Happy Birthday, Elise!!

Seriously cannot believe this girl is one! So crazy!

But before we get to her birthday, I have some pictures from the last month or two that I haven't gotten up. 

About 11 months:

 I just love her little face in this (and the sign of older brothers with the dash of green marker in her hairline.)

 She's just cute :)

 Just waking up. So cuddly.

                       

 Yes, she pulled everything off the bottom shelf there and was so proud.

 There are no shortages of pictures of her with food all over her face. She is of that age when kids seems to like the feel of food more than the taste.

She's my happy girl! 

 Food all over her face is one thing. Falling asleep with said food is quite another. *Sigh* To clean and risk waking them? To put them in bed covered in food? 

 These two pictures are some of my faves. I love that little face!

She LOVES this little horse. It's so cute.

 

Just another one I love. We were at a restaurant.

Elise Turns One!

 This was her first present from Mimi. She loves it, clearly

 She also loves batman. What can I say? She has three brothers :)

This was the first celebration that happened on her actual birthday. It was little with just a few cupcakes. The bigger party was the next day. 

 She loves those brothers of hers!

 Just one cupcake for now. She has been our only child that just dove right into the cake with no assistance. Clearly the smartest of the bunch ;)

 Birthday Bath. 

 I might have let the water get a little fuller than usual. And watch out for that Joe... (He looks so devious!)

All clean and ready to get dirty again.

 

 Opening presents (I'm realizing these might be a little out of order.)

  Loves her presents!

 Just playing.

And finally party time!

My first girly-girl cake. So I chose Minnie. Cuz I like Minnie :)

 Daddy actually did most of the decorating. I give credit when credit is due! He did a fabulous job, no?

 After a taste of cupcake the day before, she was more than ready to get her hands on that cake. Or maybe she just really likes Minnie, too :)

 All the kids ready for cake. With 7 nieces present, even if Elise didn't appreciate the Minnie Mouse theme, I definitely had enough other fans. :)

 Elise got the entire top portion of the cake. And again, she dove right in.

Opening a few more presents

  There was no shortage of helpers when it came to opening presents.

 But she definitely started getting the hang of it.

She got a purse stocked with all the essentials.

Her first cell phone:

Her first credit card:

A bracelet:

Love you, baby girl! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday To Me....

This is a little late...like two months late. But I had a birthday and my darling little family was the best. Flowers from my darling husband and cards from my darling children were pretty much the highlight. Okay, the peanut chocolate ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins wasn't too shabby, either. ;)

Joey and Elise were both asleep :(

Thank you to my wonderful family!

Elise's First Hair Cut...Courtesy of Luke

Luke has survived. But just barely.... 

So this is what happened. Luke, Joey, and Elise were happily playing upstairs while I ran down stairs to take care of something for 5 or 10 minutes. This is a common occurrence. Those three usually play well together while I get stuff done. I came upstairs and I found this:

 and this:

and this:

  You get the idea. Pictures truly don't do it justice. It was a complete HACK job. He looked SO. DANG. FUNNY. I was dying! I quickly found out that Luke had cut Joey's hair, with the kids' monkey scissors, no less. So I started in on lecturing Luke and talking about how bad it was, and he never, ever should cut hair...blah, blah, but all the while trying not to laugh because Joey just looked so funny and I knew we could just shave it.  He'd be back to normal in a month or two. 

Then.... 

(Oh I shutter even remembering the moment of realization.) I noticed that Elise had some hair on her back. I thought maybe it was Joey's...?

It wasn't.

I saw these little nicks and bald spots all around the back of her head. 

I was no longer laughing. 

Luke got in trouble. 

BIG trouble. 

Then it got worse....

I saw this:

 That would be where the hair was cut at the base of her pony tail. 

Did I mention that Luke got in BIG trouble. He sat in time out for like an hour. And was grounded for the rest of his life. 

I was going to get her pictures done in a month when she turned one. I cried. I didn't even take her ponytail out until after her nap, much later, because I didn't want to see how bad it was. 

This is how bad it was (it's probably close to a third to a half of her hair volume):

I finally took her ponytail out. This was how long and cute and even her hair was getting with her perfect little hair line:

This is her new hair line :(

 

 I know, I know. Hair grows back. But I'm still sad. I'm mostly just so sad that I didn't get her pictures done before. Her little ponytail has kind of been her thing her whole first year so I wanted the pictures. But I try to hide it strategically under bows. And she's still pretty stinkin' cute.

 And my little Joe rocks a pretty good buzz. It's a few months early for the summer thing, but oh well.

And I still love my little Luke. He is forgiven, though still frequently reminded about scissors.

 His prayer that night went something like this:

"Thank you that I’m sorry I cut Elise’s hair. And thank you that when she gets big it will grow back and she’ll be darling."

I'm not sure what I said in all my ranting throughout the rest of the day, but I guess it was something about it not growing back until she gets bigger and how he ruined her darling hair....