...

Our little butterfly

Cute expressions...

Sweet toes

And gotta love the tush shots!

I mean, those are pretty precious bloomers, are they not???

Fun with "Buddy," the bunny made by Mee-Maw:)

And she just can't stay still!!!

Once again, it has been quite a year.  This little girl has so much personality and spunk, and so much sweetness and love.  And we are so grateful!

And a new year begins...

Today is the last day before our little Lilee turns ONE.  Wow.  It has been quite a year and I truly can't believe how quickly she's growing up!  

She is babbling like crazy with lots of sounds/words that could closely pass for "dada," "caca" (for kitty), "mama," "nana," "baba" (for Pop-Pop!) but not always as consistently so we're still somewhat waiting for the true first word. Steve and I are debating whether or not to call "uh-oh" her official first word as she says it correctly, but really, is it actually a word??? She's repeated "appoo" for apple like big sis but doesn't always repeat it when she sees one so we shall see!  It is adorable having little conversations with her regardless.

And... (drumroll, please) she has taken her first steps!!!  It has been near impossible to get photos/video of this but trust us!  She took a couple back on 1/10, then about 5 on the 15th, and just this morning, Steve said he counted 10!!! So it's only a matter of time before she takes off!  Stay tuned... :)

But, I digress.  A large post celebrating our sweet Lilee Pie will be up before too long so for now, I'll showcase some of our highlights from January so far, beginning with New Year's Eve!  

We all had a sleep over at Nana & Pop-Pop's so that Steve and I could have a date night out, so we celebrated a mini-countdown earlier in the evening with the girls before they went to bed.  We tried to put a little New Year's tiara on Lilee but she was not having it.  (See below when we tried again the next day!)

 

It was nice to go out together and celebrate our 15 year anniversary (!!!) of our first kiss then share the countdown with my folks.  Little Lilee ended up having a rough night (so we had a rough night!) but was chipper the next morning.

Until we put that darn tiara on her again!:)

All in all, it was great way to celebrate an eventful and beautiful year and look forward to what should be another big year ahead.

Holding a toy carrot in her hand- very appropriate with the outfit!

Enjoying a delicious and fun double date night out in DC with my folks

Maelee's first week back to school was a bit of a mess with snow related delays but she loved playing in it in the courtyard!

A fun little outing to a local mall with an indoor play space!

Then last weekend we had the super fun pleasure of joining Nana & Pop-Pop on a trip down to the Massanutten Resort in the Shenandoah Valley.  Maelee was hoping for some sledding fun but there wasn't enough snow on the ground so we instead took advantage of the pool and she even tried ice skating for the first time!  Steve and I got to go night skiing one evening which was AWESOME and we all had a really great time. 

Super easy car ride down as this little sweetie peacefully snoozed away!

Hilarious whirlwind grocery trip that night where the girls both had a blast in the shopping cart car!

Took two of us to get Lilee's boots on but she was one adorable snow bunny!

Since snow fun wasn't happening, time for pool fun!

Lilee was a riot in the water- she has a blast!!!

And we loved every minute of our ski date :)

More pool fun the next day, before...

ice skating!!!

We were SO proud of our often cautious little girl who was such a champ on those skates!

I had a few nervous wreck moments watching her but she kept telling me to stop holding her.

Ha!

And before long, she was ready to give it a go all by herself!!!

Even Lilee enjoyed taking in some of the fun on the sidelines.

Super fun evening to end a wonderful trip!

Slideshow of more fun from Massanutten:

And before I put up a post showcasing our soon to be 12 month old, here are some pics from Lilee's 11 month "photo shoot."  Which she was NOT enjoying!  But she was so precious in the Christmas dress plus I had to keep documenting her growth with the butterfly wings, so I gave it a shot.  This baby girl is a riot.  She has the best smile and such a sweet, funny disposition, but when she's mad, she's MAD! :)  (But still stinkin' adorable when mad, too...)

Slideshow of more pics from Lilee at 11 months:

January has been a pretty good month so far and the best is yet to come celebrating our sweet baby girl AND getting to see my brother next week!!! We are all so excited for Uncle Dan's visit.  To top it off, Maelee has been in a really great phase the last couple of week where we feel we have seen some real growth in maturity and self-control so here's hoping and praying for a wonderful 2015 all around!!!

So finally, some more Jan pics: