Kayleigh's First Birthday Party

Kayleigh turned 1 on May 14 and we had her party the following Saturday on the 17th. We just had friends a family over, nothing huge, since really at that age it is more for the parents than for the child.

Kayleigh refused to nap the all morning so as soon as my sister came over I put her to work getting Kay to sleep. (My sister is magical when it come to getting Kayleigh to sleep!)
Spricket was jealous and wanted to join in the snugglefest.

After she woke up my parents gave  her the first present - her own outdoor chair. Kayleigh LOVED it and would climb in and out of it all day.

She also got a ball pit and when my sister was bringing the balls inside (she couldn't figure out how to wrap them) Kay saw and wanted to play with all of them right then and there.

Onto a the decorations!

I really didn't go with much of a theme. I just had some candy in yellow, blue and pink and everything else just kind of fell into place.

I took the picture frames off the wall in the living room and we taped Kayleigh's weekly photos up there. It was really neat watching everyone look at them - they didn't realize every one was a different week.

please ignore the speaker wire. We still need to hide it...

It was a lovely day so we all pretty much hung out there most of the day.

I tried getting Kayleigh to open presents but she didn't care for it too much. She preferred me to unwrap them and then she would run off with the paper or tissue.

The it was cupcake time! She did a lot better eating this than she did with the cake for her cake smash. She devoured her cupcake and looked around for more.

The someone broke out some bubbles which Kayleigh thought was the best thing ever!

All in all it was a wonderful day! Kayleigh was tuckered out by the end of it. She conked out an hour before her bedtime and slept until 7 the next morning.

DIY Cake Smash

I'm a little behind in posting but last weekend was Kayleigh's birthday party! The weekend prior my friend and I started the day with garage sales then finished with a cake smash for Kayleigh! If you google cake smashes it seems like it can be very difficult and overwhelming to get those perfect shots but it actually isn't that hard! For the location I temporally rearranged the living room so we could set up on a wall that gets great natural light. Then I used blue painter's tape to tape up a plain white twin size sheet.

 

The candy decorations were actually the genius idea of my friend. She picked up some styrofoam balls, small cake boards and tissue paper. We just wrapped the styrofoam balls and cake boards in the tissue paper and Viola! Instant candy!

 

For the cake we just used a small 8 inch cake pan, cream cheese icing and blue and yellow sprinkles (they looked green when mixed). I actually wanted rainbow sprinkles but last minute I realized I completely forgot to buy some so we made due with what we had.

Here is a side by side comparison to show what my straight-out-of-the-camera photos looked like. This is one of the reasons I love shooting in RAW. I just opened it up in Lightroom and edited the exposure and sharpness a bit, then used Photoshop to get lighten the wrinkles in the sheet. I also used the Coffee Shop action, Lustrous Pop, to brighten the colors a bit.

Kayleigh wasn't much into eating the cake. When we first set her down, she was all like "Uh... you are letting me make a mess... Are you sure? I'm not going to get in trouble?"

We eventually had to help her along and soon she was squishing cake between her hands. 

Little chubby baby hands covered in cake. Is there anything more precious? 

All the preparation and set up and we were all done in less than 15 minutes. Kay had a ton of fun, even if she didn't care to eat the cake.

One year of weekly photos

I did it. I did one whole year of weekly photos! It wasn't an easy feat and I will say there were weeks I was a few days later but I managed to take one photo a week for a whole year. It's great to be able to watch Kayleigh grow all over again! (If you can't watch the video you can also check out the photos by clicking on the "Weekly Photos" tab above.) (I will admit on the final photos you see I ended up cheating a bit and had to use photos from the previous week due to corruption files that I didn't find out about until months later.)

Happy Birthday, Kayleigh!

Kayleigh,

Today is your birthday. You are one year old. I know it's cliche but I feel like just yesterday I was holding you in my arms for the first time. One second I was holding a brand new baby in my arms, then I blinked and you were walking and talking.

It hasn't been easy, though. Parenthood has many peaks and valleys. There was much to learn, many sleepless nights and many tears - some yours and some mine. But there were so many more joyous moments! The first time you smiled at me I melted - the same smile now that still melts my heart no matter how big of a fit you just threw. I celebrated the first time you rolled over, the first time you crawled and almost started bawling when you took your first step. You are growing so fast and I don't want to miss a moment of it!

You already have us wrapped around your finger and you don't even know it.

I pray that you grow brave and strong, like your daddy. I pray that you can see the joy in every dark spot, like your mama. Most of all I pray that you never be afraid to be you.

I love you for forever and a half.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Today marks my first official Mothers' Day!

Although technically I was a mother last year, Kayleigh didn't decide to come until two days later. Everyone was telling me that I would have her on Mothers' Day but I was stubborn and didn't want to. That night I went home and felt sick all night - little did I know that was a precursor for going into labor! (Some women feel sick 1-2 days prior)

(please ignore my messy hair - it was super hot!)

I am so blessed to be able to be a mother!

Kayleigh's birthday is Wednesday so I will have plenty of birthday stuff to post! Yesterday my friend came over and helped me set up a cake smash photo shoot so I will post those as soon as I am finished editing all the photos!