Reese is Number 1!

Yesterday was Reese's FIRST birthday! It was such a great day filled with lots of presents, good food, and fun! Grandma and Grandpa Naylor flew up and stayed with us for the weekend and Reese had lots of phone calls and emails from friends and family! Thank you all. I know Reese loved it and appreciated it (at least we did)!

She started out the day by opening presents. She even opened some the night before because Grandma and Grandpa Naylor couldn't wait. Then once she went to bed Friday night we wrapped the rest of her presents and realized that she could open presents every hour of her birthday! It was great. She did a lot better this time opening and really took her time ripping off each piece of wrapping paper bit by bit. She's so dainty about everything and was just so concentrated on opening her gifts. She really liked holding onto the paper or giving it to Grandma to hold onto. It also was great to do some every hour because then she had something new to play with every so often and could actually enjoy each gift. It was fun!

She got to talk to Grammers and Poppers Jones on the phone and smiled the entire time as they sang the most beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday she'd ever heard. They were sad to miss out on the festivities, but kept in touch throughout the day. We missed them, too, but loved the sweet presents!

Reese just played all day and fought her sad little cold that showed up on Friday. As a result we decided to not go swimming because it would've just made her more tired and it certainly wouldn't help her to get better. We'll just have to go next week and it'll be so fun for her to kick in a pool that's a hundred times bigger than her bath!

She had a good long nap and then we had lunch at Panda. Yummy! It was delicious and we even stopped to see the grizzly bears on the way home. WSU has grizzlies that they use for study and keep them in a pen. When we showed up they were feeding the one year old cubs. One year old, just like little Reesey! It was great and perfectly fitting for our little bear!

We got back and finished getting ready for her party. We decorated during the day and had lots of fun fighting the battle of the balloons. If they weren't falling down, they were deflating, had holes in them, or stuck together to other balloons. Jake and Kirt really had fun doing this, but don't worry the guys won the battle, and the balloons stood the test of the party. They are still surviving today. Jake even decorated the hallway with a beautiful array of streamers. In fact may of our friends now want to hire Jake to decorate for their birthdays.

Lorrie and I finished putting together the cupcakes and setting out the food. I then did Reese's cake and was happy with how it turned out. We wanted to do a little bear face because since she was born we always called her "little bear". We went with a pink, brown and green theme and carried it through the candy(strawberry whoppers, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, green m&m's, pink chocolate covered pretzels), punch(pink lemonade with sprite and limes), ribbon, decorations, cake (cherry chip cake, cherry frosting, chocolate bears), ice cream (mint chip), invitations and so on. It ended up looking really nice altogether. We wouldn't have been able to put it altogether so smoothly without Grandma and Grandpa, so thank you!

Then the party began after a phone call from Nana and Grandpa who gave Reese the second best rendition of Happy Birthday. She was dressed all in pink, silver and white. She had a cute little tutu, and an amazing headband that Alyssa made for her. Unfortunately Reese hates headbands for the time being and so that lasted all of 2 minutes for the night. She sure looked adorable!


She greeted her guests with big smiles and lots and lots of waves. She loved the attention and saying hi to everyone. After awhile we decided it was cake time and stripped her down to her onesie. We got her in her high chair all ready to go. We lit the candle, everyone was looking at her and singing Happy Birthday. She was really happy, and then I showed her "THE BEAR"! Oh my goodness! It was the scariest thing she had ever seen! She took one look and turned her head. I thought to myself ok this is going to be fun! Then I blew out the candle for/with her, and ried to show her that it was edible by helping her touch it. OH NO! That was the trigger! She instantly started balling! Jake and I were trying to tell her it was okay and that it was just cake. She didn't care what it was. It freaked her out! When she had touched it the texture and brown color must have been too much. She smeared the chocolate on her face and that was the end of "THE BEAR". We then tried a small pink cupcake, but there was none of that to be had. She was getting sadder by the minute and big crocodile tears were free falling. She was quickly wiped off and could only be soothed by being held and sucking on her binkster. I must admit it was a little disappointing, but funny at the same time. I just wanted her to terrorize the cake, but she didn't even want to try it. Later when she had calmed down we tried with a cupcake. She would only eat it if cut into small bite size pieces. "THE BEAR" was too overwhelming and she just had to have her dainty little pieces to snack on. What a silly little bear we have.


After that craziness she opened the completely unnecessary gifts from our friends and she enjoyed doing that. We thank all of you again for being so kind! As the party died out we got her in her pjs and that's when she turned it on. She didn't want to go to bed. She was hamming it up for everyone and being so cute. She was playing peek-a-boo, waving and making silly sounds. She was the star and soaking it all up before her big day was over.

We had a small game to keep people occupied throughout the party and Sandi won! We just set up pictures around the house of Reese at each month of age. We lettered the pictures and people had to guess how old she was in each pic. Whoever got the most right won and Sandi did! Way to go Sandi. I'm guessing you studied up on the blog beforehand!

We sure had a great day and couldn't believe that it was only a year ago that we had her. She seems like she has always been part of our lives and we love her so much. She's such a light and makes everyone happy. Her beautiful smile melts our hearts and her wild, fun personality keeps our home bright and bubbly. She's always busy and got something on her mind. She keeps us on our toes, and we are so thankful to have such a sweetie. Bring on a million more birthdays, because our love will only keep growing for our amazing little Reester! What a joy!