ARDEN TURNED ONE!
She's doing all kinds of fun stuff these days. The coolest thing is watching her learn and figure things out. Sometimes she'll pick up my phone and put it to her ear, because she sees me do that while talking on the phone. The little things like that are fun to watch. She also points (technically she's been pointing for a very long time, but now it seems like she's doing it on purpose), and imitates noises, and says "HIIIIIII" and waves, and lays her head on your shoulder when you say, "Be sweet, Arden!"
She also WALKS a lot of steps from person to person! Just tonight she started standing on her own to initiate walking, rather than crawling over to something—like the coffee table—pulling herself up, and then walking. She knows the words "more" and "all done" in sign language, but we're still working on perfecting "all done." She does it, I'm just not perfectly sure she knows it means that I'm putting the lid back on the Puffs baby snacks and putting them away. Because she still cries EVERY TIME snack is over.
This age has been really fun. She's gotten better about sleeping! Every now and then she still wakes up wanting warm milk at 1 or 2 a.m., but for the most part she doesn't want her first bottle until 5. And when we give it to her at 5, she goes right back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. It's bliss compared to just a few months ago when she was wearing us out getting up three times a night. Arden has also 95% graduated from formula and moved on to meals + whole milk. This is extra cool for Mom and Dad because it saves us like $30 a week!
At her most recent check up (just yesterday) she was 23 pounds. So fairly normal for her height. Speaking of, she also had a finger prick and FIVE shots, which she absolutely could not handle. She had the biggest meltdown of all time...it was so sad. But she did it! Now she just has 2 or 3 more shots to go before she's all done until age 4! Phew.
Our friend, Haley Holden, took Arden's one year pictures! Check out a few of our favorites.
I love having these of me and Mom and Arden. They showcase Arden's personality PERFECTLY. But it's also just fun to so clearly see where that red hair comes from and to have these for her to look back on.
^ "Please, Arden, I beg you. LOOK OVER THERE." (Ignore the double-jointed elbows. Creepy, I know.)
The cake actually confused her more than anything. It took some convincing to get her to dig in.
When she's eating something yummy she says "Mmmmmm!" in this really high-pitched squeal.
^ This is Arden's "more" in sign language—caught in the act.
This is the famous Arden smile. ^ It's so big that her eyes disappear. It always makes Drew laugh when she does this.
STOP. GROWING.
This is exactly what she does when you say, "Be sweet, Arden!"
She lays her head either on your shoulder, or on whatever is closest to her. In this case, that rug.
And here are a few behind the scenes photos I got from the shoot on my cell phone!
This venue is actually where Haley and my sister, Kamryn, are getting married! Haley ^ is getting married here April 7th and Kamryn is getting married here May 12th. So fun! It's called Market at the Mill in Clifton right next to Sinclair. It's brand new and so cute.
I'm so glad we went ahead and did these pictures. We'll be so glad someday!
OKAY, this brings us to Arden's actual birthday party. It's no secret that I get anxiety at the thought of hosting a large party. Everything has to be perfect. The house has to be SO clean that you could eat off the floor. So, to save ourselves some fretting, when we planned this party I told Drew, "Let's do our best to keep it small." Well. Keeping it small with our large families equates to a little over 50 people who all came to Arden's party. It's a good thing our living/dining/kitchen is one open space, otherwise, with the cold weather, we would've been in trouble.
I took off work the day before the party to basically plan the entire shindig. I went to Target three times in four hours. I spent two hours in Hobby Lobby and a half hour in the party store. I spent four hours and stayed up until 1:30 in the morning making homemade "candy" for goodie bags. I printed off over 150 pictures of Arden to string up all over the house and Drew and I spent an hour and a half hanging a balloon banner that said "Ardy Party." (Since she was like three months old, my mom has referred to her as Ardy Party, so it seemed appropriate.) Drew spent at least an hour sweeping and mopping and cleaning. Then we got up the morning-of and did last-minute prep all over again to make everything happen. There were balloons that needed helium, fresh plants that were needed for our front porch plant stand (the harsh winter really did a number on our plant babies and Drew wanted the porch to look nice when people showed up), a cake and cupcakes to pick up, clothes to be folded, candy to be bagged up for treat bags, a baby to bathe and feed and just ALL THE THINGS.
We were absolutely exhausted by the time the party started. I'm serious when I say I hopped in the shower to wash my hair at 1:15—45 minutes before party start time. Thank GOODNESS for my mom who made all of the yummy food (tiny ham and swiss sandwiches on Hawaiian buns warmed in the oven, brie bites, sausage balls, bacon-wrapped lil smokies and cheese and crackers) and Drew's parents, Amy, and Lindsay who all came down early to help throw the last minute things together. Without all of the help, we'd have been up a creek.
