Taylor and Grady's Place: Happy Birthday!!

Taylor's officially 1-year old!! Woo hoo!! We had such a fun time celebrating her birthday with our family and friends this past weekend. Nana and Doodah, Mimi and Poppa and Gabby (dog), Aunt Haley and Uncle Ryan and Piper (dog), and Mimi's cousin Darcy and Aunt Elsie all traveled to Lubbock to spend the weekend with us. Our friends, Max and Janice, came over for Taylor's birthday party, so we had a total of 13 people (including Taylor) and 3 dogs at our house!! It was hard to believe that everyone could fit into our little house, but everyone seemed to have to a good time and didn't mind the small space! Of course, with Taylor being the center of attention, I think we all could have been stuffed into one bedroom and would have been fine! Taylor was the perfect little hostess to all of our guests. She knows just how to entertain everyone!

Taylor received so much good stuff! She got lots clothes from both of her grandmothers, Aunt Haley, Darcy and her great-Pepaw!! Aunt Haley and Uncle Ryan made her a beautiful toy box. Aunt Kelley and Uncle Doug got Taylor the cutest Easter basket just in time for Easter, and then sent her a beautiful and yummy fruit bouquet on her birthday. Mimi and Poppa got Taylor a little swing set that has a slide......and let me tell you, Taylor is such a daredevil----she LOVES to slide! Nana and Doodah got her a DVD player for the car, so our road trips will be so much more pleasant now! I think Tyson and I are most excited about that! Taylor also received lots of fun toys...like the little push mower from Aunt Elsie. It makes lots of noise!! I think we could open our own little toy store with as much stuff as she has! Taylor's great-Pawpaw, great-Granny and Grandaddy, her Aunt Patty and Mimi and Poppa all sent gifts for her college fund....something that Tyson and I are most appreciative of!!

I think Taylor's most special gift was a Madame Alexander doll that she received from Max and Janice. Taylor's face just lit up as soon as she saw her little baby doll! We let her play with it for a little while, but decided that the doll was too nice to play with. So now her baby doll sits up on the shelf! Taylor knows right where she is....every time we go into her room, we always have to go see her doll!!

As it turns out, Taylor's a pretty neat eater. I was expecting her to dive into her cake; however, she was perfectly content taking her time. She would stick her finger in, take a lick and then stick her finger back into the icing. It wasn't until Aunt Haley gave her a chunk of cake that Taylor started getting messy on her face. And then the fun began! She would take a big swipe of cake and icing, eat a little bit of it and then give the rest to Belle or her daddy. I'm sure that Belle wants to have birthday parties more often!

We missed seeing the family members that couldn't make it to Taylor's party, but we know that they were thinking of her. They were also thinking how far away Lubbock is! Ha ha! Hopefully for Taylor's second birthday we'll be living closer to civilization and can have more of our family members attend!