Genevieve's First Birthday!

I cannot believe our baby is ONE!  It has been the fastest year of my life (which is so strange considering the weeks worth of sleep I've lost during the past year).  My mom surprised us with a visit, well, surprised ME.  Brandon knew all along and helped her plan it.  I think she was hoping for a lot of screaming and jumping up and down, but I was too emotional to do any of that so I just hugged her repeatedly and cried (it had been a very challenging couple of weeks recovering from the hurricane).  I love my mom.  It was amazing to spend time with her.

She was very skeptical of the beignet at first...

but it only took one taste to decide she loved it!

Yum...powdered sugar (we actually shook most of it off before giving it to her).

That's my girl!

We kept her birthday low-key.  We invited a few friends for cake and ice cream and had a great time. 

We practiced with a candle and she did eventually figure out how to blow it out, but maybe with the crowd of people watching, she couldn't remember and decided it would be more fun to play with.  So I had to blow it out for her.

She wasn't thrilled about the cupcake at first (she's a very picky eater), but once she tasted that frosting, she got a little more excited about it.

Her friends helped her open her presents, because she wasn't all that interested in them.  Really, she would have been just as happy to have her $2 balloon and a bag of tissue paper...now I know for next year.

She loves baby Sofia!  Her mom, Natalia, and I work out together, so she gets to play with Isabelle and Sofia in the childcare. 

And now for a little comparison:

Anyone else get a little teary eyed?  No, just me?

 Like I said, I can't believe our little girl is growing so fast.  I miss that little baby, but love the amazing person she is becoming.  Towards the end of her little party, she was way overdue for a nap and I was ready for some alone time with my baby.  As I was nursing her in her room, I realized that it was exactly a year before (3:20 in the afternoon) that I had given birth.  I thought back on that amazing moment when we saw each other for the first time and the happiness she has brought into our home since her arrival.  We are so lucky.

Hurccation!

What?  It's a word.  Or at the very least, it's a word around here.  They call them "forced vacations", when a hurricane is headed straight for you and you decide you need to leave.

A couple of weeks before hurricane Isaac made an appearance in the news, we had the feeling we should get our 72 hour kits assembled and start building our food storage.  And boy were we glad we did.  We hadn't planned on evacuating.  So I spent all of Monday before the storm getting extra water, cooking all of the meat in our freezer so that we could just re-heat things on the grill, and getting our 72-hour kits ready to go just in case.  Brandon got home from work and we loaded up the car just in case we had to leave fast.  As we started talking through how we would get through the next few days (with the TV on in the background), we heard the weather man say that they were upgrading the storm and expecting several days and possibly weeks without power.  They also said that highways would be closing down within the next few hours, so if you're going to evacuate...do it now (basically).  We immediately said a prayer and knew we should go.

It was a crazy 20 minutes or so of getting the baby and myself ready while Brandon finished packing the car.  I don't know if I'll ever forget the feeling of closing the door and seeing all of our things, thinking that it all might destroyed when we returned.  We all know that didn't happen and I couldn't be more thrilled, but in that moment it was a possibility and I was shocked at how much I didn't care.  I just wanted to get my family out of harms way.  A few minutes into the drive we decided that we should just make the best of this "forced vacation" and go visit Brandon's family.  Genni could see her cousins and we could wait out the storm with family.  Best decision ever, we had so much fun!

We decided to break up the return trip and stopped in Atlanta to see more family.

From crawling to SPRINTING!

Or maybe that's just what it feels like from my point of view.  The first week of August Genevieve decided it was time to really keep me on my toes and started walking everywhere.

When evening approaches, anytime a car door slams somewhere close by, she runs to the window and waits for her dad.  So cute...and so sad when it turns out that he's not actually home yet.

Picking flowers.

Contemplating eating the flower that she just picked.

Drinking yogurt is really much better than using a spoon.

Our towels double as capes.  She desperately tries to escape with just her towel on.

The girl who hates wearing headbands and has refused to do so since day 1, found this baby hat and LOVES to wear it.  Funny girl.

Grandma "M" gave her these dolls and she loves them!  When she starts playing with one, she'll usually look for the other to join in.