The Birthday Girl Party #1

Our sweet Maycee turned the Big One on 9-29-10! Since her special day happened to fall on a very busy Wednesday, we decided to save the big party for the weekend and squeeze in a quick celebration at the Hansen's between activities. We started with a photo shoot in her new birthday outfit. She will probably give me a lot of grief over this to die for tutu in 15 years, but for now, she looked amazing on her big day.

Maycee loves to walk, but for now she still needs help. We took a stroll out to the porch for a picture in Logan's rocking chair.

She loved rocking all by herself until....

...she had enough of the picture taking. So far, Maycee's personality has been quite pleasant, but she definitely knows what she wants and is getting more expressive in her opinions. We decided to go all out and let her feed herself a gourmet birthday dinner of spaghetti. So I carefully stripped her down to her diaper and we all enjoyed watching her dig in. She didn't go crazy, mind you...she is a little lady. She just used 2 fingers to grab the noodles and that worked quite well for her.

"Man this eating stuff is hard work, I need to take a break!" After dinner, it was cupcake and pink #1 candle blowing time. She loved everyone singing to her, but didn't quite know what to do about the fire in front of her face. Her siblings quickly took care of the the fire issue and it was on to digging in to the gooey goodness.

"Hmmm, this looks interesting." "Yep it's good."

"Let's see if I can get the whole thing in my mouth!" "Don't worry, Mom only had to prevent me from choking once."

After Maycee couldn't eat another bite, I had to run to a pack meeting, so Becky bathed the very dirty babies in the sink. Could they be any cuter?

Happy Birthday big girl, we love you!!

A Blessed Year

The week leading leading up to Maycee's birthday was quite a nostalgic time for Aaron and I. We kept thinking about were we were a year ago..."Oh, I think I'm having contractions 3 weeks early, oh well." "Hmmm, that lesson in relief society about learning to receive service was a good one. I need to be better about that." "I think I need to go to the hospital." "Yep, in labor and having this baby 3 weeks early, yay!" "A 7.9 pounder, she would have been huge at full term!" "I don't like the way she is breathing...she is really struggling." "Please let her be okay." "You are taking her to the NICU in Anchorage? On a plane??" "We need to get a blessing for her." "Please, Heavenly Father, let her be okay."

The next 16 days proved to be the most trying of our lives to this point. Aaron and I grew closer to each other and the Lord more quickly than ever before, but that is what trials do; they bring clarity to what matters most. We continue to be grateful for each day with have with all of our children and even more grateful that we have the knowledge that they are ours forever. We thank God every day that Maycee is a healthy, sweet, and happy 1 year old and cherish those simple moments that we used to take for granted.

Happy birthday Maycee Faith! We are so glad you are ours.