Emily's 1st Birthday!!

Yesterday was a very special day in our home...it was my little darling Emily Grace's very first birthday! What a fantastic day---besides the weather. I guess I can't complain too much about the weather because it could have been much worse. Living in New England you never know what you are going to get. We had a hard hitting storm on Thursday, which made travel horrific that day. A usual 40 minute ride took me almost 3 and 1/2 hours. They were predicting another big storm, this had the potential to be even worse. No matter what....the party was going to go on. We have this thing about birthdays...we ALWAYS celebrate birthdays on the actual day. I have NEVER had a party for one of my children on any other day besides the actual date they were born. Well luckily the snow turned into rain by mid-morning.





I think a good time was had by all. As my oldest son put it---it was like 3 parties in 1. You had the woman upstairs in my living room talking...the teenagers (supervised) in my son's room.....and the men....well where else would you find a die-hard New England sports fan....WATCHING THE PATRIOTS OF COURSE!!! All the men were down stairs enjoying the game. When they all made there way upstairs after the game was over we had fun teasing them asking them all when they showed up.

FOOD---LOTS OF FOOD!! I would LOVE to take all the credit for the wonderful buffet that was set before us....but I can't. I made a few things...like a roast, lasagna and chocolate truffle. Wendy brought a salad (thank you Wendy), Laura brought a chicken dish (thank you Laura) and my sister brought Chourico and Peppers (thank you Glenda. Well the rest of the stuff...well lets just say that I am great at making lists and delegating. I had my clip board with all the items listed that I planned on making. Yes, I do mean to say I planned on making. But there was alot to do. Wendy was the first to show up. She jumped right in and starting helping out. Next Laura and her family showed up. Once they showed up, Chris basically kicked me out of the kitchen and him and his kitchen crew did a fabulous job. Wendy was joking at one point saying she felt like she was on the show "Hell's Kitchen". Honestly...they all did an awesome job. And the most unbelievable part of it...when he was done cooking and all the food was set out--there was a clean kitchen.








I won't bore you with all the details. Just know that it was lots of fun--we ate, we laughed, we enjoyed celebrating together the joy of having this precious little girl in our life. This time last year I was asking Chris to adopt again and he felt 4 was our fill and now we couldn't imagine our life without her.

If you read my previous entry you may be wondering if I made it through singing "Happy Birthday" without crying. I didn't even wait until we starting singing to cry. As we were setting up the cake I started to cry. Just knowing the blessing He has given us, to know what kind of life Emily could have had if...if she....well lets not think of that now. The cake...you need to see the cake. Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe it. My friend Connie along with her daughter Stephanie made/blessed us with it. Connie hand made the flowers out of gum paste and Stephanie made the butterflies. She made the top layer for Emily to destroy.










The day was beautiful. Enjoy the pics. Oh, one last thing. It was also Wendy's mother Jeannine's birthday too. I was glad she chose to spend her special day with us.

Toodles,
Judy