Betsy turned ONE!

Our sweet Betsy girl turned one last Friday.  I'm still confused how her first year happened so fast, and I'm starting to have all these guilty feelings about missing it.  Where did this past year go?  Betsy bear is so special to us and has grown into this perfect little girl.  I think she's going to be a funny one.  She's silly and loves to make us laugh.  She's mellow and just kicks back and watches her wild brother climb the walls and do flips.  When she hears a beat, any kind of beat, she dances.  Sprinklers ticking, she's dancing.  The microwave oven ticking, she's dancing.  Dad drops another beat, she's dancing.  Man, that girl can move!  Betsy is famous for her rowing.  It's kind of a move she does when she's really excited about something, but can't seem to move fast enough to get to it, so she rows back and forth.  I need to post a video of her doing it, it's awesome.  

Betsy is no where close to walking.  Maybe a couple more months?  She scooches on her tush to get where she needs to go.  She's a good little gummer.  I feel comfortable giving her a lot of the same foods Tristan is eating.  4 teeth total, 2 on top, 2 on bottom.  She's still my wonderful napper.  Twice a day, 2-3 hours each.  And she is more than happy to go down for them.  I lay her down awake and she sticks that thumb in her mouth and puts herself to sleep.  Thank you Bets!  

For her birthday this year we decided to have something small at our house; dinner and cupcakes with a few families.  I actually LOVED not having to carry everything over to a park.  It was so nice having everything on hand at the house!  Birthday morning, the kids woke up to balloons, and danced, as usual.  Then we hurried and opened presents before dad left for work that morning.

 Tristan was waaay too excited about it being Betsy's birthday.  He was freaking out a little and was frantically rounding up all the presents for "Betsy" to open.  Below, "Betsy" opens up a present from her cousin, Addi.  Thank you Addi for the cute Shabby Baby dress!

 A little bummed out that brother's taking over?

The birthday party.  

Above: Nancy and the Ward family.

Below: Some of the Larsens, and the Thomson family.

On the menu: Crock pot mac and cheese, with sauteed ham and onions.  Garlic bread.  Green salad with fun toppings; pears, feta...., fruit salad.  Strawberry kabobs with angel cake and chocolate drizzle.  Pink Lemonade.  And homemade cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting.  

Betsy's first taste of sugar!  She loved it but got over it after a few minutes.  She tried to blow out the candle on her own, and spit a little.  It was super cute.    

All the little ones!  It kept sprinkling outside so they had to keep coming in to take cover.  Poor guys.  They were having fun with balloons and glow sticks.  

Presents and post bath for Betsy girl.

 We seriously love all of our friends out here.  They are our family away from family.  We've been friends for a very long time (4-5 years) and have watched all of our little ones grow.  Due to the size of our little place, we were limited to only a few families, but there is a nice group of us that are really close.  Thank you for loving our little Betsy and celebrating her 1st birthday with us!

After the party, taken via instagram.  Clock on the wall is wrong. We need to fix that!  It was probably more like 10:00 pm when this picture was taken.  Betsy was still awake and going strong and I think it was from her sugar high.  House was all cleaned up and I was pooped!

Happy Birthday Betsy girl!