Happy Birthday Baby!!!

This past Sunday, January 4th, was a huge milestone in our family. It was Shaelana's 1st birthday! For weeks I had been both anxious for the day, and dreading it. I am just in amazement that a year has already past, and how quickly she is growing up. Like so many mothers before me, I really wish I could just stop the clock at times. Unfortunately, I'm not that powerful, so we had to celebrate! I wanted it to be something memorable, so I made a big deal out of it. We decided to have a ladybug fiesta! For 2 solid days prior to the party, I shopped, cooked, prepared...with little sleep I might add for this event. I really wanted her cake to be something special, and not your typical grocery store bakery cake. So after a lot of research and skepticism of my own skills, I began my 8 1/2 hour journey towards what turned out to be a perfect accent for the day. Here she is in all her glory...

Shaelana's first birthday cake. Cherry chip cake, with cream cheese icing and marshmallow fondant.

Several pictures were taken.

Views from all angles

I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome! We decorated everything in red and black ofcourse, most of which was accomplished by Brandon and my sister Raderika, as I was still stuck in the kitchen. Brandon, and I were wearing red and black, and Shaelana was sporting a darling little lady bug outfit that was a gift from Aunt Raderika.

It was well worth it though. How can you have a true fiesta without a ton of mexican food?! Everything was home made and turned out really great. We had chicken enchiladas, chips and homemade salsa, hard tacos, soft tacos, beans, 7 layer bean dip, punch, and all the condiments you could think of to accompany it.

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Lexie did her part to add to the party decor. She did all of this by herself, including hanging it up by the gift table! She did a great job!

My mom, brother in-law Jason, and my dad enjoying themselves.

Lexie having fun playing in my nephews room

Grandma Ruth (Brandon's mom) and the birthday girl

Time to open presents! She was well aquainted with tearing things open since we just had Christmas, so she was able to take care of it on her own, even though we had lots of little helpers on stand by.

Here she is with one of the toys that Papa Jim got her. She has a really big fascination with cars right now, and she LOVES ones that have lights and sounds. When this was opened, she was very distracted from continuing!

My little dolly so proud of herself. She was hamming it up for everyone in the room!!!

We also got a ladybug pinata and stuffed it full of candy. Let me tell you, this thing was ridiculously hard to crack open!!! All of the kids beat on it for a good 20 minutes, and finally the men intervened and decided to bust it open. It was really cute seeing all the babies take a whack at it though.

Shaelana gathering up some of the loot that landed her way.

Time to sing the birthday song! She was fascinated with the candle!

Getting her first bites of icing.

Loving this whole help yourself to some cake thing!

Mmmm. Really getting messy now!

At the end of the day, we had a very happy birthday girl. She was blessed with many many presents from educational, fun, useful, things to drive mom and dad batty, and darling. We truly enjoyed ourself and had a great day!

I am beyond proud of her and all of the wonderful elements that she brings to my life. Brandon and I have said many times how we really can't imagine what our life would be like now if we hadn't had her. She has an enormous personality and commands attention everywhere we go. She is our little star. Her intelligence far surpasses any expectations we might have had, her vocabulary is really extensive for her age. She LOVES to make us laugh, and believes she is the funniest person. She is our greatest source of entertainment, and while I do my best at teaching her many things in life, already she has taught me so many valuable things about life and about myself. I love her endlessly and I am truly so proud of her!!! Happy Birthday my little darling!