Olivia Grace: 1 year old!

So, the day has come and gone.  The day I have dreaded for so long.  The day my baby girl turned 1!  The day that now means she is no longer a baby, but a toddler that is walking and talking and growing up way too fast every day!  However, after the day came, I realized I was totally wrong about this day, and boy am I glad!

I decided on September 9, 2011, the day before Olivia's birthday, that I was going to embrace the day as best I could.  Someone pointed out to me that if we aren't having birthdays, we're dead.  Soooo, I decided I was very blessed to have a happy healthy girl and was going to embrace this as best I could!  We took Olivia to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and she ate blueberry pancakes, and a few bites of everything Aaron and I had on our plates.  She had a great time!

After breakfast we came back home, and while she napped we started setting up for her party.  We had it outdoors and we decided to make our back yard a pink princess fairytale!  All of the trees were wrapped in pink tulle and the pergola was draped with pink tool and had pink decorative lanterns hanging from the center.  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, baked beans, chips, and pink lemonade!  We also had a wedding birthday cake that was absolutely beautiful and made by my fabulous mom!  It was truly a cake fit for a princess!

A photographer friend of ours came and took Olivia's 12 month pictures at 3, and then we started the party at 4.  Olivia had an adorable tu-tu outfit, made by yours truly, that I think she totally loved :)  We had about 32-35 people here including family, friends, and neighbors and couldn't be more thankful for all of the people that came out to help us celebrate her 1st birthday!  My sweet little princess is truly loved by so many and is blessed more than she knows! 

Now that the party is over I have realized that this day really didn't change anything.  Although technically she may be considered a toddler now, she is still our little baby, and always will be, whether she is 1 or 30!  I love her so much and can't wait to see what a beautiful little girl she will grow into! 

Now, on with our family update:  Olivia walks ALL over the place.  She has been for a about 6-8 weeks now.  We took her to the beach a few weeks ago, and although she DID NOT like the sand, she loved swimming in the ocean, floating in her float and riding the waves, and spending lots of time with us, her grandparents, her Uncle Matt, and her Auntie Em! 

She ha a vocabulary of about 10-12 words.  She is in love with Mickey Mouse and loves to carry him with her anywhere we go.  She also has a Bitty Baby that her Mimi gave her for her birthday that she LOVES and feeds her a bottle and burps her, which is super cute!  Aaron is still working in the ER, and I am now working at TN Retina again (have been back since July).  I am enjoying being back and working with patients again, but I sure do miss working in Lebanon.  There were definitely pros and cons to both jobs, but ultimately with Aaron's work schedule it just made since for me to go part time, and I am LOVING all of my time with Olivia! 

I am considering going to LPN school in the near future and am scheduled to take the entrance test on Friday!  I am a little nervous about it, but I have taken a few practice tests and think I should do okay.  I really would like the flexibility of a nursing degree and with our growing little family I think if I can stomach nursing school, it would be the best decision I could make.  Once I get an LPN license I can do a program to bridge me from an LPN to an RN, and then I would hopefully like to eventually get my masters.  However, I'm young and have plenty of time so I am no hurry!  Plus, I hope our family can eventually grow a little more in the next couple of years :)

God is truly blessing our family and continues to provide for us and be faithful to us every day.  If I were to go to school I will have to greatly cut back on my hours of work, but I really feel that this is the direction God is leading me and I'm trying my hardest to give him full control of my life and trust that he will continue to provide for us and open doors as needed.  I can't wait to see what the next few years have in store for us, school or no school.