It Seems Like Yesterday Her Life Begun...

But guess what? Today, Annistyn is one.






That was the front and back of Annistyn's birthday announcement. I was really pleased with the way those turned out. I worked several hours on them.

Today was packed full of birthday fun. It was so nice to spend a day with my family. We never get to spend a whole day together in the middle of the week.

Annistyn actually slept past 7:00 and we have been stalking the weather forecast trying to decide what to do today. We really wanted to take her to the zoo, but the weather man hasn't been on our side slapping 80% chances of rain on us all week. It was raining in Montgomery, but the Gulf Breeze zoo re-opened last month and the rain chances were lower there. I have had a feeling the whole time that God wouldn't let it rain on her birthday. Just like our wedding day- 80% chance and no rain!

We packed up, got dressed, and headed down to Gulf Breeze. We let Annistyn watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the way down. She hasn't used the DVD player in the car yet. We let her switch to her big girl carseat last Sunday. She was so pumped about seeing Mickey in the CAR!

It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather. We were kind of hot wearing short sleeves and jeans and I wore OPEN TOED shoes!!!!! My toes have missed the sunshine. The zoo still needed a lot of work since it was devastated by Hurricane Ivan in 2005. There were plenty of animals though and a train ride. Annistyn enjoyed herself and she really didn't have another zoo to compare it to.

Here she is in her birthday outfit-





She didn't know what to think at first. She waved at every animal we saw and would reach for them wanting to "get them".



Her favorites were the monkeys:



The ducks:




And I think her very favorite was the llamas... I know...weird! We stopped to take a picture with them. They were part of the petting zoo.



Here she is posing for a picture:





We rode the train last and stopped by the gift shop for a "prize". She had hated the goats in the petting zoo and of ALL the animals in the gift shop- which do you think she picked out first? The stuffed goat. We brought home the lion- her second choice.

After the zoo, we drove back to Pensacola to eat at Mellow Mushroom. Pizza and cheese bread is Annistyn's all-time favorite food.

Here's one of her other favorites:



And she doesn't even make a face! Yuck!


I had packed some of the cupcakes I baked last night. Her big birthday cake will be at her party on Saturday, but I wanted her to have something today.



She really enjoyed eating the cupcake. I didn't let her make a huge mess because we were at a public restaurant and she needed to stay clean for the rest of our day.








After lunch, I wanted to swing by for a quick picture at the hospital she was born a year ago. I didn't plan on doing this until I realized we were going to Pensacola.

This was in the lobby:


These are the doors we walked in and out of more times than I can count or care to remember. My hands were definitely the cleanest they have ever been in my life.


I will never forget what it felt like to finally roll through those doors with our sweet little baby tucked in her carseat. All the times we had walked out of them without her and FINALLY we were bringing her with us.



A family was coming out with their baby when we were there and he was talking to the nurse about being able to go home finally (their baby had been there 3 months- much much longer than us) I looked at their tiny baby and my big girl and I wanted to tell them that in a year that little baby would grow up right before their eyes and they wouldn't even realize it. Then one day they would wake up and see a little girl not a tiny baby anymore. When we rolled Annistyn out of there she was 5 lb. 4 ounces.





Now look at her. This is us outside the hospital. Can you tell she wanted "down"- which is her new word.



We went to Toys R Us, Target, and Sam's Club. I would be lying if I told you she didn't get a prize at each of them.

Here she is on the way home in her big girl seat.



She started clapping when we got home and she remembered there were more presents she had not opened.



Sorry we ditched the pants. She was hot from the ride home and I let her take them off and run around in a diaper. It's her birthday after all.





Then she opened up the package on the doorstep that had more party supplies.


I came in here to upload her pictures because I couldn't wait to tell everyone about our day. And I as did that and started thinking about this day a year ago, my plans changed a bit.

I had full intentions of doing a "timeline" with pictures and a little music video tonight. I wanted to share the little song I wrote for her and sang to her when I would rock her to sleep. And every month on her monthly birthday I have listed her accomplishments for the month. I'm going to have to do that another night. Maybe I will be ready tomorrow night or Friday night.

But I just can't do it tonight.

One year ago on this very night, I was crying in a hospital room because my baby was down the hall in NICU instead of in the room with us.



Tonight I'm crying in my computer room because my baby is down the hall in her bed fast asleep and she is growing up so fast.



And her mommy isn't ready to say that her baby isn't a baby anymore.