Happy Birthday Georgia Grace!

Georgia Grace,

One year ago today at 9:35 am we welcomed all 8 pounds and 2 ounces of you into this world. Your daddy and I earned the title parents that day and we finally got to meet our daughter. You were the daughter mommy dreamed of dressing up with big bows and monograms. And the daughter daddy dreamed of sharing the special father-daughter bond with.

Your delivery was quick and easy, just like the newborn days that followed. Three months passed and we wondered where the time went. And six months and nine months and here we are today celebrating your first birthday! This has been the fastest and BEST year of our lives.

 Everything this past year has been so exciting and new. We often joked that you are our "guinea pig" and maybe we will figure it out by the time your brothers/sisters come along :). Even in our numerous parenting fails (i.e. too thick homemade baby food, double dose of antibiotic, dirty diaper disasters) I hope you will know how loved you are and that we tried our best despite our shortcomings. This past year would have been boring if not for the "excerpts".

You are an affectionate, happy, and animated child that keeps us smiling and laughing. Your beauty is undeniable and we think you inherited the best traits of both of us. I remember the first time I saw your precious face and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. One of my proudest moments was seeing your head full of dark hair ha! You have stolen the hearts of so many people, Georgia Grace. Those big brown eyes know how to pull heart strings.

Being the first born you are privileged in getting to experience all the firsts along with us. First night at home as a family of 3 (scary stuff!), first bath, first time sleeping through the night (!), first holidays, first haircut, first words. And you achieved these milestones so well and most of them early! You are our little overachiever.

I often find myself talking out two sides of my mouth because I desperately want you to stay my baby forever but yet I wouldn't trade your growth and maturity for anything. Parenting has a funny way of making you do that. When I reflect on this past year I get excited for the next firsts we will experience-first sentence, first bike ride, first school picture, first report card, first ballgame/dance recital/play, first date, first prom. The best is yet to come!

Our prayer is that you will grow to love the Lord and that you will be able to see Him in us. We pray daily for your health, actions, friends, future husband and most importantly your salvation. Our greatest gift we can give you is to show you Jesus.

Happy 1st Birthday to our firstborn and sweet Georgia peach! We love you SO much more than you will ever know! Bring on year #2!

Love, 

Mommy

Georgia Grace's First Birthday Party

Yesterday afternoon we held Georgia Grace's birthday party. There were 49 adults and 29 kiddos for a total of 78 party people!! We had a FULL pumpkin patch and I'm so thankful we decided to go ahead and have it outside on the farm despite the colder temps.

Super long post because this is our first 1st birthday party and I want to remember all the details and neat
 stories that made her party unique, memorable, and ONE-derful :). I promise you will feel like you were there after this :)

Welcome to the farm! We held her party at Uncle Jake and Aunt Shanna's house. I can't think of a better place to have a fall birthday party. Notice anything unique in this picture?

Yes it's a monogrammed haybale! I did this and it was surprisingly easy to do. You're only 1 once! :)

Balloons tied to pumpkins lined the path to the party. (Thanks Papaw Ernie, Poppa, and Uncle Jake)

I used haybales and quilts to make little tables and pumpkins as seats for the kiddos. I have to give Pinterest credit for this idea. I wish I was that creative! One of my favorite party details.

We used the same pennant banner that our friend Sophie made for us over a year ago for our shower. I displayed her monthly pictures on doilies. We attached it all to the house with hot glue. Hot glue! My favorite crafting tool. (Thanks for the help Grandma Harrison)

So you know what is hard? Remembering to get a picture of the "finished" table. The timing of setting out food and uncovering dishes and remembering every food item gives me super super anxiety. And so I think it's fitting this is the only picture of the table we have is of a half done table LOL! We had BBQ catered, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, PBJ's, veggie tray, fruit tray and cupcakes. Marcus said I planned a very dietitian friendly menu!

My sweet wonderful mamaws made the cupcakes for me and Gran Stan attached the monograms. We opted for cupcakes because we thought that would be easier to just grab and go with so many kiddos in attendance. And let's just be honest I am a cupcake girl! Cupcake over cake any day. 

Thanks to my mom for wrapping the forks for me. I ran out of time and she came to the rescue! I used the same monogram design throughout the party to keep everything cohesive. 

The favorite food item :) Making nutrition fun is one of my love languages.

Georgia Grace's birthday cake! We went for simple and classic. Grandmomma made it for us and she did such a wonderful job! Have I mentioned how talented (and helpful) my family is?!? We are blessed.

