Samantha's 1st Birthday

Morgan and Adrienne had fun picking out decorations for Samantha's 1st birthday party. If I remember right Dave got a vote too. :)

So then I had the fun job of creating a cake to go with our decorations. I take way too long making these cakes, but I really have fun with it.

Dave was on balloon duty. Samantha discovered where she needed to be pretty quickly.

She LOVED the balloons. She got the biggest kick out of crawling around while holding on to them. She thought she was pretty cool!

Samantha is one lucky girl. She has two Grandma's and two Grandpa's that love her more then she is able to understand. Both of our parents were able to make it to the party. Along with them came Aunts, Uncles and lots and lots of cousins!

After enjoying all the energy these cousins produced, I decided we really needed to try our best to get a picture of these kiddos. We are used to the craziness, but I have to remember that not everyone gets to enjoy this kind of thing. So here they are...

Presents

Samantha got some great gifts but as you can see she was more interested in climbing on the boxes...

and eating the wrapping paper.

Why was I not surprised?

We got her this little walker-wagon. As you can see she is pretty proud to push it along. The funny part is that she goes from pure JOY to pure ANGER when she runs in to something and is no longer able to push. Don't worry. The JOY returns as soon as you turn the wagon and she on her way again.

She was also pretty content to get pushed around a she waved "ba" to everyone.

Cake

The cake was much less of a hit.

That's right... she is gaging just looking at it.

Then came the look of disgust.

After she realized we were going to make her sit in her chair with the cake she just went to town making a mess. She turned it upside down and smeared it everywhere.

At least Morgan thought the cake was good.

She didn't even try it until I started to clean her up. The funny part is that she has had cake and other sweets plenty of times. She likes them. I guess she had just had too much pizza.

She managed to goo up my face and neck as I was trying to clean her up.

Samantha had been battling a cold, starting on her actual birthday. She was quite the trooper considering she wasn't quite feeling herself. I think she she had a good time, minus the cake torture. But by the time the party was over she was pooped.

Happy First Birthday Samantha!

We love you!

Samantha 11 months

Little Cedar Getaway

On the Move

Our house was filled with happy squeals yesterday afternoon.

Morgan, Adrienne and I squealed and clapped as we realized that Samantha was crawling... really crawling! Then Samantha let out some squeals of her own as she realized we were carrying on for her. :)

I love this stuff!

I kept saying that I wanted her to wait to crawl until our house remodel was done... and she did. What a good girl.

I love the look of determination as she focuses on her goal - the little tin cup.

Of course this opens the doors wide open to a new world of exploration and discovery. The good news is that she is content on the floor because she can finally get where she wants to go. The scary news is that she can get were she wants to go!

I'm feeling a little unprepared for this new stage.

She is also discovering that it is sometimes harder to get out then it was to get in. :) She is showing a high level of tolerance for the amounts of head bumps that go along with all this discovery.

Head bumps and all, I think it's safe to say Samantha is pretty excited about her new skill!

Samantha 7 Months