Kellah Grace {ONE YEAR OLD}

How did this happen?!

I swear she was just born yesterday!

Apparently, I have blinked too many times, because my baby girl is now ONE YEAR OLD!

We celebrated Kellah's birthday on Saturday with a Rainbow Theme.

Door to the house, welcoming everyone to the party

Living Room

Doorway from living room to kitchen

Window in the kitchen, behind the food table

Above Kellah's door

 I chose a Rainbow Theme because Kellah was kind of like the silver lining after a terrible storm in our lives. She was born 364 days after we miscarried in 2010.  God used our precious Kellah to turn our mourning into joy, our tears into laughter.  She has certainly filled our hearts -- and lives -- with so much joy!  She is definitely a blessed gift from God, and we love her more than words can express!

I also thought a Rainbow Theme was fitting as Kellah is a bright, cheerful little girl.  She is a bundle of energy and likes to be on the move at all times.  She loves to laugh and even has a sense of humor already at her young age.  The other day we were playing with a basket and jokingly put it on her head.  She then took the basket and hid her head under it, giggling.  She got a kick out of making us laugh, so she stood up, put the basket back on her head and then proceed to walk down the hallway chuckling at herself the whole way!

She did the same thing again the next night as we were getting ready for bed!

Kellah also loves her big sister Coralyn, and the two of them have a blast playing together.  My favorite sound in the whole world (or at least close to it) is Coralyn and Kellah giggling with each other.

Playing ball

Climbing on Coralyn's bed

Dumping out all 101 of my cookie cutters

Having fun in the leaves

Kellah and Coralyn have lots of fun together and even look quite a bit alike (especially as I have looked back through Coralyn's baby pictures recently), but they are NOT the same girl.  Oh no, Kellah has a personality all her own!

Every single morning Coralyn greets me the exact same way, "I want to eat my breakfast."  As soon as she is done with her breakfast, she is asking for a snack.  I don't know how many times throughout the day I hear her tell me, "Mommy, my tummy says I am hungry."  The child LOVES to eat.  Kellah not so much.  She could really care less about food.  Like this morning...I gave her a banana and then went to get her vitamin.  I had to open a new container, and Kellah grabbed the box out of my hands.  She threw her banana on the floor and proceeded to play with the empty box for the next ten to fifteen minutes.

The other day I gave her a snack container (supposedly spill proof, where you have to reach your hand in to get the food out) while we were driving around doing errands.  When I went to get her out of the carseat, the container was almost empty, but I don't think any of the Cheerios actually made their way into Kellah's mouth.  The carseat was covered in Cheerios!!!!  (Don't worry, Amy Sellars, I will make sure they are all cleaned out by the time we give you the carseat back.)

When she does eat, Kellah likes more healthy foods than her older sister, who loves bread or anything carbohydrated.  Kellah's favorites are blueberries, carrots, peas, bananas, pears, and avocado (I think she ate a whole one the other day while I was fixing guacamole for supper and feeding her little bites in the process.)  So, for her birthday breakfast on Saturday we had blueberry pancakes, yogurt, and a banana.

Also, when Kellah eats, she is DETERMINED to feed herself.  She does NOT like when I try to put the spoon in her mouth.  She will grab hold of the spoon and INSIST on putting it in her mouth ALL BY HERSELF.  I am not sure how a girl who is so small can have such a strong, firm grip, but Kellah sure does. Don't let her tiny size fool you!

Feeding herself the guacamole resulted in a very green Kellah

Kellah may not be overly interested in actual food, but let me tell you, she is DEFINITELY still interested in nursing.  By this age, Coralyn wasn't all that into nursing anymore, but Kellah nurses throughout the day...and night for that matter!  Sometimes she is up every 2 hours!  Thankfully, she went 6 hours last night, so I could get some sleep and recoup from planning her party.  At times I wish Kellah wasn't so attached to my hip (or other parts of me), but then again, I don't really mind all that much.  She is only going to be this little once and I am in no hurry for her to grow up.  I want to get all the cuddling in that I can while I can!  Especially after the tragic events in Connecticut earlier this week!

I have tried to distract Kellah during the day and get her to play with toys, read a book, or even drink from a sippy cup, but all to no avail.  She just wants to nurse!  Maybe one of these days she will decide that she can drink from a big girl cup...

She may look like she's drinking from the cup, BUT really she just spits out the water, juice, and even breastmilk.
Thus, she drenches herself -- multiple times a day!

I guess her stubborn streak gives her something in common with Coralyn.  We red-heads have the temperament to go with our hair color! :)

Kellah may be small -- weighing 16 pounds and measuring 26 inches long, wearing 6-9 month clothes quite comfortably -- but she certainly doesn't lack courage, bravery, curiosity, or tenacity.  When we go to the library for storytime for the 18 month - 3 year olds, Kellah doesn't seem to realize that she is half the size of everyone else there.  She just jumps right in and joins the fun.  From trying to catch bubbles, to "waiting in line" for shakers, to listening to the story, to playing with the toys at the end, Kellah is in the middle of all the action.

