Happy Birthday Kat!

One year ago on December 1st my Mom picked me up from my house and took me to the hospital. We must have left at about 7 in the morning and the weather was terrible. It was a huge snowstorm, and we had to drive about 10 miles an hour the entire way there. What should have taken us 10 minutes took about 30. We finally got there and got checked into my hospital room. I was tired, the last 4 months had been a living Hell, and, to top it off Severian had been throwing up the entire night before. So. I was sick, tired, very sad and very frightened.

About 2 hours later I had a beautiful baby girl. She was perfect in every way. And she was mine. She gave me a little bit of a scare because she had a little bit of a hard time breathing, and ended up spending about a day in the NICU with her head in this oxygen box thing. It cleared out the fluid around her lungs, and helped her to breathe.

December 1, 2008 we woke up and it was a beautiful and clear sunny day. Katalina has grown into a beautiful little baby girl and can already say things like "mom", "light", and "ba" (for bottle). She has everyone wrapped around her little teeny pinky baby finger. Including her brothers. She has a big temper for such a small little girl, but she doesn't show her temper that often. Usually only when Ender takes away a toy from her. She loves to give cuddles and big kisses and is such a blessing in my life. For her birthday this year we had a little party at my Mom's house. My family was there, including my Grandma Hoagland, and Ryley came too. Ryley and I often say that Katalina is our child because Ryley has been in her life since birth. For 2 weeks after my c-section Ryley camped out on my couch and helped me while I recovered from the surgery. Between her and my Mom I was able to get through the whole surgery thing, and even got to sleep on occasion because Ryley would take Katalina at least one of the 4 times she would wake up during the night.

Anyway, back to the point, we had a big first birthday party for Katalina:



She was the star of the party and everyone wanted to hold her and hang out with her. After all, it was her party!





Because she is now 1 years old, she is able to ride in a front facing car seat. This was the first present that she opened, and she was very excited about it:




She promptly climbed into the car seat and sat in it. She even wanted all the buckles done up for her.



Among other things she also got her first doll..



Her own car, because she loves all the boys cars, so I got her one of her very own (Jaime, you may recognize this one....)



And a squishy book for her to play with:



She also got the little outfit she is wearing!



After presents we had pizza:



And cake:






Obviously, Kat ate her cake rather daintily, while Ender made sure that he got every bit of cake he could into his mouth. Severian thought this was pretty funny.

After the party I put all the new car seats into my car. This is now what it looks like:



This is what the back of my car looks like with children all strapped in:



It was a great day, and it was so fun to see how much my little girl has grown. I am excited for the next year and all the changes it will bring in all my children!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAT!