happy birthday hopey sister!

it's been a year since our lives were 

forever changed by the addition 

our sweet little hopey sister.

we celebrated with burgers, chips, cake and ice cream.

most importantly, we celebrated with family and friends.  

nana and papa were kind enough to let us celebrate in their backyard. 

pure joy!

classic happy hopey picture.  

she started clapping and laughing after 

we sang happy birthday to her.

i think she was satisfied with her accomplishment. 

i know i was impressed by her abilities. 

more than once, she dipped her face down 

into the cake to get a bite. 

i realize that the pictures below are all fairly similar.

however, i really wanted the progression of these shots. 

as you can see, the cake wasn't the only thing hope was after.

uncle lance's hat was doomed from the beginning.

hope has made great strides this year.  she is sitting up all by herself, she loves for us to sing to her (favorites include popcorn popping, and fishy fishy) , she claps at the end of songs and any time she is really happy, she is eating solids like a champ, she says ba, ba, ba and da, da, da, she rolls as a form a mobility, she gets on all fours and rocks back and forth, she brightens any room with her smile and brightens our lives with our presence.  we couldn't imagine life without hope.