Emma's First Birthday!

...only sharing pics about 6 weeks later, but hey, they're here at last ;0
SO, August 3.  Myemma's birthday.  It was something to think back at last year this time (well, that day)...remembering being in the hospital for a few days before labor kicking in...having to leave our little precious thing in Stockton for 11 days in the NICU.  Man, that was not easy to get through.  Thankfully, with Shanelle's wedding going on, family in town, we were very well distracted...and exhausted.  Imagine, though, having 4 blurry days in the hospital after your water breaks unexpectedly, being pregnant for 34 weeks (exactly), giving birth...and coming home empty handed.  It was quite surreal.  Very emotional.  Thank goodness the Lord covers us with His peace, comfort and strength.  We know we only made it through by His grace and the love & support between us.

OK back to the fun stuff...THIS YEAR!!  So, on her birthday, I posted her photo shoot pics taken by the wonderful Megan King ;0.  Here's a little collage we printed to display at the party.

To see them all, click here.

We'd also purchased the Picture People Groupon a while back...so we had those photos taken on her birthday-day!  In case you missed that pic, I'll re-post - it's a cutie ;0

THEN...the party!  This little girl had the biggest kid party I've ever been to!  Not that I've been to that many  (first birthdays).  And I have heard the first is one of the largest.  You'll have to remember that our immediate Boyd fam is not nearby, so to have family come, we have aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and on and on :)  With that count at just under 100 (including kids!) we were unable to extend many invites to friends...all that to say, I am very sorry if we weren't able to invite you to the party!

Here was the invite that we ended up with.  I love to find things online and make them our own ;0  Since I was trying to keep a healthy budget, we tried to not do a fancy theme for the party, so this was it: our princess, aka Emma ;0  and the fun, bright colors

We headed to the park, which is ever so conveniently located across the street!  One of the many blessings of the home the Lord's provided us with ;0.

Emma test driving her gift from mommy and daddy before the party...

Tyler and Thomas started up the 'Q while I 'set up' and Steph held the kids back at the house until closer to party time ;0

Then the birthday girl arrived and started to visit with guests ;0

just saw this pic as I was going through for the post.  thought it was cute, little Dylan (Canlas - there were 2 there) holding Emma!  He just loves her ;0

one of the 2 times I got to sit down ;0

Kayla is just such a beautiful little girl!  Her eyes always catch my attention when I see pics of her.

Tia Diana took all 3 of the little ones down the slide ;0  

We got the honor of having Grandpa Burton pray over our party and dinner.

...cake time!  We ended up with 2 cakes since our group was a little large ;0  but it made it fun.

(and yes, still had issues with cakes day of...but time went by and I forgot about complaining...guess it's a lesson for myself;0 - if you missed my rant about Safeway Cakes, you can scroll back to end of July to find it)

our pretty little party girl in her chair awaiting the cake!

she slowly took it all in and enjoyed ;0  Then my mom whisked her to the house, bathed her and she was ready for gifts!!

she opened them from her wagon ;0

It was such a wonderful evening.  Thanks to everyone that made their way out!  She got such wonderful gifts!!  Everyone was very thoughtful and generous and we are very grateful for everyone that cares so much for our baby girl.  

Big thanks to Thomas for taking pics of the party for us!!  Didn't realize how busy we'd be ;0  

There were a ton more pics taken!!  Click here if you'd like to see them all.

Here's our little thank you note we made to send out ;0

....and that, folks, was the busiest, craziest, funnest week of the year thus far ;0...and she's on to month 13 already!  time sure does fly...