Birthday Celebration

Jillian had a great first birthday party! She was lucky enough to have a birthday party with each side of the family so she got to celebrate twice, even have birthday cake twice! This was her first time having cake and frosting but boy did she dig in like it's something she has every day. She didn't even bat an eye! Here are a few pictures from the celebrations:

Jillian had a smash cake but everyone else had cupcakes.

Cousin Leah showing Jillian how birthday parties are done!

Jillian with the Hovey girls: Alyssa, Kailey, and Brittney

"I'm One!"

"I'm one!" is the line Paul and I have been working on with Jillian today. Can't believe our baby girl has been with us a whole year...and what a blessed year it has been. Thankfully the weather was nice enough today for Paul to take Jillian on an afternoon stroll down to the park. Tonight Jillian also got to do a little shopping with Mommy. Next weekend will mark the true birthday celebration with family so we are looking forward to watching her dig into that smash cake! More pictures to come then...

One year ago... Today..."I'm one!"

Our Big Girl

It's hard to believe that in about 3 weeks, Jillian will be one already! Seems like she is doing something new every day. She is getting more and more curious and crawls at lightning speed throughout the house, opening doors that aren't latched, cupboards, drawers, and standing up to anything that seems intriguing! Still one of her favorite things remains looking at books. Today, she crawled back to her room and began unloading the books off her bottom book shelf. We walked in and saw her sitting on the floor turning the pages of one of her books...having an "introvert" moment.

We also have a big change we are making...moving to a forward facing car seat! Yippy! We hope and pray this helps Jillian enjoy traveling more as she hasn't liked the rear facing experience. Can't say I blame her. Gram and Grandpa Glew got the car seat for Jillian as an early birthday gift. We haven't taken her out on a drive with it yet but are excited for her to experience the world from a different angle!

Notice the cup holder and all!

First trip to the library

Paul had the whole weekend off so we enjoyed some family outings together this weekend. One of them was to the Bettendorf Public Library. As many of you know Jillian LOVES books so she was in heaven at the library. She loved taking all of the books out of the bottom shelves and paging through them. We even got to take a few home!

December

Jillian has been crawling like crazy since she was a little over 9 months old. This has allowed her to discover all kind of new things like tags on the bottom of rugs in the kitchen...

...and STAIRS!

We really enjoyed our first Christmas with Jillian. We spent Christmas Eve and day with Paul's family and then got together with Abby's family the following Tuesday. Jillian was given a bib by her three-year-old cousin, Kailey, who insisted she should be wearing a bib letting all know it was her first Christmas.

Jillian and Mommy on Christmas morning.

Jillian started to get the hang of ripping the wrapping paper but like we were warned, was mostly interested in the boxes. Some of Jillian's favorite Christmas gifts were books, a ball popper, a lion walker/rider, and baby dolls.

November

More firsts for Jillian Grace for the month of November! Gram Glew got Jillian a ducky to start taking her baths in. Jillian loves splashing around in it and is always excited for "tubby time".

Mommy broke down and let Jillian try her first bite of ice cream...from Culver's nonetheless. Of course, she LOVED it and right away looked for another bite.

We stopped in Maquoketa to show the grandparents and great grandparents Jillian's Halloween costume. Great Grandma Hovey sent Jillian home with this cute chair and a set of little cups and plates that Jillian LOVED.

We met in Aurora for a Jackson family get together and Jillian got to go on her first wagon ride. We definitely made sure she was belted in good but she never once wanted to get out.

Jillian was introduced to the piano by cousin, Leah at Thanksgiving. Maybe this is the start to their career playing duets together!

Halloween

This year Jillian was a lady bug for Halloween. One of Abby's patients gave us a gift of Kohl's cash to get the costume Abby had mentioned at an earlier conversation with her. Jillian got to wear her costume several times as she tried to make her rounds to the grandparents and great grandparents.

We also found time to carve a couple pumpkins this year. Jillian even got to feel the "guts" of the pumpkin.