So here is the story behind this picture. There were suppose to be 3 drink dispensers-apple cider, pink lemonade, and milk for the kiddos. We realized about 15 minutes before party time that only 2 dispensers made it to the farm and so we just stuck a gallon of milk on the box on the far right HA! That was probably my favorite idea too. Oh well, the party went on anyway :)

Baby pumpkins with pink bows and and thank you message were the party favors. A big thanks to our cousins Jim and Kelli for the pumpkins! They came from their home grown patch.

The birthday girl!! Prissy and ready to party. I can hardly stand how old she looks in this picture.

Her future husband Ace brought her a bouquet of flowers for her first birthday. My heart almost exploded!! Abby is the best boy mom. She is teaching him chivalry so well. This is probably the sweetest thing of all time.

I think they were puckering up for their SECOND kiss :)

I wanted to take pictures of all the kiddos that came. (Left out is sweet cousin Isabella Faye, and friends Solomon and MacKenlei-sorry y'all!)

Above is AKK friends Konnor, Thomas, Heath, Kolton, and Weston

Our sweet AKK twin friends Kypton and Erica

AKK girls Morgan, Lola, Ann Marie, and Raeleigh 

More AKK friends Katie, Lola, Alicia (representing Eli who is hiding behind the tree ha!), Lilly, and Ellis

Sweet cousins Cainan, Brennan, and Keagen

Beth and Will, Abby and Ace, Sara and Abbott, Me and Georgia Grace, Rachel and Caroline, and Stacy and Marley

The baby picture<3 I guess you can see which child did NOT want her picture made! Love those real life moments.

The gift opening area. She received SOOOO many nice and thoughtful gifts. I will (gladly) be writing thank yous for days!

 GGH opened a few gifts but got distracted by her guests and visible toys so...

mommy and the rest of the little party guests opened them. :)

Ohhh. Loving her new babydoll.

Taking a spin on the vintage race car riding toy from Grandma and Grandpa Harrison. Grandpa picked this out in a magazine and thought she just had to have it. I think this will be added to several of the party guest's Christmas lists! Big hit!

Uncle Jake and Aunt Shanna gifted her a pink monogrammed cozy coupe. If this isn't Georgia Grace's style I don't know what is. She loves it...

LOVES it.

Cake time!

The candle for the cake also went missing right before party time so Jake's mom Sherry who lives down the hill came to the rescue. Thanks Sherry for saving the day!

This pretty much sums up her feelings about the smash cake. We got a little one finger action but that was about it. She is ALL girl and a dainty one at that!

"I guess I'll make a little mess just to make them happy" HA!

My favorite girl

Pretty baby GGH. We didn't want to risk her getting sick so she wore a toboggan most of the party. With a bow of course!

Uncle Jake, Aunt Shanna, and GGH

We took more family {special 4 generations} pictures that I will post later.

UNCLE Eric, GGH, and Aunt Paigey

Thanks you two for being the official party photographers! They took their job seriously too.

I love my little family.

Our cute hayride drivers. They were so gracious to let us have her party at their farm! We are so grateful.


Several guests stuck around to enjoy the hayride. I'm so thankful for all these people who are a part of our "village" for raising Georgia Grace.

Georgia Grace took her bottle and caught a cat nap during the trip through the farm.

I'm not even sure who took this picture but I love it. Not for the quality or angle or pose but for what it represents. Even though she is a big one year old now she is still and will always be my baby. After the hustle and bustle from the party, she found comfort wrapped up in a quilt in mommy's arms taking her bottle. Babies don't keep and this is a picture I will cherish forever. 

And the big birthday girl loving her new car seat from mommy and daddy after church this morning! We also got her a learning farm and the rest we are putting in her savings. She has had such a fun day checking out all of her new toys. And we are more motivated than ever to find land for our forever home ha! We are running out of space y'all.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all the party guests, to our family and friends who chipped in and helped out, and for everyone who has left sweet comments about our girl's big party day. Occasions such as this always provide the opportunity to truly appreciate the people in your lives. I never want to take any of these labors of love for granted. We love y'all!

T'was The Night Before The 1st Birthday Party...

and all through the house mommy was finishing last minute details, 

and leaving no time to blog :)

Just some pictures for now but stay tuned!

Note-it should be peaches instead of cheese twice, and jabber instead of gabber. It was way too late for me to be working on something that needed proofing LOL

The pumpkins are painted, cupcakes are baked (thanks to the mamaw's), outfits laid out and accessorized, and birthday girl is getting her zzzzz's for the big day ahead. The weather looks like it will be the perfect fall evening. I hope I can sleep from the excitement!

Here we go!