Lily 's First Birthday!

Wow, Lily is one. How has it possibly been a year since she was born? It has gone by so fast. She is cuter than ever (of course, how could I not say that?), and had a very fun birthday party with her Nanna here last weekend. My uncle Will and some friends of our with their little girl also came to celebrate.

Lily was so excited about her first gift (a balloon) that it was hard to convince her to open any of the rest of her presents.

But she enjoyed all of them, especially the baby remote control from her Nanna,

the music set from our friends Brayden and Brianna,

and the stuffed kitty.

She also enjoyed her birthday cake, which was really sugar-free blueberry banana bread in cupcake form with cream cheese frosting.

And then she was on a sugar high for the next two hours and ran in circles around the kitchen like a half-naked balloon-toting maniac, squeeling at the top of her lungs. Definitely worth it.

And finally, here is Lily with her Nanna, wearing the Christmas dress I made for her birthday.

Happy birthday Lily! It has been a wonderful year and we love you!!

Guess what Lily did today . . .

Congratulations Lily! :)

Here are some more recent pictures:

A candy-striped Lily raids the candy jar

Lily snuggles with her stuffed animals after a wet walk in the rain

Mamma and Lily cuddle with Lily's teddy bear at bedtime

Mommy baked her first loaves of bread!! I know this probably sounds like a small accomplishment, but I have had a phobia of anything with yeast, especially anything that requires kneading and rising. I used the fact that I don't have a KitchenAid mixer as an excuse for a long time, but I finally decided to go for it. And it was totally possible! Bread-making will probably not be a weekly task, but it is good to know I am capable of it.

And of course, Lily's first Halloween:

Adam was in Phoenix for a conference on Halloween, so I contemplated just staying home and not doing anything, especially since we don't have any family around to enjoy Lily's costume anyway. But I decided that she would like watching the other kids at the ward trunk-or-treat, so we made the effort to dress up and go.

In case you are wondering, no I was not intending to dress up as a ballerina-eating vampire. With just the two of us, we decided to go very girly, so I also dressed up as a ballerina (black swan-esque, okay), although it's not very obvious without the tights or ballet slippers in the picture.

And in case you were wondering, yes, Adam is back at home. If he dressed up for Halloween, he didn't tell me about it, but I don't think he was a ballerina.