Happy Birthday Hannah!

On Tuesday, December 8th, our baby girl turned one! It has been a wonderful year with Hannah--she is such a great blessing in our lives. Hannah is full of personality and is so much fun! She talks non-stop, though her only real "words" are "DaDa," "MaMa" (if she's really mad), "Uh oh," and various attempts to imitate what we are saying. She loves to walk around, but still insists on holding our hands (she'll do about 6 steps on her own and then decide she'd rather crawl). And Hannah loves to laugh, put food in my mouth instead of her own, dance, take baths, suck on the first two fingers on her left hand, talk on the phone, and play with other kids. She hates eating anything but yogurt or cheese, getting her diaper changed, sitting still for more than two minutes, and Santa. Hannah weighs 16 pounds 1 ounce (even after three months of a high-fat diet!) and is 29 inches long. I love you, bean!

Hannah's birthday celebration started on Sunday with a Skype (Internet video call) birthday party with both sets of grandparents and all her uncles and aunts that live in Utah (Bob and Linda, Greg and Tiff, and Beaver and Brittany). Hannah had fun talking to everyone, opening her gifts, and eating the frosting off a cupcake.

Party decorations

The birthday girl enjoying her princess hat for about two seconds. Talking to the family

Hannah loving the frosting on her cupcake.The other half of the party:I hosted the ward play group on the morning of Hannah's birthday. We had a bunch of Hannah's little friends come throughout the morning to wish her a happy birthday and enjoy a cupcake. It was a lot of fun (even though Hannah exercised her right to be grumpy on her birthday by the end!)I made butterfly cupcakes for the kids, which I think turned out to be really cute.I also made devil's food cupcakes (mainly for the moms!). I used a Martha Stewart recipe and made the cupcakes and the frosting from scratch. I now realize why people always use the box mixes--these took me an hour and a half to make! They were pretty amazing though.Mommy made Hannah's favorite food for dinner--homemade macaroni and cheese. She loved it!Hannah unwrapped her gifts......and was excited to get a jacket, two dresses, the movie Up, and a magnetic letter set (that sings songs) for the fridge.But Hannah's favorite gift was the old cell phone that Daddy gave her!James and I sang Happy Birthday and gave Hannah a chocolate cupcake to enjoy. She wasn't as into it as she was at her half birthday celebration (we think she was a little filled up on the Mac'n'Cheese!), but she still managed to get it squished all through her hands and her hair.For the record, Hannah officially hates Santa Claus! We tried to get cute Santa pictures again today at the ward party (I thought maybe she was just in a bad mood last time), but no luck. She was an angel for the whole party but burst out in tears as soon as James tried to put her on Santa's lap! We won't tell her that Santa will be sneaking into the house on Christmas Eve!