One.

A little over a week ago we celebrated Emme's first year of life.  It was a small gathering but of course size doesn't really matter and I wanted her party to feel special! I ran across these great paper lanterns a couple of weeks ago and knew they would add a sweet touch to her party...

I also used some of the paper penants from Carter's candy party. A simple swap of a few letters did the trick...

Of course there was plenty of food and sugar to go around...

And there was plenty of attention for the birthday girl (shown here getting a little love from Nonna and Roxi)...

It's a well known fact that the highlight of any first birthday is made up of eggs, flour, sugar and a lot of icing...

She was a little shy at first and took her time (she was particularly enamored with the pink icing rose that was hard as a rock)...

She finally managed to get a little taste...

And decided cake was a pretty good thing...

But she didn't want to be selfish and was quick to share with her big sister (who had been pretty darn patient)...

At that point it became every man for himself...

A cake eating extravaganza...

Yay Emerson...

And then someone had the bright idea that we should play, "Where's Emerson?"...

Awesome...

After a major clean up effort we had one very tired little chick...

It was such a sweet day.  To be surrounded by grandparents that love our little girl so well as we celebrated her first year of life...

When people make an effort to really love.  To drive, take time, do whatever it takes...it matters...

I loved the way the day felt.  A reflection and celebration of our first year as a family of four...

And while I will be the first to admit that we've had our less than "lovely" moments over the past year (sleepless nights, stressful days, etc.) in these "blog worthy" moments I choose to dwell on the good.  To share the "lovely" with you (because in the end it feels better to just let the other stuff fall by the wayside anyway).  We are by no means perfect people, or a perfect family but we love each other with all we've got.  This day celebrated one year of all of that and for me it was perfect.