Elise's 1st Birthday Party!

Elise turned one on July 1st.  Yes, it took me two and a half moths to blog about it...

It was so much fun to plan and throw her 1st birthday party.  I decided to do a "you are my sunshine" theme.

I know a lot of people sing this song to their babies, but it's such a cute little song, and I sing it to Elise before naps and bedtime.We made up a few of our own silly verses of the song that we sing, just so I am not singing the same thing over and over again because it's such a short song. :)

We had so many family members and friends show up to party with us.  Elise was spoiled rotten by them all. She got her first "bike" from her aunts and uncles on the Jensen side. She loves to ride it and is impressively good at balancing. She got many new toys and books that she enjoys playing with. She got a stuffed teddy bear, and when she opened it she gave it the biggest hug! It was pretty adorable. She also got a swing from mom and dad that she uses daily.

We served picnic foods to be enjoyed in the sunshine; including: sloppy joes, potato salad, banana pudding, watermelon, deviled eggs, sunchips, cupcakes, and ice-cream. Elise loved the watermelon! I made her another cake to smash/enjoy. She actually dove into this one, and didn't fret too much about her hands getting messy (which she hates). She ate quite a bit of the cake and frosting!

I gave myself the goal to complete her first year scrapbook by the time she turned one.  I actually did it! I knew that if I didn't give myself a firm deadline, the book would have never gotten finished.  I had it on display at her party for guests to look through and see pictures of Elise throughout her first year. I swear, scrapbooking is the biggest stress inducing hobby for me...(probably why I have never finished any other books/projects until now!)  It took me about 50 million hours  (that is hardly an exaggeration!) to complete, but it turned out so cute, and Elise already loves to look through it. I tell her it's "baby Elise's" book, and she loves to point out familiar things and people in each picture.

I made all of the decorations for her party, and did most of the shopping for supplies at Hobby Lobby, bless that store. I wanted to have some sort of picture booth/opp for guests. I noticed at Wal-Mart they had these huge poster boads (used for science fairs and that sort of thing) but I decided to try and use that as the face for one of those cut out picture booths.  Cheyenne helped me paint the scene, and Dan helped me nail it to the front of an old dresser that we used to stand it up. I loved watching all the guests, old and young, take turns using it.

Everything could not have turned out better. We had so much fun celebrating our baby's first year!

Picture time:

I got inspo. from Pinterest and good, then made it my own. 

I'm still trying to get the hang of ombre frosting, lol. But regardless of the looks, it tasted amazing!

I got the shelf from Hobby Lobby

Huge fan of watermelon!

First time on her new toy. There were quite a few spills, but nothing major!

Gosh, I love this silly little grin of hers.

Quite the turnout! We love this group.

My Grandpa Twitchell and Grandma Mary

Chris and Whitney

Marzia and Will, my sweet niece and nephew.

This was at the very end of the night. The toddlers were pretty much done with pictures! These are all of my Mom's grandchildren, minus one out of state.

Elise's "Friends" ha ha. Hopefully, they really become friends for years to come.

Smash That Cake. Or Don't.

I've been looking forward to doing a smash cake photo session with Elise for a while now!  Babies and cake are a stellar combination!

I did imagine things going a bit differently, though.  Elise did not want to smash her cake, so much as delicately dip in one finger at a time it, then lick the frosting off her finger.  But I'll get more in to that in a minute...

The decor was kept simple and easy. I figured Elise would be the cutest part of the scene anyways, so to keep the background stuff simple :) I found the tassel banner and the letters at Hobby Lobby, then strung them together.  I also got the cake topper at Hobby Lobby. I got the balloons at Macey's, and used a white blanket and cake stand I already had.

I'd been stressing about where to do the session, and what background would look the best, when the morning of, I looked out my back door and, for the first time, realized that I had a gorgeous wood fence that would be the perfect backdrop for the smash pictures!

I love the way they turned out in front of the fence.

We set up the scene and propped Elise down, a safe distance away from the cake, because she's for sure going to go straight for it and start smashing, right??

All she could focus on were the balloons!  Cake?  No thanks. She wanted those balloons, and that was that. So being the goal oriented mom that I am, I had to take the balloons away and hide them for a bit.

