Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Wow! What a crazy year it has been. Can't believe in a week, we will have been in Montreal for a year. I will be doing a full year in review post next week, but for now I wanted to wish our family and friends a Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

Eliana's Milk and Cookies First Birthday!

I know, I know...once again I've been slacking on the posts. A few days after Eliana's birthday party, we all were really sick. Then it was sewing, sewing and more sewing for our Halloween costumes!

So here you go, the birthday pictures! I will be doing another post with Eliana's official 1st birthday photos and 12 month update.

I had made a bib each month for monthly pictures I did with Eliana. At the party I had printed out each picture with her wearing the bib and hung the pictures with the matching bib around the dining room.

Her "cookies & milk" cake was one of my favorite parts. It turned out amazing! I made the fondant using the marshmallow fondant recipe that is floating around the web. Super easy! I had one of my friends help me to make the cake itself. She did such a great job.

Eliana had fallen asleep at some point in her party. We ended up waking her up to sing her happy birthday and open presents. She was not very happy about that. Reminded me of Parker's first birthday. You can read about his first birthday party here.

We are so lucky to be able to relocate with other families from AZ. This was the first birthday for our kids, that no members of our extended family members were able to attend. I'm glad that mine and Nolan's parents were able to call in or FaceTime and see the celebration, but it's not the same as seeing them in person. I'm happy and thankful that we have all these "relocated" families...our friends, be able to come and celebrate this birthday milestone with us.

It was an amazing day. Happy First Birthday our lil' princess.

Cake Smash!! Eliana's 1st birthday invitations

It has been awhile since I have struggled with insomnia, but here it rears it's ugly head tonight. Of course, it would be a night Eliana is sleeping as she should, like a baby. Since I can't sleep I decided to write a post.

We decided to have a pre-birthday "cake smash" for Eliana so I could use the pictures for her birthday announcement/invitation.

 

The whole photo shoot came out so cute, very messy, but cute.  Here are a few of my favorites from that day and a sneek peak of her little invitation.  I'm really late at mailing out the invites...more like announcements for out extended family, but I haven't forgotten. They are addressed and headed for the mailbox tomorrow.

It took her a few minutes to want to touch the cake, but once she had a taste of the cake she was thrilled and started making some of the cutest faces.

After I was finished taking all the photos I needed we set loose Mr. Parker to join her in eating the cake. He'd been waiting so patiently in the background and was very excited to be able to join in the fun....of course by the look of Eliana's face, she wasn't thrilled about having to share.

Gotta love those baby toes! 

Here is the finished invite. I love how it turned out! 

Come back in a couple weeks for all the details on her Milk and Cookies 1st birthday! Can't believe Eliana is almost 1