Birthday Girl

Ok  Ok running a bit behind on this one but read previous posts and that will be explained! We celebrated our baby girls one year birthday on Jan 1st. It just so happened that her actual birthday fell on a Saturday so she truely was the birthday girl that day.
What an absolutely perfect day we had. We are so lucky to have the family and friends that we do to share our lives with. Kinsey is so blessed to be surrounded by these wonderful people. We had her party at our house as we wanted her to be in a familar place while all of the chaos was going on. Her party was cupcake themed. My good friends mom made the cupcakes and Kinseys smash cake. I (with the help of close family and friends), made the cupcake lollipops. Then we also had a few other snacks in the mix. Kinsey got so many presents that our house had to have an overhaul in the area of baby toy storage.
My awesomely wonderful brother made a slide show of Kinseys first year of life set to uber sappy for mom songs. I cried my eyes out. To see how much she has grown and changed. Not to mention how much she has changed me. *Tear Tear Tear*
She opened presents with assistance from mom and dad. Then came time to eat her cake. Complete DUD! She touched it and then wanted absolutely nothing else to do with it. She did not like the fact that her hands had icing on them and wanted mommy and daddy to get her out of her chair NOW!
Oh well.....I guess you come to expect those things with little ones. We wrapped up the cake and saved it in hopes to use it during her one year pics......(which I need to schedule very soon)

*Warning* do not continue reading unless you want sappy mommy talk. This is just so I can keep my feelings somewhere to reflect on when she is 16 and wants nothing to do with me

Kinsey
This year has been completely life changing for me and your daddy. You have changed us as individuals. I had no idea I could love something as much as I love you. My hope for you is that you grow up to be happy young woman with pride in herself. I think of how much you have changed me and look forward to the day you become a mother and know the kind of love I have for you. You have absolutely completed my life and marriage. I look forward to watching you grow and seeing the changes that are ahead for you. I cherish every moment I spend with you and love you more than anything princess
Love always
Mommy

Now for the good stuff!!! Pictures

Keep on digging

#3 We have finally made it to New Years Eve(NYE), in my attempt to get caught up in the blogging world. So I'm not going to sugar coat it, our NYE was pretty uneventful. I imagine it will remain this way throughout eternity as our eldest childs birthday will never change.
Anyway....it was still fun to me as the excitement was building to celebrate Kinseys first birthday. Starting about 4:00pm I began to make (what I thought was going to be an easy task) Kinseys cupcake lollipops for her party. 5 hours later they were complete. The only reason I was not ringing in the new year still working on them was because we have some great family and friends that came to help. Now dont get me wrong, I think they turned out wonderfully, but they sure were time consuming. We also spent the evening setting up the house for her party the next day. Now dont you worry......we got rid of a few bottles of wine during the whole process :)!!
All in all the evening was great. We got the spend some time with our family and friends and also celebrate the holiday. Now just go on and ignore the fact that we were in bed by 11:00. I know....LAME-O. But hey....what can I say.....all that baking took it out of us.....or was it the wine?

Eli and Kinsey enjoyed a NYE bath

Cupcake lollipops in progress

Digging myself out

As I continue to dig myself out of the hole of behindedness (probably not a word) that I have gotten into, I will move into our Christmas.
#2 Christmas was great for us this year!!! Having a little one gives us a whole new meaning to the holiday. For me, it was all about her. So here was our itenerary: Christmas Eve we celebrated with my family.  I had to work until six so the festivities got started a bit late. My family came to our house and we had a fabulous dinner and opened presents. Kinsey had mastered the art of present opening in DC so by this time she was a pro. It was a perfect night with family. We could not have asked for more.

A very kind person at work offered to work for me during Christmas morning so I could spend it with my family. I woke up extra early thinking Kinsey would wake up at her normal time. WRONG. Sleepy head slept until almost 9. I thought of waking her...but rule number one in parenting is to never wake a sleeping babe. So I got to spend an hour with her Christmas morning then headed off to work. After work we went to Joshs family for the present opening. Another amazing evening with family. Kinsey was a real trooper and had a great time.!!

Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure from our holidays:

She is the best present of all

Playing with her kitchen

Thats right...Josh forgot her tights

Next up....New years Eve!!!!!

SOOO far behind

WOW!!!! I feel absolutely behind on everything in my life. This past month has been absolutely crazy. We went on vacation, had multiple Christmas gathering and then Kinseys big 1 year birthday. So much to blog about....so little time. So I thought to myself......self, I will start with the first thing we did and then do a blog about each ASAP!

SOOO Here I go!!

#1: Vacation:  The week before Christmas the Peters family set out for Washington DC. Joshs brother and sister in law live there and his whole family met there for his brothers commissioning ceremony. He is now a 2nd Leiutenant in the Marine Corp. This also gave everyone a perfect time to celebrate Christmas.
Kinsey did great on the plane. We technically had to board a plane 4 different times and momma was a nervous wreck. I drugged her with Benadryl and that did the trick. She slept all 4 flights and everyone kept commenting on what a great baby we had. I wonder if they would give such nice compliments had they known the nice babys mommy had medicated her for the trip. Oh well....it made it easier on everyone involved.
Joshs brother has twin 3 year olds and Kinsey had so much fun with them.
We stayed in a hotel and Kinsey was all sorts of happy that she got to sleep in bed with mommy and daddy for 4 days. She was kind of a crab not being on her normal schedule but everyone managed.
It was so nice to see family and spend some quality time together.

Ok well that is one post down and I will continue in the next few days with the rest until.......eventually I am caught up. (Dear lord let it be soon)

Kinsey in the hotel bed