:1st birthday part 2:

Here are a few pictures of all the party decorations and such. I had such a great time making everything. I had a friend come over one night and we made all the invitations and cupcake toppers. Then I bought some sock monkey fabric off of etsy.com and my friend Rebekah made HattieJo's dress and matching doll. Then I used some leftover fabric to make her birthday hat! Then I made her a birthday banner from the scrapbook paper scraps and the clothesline was all her pictures from each month with her sock monkey!

:1st birthday part 1:

Thursday was HattieJo's 1st birthday. We started the day by singing to her when she woke up then I made us all waffles for breakfast! We all 3 ate together then us girls hit the road for school. After school we came home to play outside and get dinner ready for Uncle Craig, Danielle, and Gideon. I made cream cheese chicken, green beans, black eyed peas, and a french loaf. Then we had cake for dessert! HattieJo was so uneventful with eating her cake. She sat, with her legs crossed, in her high chair and picked at the icing smacking with each bite! haha.. No smashing, no mess, just PURE DAINTINESS! She didn't want to get messy! Then we went for a walk around the fields and just enjoyed being together.

.the atwoods come to visit.

Last Friday night, the Atwoods, came over for dinner. It was so nice to sit down and catch up with them! We love them and are thankful for their friendship! They were our "first friends" when we moved up here. Funny story: The first night we attended a small group, after deciding that we were going to go the Summit, the small group in our area met at their house. So we showed up and were the first ones there... AWKWARD! But nevertheless, we survived and became fast friends. We would have "Saturday Night at the Atwoods" until they moved to Durham (insert sad face). We miss spending time with them, but treasure the times when we are able to do so! After dinner, Andrew took the boys out on the 4wheeler and they loved it! It was so cute to watch them ride.HattieJo got a little jealous of not getting to ride, so she got to sit on it for a picture!

:aunt d's having a baby:

Our dearest friends up here are having a baby! They are the ones that we lived beside before we moved to the house we live in now. I will never forget how Danielle told me she was pregnant. We were headed out to run one day and she put a sticky note on HattieJo that said, "hey mommy, you are not the only one who is going to be an aunt in October." hahaha.. It took me a minute, then it registered! It has been so neat to walk with her through this pregnancy. We are so excited to meet her little man soon!!! Last Saturday I threw her a baby shower for all our small group past and present friends. We had a blast.(above: this is us with MaryAnne, she is AMAZING and was so kind to let us have the shower at her house... WE LOVE YOU MaryAnne!)
(below: HattieJo LOVES her Aunt D)(below: HattieJo was partied out and had to let loose and get naked!)

.one year ago today.

HattieJo Catherine Hopper was born at 5:03pm.... 20 inches long...7.3lbs!
What a HUGE blessing she is to us! Before she was born we couldn't imagine that we would ever love something as much as we love her! Here are a few pictures from that day:Things have TOTALLY changed since that day. We have been so blessed with her being so healthy, with her development, and growth. We are so thankful!

HattieJo,
Mommy and Daddy can't believe that we are celebrating the first year of your precious life today. You light up our lives. You are such a JOY. Your smile, hugs, "loves," and kisses melt our hearts. This first year has been a blast with you and we know that the years are just going to get better. You are in to EVERYTHING these days! You started walking 2 days after you turned 11months and you have not slowed down since. You started crawling about 3 days after you started walking, which is crazy because its backwards! You definitely prefer to walk, but will crawl if you need to get somewhere quickly. I have a feeling it won't be long and you will be RUNNING! You are recognizing so many phrases that we say. You perk up and head for the door to go outside anytime we say something about "going for a ride" "seeing the dogs", etc. You love to be outside. When we go out to play with the dogs you will say, "pupupupupup" and you even tell Mable to "ush" when she is barking at us! You wave "bye bye" every time we leave people. Your toothbrush is with you all the time it seems and if you don't have it, you go to the bathroom looking for it. You know how to put shoes on, even if they are not yours! You will try to put your clothes on when you can get your hands on them. When it comes to eating, you don't put up a fight. You love to eat pretty much anything that we put in front of you. You started whole milk a week ago and have done a great job with it. You have 10 teeth now with 2 more molars on their way in.
You are still a big fan of a big group of people. Party girl! You are the life of the party and center of attention everywhere we go it seems. You enjoy swinging at the park and watching all the other kids play and trying to run around and laugh with them. You are constantly talking about something using your hands to tell us about everything.
When we ask you where your tongue is, you quickly stick yours out! You have begun to pitch little fits when you don't get what you want and will stomp your feet. The list could go on and on of how much you are changing and growing. We can't believe that we don't have an infant anymore, but now we have a toddler!

HattieJo we love you and continue to pray for you each and everyday!Happy Birthday LoveBug! Mommy and Daddy LOVE you!!!

:mommy's little helper:

One night last week I was cooking dinner and HattieJo was all over the place between the dining room and kitchen she was walking at first, then plopped down and began to crawl all over the place. I had opened the fridge to get something out and the door doesn't always shut back on it's own, when I turned around, this is what I found:

:bumps and bruises:

So since HattieJo has started walking (about 3 weeks ago).. she has had quite a few spills! She is doing a lot better now, but still sometimes she gets ahead of herself. But I must say she is one tough little girl. She will cry for about a minute, then is diving out of your arms to start walking again!
You can't see it really well, but she has a bump and bruise above her scratched eye!

.swing batter, batter swing.

The Young Pros (Young Adult ministry at the Summit), which Andrew is the pastor over, has 2 coed softball teams in the local city league here. It has been so fun to go to the games each weekend. What a great opportunity to be a light in the community through participating in this league. So thankful to serve alongside of Andrew to the Young Pros. They are such a great group of people.
HattieJo LOVES going out to the games. She gets red faced from walking all over the place while we are there. She bats her eyes and every time someone hands her a softball to play with. Last week the 2 Summit teams played each other, so we had to get a picture of the 2 teams:

Wordless Wednesday: Our Family of 3

:birthday weekend part 2:

Worn out after a great weekend!

:Birthday Weekend:

*This is my 200th post! WOOHOO!*

Last weekend my family came up to celebrate my birthday! They were here when I got home from school on Friday. They had balloons and other birthday decor in the dining room. It was so cute! We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner on Friday night..YUMMY! And did some shopping while we waited to be seated! HattieJo was TOO cute while we were eating with all her little faces and turning her head all over the place to watch people (she is a people watcher like her momma!). After dinner we headed home for some cake. *my mom didn't have a "7", so she had "26+1" candles! haha"

(i LOVE this picture! My sister took this, but i had no idea she was, i have no idea what i was saying to him either! haha)

On Saturday we did some more shopping and hanging out before we headed to church. After church we came home and I cooked some dinner then we relaxed and hung out. Sunday my dad headed out after breakfast for a week in KY on a business trip. So mom and bec hung out and we went to lunch and for some more shopping before HattieJo and I met up with Andrew to head to his softball game. It was a FANTASTIC weekend. We always have a great time when they come and visit!

More pictures from the weekend to come tomorrow!

:ready to workout:

.sweet girl.

Here are a few pictures of HattieJo that I took the other day while we were playing in her room. She is so cute when she wants to go play upstairs, she will walk over to the steps and hold her hands up! Then when you grab her hands she proceeds to walk up the steps one foot per step. Once we reach the top, she IMMEDIATELY lets go and walks to the guest room, then to her room to play. Its so stinkin' cute! We are ON THE GO now that she is walking that is for sure!