Happy Birthday, Hannah!!!

Has it already been a year?! It's hard to believe that one year ago, our precious Hannah Grace entered the world! James and I can't imagine what our life would be like without her - she has brought so much joy to our family. Her smile and laughter are contagious (and she's smiling or laughing most of the time)! I'm not a morning person, so I don't necessarily enjoy getting out of bed in the morning, but once I walk into her room, and see her smiling face and squeals of joy, I wouldn't trade it for anything - not even an extra hour of sleep (but, thankfully, she's not too early of a riser!! :) ). James and I have learned and grown so much through this year - about marriage, about family, about ourselves, about each other, about God (and His grace, love, mercy, patience...) and, while they weren't always easy lessons, we are so thankful God walked us through those trials and times in which we learned these valuable lessons and truths.

Yesterday we had a little party for Hannah and were so blessed by our friends and family! It's so great to see how many people love our daughter and are praying for her and will be godly influences in her life as she grows up. The theme of her party was "Cheerios," because they are her absolute favorite things in the world!!! So, my sister and I set out to make a Cheerios box cake! We had fun making it and were pretty happy with the end result! We also made a small Cheerios box out of the scraps from the big cake that we used for Hannah's own, personal cake.

I was a bit disappointment in how Hannah went about eating the cake. I always love when babies just shove the whole thing in their mouth and make a HUGE mess all over themselves and everything around them. However, my baby is just too polite to do that. At first she just picked the Cheerios off the cake and ate them. Then I pulled the fondant off the cake to see if that would help, but she just stuck her finger in a little bit of the frosting and licked it off. Ok, well, let's try breaking the cake into smaller chunks, so she can just pick up a chunk and eat it. Nope! My little princess just picked up the little crumbs and ate them. Finally, I picked up a chunk and gave it to her, but she still didn't shove it in her mouth. What a disappointment, but it was still fun watching her eat it!

She had a blast with her presents, too! She was probably wondering why we kept giving her a toy and then taking it away from her. She didn't mind us taking them away, though. I think she realized that when we took one away, she got another one! Anyway, she's been busy today playing with all of her new toys! Daddy's had fun playing with them, too! :)

One of the highlights of her birthday was having family here to share it with her. My Grandparents flew in from Pennsylvania to be here (this was the first time they were able to meet her), my parents and my sister and her family came down from Northern California, and of course, her Uncle Aaron, Aunt Kim, and baby Linnea were there. We were also blessed by all of our friends that came to share this special occasion with her. Thanks to everyone who made this day so special!!!

For those of you who weren't able to be there, here are some pictures. We wish you all lived closer and could come!!!The big cake and Hanna's little cake (we obviously didn't spend much time on her cake)!

Top view of the cake.Eating the Cheerios off of the cake.Not too happy about having about 25 people standing around just staring at her... (and the fact that I didn't put a clip in her hair, so she looks like Donald Trump - I think I would be crying, too!). This is as messy as she got.Listening to the Pichura cousins sing "Happy Birthday!"

P.S. There are more birthday pictures on Facebook (sorry for those of you who don't use it, but Blogspot takes A LOT LONGER to upload photos).