One

One. One year old! How can my little baby girl be one!? It blows my mind to think that a year ago, she couldn't even hold her own head up by herself, and now she is walking, talking (no words yet, just babble), and feeding herself. Before she was born, everyone told me to enjoy every minute because they grow and change so fast their first year. Well, everyone was right. I feel like I just blinked my eyes, and now she's a year old. Crazy!

Well, as you know, birthdays are kind of a big deal at our house. Lydia's was no exception! We always do our favorite things on our birthdays, so Dave and I tried to think of what Lydia's favorite things were, and we made sure to do all of them on her birthday. 

She loves books. Not like her mother, she doesn't like to read them. She likes to EAT them. I usually don't let her eat the books, but - seeing as it was her birthday - I let her eat a book. 

She was so happy!

 She also loves to ride in the car, so we took a drive in the car.

She loves to shop, so we went shopping at the Hobby Lobby for a few supplies for her family birthday party on Saturday.

Her favorite thing about shopping is grabbing as many things as she can reach off the shelves. She cracks me up!

 She also loves to eat lunch with daddy and great-grandpa, so we made sure to visit Dave's work to have lunch with both of them.

After lunch, she took a much needed nap. All that morning birthday fun had her all worn out! After she woke up, we went for a walk, which is one of her very favorite things to do. It was a little cold, so we had to bundle up a bit. 

She loves to swing on the swings at the park, and there is a cute little park right by our house. So, we made a pit stop on our walk to make sure we took a few minutes to swing.

She gets so excited when she is swinging. She starts kicking her legs up and down and screaming. It is the sweetest little thing I've ever seen.

Her favorite kind of baby food is squash, so we fed her some squash for a snack. Her favorite "big people food" is spaghetti, so we made some of that for dinner, but I forgot to get a picture of it. Darn it!

One of her all time favorite things to do is to poke her finger in holes. I was trying to think of what I had that had a lot of holes, and then I thought of the perfect thing! Connect 4! I pulled out the game and she had a great time poking her finger in all of the holes. 

She's really into climbing onto boxes and then plopping down indian-style on top of them like it's her little perch. 

After our game of Connect 4, we let her pull daddy's hair. She gets so giggly and screamy whenever Dave lets her pull his hair. She loves it SO much! 

And, of course, the DVDs. I let her rip out every single one of the DVDs on the shelves that she could reach. I'm pretty sure every single one of those DVDs on the floor has two little teeth marks on them. She loves to eat the DVD cases.

We also let her paint her own canvas masterpiece that we displayed at her birthday party on Saturday. It was a little EXTREMELY messy though, and we needed all hands on deck to contain the mess, so we didn't get any pictures of it. But - you can see her masterpiece a bit later in this post. 

After her painting, she went straight to the bath. She got to use the big bathtub for the first time, instead of the little one that sits on the counter. She was having the time of her life with all the space and the running water in the tub. It was so cute.

After her bath, we opened presents - which she couldn't have cared less about. She was interested in the wrapping paper for maybe 2 seconds, and then she was more interested in taking everything off the shelves of her closet. We gave her some really fancy presents for her birthday. Get ready for the excitement! ....a toothbrush and some clothes. Haha. Big whoop, right? 

She found her Minnie Mouse ears when she was pulling things out of her closet. She let us put them on her head and she never took them off. Usually she won't keep anything on her head for more than a minute anymore. She is a mystery baby sometimes. 

We finished the night with some ice cream. Don't worry - we didn't give her that whole thing. Just a few bites. She was completely exhausted by this point, and a few bites was all she could even handle. 

She had a great birthday, even though she didn't even know we did all her favorite things. Haha! One day she will appreciate what we did for her, right!? :) 

On Saturday night, we had more of an official party with our families who came up to help us celebrate. I was really horrible at taking pictures at the party. I was a little preoccupied. :) But, I snapped a few - enough to document a bit, anyway.

Her cake shaped like a 1. It's not the most beautiful cake I've ever made, but it sure tasted good!

Brock, Aly, and Lauren. 

Lydia and Grandpa Scottie

Lydia got some toys for her birthday, and she couldn't have been more excited! We really haven't bought her a single toy. For the past year, she has been totally content with spatulas, measuring spoons, and whisks. So, needless to say, she was REALLY excited when she opened her presents. 

She got a car that she can ride on that makes noise. She was dancing to it before it was even out of the box. She also got a big stuffed Koala Bear that she loves to snuggle and poke his nose and eyes.

She got her very first baby doll. She, of course, instantly reached out and poked the eyes and mouth. Haha.

She got a duck that makes sound, and she was dancing to that one before it was even all the way opened too. She LOVES things that make noise. She also got some stack-able bowls that she loved to bang together.  

After presents, we let her eat her cake. She doesn't really like to touch food, so we weren't sure what was going to happen when we put a cake in front of her. Well, we found out quickly. She pretty much hated it. She was already a bit tired, and she had absolutely no idea what to do with this cake in front of her. We kept trying to put her hands in it and kept trying to feed a few bites to her so she would know how yummy it was, but she wouldn't have any of it. She was just crying, crying, crying. Poor little thing!

Those clenched fists did NOT want to reach down and touch the cake. It was as if the cake were hot lava and she was trying not to touch it. 

This was the messiest we could get her before she totally freaked out. So - we had a lot of cake left over! :)

We cleaned her up, got her away from that TERRIBLE cake, and let her play with her toys again. Then, she was PERFECTLY happy and content. She is a funny baby sometimes.

This past year has seriously been the best one of my life so far. Being a mother has been the most amazing journey, filled with all kinds of ups and downs. There have definitely been times where I have felt completely incompetent and overwhelmed, having no idea what I'm even doing. But there are also times when my sweet little Lydia will smile at me, or will reach out and touch my cheek with her soft little hand, or will laugh hysterically when I make a silly face at her, and it's moments like those that make all the "downs" of motherhood totally worth it. I love being a mom. It is the most rewarding and satisfying thing in the world to totally devote yourself and your time to serving, loving, and taking care of one of Heavenly Father's special children. 

I love this song by Jenny Phillips - it totally sums up my thoughts and feelings on motherhood and she says it better than I ever could. I think I cry every time I listen to it, because it rings so true to my heart. 

Happy 1st Birthday to my beautiful, sweet Lydia Jane. I love being your mommy, and I love you. For forever. All the way up to the moon and back. :)