Paisley's Perfect Party

{please excuse the excessive overload of pictures. I cannot resist. Why fight it?}

Is it even possible that my baby is turning ONE?????? Well, like it or not, here it is. Paisley's birthday is tomorrow (Monday), but we got together with the family last night to celebrate. I don't do big first birthday parties. The baby won't remember it, and there's no reason to stress and spend lots of money (in my mind) when they can just as easily smear homemade cake on their face without fancy decorations as they can with it. Ha! But it was SUCH a fun time. Zack and I are blessed with the best families, and fortunately, they like each other! :-) 

Here is the sweet birthday girl with Uncle A.K. (Zack's brother)

Awwwwwww. Just love this precious girl.

Wouldn't be a Paisley without these two. ;-)

Paisley and her Aunt Willow. These two are great chums already.

Annie makes me (and Paisley) laugh the way she always says, "Ahts dere da Paisley!" Some Nannie gibberish I guess. :-) It always sounds like "Ah, Cheddar Paisley" to me. I might start calling her that. :-)

"There's a chocolate cake!" My boy can say it all, just with an expression.

This is a cushy family to be in as a kid, let me tell you. Even when it's not your birthday, you still get presents! Sara holding her hand out for her surprise...

New animals from Nannie! The kids LOVE these little plastic animals. What is it, Tuck?

A JAGUAR!!!

Um. Ok. So... this was the best chocolate cake ever, if I do say so myself. It was rich and dense, while still being fluffy. And SO moist. Uncle Jay gave it a 15 out of 10! I think we all agreed. (Thanks, Allrecipes!)

Jaguar, meet Puppy.

The real fun begins!

"What is this stuff??"

"No, really. What am I supposed to do with it? I've never seen anything like it."

Haha. Got it figured out!

Lip-lickin' good.

My dainty little girl didn't really get that messy on her own, so we had to help her out. :D

"Friends, relatives, fellow chocolate-cake-eaters, lend me your ear!"

"All gone!"

Nothing sweeter than a baby in a towel. It makes me sad that she is already growing out of this baby-ness!

New dolly from Grandma and Poppy! Giving kisses :-) I wish we had gotten it on video -- when I first held the baby up, Paisley said in an adorable Southern accent, "Hiiiii!!" (which sounded more like "Haaaaaah!")

No iPhone yet, but Baby still needs to communicate, right?

My pretty mama with the birthday girl. I am so grateful my kids have such wonderful grandparents who want to be a part of their lives. They have the added benefit of great aunts and uncles, and their "other" grandparents, Jay & Betty.

This was SO cute. Annie got Paisley this bouncing zebra. Her feet don't touch the ground yet, so I helped her bounce. Any time I would stop, she would bob and nod her head as if to say, "Keep going, Mama!" She was quite serious about it. :-)

What a sweet, precious life Paisley is. I can't even overstate the blessing she is to our family. But. More on that tomorrow. :-)