Happy Birthday Leah!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, indomitable, Southern belle-- Miss Leah Gene! One year ago today, after a very looooong sleepless night for mom and dad, this little lady made her way into the world at 4:47 a.m. and joined our family.

  

This is one of the first pictures we took of Leah, and it turned out to be quite telling. Here she is, literally minutes after birth and she's wide-eyed, alert, and facing life head on. Not much has changed!

And here she is exactly one year later. It's amazing how you can love such a little person so, so much. She has spent the last 12 months bringing joy, laughter, spunk, and attitude to our home. I have to admit, I was a pretty content mommy with just Lucy and Zach to take care of, but I knew we always said we wanted "one more." I remember feeling so nervous back when I was pregnant with Zach-- that "what if" I didn't love my second child as much as you adore that first baby, and "what if" I can't give my first the same amount of attention when the new baby comes, and they suffer as a result of it? I remember Jon's Grandma Cardon gave me some pretty profound words of wisdom. She said, "Always remember that love never divides, it only multiplies." And that has been true not once, not twice, but three times over. I think our capacity to love only expands with each little baby! When I see my kids playing with each other, and looking out for one another, it melts my heart, and Leah has absolutely been a missing piece in our family puzzle!

 We started the day like any other: Up at 6:30 a.m. to get the older two kiddos ready for school and out the door by 7:15 a.m.  After a nap and a trip to the gym, we headed to lunch at Panera (mommy's special treat on this day, since one year ago she was practically a zombie). Leah loved the broccoli cheddar soup! 

 We had to wait until daddy got home before the festivities could officially begin, which was much, much harder on Lucy and Zach, than it was on Leah who was mostly oblivious to what was going on. We started with presents first! 

 She definitely liked the ripping-the-paper-to-shreds part, as she causes complete and total mayhem wherever she goes these days, but when she discovered there were TOYS beneath the paper she got very excited!

 With a little help from Lucy and Zach she got them all unwrapped and was super excited about her stuffed dog. She LOVES animals-- especially dogs. Look at that little grin with all those teeth!

Playing with her new birthday present-- the balls pop out of the top and roll out the mouth. Oh yeah! **insert Vector hip thrust**

 Time for cake and ice cream! I'm almost embarrassed to post the pictures of my kids' birthday cakes-- cake decorating is obviously not my forte, but it goes into the blog book for them to see many moons down the road, so here it is. Jon came home from work and asked, "Why did you make her a reindeer?" Guh. It's a d-o-g.  The cookies on top are floppy ears, not antlers!

 Oh well. It might not have been a good-looking cake, but I made up for it with a good-tasting one. Singing Happy Birthday! 

 I knew Leah would have no problems feeding herself the cake-- look at those two-fisted handfuls of cake being shoved in her mouth! Atta girl! She has definitely got a sweet tooth.

 And not even five minutes later.... Party's over! Cake chucked overboard onto the floor, and the kid's ready to dance on top of the table.

 Zach-O and Lucy liked my cake, and Lucy helped with the decorations. They are such nice siblings-- they absolutely adore Leah and she has them wrapped around her little finger. She figured out pretty quickly that if she squeals, and squeals loudly, she gets whatever she wants!

 A quick bath to wash off all the chocolate and it's off to bed for the birthday girl!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEAH! I am so thankful to Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be this little girl's mama-- we are truly blessed to have her as a part of our family.

And one more for fun since I'm walking down memory lane tonight. Isn't she precious?!? (Don't mind me in the background-- I'm just gettin' ready to have my epidural ripped out of my spine, thanks). Love you, Leah!