Phone

Peyton also got a phone for her birthday (thanks Aunt Heather!) and boy does she love that thing! It seems like she's always talking to someone (I guess this is glimpse into her teenage years, and I must admit, I'm worried).

Tea Party

Peyton got a tea set (thanks Aunt Tera!) and a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal (thanks Poppa and Lala!) for her birthday. She decided to have a tea party with Mickey.

Like a good hostess, she's testing the tea to make sure it tastes good before serving Mickey.

Then she has to do the same with the sweets of course.

Finally, Mickey gets some tea....on his head. I guess we still have a ways to go on our manners.

Cheese!!!

This is Peyton's smile :) If you point the camera (or phone) at her, she automatically makes this face. Or, if you tell her to smile, this is what she does. I love it!!

Get You

We will tell Peyton, "We're gonna get you!" and she squeals and runs away. It's a fun little game we play and have played for months. Now we also try to get her to come "get us". It usually involves Matt lying on the ground, pretending to be asleep. Then I tell Peyton to "go get Daddy". She walks over to him and throws herself on him. On this particular night, she threw herself on him, then laid on his back and stuck her finger in his ear and pulled his hair. It was awesome!

Peyton's First Birthday Party!

I've been thinking and planning Peyton's party for months. My mom and I were at Buy Buy Baby one day and saw these adorable purple owl boots. As soon as I saw them, I knew that was what I wanted to do for Peyton's party! After a little more thinking, I decided on a purple and grey, owl themed party!

Peyton's daddy and I made the owl cookies below. It was a week long process, but worth the effort in the end.

Aunt Tera made these amazing owl cupcakes! We are so thankful for the many hours Tera put into making these delicious cupcakes, especially in the middle of one of the busiest times of her career! We love you!

January is always a busy month at work, and the busiest week is usually the second week...the week of Peyton's birthday. Thankfully, I had done a lot of the prep work leading up to the party; so, the week before wasn't too bad. I will say that it took a lot longer to make everything than I anticipated. I'm not sure how many more homemade party decorations are in our future!

Here's the birthday girl in her beautiful birthday outfit (it's hard to tell from the picture, but it's purple and grey to go with the theme, of course)!

Peyton enjoyed opening her presents!

A puzzle!

Mickey Mouse!! Peyton loves Mickey ever since the cruise when Granddaddy would walk around with her and show her the pictures of Mickey Mouse. Poppa and Lala have a Mickey puppet that she loves, and now she has her very own Mickey Mouse!

The first thing she wanted to play with, of all of her presents, were her new books! She couldn't have made me more proud :)

Jen and James were life savers and brought their jumpy house for the kids to play with. It was a huge hit...I don't know what we would have done without it. Thank you!!

We had a lot of family and friends with us to celebrate our baby girl turning 1! It was a wonderful party and celebration...26 adults, 6 kids/toddlers, and 3 babies!

Lala and sweet Reid!

Granddaddy and Hudson (perhaps the most laid back baby ever).

Sophie, just 7 1/2 weeks old! This was her first birthday party to go to, and she slept through most of it!

We were a little worried about how Peyton would react with so many people in our house, but she did great! She had a great time!

She had Lala trained so well, walking up and down the steps outside over and over and over again! She would be inside the house, in someone's arms, and as soon as they put her down, she would make a beeline for the back door (which we kept open) so that she could go down the stairs.

Peyton and Jameson had some good conversations out by the rocking chair.

Aww, so sweet. Sierra giving Peyton a hug :)

Peyton and Mackenzie hung out while Jameson taught them all about video games.

After a few minutes of observation, Peyton thought she was ready to give it a try, but Jameson thought she could use a little more time "learning" a.k.a watching.

Peyton wasn't the only one who had a good time at the party. Mackenzie and Reid hung out and bonded over some cool farm animals.

Sierra got to eat an owl cookie.

Hudson spent some quality time in Carolyn's arms.

Tera had her hands full too!

Jameson and Mackenzie were nice enough to help Peyton open her presents (she got a little bored after a couple gifts).

Mackenzie, rather impressively, carried around this big toy trying to get someone to open it up for her.

Meanwhile, Peyton was reading another one of her books :)

It wouldn't be a first birthday without the obligatory birthday cake (or cupcake in this case)! We weren't sure what Peyton would think of the cupcake...here she is examining it.

Then comes the first bite.

Hey! This is pretty good!

I was so caught up in the moment of giving her her first cupcake/sugar/dessert that we forgot to sing to her! Here we are trying to recreate that moment. Peyton could have cared less, she just wanted to eat her cupcake :)

Yummmmmy! She definitely got her mommy's sweet tooth!

What, is there something on my face?

Happy birthday sweet baby girl! We love you!!