The birthday girl!

She fell at the beach right before her birthday and scraped her face--nice look for all of her birthday pictures! :)
Birthday outfit and crown (thanks, Gee Gee and Papa!)
She dug right into her cake!

Messy girl :)


Birthday present from Mommy and Daddy---a favorite, for sure!

I know I keep saying it, but I just cannot believe that Emma Claire is a year old already! She is now walking more than she is crawling, although she does still fall down quite a bit. She gets a little more steady every day, and always walks around with a huge smile on her face because she's SO excited and proud of herself. We finished nursing a couple of weeks ago and she's now on 100% cow's milk...I was sad to end our breastfeeding journey, but we were both ready to finish and we enjoyed the time we had doing it. She doesn't have much interest in sippy cups yet so I'm not pushing them too much, but she's doing great with her bottles of milk. She is babbling and says a few "words", but not sure if what she says really means anything (except for "bye bye"). Her favorite activity is climbing the stairs, and if the baby gate happens to be taken down we know exactly where to look for her. She adores her big brother and follows him everywhere he goes, and they are both learning how to play together and get along with each other.

She's just such a joy to have in our lives, and we are so thankful that God blessed us with our sweet Emma Claire!