i'm so fancy

 I love that I have all of Everly's monthly photos, and I absolutely have about a million adorable candid ones, but as she approached her first birthday, I was just itching to do a more fancy, stylized photo shoot.  A little head cold for the princess right after her birthday, followed by a bunch of cloudy, cooler days, postponed any photo taking for a few weeks. At the beginning of October, we finally had a sunny day and some warmer weather, so I threw this adorable little outfit on her, grabbed this cool chair and headed out into our backyard.

 She was perfectly happy smiling for the camera and sitting still(ish) for a few minutes.

 Luckily there were flocks of geese that kept flying overhead to distract her from getting down after the first sixty seconds.

 I'm happy that I was able to take these pictures in our backyard, before all those lots get houses built on them.  I'm sure this scene will be completely different by the spring.  Oh, and Everly will look different by then too!

 I set her on the blanket because I knew the ground would not feel good on her tiny feet.  Our lawn was just starting to come in at that point, and the straw that the landscapers put down wasn't very soft. I thought she would just stay on the blanket, but she kept wandering off it, because she's at a very wiggly stage right now! She started to cry because she didn't like how it felt. Then, she grunted and pointed at the house, so I figured we were done taking pictures and we headed inside.  She immediately went over to her shoe basket, picked out some shoes, and brought them to me.  She's a genius!  I love that she figured out that she didn't like being poked in the feet, but she knew that if she went inside and got shoes on, that that would solve the problem.

 She's even fancy when she rides on the toy tractor!

 I have a feeling that I'm going to look at this picture in a few years and feel like it's an accurate depiction of my only daughter: dressing all fancy and pink, and playing with the boys' toys! I guess that's what happens when you are the only girl with three older brothers.

twinkle, twinkle, little star

I love throwing birthday parties, and I love having a little girl, so you can only imagine how excited I was to throw a girly birthday party for my sweet baby!  I was worried that I would have a hard time thinking of a theme for the party, since there are so many adorable ideas out there for baby girls' first birthday parties, and this might be my only chance to throw one.  However, as soon as I came across the idea of a Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star birthday party, I instantly knew it was perfect!  First, I have been mildly obsessed with stars since jr. high school.  For reals.  Second, every night since Everly was born, I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to her as she falls asleep.  So, having a party that celebrates that special time we have together each day was a dream!

After I taped that ribbon to the wall as part of the decorations, I came back into the hall to see Everly trying to help.  You think I was excited about throwing her a girly party, I instantly thought about how amazing it's going to be to throw girly parties with her someday!

The cutest decor we had were these pictures of the birthday girl.

Okay, and seriously, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but a birthday cake with pink, sparkles, stars, and streamers all at once!  It doesn't get much better than that.  I want a birthday cake like this!

And the best part: these tiny, gold, sparkly sprinkles!  Yes, they are real, edible, sprinkles.  I have to resist the urge to put them on all my food now.

This little birthday girl was the best host ever.  She waved hello to all her guests, gave hugs, smiled at everyone, performed an impromptu dance number to entertain everyone, and was just her sweet self, all night long!

Okay, we have to talk about the irony of that adorable onesie I made her for a second.  (Yes, tooting my own horn again, sorry!)  The irony is that it is a onesie that says, "One" on it because it is for a child turning 1 year old.  And the size of the onesie is 3-6 months.  And it fits her perfectly!  It's a good thing I know how to make such a cute onesie, because I can only imagine trying to order a first birthday onesie in a size 3-6 months.  Oh, how I love this adorable, teensy, tiny one year old!

Okay, I had to post these pictures of the birthday girl holding this old phone, because in some of the best pictures of Krew from his first birthday party, he's holding the same phone (although it had a pink cover on it back then).  I guess 12 month olds like to carry around phones!

Present time!

Cake time!

She cried when she first touched the cake, and wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with it for a little while.  But don't worry, once she got a taste of the sweet stuff, she quickly decided she liked it and kept going back for more.

She never really went crazy eating it.  She just kept slowly and consistently eating piece after piece and licking the sweet frosting off her fingers.

I thought it would be cute to get some pictures of her eating her smash cake on the floor, without the highchair tray in the way. . .

This led to her immediately sticking her toe in the cake and then crying because she didn't like the feeling of frosting on her feet!

After we got her cleaned up, and we said goodbye to all our guests, we tucked our four children in their beds and I was able to step back, and finally take some more pictures of the decor that I should have taken before the party,

and think about how it was the most perfect first birthday party for the most perfect birthday girl, in the history of ever.