Dan and I jumped around like wild buffoons, trying to get her to give us her big, toothy, smiles. I'm sure our neighbors heard some pretty strange noises. She particularly loved when I would sing, "I don't wanna be a chicken, I don't wanna be a duck, I just wanna shake my butt" and I'd shake my bum like I was in the middle of a zumba class. Whatever it takes to get her to smile. I think I burned as many calories during this photo shoot as I do in a Spin class ;)

After about 20 minutes of her occasional dipping her fingers in to the cake, but more or less not giving a crap about it, I went over there and stuck both her hands in it.  That was not a smart decision. She just looked at her hands with disgust and started crying. She hated having the cake and frosting on them!  We tried setting her back down right behind the cake. Each time she started to immediately crawl away towards mom.  I wiped her up a bit, then we brought back some balloons and just let her have fun and play with them.

Whitney managed to perfectly capture every emotion Elise expressed; curiosity, confusion, happiness, anger (when mom tried to touch her balloons), delight, and more.

Whit is just getting started with her photography career, but she is such a natural! She seriously blew me away with her talent.  Elise is such a natural beauty, but it is not easy to capture her at just the right angle, at just the right time. Trust me, I try like 100 times a day!

Even though she did not attack the cake like I thought she would, we still had so much fun shooting her, and we still got some adorable pictures of her!

*Some of the pictures did not get edited yet, so hopefully Whitney doesn't mind me sharing them.  I just couldn't wait to blog about it, and wanted to share so many more, but refrained!!*

Elise is 11 Months Old!

It is blowing my mind that, in one short month, I will have a ONE YEAR OLD.

Blowing my mind, I tell you!

How do you parents cope with the fact that you babies/kiddos grow up so fast!!! I'm having a hard time with it!

At 11 months Elise is learning new things so quickly.  She surprises me on a daily basis with things she picks up!  Some fun things I want to remember are:

• Hide and seek.  She loves playing this game. Dan or I will quickly crawl behind a couch or to another room and shout out "where's mom/dad?" and she will crawl after us, giggling with excitement. When she reaches us we act all startled which makes her laugh even harder. It's the cutest!
• She can tell you how old she is going to be by showing you the number one with her finger.
• She learns new words every day and she can point to so many objects. She knows fireplace, couch, table, window, fan, and more!  
• She is kind of obsessed with lights. She loves turning them on and off. She points to the lights in every room.
• She is quite the "faker" sometimes; meaning she acts like she wants something then turns away. We tell her "faker" and she laughs. It's become a game.  For example, she will approach you, act like she wants you to pick her up, then hurry and turn away and laugh.  
• She likes to be my "big helper" by handing my crumbs or little things she finds on the floor. She gets a big "thank you" that she loves to hear, so sometimes she will reach down and pick up nothing and hand it to me just so I can thank her, which I still do!  It cracks me up.
• She is getting used to the grass, but still doesn't like to be set down on it. She likes to pick it and throw it.
• I have probably mentioned this before, but she LOVES spending time outside. We sit in the shade in our back yard, and we swing a lot! She loves to crawl to the backdoor and stand against it and look at Yuki. 
• She knows and points to her own body parts now: Hair, nose, eyes, mouth, ears, belly button, and toes. She also knows that she is "Elise" and points to herself when we ask where Elise is.
• She loves the game of catch. She loves throwing a ball and crawling after it. She crawls all around the house after her balls. 
• She can throw quite the temper tantrum when she doesn't get her way, and she has even said "no!" to me a few times.  I was so caught of guard the first time she said it. It was actually super cute, but I did not want her to know I thought that so I tried not to react to it because then she would say it more! 
• She loves the Fisher Price puppy shows. It started with an app that Grandma Jensen showed her on her iPad. Elise loved it so I downloaded it on my phone too. Now she thinks mom's phone is just for her to watch puppy shows on. The shows are educational, but I still don't like her spending too much time on them. She throws a fit when I turn them off!
• She still has two top and two bottom teeth.
• She can stand and balance on her own for a few minutes. She hasn't taken steps on her own, she still prefers to crawl.
• She is talking more every day, and is very vocal and more expressive. 
• She has started making this new face, and she does it ALL the time now.  It's kind of a crinkled up, frowny face, but it doesn't necessarily mean she is sad/grumpy.  She does it when she is pondering something, or trying to figure something out.  I call it the classic Elise face. 

Picture time!

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  Handing me woodchips...this went on for a while ;)

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  The classic Elise face

  
  
  
  
  

  

  She loves sitting on the dryer when it's turned on. It makes her laugh!

  
  

  

  Being the mean ol' mom that I am, I set her down on the grass to see what she'd do. She was trying to pick up both hands and feet at the same time, ha ha!

  
  

  

  Our little fam

  
  

  

  My loves