Abby turns 1!

Well, I was going to start this blog post out by saying "Guess who turns 1 on Wednesday" but the title of the post pretty much gives that one away.  So...here we are just a few days short of a year after Abby was born.  This morning while I was feeding her I was telling her all about what Mommy and Daddy were doing in these last few days before she was born.  I remember it like it was yesterday!

 I know that all parents say "I can't believe how fast it goes" and my parents are probably STILL saying that now about my sister and I, but you don't really understand until you live it.  So here goes nothing, "I can't believe how fast is goes".  I mean seriously...what happened to my little 5 and a half pound peanut that slept the day away and kept me up at night?  What happened to the little baby that I could snuggle to sleep at night and would stay exactly where I put her down?  Or to the little gummy grin that I will most most of all.  What happened to her skinny little legs and her jerky little newborn movements?  I miss them all!  But, before I really start crying here I need to move onto all the things that I love about my still little, independent toddler.

I think you can call them babies until they turn one, then they are officially toddlers right?  My little peanut is the happiest little girl. She smiles at everyone and isn't afraid to sit in anyone's lap.  She has her own little independent personality and doesn't want to be snuggled, not even for a minute.  She's too busy!  She's got people and toys to play with Mom!  Don't hold her down.  She's curious and smart.  She walking and Ryan and I both SWEAR she said Rooster two times last night, repeating an app on the iPhone.  I am so glad Ry was there to hear it too because if I tried to tell him she said it, he'd never believe me.  I'm not sure I'm going to count it as a first word though (I not so secretly want it to be "Momma" but I'd settle for "Dadda").

Ok, enough of that, let's get to the party!!  We couldn't have asked for a nicer day.  It was 75 and sunny all day.  We had about 70 people at the house for Abby's party.  It was crazy and I never could have done it without my Mom and Ellyn's help.  They helped with food, prep and cleanup.  Who knew Abby had 75 people that loved her enough to drive "all the way to Iowa" as Aunt Terri called it :O)  We had the pool open and the kids swam, followed by the adults later in the day.  The sun was shining, the music was going and the beer was flowing!  Ryan and I had such a great time having everyone over to hang out, and for some, to see our new house.  We've not quite been there a full year yet and we sort of did this as a combo housewarming/birthday party.

We had friends from Naperville, Indiana, Freeport and everywhere in between make the long trek.  We got tons of compliments on our yard (it's big enough to host 75 people and not feel crowded at all!), and the changes we'd made to the house.  People loved the pool and Ryan's most proud of the number of people that asked how we got the lawn so nice.  It is one of his prides and joys....course fixing the ever broken lawn mower is NOT!

Grandma Ellyn made these fun giant bubbles for the kids.  I was pretty sure that Abby wouldn't be interested much in it, but I was officially wrong!!  She loved those things.  So much so that the older kids finally asked if we could take her away because she was bothering them :O)  I think she liked sitting and splashing in the trays for the bubbles most.  Oh, and carrying around that wand...she loved that too.

The dogs were great too.  We had 5 dogs at the max in the back yard and it went pretty much perfectly.  That is to say until Staley thought Ashley was holding a plate of fruit for her to eat from.  In her defense, it was right at her nose height.  Ashley was scared for a second, but a quick sweep into my arms and a few minute later she was fine and laughing about the silly doggie.  A few of the other kids weren't such a fan of the dogs but for the most part there were plenty of people for them to bother so it was fine.

Presents galore!  I tell ya, this little girl is spoiled!  It took me almost 3 hours to reclaim my living room and her bedroom from the toy explosion that happened.  She got a bunch of clothes and so many toys I've hidden some in the closet to open when she starts getting bored of the ones we opened already.

Abby made it all the way through opening presents before needing a nap, so it was a party success.  She helped me with the first few and then got distracted by the new toys, specifically this hammer toy from Aunt Laura and Uncle Mike.  Don't get me wrong, she's going to get tons of use out of everything we got, but for now, she's pretty hooked on this one.  Even this morning, when I was getting ready for work I set her down by her pile of toys and she dug all the way to the bottom to pull out this hammer.  I found her hammering on the TV stand and the other toys.  I have a feeling we've got some dented furniture in our future.

Seriously, she's been carrying around that hammer since Saturday like it's her fairy princess wand!

Personally, this gift, of Packers onesies is one of my favorites.  There is a pink one that says "I love Packers more than cupcakes".  How cute is that?  Thanks Kristina for my favorite gift of the day!

See?  Hammer Princess, right there!  Abby got tons of warm clothes for fall/winter.  She got sorting toys, wooden puzzles, her own personal couch (from Joey and Andy), wooden food, her first Kitchen aid mixer (all for a kitchen I'm making her...post on that later!), a Cozy Coupe (little yellow car), an Elephant ball popper, Oshkosh overalls, and lots of things I'm totally forgetting about right now.

Oh, and who could forget the wagon!  Isn't this thing awesome??  We took it with us to a little local fair by our house this weekend, called the Thrushing Bee.  It's a steam engine show.  Anyways, you should have heard the number of compliments we got on this baby.  It came from Grandpa and Grandma McGrath.  I did a ton of looking around at wagons and I'm so glad I picked this one.  It's got two seats, with belts, this great sun cover and a pack on the back to hold all of our stuff/diaper bag.  It's going to be perfect for races and for Trick-or-Treating.  I know we will get tons of use out of it.

All in all, we had a great time!  Thank you to everyone that came and for all of the amazing gifts.

You're probably wondering where in the world are the pictures of her with her little cake right?  I split them out into another post to keep you coming back :O)  I'm sneaky like that!  So come on back on Wednesday for those!!