ONE YEAR!

This week we celebrated our little ONE year old Crosby! I kept thinking about where I was during the week a year ago, what I was doing, etc. and really all I could think about was how incredibly happy I was to be on this side of the year rather than where I was a year ago. Specifically I was thinking about today a year ago, when I got to come home with Crosby after a long stay in that terrible hospital maternity ward in which I had no sleep and felt like a prisoner on a ward from the lack of sleep, food, and assistance I had received while there.

Crosby let us relieve part of the whole debacle leading up to her arrival as she did last year by not letting us sleep at all on the night of the 12th/morning of the 13th. This time around though, we were awake all night and morning due to Crosby having her first real illness all year. So terribly sad that it had to happen around her birthday, but we are extremely thankful that she was so well her first year as a baby.

The Birthday Girl comes downstairs in her pj's and checks out her loot!

In front of her 1st Happy Birthday Banner sign and unfortunately rubbing her nose (as she did nearly all day and night!).

Proclaiming it's her birthday at the soft play area with Daddy supporting her.

Unwrapping those birthday gifts! A Royal Wedding Happyland Play set from Mom & Dad!

Birthday cake time! We thought Crosby would be a happy camper to dig into her cake but all she was interested in was eating the fresh strawberries off the side of the cake, sadly in between sorry tears for herself for not feeling very well.

One little unhappy birthday girl by the end of the evening as we tried to take a family photo for her baby book.. Poor thing that she wasn't a happy birthday girl. :(

And the "after math" of the birthday day....toys and loot everywhere! (note this photo was taken at 10pm when she awoke with a fever after initially going to bed for the evening).

Despite the cold and crabiness of our little girl surrounding her birthday, we were still thrilled to celebrate Crosby's 1st Birthday. We are so lucky to have such a darling and sweet little girl as our daughter!

Snow!

This past weekend England got snow! It was probably the best kind of snow - it was beautiful and covered everything but by Monday morning it was fairly well melted. However over the weekend it did of course cause chaos in this country with cancelled flights, closed shops, delays, and lots of traffic problems. We did not venture out anywhere too far but we did take Crosby outside to see what she thought of her first proper snow fall.

Scott tried to put her feet down on the ground so she could (attempt to) walk on the snow (note the Tesco bags covering her Ugg boots!) but as soon as her feet touched the ground, cries began.The view was much better from up on Daddy's shoulders!Scott tried to rekindle his midwestern winter roots by building a full snowman. Crosby & her baby doll were much happier watching this activity from the comfort of our living room on the inside!Our first English snowman - the perfect place to play peek-a-boo!