A Princess Turns One

One year and eight months ago, our family was excited and surprised to learn that we would be increasing in number.
One year ago January 3rd, Chris and I were putting away our Christmas decorations around the house, when a most unexpected thing happened. 
My water broke.

Taken the day my water broke...37 weeks on the dot.  And no, it's not twins. :o(

Unexpected because I had a full three weeks before my due date.
Unexpected because my water had not broken on its own before in my four other pregnancies.
It was followed by an unexpected eventful birth the next day, January 4th, followed by a one week stay in the NICU for our little one.

This was taken after a tube was taken out of her mouth and sensors were taken off of chest.

But though a lot about our fifth child was unexpected by us, we are happy that God knew all about her and decided she was to be.

Happy Birthday to our sweet Anna Leella.  We love her so.

And we celebrated her with lots of pink.  Because she's a princess and after three boys, I still haven't gotten my fill of pink with her and Leah.

Her birthday was actually on January 4th, the same day as Chris' promotion.  So we had leftover promotion cake for her that evening.

And we had a pink princess party for her the next day with her friends.

Awesome cake made by her daddy!

Now here's a pretty non-princess-y story...see the octopus bubble machine to Anna's right?  She stuck her hands into the bubbles and then like usual, into her mouth.  I was laughing as I took pictures of the funny, gross faces she was making.  Not very nice, right?

Anna didn't think so.  This was taken about one second before she vomitted all over herself and the counter.  Take that, Mommy.  She was kind enough to miss the cake though.

Here is Anna with her guests eating brunch...mini pancakes, mini bagels, mini muffins, tator tots, bananas, mini meatballs and mini quiches.  It was all easy to make; we may have brunch parties more often.


Anna had her own little 'smash' cake. 

This was 100% the best cake eating show I have seen from a one year old.  She was chewing this thing without even lifting her mouth from her cake!  She looked like she was sucking on it.

I'm not sure that she looks very proper princess-y here!  What a mess!

Anna with her birthday gift from Mommy and Daddy...a new pink rocking chair!

I'm pretty sure that Anna had a really fun time at her party and while it makes me a bit sad seeing how quickly she turned one, I'm so excited for the little girl that she is growing up to be!