Part of me is scared she is going to get trampled by the bigger kids, but another much bigger part of me is so proud of my baby girl.  I love that she has no fear and pray this trait serves her well as she grows older and stands firm in her faith for God, determined to do what's right even if she's the only one.

Kellah also has no fear at the playground, as she climbs up the steps, across the bridge, through the tunnels, and even goes down the tunnel slides.

She was determined to climb up the slide like she sees Coralyn do all the time

She is a little monkey at home too and has figured out how to climb onto Coralyn's bed and in her mushroom chair.  She loves to sneak off down the hallway into Coralyn's room and get up on the bed and bounce with the stuffed animals.  Or she will interact with the people in the playground mural on the wall; once she even tried to hug and kiss the kids!

She kind of blends in with the animals :)

Playing in the chair, with one of her all time favorite toys - a wooden ark and the animals

A little bit scarier is the fact that Kellah thinks she can climb up the stairs, all by herself.  If I leave her alone for more than 2 seconds when we are downstairs, she will run off as fast as she can and try to make it up as many steps as she can before I can get over to her.  I bring her back down to where I am, only to have her sneak off again, laughing and thinking this is such a fun game!

So thought this was hilarious.  I nearly had a heart attack! 

Coralyn is our little bookworm, reading book after book and after book.  Kellah doesn't seem to be too interested in sitting still for that long and is much more content to eat the corners of the books.  Lately, though, she has been going to the book baskets, picking out a book, and sitting down to "read" it on her own.  She is Little Miss Independent after all (unless of course she "needs" Mommy, which seems to be quite frequently!).

Can't get a much better book to read than that!

How I pray she will love God's Word, eating it up and living it out every day.  I pray she will love Jesus passionately and live boldly for Him, from a very young age.  If she is anything like her big sister Coralyn, she will be singing songs and telling stories about Jesus throughout the day.  I love seeing and hearing Coralyn act out her faith in her own toddler way.  I almost cried the other day when we were talking about Jesus and how He could come back any day.  I was explaining that we need to be ready so that we can go to heaven with Jesus when He does return to take home everyone who believes in Him.  Coralyn didn't blink an eye and stated emphatically, "I believe in Jesus, Mommy."  I pray Kellah will be able to say the same thing some day soon!  She already brings me so much joy, but nothing would make me happier than to know that my girls are walking in the Truth.

Speaking of joy, Kellah fills our lives with it, every day, in countless ways.  Again, that's why I chose the Rainbow Theme for her party.  So, here are some more pictures of the fun we had on Saturday celebrating our precious "baby" girl!

Food table (any good party has food, right!)

After filling our stomachs with colorful goodness, we let the girls play a bit.  They escaped to Coralyn's room and hopped up on her bed.  Have I mentioned how I LOVE how my girls enjoying playing together?!

Then, we told Kellah, "Come on, let's go open your presents."  Without any further instructions, she got off the bed, walked down the hallway, and made her way to the table in the living room with all her presents.  She is one smart little girl!

Kellah wasn't too interested in opening presents, though.  Once she had something to hold onto, she was content with that and didn't really want to let go of it to rip open another box or bag.

 We got her a Rainbow Build-A-Bear, who we named Sunshine.  She was more interested in her car that Grandma Sherry and Papa Larry got her though.  Granted, it did make noise! :)

She is pushing the bear away to get to the car.

After Kellah opened all her presents, we headed back into the kitchen so she could sing "Happy Birthday" and see what she would do with her cake.

She was more interested in picking off the marshmallows one by one than digging into the actual cake.
I finally took the marshmallows away, and then she started taking off the M&M's, again one by one.
Here again, we see a difference in our two girls.  Coralyn would have shoved an entire handful of marshmallows in her mouth and then before she had even swallowed that, she would be grabbing another handful of M&M's!

Kellah was very neat in eating her cake!

When she was done, she stood up in her chair, as is her custom these days.
She just about smashed her cake with her foot!

I am so blessed to have this little girl in my life!  I love being her mommy and want to soak up every moment I have with her!  More and more, I am seeing that life is short and we never know how much time we will have together.  Consequently, I am trying to do better at letting the household chores wait and focus more on playing with my precious girls.  The dishes will be just fine in the sink and the laundry isn't going anywhere, but my daughters will grow up -- all too quickly -- and then I won't be able to sit and read to them or stack blocks or sort colors or make silly animal noises.  

Who cares that these window catchers were a total flop?!  Coralyn enjoyed making them, and that's what's important!

Right now both of my girlies are napping!  I guess waking up at 6 am wore Coralyn out, and thankfully Kellah decided that she could indeed take a nap on her birthday.  She doesn't like to sleep much; I guess she doesn't want to miss out on anything!  She is more like me than I care to admit at times :)  When my sleeping beauties awake, we will have some fun together, as I don't have any daycare kiddos today.  I am looking forward to spending all day with my Birthday Girl and her lovely big sister!