Cora turns ONE

what a special day! our baby is 1...
we had a little family party for her with Grandma Nancy, Papa Steve, Great-Grandma Gail and Great-Papa Stan. here are some pictures from our day:

Cora was so glad that her buddy Cooper came. At one point he was out on the back porch and we found the two of them like this...

opening presents...Cora got some great new outfits for the summer (which she will be able to wear NOW because it is 80 degrees here these days!)

then it was on to cake and singing... i made regular and mini-cupcakes.
it was fun to watch Cora dive into her little cake and try it! she wasn't sure about it at first, but once she got a taste she LOVED it.

it is so great that we live near Geoff's mom and dad now. Cora cried when they left and was reaching for them to stay (so cute!!).

we had balloons all over the floor for when Cora woke up this morning and she played with them all day!

she was constantly on the go... we can really tell that she LOVES that she can crawl around and get to where she wants to go on her own.

the big gift Cora got from us was a new car seat... she wanted to climb right up in it and try it out! she sat in it for a long time and just played.

Cora Catherine is such a light in our lives.. we love her and have absolutely soaked up and cherished every minute of this year with her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!


p.s. tomorrow we celebrate Daddy's birthday.. February 11th and 12th will be a great two days in a row for the rest of our lives.

here's to a great year

can you even handle this face she is making? this was taken Christmas morning after Cora got a panda blanket from Grandma Liza. many have told us that we need to submit this photo to the company that makes these blankets, with Geoff's arm possibly cropped out ;)!

every day this girl of ours makes us smile. both Geoff and I agree that this has been the best year ever...

-we had our first baby
-we bought our first car on our own
-Geoff finished school
-i'm VERY close to finishing school
-Geoff got an awesome job
-we moved out of our college town
that has been home for 7 years

we are so taken care of and are grateful for the bounteous blessings the Lord continues to pour down on us.

birthday week

this is the week leading up to Cora's FIRST birthday and Geoff's 26th..

Can't wait to celebrate with these two!!