One year older, and wiser too!

It's hard to believe, but M is another year older today! She is SUCH a great kid, I could not ask for better. Here are 11 adjectives that describe M: Smart, sweet, responsible, shy, kind, talented, cute, funny, helpful, artistic, and AWESOME! She is seriously my right-hand-woman, fully capable of doing almost anything I can around the house. Each day she gives me something to be proud of.

Whenever it is near their birthdays, my kids ask me to tell them a little about their birth story, so here is the nutshell version on M. We had been married about 6 months when we found out we were expecting M. We were SO excited for our first baby. The day I went into labor (2 days before my due date) was my last day at work. I came home, went to bed, rolled over, and my water broke. Thank goodness it hadn't been in a office a few hours before! I labored for about 16 1/2 hours, 2 1/2 of which were pushing, and she was just....stuck. So, a c-section later we had our beautiful little girl. Poor thing had been so beat up in the process (bruises, and even raw skin in one spot, how awful!) but she was still a gorgeous baby with a ton of hair. She was horrible in her car seat, always (just ask D's parents who had the privilege of riding with us to Laramie, WY with her screaming the entire time). She's good in the car now!

So here is the part where I get a little sentimental. Nearly 7 years ago, I had my last baby. That seems like yesterday. It hit me today - 7 years and M will be leaving my nest! It has gone so fast the last 7 years - this next 7? I don't even want to think about that!

For her birthday, she wanted chocolate cake with whip cream frosting. This very well may be the first birthday cake I've made from scratch. D usually is the baker in the house. It turned out "okay". I am not a cake fan, really. We broke up a Skor bar to put on top - turned out pretty well other than the frosting started to slide as you will see in the pictures. Still good. M went shopping today with her birthday money from her grandparents and she got a toy and a sweatshirt, and is looking online for roller skates. From us, she got Taylor Swift tickets and she is so excited to see her on Friday night!! Happy birthday M!