Josie's Birthday

This year, Josie's birthday will come the day after we move out of our house. That means that her actual birthday will occur while we are on the road, driving to Indiana. We wanted to do something to celebrate her 1st birthday and we decided to do it here before we left. It also gave us a great chance to see our friends one last time before we leave.

I can't believe it's been a year! Time goes by way to fast. It doesn't seem like too long ago that she was this:

I cannot imagine our family without this little girl! She adds so much to our family. Justin and I adore her and the boys are over the moon about her. She's funny, smart, sweet, and sassy. A few facts about Josie at a year:
-She is walking EVERYWHERE (and has been for about two months now)
-She talks constantly. She doesn't always say things that make sense, but some words that she has are 'uh-oh', 'mama', 'dada', and 'hi'.
-She loves to dance!
-She eats anything and everything (food or not) but her favorites are bananas, goldfish crackers, and mac 'n' cheese.
-She loves to follow Clayton and Noah around. She wants to do everything that they do. They are usually pretty patient with her.
-She's already a monkey. She climbs on just about anything she can.
-She loves to get into trouble (turning off the TV, eating crayons and papers, pulling things off tables, etc.) but knows that if she flashes her sweet smile she can get away with almost anything. -She's a thumb sucker. It's cute!
-She loves to be cuddled.
-Her daddy has already told her that he is going to have a hard time telling her 'no'. I swear she's already figured this out and plays him like a fiddle!

So we celebrated with a party. Here are the pictures:
The invitations:
The party:
The birthday girl with her birthday crown (it didn't last long - shocker)!
Eating off of Annie's plate. She was such a mooch - she went from guest to guest begging for scraps even though she'd eaten a HUGE lunch just before the party. Gotta love a girl with a hearty appitite!
Shiloh and Josie (and yes, we did use the Home Depot boxes for tables, awesome)
Greeting our friend Sophie.
Watching the big kids play out in the backyard (and longing for the day when they, too, can play unattended outside).
Shiloh, Sophie, and Josie
Birthday girl with daddy.
Birthday girl with mommy.
'More food please.'
Just thought this was funny.
It's tradition for us to give the birthday kid a small cake to eat. All of our kids have handled this situation differently. Clayton was cautious at first and then, once he realized how good it was, dove in face first (very typical of who he turned out to be - cautious), Noah had nothing to do with the cake and no one and nothing was going to interest him in said cake (again, typical of who he is today - stubborn). Josie went right in, no reservations! She didn't eat a lot of it, but loved grabbing handfuls and flinging them all over! Such a mess (wonder what this says about her personality? Methinks we're in trouble with this one).


She doesn't look TOO messy, but she did her best to make sure that everything and everyone around her sure did!
After she got all cleaned up, it was time for presents. Josie didn't really understand the thrill of opening a present (she just wanted to eat the paper), but Clayton, Noah, and Enoch sure did and kindly volunteered to open all of her presents for her!



Josie made out like a little bandit! She got a taggies blankie, a soft babydoll, her first purse (thanks Sophie), and an innertube for swimming with some bubbles (thanks Shiloh)!

She loves her doll. She spent a long time (for a 1 year old) playing with it, eating her face, and 'tweaking' her nose. The dolls name...(drum roll)...Wiebke (pronounced Veeb-kuh), it's German and Justin chose it. When we first got married one of our favorite families (and still one of our favorite families) had a deal where everytime the daughter got a doll, the dad got to name the doll. Justin thought that was the coolest thing ever and we've decided to make that a rule in our house too!
The birthday princess with her handsome princes! (Who, I feel I need to point out are all looking at the camera and smiling! Victory!)
All in all it was a very successful party. Just ask Josie:
I think she'd tell you that it's pretty great to be 1 (almost)! Happy birthday sweet girl, we are so grateful you're in our family and we love you more than we could ever say!!