Cora's First Birthday Party

I had a lot of fun dreaming up what Cora's first birthday party would look like. I scoured Pinterest during naps and when I was avoiding grad school assignments, and I felt so intimidated by all of those creative-types out there. I'm so not crafty. I mean, I like thinking up crafts, but figuring out how to execute them? Not exactly my forte. And let's be honest, Cora will absolutely not remember her first birthday, so while the party was for her, it represented way more than that.

To us, Cora's first birthday party was about us loving our first year as parents and as we fumbled our way through the dark, friends and family came out of the woodwork to support and love us as we figured out how to love our daughter best, how to balance our new lives as parents, and how to reach out for support when you'd rather not ask for help.

Cora's party was so much more than celebrating her first year of life and our first year as parents; it was about celebrating the community that came together to love on us as a new family. We are forever thankful for the encouragement, love, walks, laughs, and babysitting that our friends and family have given to us. It's hard to explain the feeling of pure thankfulness and joy that pulses through my heart when I see people loving on our daughter so extravagantly.

We have been so blessed and we are so thankful.

And how this party came together is a true testament to how much our family loves us. I had a killer last couple of weeks with school coming to an end, and our family swooped in and created beauty from the ashes of my half-finished, over-achieving, totally particular, party plans. It was miraculous that it all came together, and I have to say, I was so incredibly impressed.


The night before...

Pretty sure they fluffed pom-poms for two hours, sorry!

I'm so mean! Look how tired they are!

The morning of...

The party guests arrive!

She loves that push toy.

 And then the cake.

We're so thankful for everyone who came to help us celebrate the most amazing year of our lives!

Major thanks to John Yoo and Brian Gregson for the amazingly wonderful party pictures. Such a wonderful gift to be able to simply enjoy being there and not worry about the details being captured. 

InstaFriday 7.6.12

Linking with Jeannett over at LifeRearranged for InstaFriday. Woot!

I took a little hiatus last week, so brace yourself, there's a lot of pictures ahead. 

My favorite part of the morning? Waking up from our morning nap to this face. Sometimes I'm tempted to be productive and not take that nap alongside her. But these moments are fleeting, and I like sleep. So I'll cuddle up next to this baby girl as long as possible. 

Especially when she'll only nap like this.

Housework is for the birds.

And daddy gets to enjoy the cuddles also. Such sweet, priceless, moments.

And let's face it, nap time snuggles way more appealing when this fate awaits. Holy ironing pile! Totally out of control.

It's amazing how flexible you can be when your bones aren't fully formed yet. And I totally, agree, baby bear, your toes are delicious.

Saturday we went to the Farmers Market to see our friend Heather in a flash mob. I neglected to take pictures of the amazingness, because I took a video, but suffice to say that it was pretty cool. I love our neighborhood and our neighbors! 

Cora clearly had a point to get across to JY. 

On Sunday we took a quick trip to REI to test out jogging strollers. I'll be trolling craigslist until we find a good deal on a used one, but Cora seemed to love it.  Stu's training for a half marathon, so it will be a nice break for me to have her go on some of his runs. 

After REI we dropped Stu off at church for band practice. Can you spy a baby that is really excited about her own private concert? She loves music and thankfully JY humored the cuteness before getting down to business.

Cora is getting more and more expressive by the day. It really does seem like she has these thoughts that she simply needs to communicate. See? 

"Here you go momma, I'll trade you a diaper cover for that phone."

"Seriously lady? Give me that phone!"

It's a cruel, cruel world baby girl. 

Cora's new happy place is on Stu's shoulders. Stu is a pretty tall guy, so it must be fun being up so high, but it leads to some hair hazards for Stu. Let's just say the lovely husband-man now understands how gross hair covered spit up now feels. 

We spent a decent amount of time this week at the Gustavsons with Lenny and Martin doting on baby Cora. Hanging out at their house always feels like home and it reminds me how much I would love a backyard for my baby girl. We're working on it, but patience really isn't my strong suit. In the meantime I love that Cora has bigger little people to love on her. 

Our 4th of July was pretty mellow. Stu and I were starting to feel pretty crummy with colds, but we wanted to get out and enjoy the nice weather. So, we went to an italian restaurant for lunch in Walnut Creek, don't judge! Then we headed over to the Gustavson's again for a little backyard BBQ. 

By 6 I was ready to crash and I spent the rest of the week sick in bed. Boo. Olive joined in on the bed party, but she kept an appropriate amount of distance between herself and the baby. Smart cat. That's not always the case! 

And now I'm off to cuddle my now feverish baby. She seems to have caught our colds and my fever. Here's hoping that it's short lived and that we all get some restful and healing sleep tonight. Happy Friday!