I am sure everyone says this, but we honestly cannot imagine life without Mary Grace. It is hard to even remember what it was like before she was born. We felt like she was already a part of the family as soon as we found out Molly was pregnant, so it has really been more like a year and nine months. If you look back at the first ultrasound pictures, she still looks exactly the same - all smiles with big, chubby cheeks.
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We celebrated her first year with a party at the house where we are currently hanging our hats; we still have not found a home to call our own. Geegee, Poppie and Cousin Janie came over for the party, and Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Johanna drove up all the way from Charleston. It was a lot of fun, and Mary Grace got plenty of cake and presents. In fact, I am not sure what we are going to do for Christmas because she already has all of the toys she can handle. I am really excited about the little drum set that I got for her. So far she loves it, and knows exactly what to do with it. It is a good way to burn off some energy.
Molly made a very tasty birthday cake, and also ordered one from Dewey's bakery in case the cake did not turn out as we expected. Of course we found out at 10:00pm the night before the party that we had bought the wrong kind of flour for the cake (biscuit flour), so the Dewey's cake ended up saving the day. We went ahead and made the biscuit cake anyway, and it turned out to be one of the best cakes I have ever tasted. It didn't really look that great, but I am telling you that biscuit cakes are mighty tasty. They are better than Dewey's cakes. I presume Mary Grace agrees with me because she inhaled as much of the cake as I did.
Before I get to the pictures, I just want to say that we have all but given up on Mary Grace ever crawling. She is pulling up to a standing position at this point, and is probably not far from walking. She will crawl if necessary, but she largely prefers to scoot around on her bottom, in the sitting position. Personally, I think it looks dignified, and she gets were she is going surprisingly fast.
Here are some pictures from the party:
Getting ready to party with Cousin Janie.
Mom presents the biscuit cake.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Singing Happy Birthday.
Digging in!
Eating her piece of cake.
"I like cake..."
"A lot..."
"A whole lot."
Almost finished with her cake.
Hanging out with Mommy and Aunt Johanna.
"Mommy, can we stop taking pictures and go open some presents?"
Mary Grace's favorite part of the day.
"Let me at 'em!"
Opening her Elmo Live! doll.
Opening her drum kit.
Saying "thank you" for her presents.
Cousin Janie helping with the ribbons.
Meeting her new friend Elmo.
She has since become obsessed with him.
Story time with Elmo.
Enjoying her chair from "Uncle" Tyler Cooksie Hyland.
Story time with Aunt Johanna.
On the way to church the next day, looking like Little Red Riding Hood.
We managed to film quite a bit of the party, so I included some of the highlights for y'all to see in the video below:
