Happy Birthday Eisley

Invitation

I fell way behind on this blog as of late...no real excuses, just life! Well better late than never right, so this is a massive photo dump of Eisley's 1st birthday party.

                                                                                 The food table

 I will admit, that my creative/party planning freak flag flew way high for her party, and I went a little (read: A LOT) overboard. However, for the most part I wasn't too stressed, and I seriously had so much fun crafting, decorating, and conspiring with my family. My family worked so hard to make this birthday perfect! My mom cooked all day, my dad made her cake, cupcakes, and the "insta"graham cookies. Brian helped me hang up hundreds of pictures and decorate inside and out. My mother in-law made her famous mint tea. My brother and nephew ran all the last minute errands, and my niece just helped out wherever we asked! It wasn't just my family that helped, I had friends step-up and help make sure all my ideas came to fruition. My lovely friend Cassie made her birthday sign and the food tents, and I put a few other friends that showed up a little early to work with the last minute decorating! All in all it was a big group effort, it was so fun, and it showed me just how much Eisley is so loved and cared for!

3 generations of pretty ladies!

Her birthday theme was "One  In An Instant/Oh Snap She's One", and this seemed fitting because all of our family and some dear friends live far away, and they kept up with her first year through this blog, instagram, facebook, facetime, and texting pictures. My only regret from this whole thing is that I didn't get more pictures of Eisley with family and friends, but otherwise it was a perfect celebration! So grab a sweet treat and enjoy all the pictures from her birthday party!

The party took place in my parents sun room and back yard, so we concentrated the decorations there. We made all the pom-poms and tassel garland, we re-used the paper lanterns from past parties. We also re-used the wood cake stands from my baby shower last year. The hot air balloon utensil holder was re-used from another baby shower we hosted the day before.  I had all the pictures of Eisley from mine and Brian's instragrams printed, I also had a ton from the blog and some that have never been posted anywhere printed. I forgot to take a picture of the sweet chalkboard art I did, but it told everyone to take home their favorite picture or two. It was interesting to see which ones people choose to bring home. 

Time Capsule

I had a little Time Capsule table set up and invited the guests to fill out their predictions on Eisley, our family, and the world in 2030 when Eisley will be 18 years old. It was so fun to read them all, and it will be so great to have Eisley read them when she is 18-i'm sure we will have a good laugh! We will also see if everyone's thoughts on a zombie apocalypse are true or not. 

The food menu included-salad and fruit on a stick which we stuck in pumpkins--how fun. "Say" Mac and Cheese. Lots of mini sandwiches, PB&J  sausage on rye, and turkey and Swiss on pumpernickel. My mom also made some stuffed mushrooms which I heard were great! We had Peggy's mint tea and a strawberry lemon-aid for drinks.

I set up a little kids table with some camera coloring pages, bubbles and some little cameras that had pictures inside. They all seemed to enjoy it.

Eisley got so many thoughtful and amazing gifts, from musical instruments, fun books, hand made hats, even tickets to the aquarium! 

We encouraged people that had an instagram to use the hash-tag #ohsnapeisley so we could see all the pictures from the party, check it out in instagram if you want to see some more pictures. My amazing friend Cassie made this awesome chalkboard sign for me! I keep telling her that she needs to market her graphic design skills, but she is busy now with her new week old baby girl!

Eisley eating her cake was so funny! She got so shy with everyone looking at her and singing to her that she just buried her face in the cake, she would only look up if Brian or I were by her side telling her everything was ok...so cute!

Thank you to everyone that came or wanted to come, and for showing your love to my baby girl! This party was so fun to plan, put together, and attend--but all future parties will just be a cake and ice cream sort of deal!

Party Info:
Eisley's Crown: Little Blue Olive
Eisley's Shirt made by mom
Eisley's Skirt made by her Momo (Grandma)
Eisley's Leggings and Shoes from Old Navy
Little cups, straws: Shop Sweet Lulu
Washi tape: whimsical craftss
Food and Sweets: Eisley's Momo and Grandaddy
Mini camera viewers: Amazon
Camera fabric and one candle: Hobby Lobby
Large Chalkboard camera print: Caravan Shoppe
Oh Snap camera print: bought from groopdealz.com but you can find it  here
E is for Eisley print: On To Baby-free Printables
Everything else was things we already had, or DIY projects by me, Momo and Grandaddy.

Eisley Fall I

Eisley's Nana and Grandpa came to visit in September and we went fruit picking. It was a beautiful day, filled with yummy fresh fruit, laughter, good conversations, and breathtaking nature. Who could pass up a cute baby in an apple orchard--so impromptu photo shoot it was!

Dear Eisley...Twelve Months.

Dear Eisley,

My little bitty love...how are you already 12 months old. This year went by so fast but at times so very slow. You are changing and growing so quickly I feel like I need to enjoy you every second, because they pass by so fast.

You are starting to show some of your personality and your humor, you are a funny one. Your new "trick" is fake sneezing. It's so cute, you do you fake sneeze then look at us and laugh. You also started saying "Ahhh" after you take a sip of a drink, or when you see someone taking a sip of a drink. You love being hung upside down and swung around and being thrown on the bed. You make so many more faces and noises too, your new one is making duck-lips, and then sniffing you upper lip...I have no idea how you came up with this, but think it is hilarious and will do it all the time. You also try to make whistling sounds, sometimes you get pretty close!  Laughing is a daily occurrence, and most everything is making you laugh. It is the sweetest sound, I honestly could listen to your little chuckles all day!

Your biggest belly laughs come from the kitties, anything they do is funny to you, and you are constantly trying to get them to play with you but they are not interested in the least. Sadly we had to say goodbye to one of our kitties. This was so heartbreaking for your Mama and Papa. I was looking forward to the relationship you two would have when you got a little older, he was always so playful and I just new you two would be pals. I am so sad you will never get to really know him. Even though it was sad, I just know you are going to be a cat person. Whenever you see a cat, or really any animal, you meow at them, it is so funny to see you pointing at birds or fish and meowing at them. We can ask you 'what does the kitty say?' and you will meow back at us. Its amazing to see you learn and engage with us more.

You are interacting so much more with everyone, you wave bye and hi all the time now, and even say it sometimes. You blow kisses and can give big slimy open mouth kisses when we ask you. The stage you are in right now is so fun, we can play games, be silly, or just be lazy and cuddle. As much as it is fun, it is also hard. You are into EVERYTHING, and I know when you learn to walk, which will be in no time at all (you have taken a few steps here and there) you will be into things even MORE. I have realized I really need to step up the child proofing because you are a smart girl and quickly figure out how to get into things.

We started sleep training this month. Brian and I decided that we didn't want to do the cry it out method, so we got a bunch of books from the library, I guess a lot of parents struggle with non-sleeping babes as there were a TON of baby sleep books to choose from. We decided to go with the sleep lady's shuffle, and it worked! The 2nd night you slept through the night in your own room, that felt good, and this ended up not being a fluke, you continued to sleep through the night in your own bed. There are so many things I love about co-sleeping, but it could never beat a whole night of UN-interrupted sleep! So thanks for that Eisley. I also think the night time sleep got better because your day time sleep got better. We took you out of daycare and you started staying with a Mom and her two kids during the day, I could tell right away that you felt so much better there. So far it is working out great and you are having so much fun.

I hope you will look back on this first year of your life, and know that we thought a lot about the choices we made for you, struggled to figure out life with you in it, made mistakes, had fun, made lifetime memories, experienced new things, cried together, laughed together, but most importantly we loved you fiercely.

Love,
Mama and Papa

Crown headband by little blue olive

Dear Eisley...Eleven Months

 

Dear Eisley,

Your sweet and spicy personality is coming out more and more. I love the snuggles and kisses I get from you, and just have to laugh inside when you get so angry at your body when it doesn't do what you want. You are so determined, smart, funny, and loving. This month was so fun with you! 

Your new party trick this month is standing up on your own. One day I just looked over at you and you were standing up in the middle of the room not holding on to anything. It was so crazy! you were so pleased with yourself, and had a big goofy grin on your face. Since then you have done this almost daily. I keep thinking you will be walking in no time, but so far your only confident in your walking when you are hold our hands. You are pretty steady, strong, and have great balance, you just haven't decided to walk on your own yet. People keep telling me to count my blessings and enjoy this non-walking stage while I can, but I really can't wait to see you accomplish this milestone. 

 

Speaking of moving...Girl you've got some dance moves. It is so cute to watch your face light up when you hear music, and then you start swaying your body and bouncing up and down. I love it! You have truly showed an affinity for music, whether playing it with your shakers and toy piano, or listing to it, which is a good thing because we have music on a lot in this house! So far you really like bluegrass, dub-step, and reggae, an eclectic taste like your Mama and Papa. Along with dancing to music, you love to "sing" along too. You are making so many more sounds these days, and you talk constantly. This is a good and bad thing, it is so cute to see you discover the sounds you can make, but I don't like this new scream you have developed, especially because you seem to only do it in the car.

Some sounds are starting to sound more like words. You are really great at saying Uh-oh--you love throwing food, and your cup down just so you can look up at us and say Uh-oh. Papa also taught you how to howl like a wolf. You love playing with him, and now sometimes when you see him you just howl at him, you're a very funny girl. 

This month you seem to be less clingy and nervous around new people. You have started playing on your own--even more so that I re-arranged and simplified all you toys and play areas. It is amazing to hear you talking and playing on your own while I am preparing a meal in the kitchen, it seems like not that long ago I had to be holding you at all times. I do have to make sure I keep the bathroom door closed, because your new favorite game is sneaking in there to eat the toilet paper. We feed you all these nice meals, and you would rather eat cheerios of the floor and any paper you can get your hands on. Overall, though, you are a great eater--and you got two new teeth to help with that. That makes a total of 7 teeth, 4 up top and 3 on the bottom. 

This was another fun month full of fun adventures and great memories. Including making the 10 hour drive to Reno, camping, swimming in Lake Tahoe, starting sleep training (again), eating your first Cannoli, and lots of trips to the park to play on the swing set. I love watching you grow, my funny little girl.

Eisley Summer III

Getting to this camping trip was hard. It started out feeling rushed, un-welcomed (on my part) and stressful. After just a few minutes in the great outdoors I could feel my anxieties lifting. The fresh air, the seclusion from concrete, the warm sunshine--all filled my soul and changed my spirits. I think it changed all of us.