A year of firsts

I find myself constantly making mental notes of Molly's "firsts"... I suppose most moms do that. "Mental note.. first smile... mental note... first bath... mental note... first tooth...mental note...first kiss (yep, first kiss)" Each and every day, the list gets longer and longer. The biggest milestone this year, however, was Molly's first birthday. I look back and wonder how long I actually thought of this day. I think the second I found out I was pregnant, I had a glimpse in my head of her first birthday (and yes, I knew it was going to be a "her"). However, to let everyone believe I was sane, I didn't tell them about dreams of pink balloons, a huge cake and our entire family and godparents swirling around the house with our baby in a beautiful satin gown and bows in her hair. Because, really, who ACTUALLY does that??

Apparently, me.

It was an amazing day that, frankly,went by too fast. I loved having our house full of kids (SO many little girls and the infamous Ray boys). The noise was infectious and, while I'm sure most people couldn't hear themselves think, I wouldn't have changed it for the world. I was surrounded by people who love us and love our baby girl.....our satin clad, cake all over the place, pink ladybug lovin' baby girl. Here's a few pics from the day:

Her theme was pink ladybugs, and I had an amazing cake made by a woman in Oshkosh, who also made our wedding cake, Molly's baptism cake and our anniversary cake.It was gorgeous AND tasted amazing.





Molly's throne