You know that feeling when you put a lot of work into something, then in seemingly ten minutes it's over? And you literally went ninety-to-nothing for two straight hours, talked to what seemed like 100 people, possibly blacked out, and then all of a sudden everyone is already putting on their jackets and heading out the door? That's how the party felt. As people were leaving they said things like "That was so fun!" and "Great party!" and all I could think was, "Was it actually a good party? I don't even remember!"
Here are a few highlights from Arden's first annual Ardy Party!
Here is my first attempt at organizing the 150 photos I printed the day before the party.
I knew that I wanted to hang up all of her monthly pictures from newborn to 12 months, so I did this photo banner first. I hung these on the floating shelves that Drew built for our entryway, so that everyone could see them right when they walked in. I paper clipped them onto pink twine with these pom-pom paper clips I found at Hobby Lobby. After doing this one, I got carried away and started paper clipping photos onto banners all over the house.
Excuse the following low quality pictures taken the night before the party when the house was still a wreck. I was running around all over the place on day-of and didn't get any shots of the other three banners with a clean house and better light.
Excuse the following low quality pictures taken the night before the party when the house was still a wreck. I was running around all over the place on day-of and didn't get any shots of the other three banners with a clean house and better light.
Now, I realize a one-year-old's birthday party is a predominantly adult event and goodie bags aren't necessary...but I honestly just wanted to add something kind of fun for everyone who came. And I thought making "candy" would be easy enough. As it turns out, it is easy...but making three different types of it for 50+ people the night before was definitely an undertaking. ^ These are pretzels with Hershey's Hugs melted on top, then topped with one pink or white m&m.
These ^ are Ritz crackers with crunchy peanut butter sandwiched between two, then dipped in white or dark chocolate and topped with sprinkles or a chocolate drizzle.
Those on the top left ^ are peanut clusters. I just melted dipping chocolate and poured a bottle of unsalted peanuts directly into it. Then I spooned out dollops, topped them with sprinkles, and let them dry on parchment. This is a photo of all of it finished and drying. I'm not sure that I've ever been as tired as I was after finishing this.
^ Here's the dining room almost ready. We still hadn't put the food out, but things were taking shape.
My mom's friend made a bunch of these custom birthday cookies! Can't believe how cute they turned out! However, I unfortunately can't speak to their taste because by the time the party was over, alllll of them were gone. Must've been pretty good!
We ordered this cake from HEB and this party hat and matching cake topper from Etsy. The extra tall candle came from Target.
I got this cupcake stand as a wedding gift! I didn't register for it, and at first I thought I may never use it. Well, jokes on me, because it's been used so. many. times. I love it.
Gold balloons came from Hobby Lobby!
Ignore my handwriting on these signs...I made them extremely last minute with little time to spare. This is Arden's birthday journal! I'm going to bring it out for friends and family at her parties to leave messages in every year. Then, she'll be able to go back and read what everyone said over and over. (This idea came to me while standing in the Target journal aisle on one of my three trips there the day before.)
Treat bags that the candy was in came from Hobby Lobby. So did that polka dot thing.
The cutest baby Nikes! ^
Arden LOVED everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her!
This time she cake smashed, she'd already had some practice! She had no problem hopping right in.
Drew's Dad made this arrangement for Arden's party!
This last picture shows how much was actually going on a lot better than the others of the cake smash. I actually think it's hilarious.
After the party was over, Scott and Lindsay stayed the night to help us clean and honestly just for fun. Our sleepover involved a trip to Chuys, Drew attempting to hang a 70 inch television in our living room without me knowing, and Scott needing to borrow clothes to sleep in, so Drew outfitting him in what I like to call the "Drewniform."
Thankfully, Arden's babysitter/our friend, Lindsay Boyd, has an excellent sense of humor. As a mother of two boys herself, she knows that first birthday parties can be stressful. So she gave me a tiny bag at the party and told me it was something for me to open after the party.
It was a tiny Prosecco!! I loved it and I laughed hard.
Arden in her cutie new clothes the morning after her party.
This ^ was Arden on her actual birthday, January 31st! (With a skid mark on her chin from a very brave walking attempt at daycare.) After all the excitement of her party, her actual birthday was low key: Daycare. A quiet dinner at home. Puffs snack. Bath time. Mom and Dad singing happy birthday again. Then bedtime.
I truly cannot believe I'm the mom of a one-year-old. It was so fun celebrating her with 50 of our closest friends and family members (lol). When it was all said and done, the next morning I looked at Drew and said, "Babe, I think next year we're going to have a quiet family dinner with a cake and a few small presents." He said, "Yeah right."
No comments