My youngest niece is about to turn one.  It’s mind-boggling to believe that she was so little just yesterday, right?  I mean she is walking now, and babbling, and having a whole incoherent conversation with me!  Crazy!

We had a little Easter get together with both families this past weekend, and Bert & Laura asked me snap a few photos of her for this momentous occasion.  Here they are!

Now tell me you’ve been a faithful blog reader for the past year & have waited with as much anticipation as I have for this little cutie to turn one!  I mean come on!  Haven’t you followed her sessions every three months?  Haven’t you waited to see what great outfits her mommy has picked out?  Haven’t you waited to see what new milestones she’s accomplished?  Well, if you haven’t, then shame on you.  Don’t you know you have to LOVE everything I LOVE?  I forgive you…so keep reading…

These are a few sneak peeks from Clara’s 1-year session.  I was out of the country on Clara’s actual birthday, so her mom & I scheduled her session for the week after I returned.  I cannot believe how much a baby can change in just three short months!  Clara has gotten so much older!  Where is that little baby?  She is cruising, talking/babbling, making animal noises, and almost walking!

I have so enjoyed our sessions this past year.  It’s just hard to believe that I came to her at 3 weeks old and now she’s one!

Happy Birthday, dear Clara.  I can’t wait to see you grow even more!

Tonight, our children are zonked out in their beds and we are feeling sore muscles from bouncing so much!  This afternoon we had Emma’s 5th birthday celebration at Pump It Up! in Glen Burnie.  Ever since Emma’s cousin, Mackinzie, had her birthday at a similar place, she’s been begging for one.   She’s especially been wanting to sit in the blow-up throne you see her on the photo above.  It was all she wanted.

Now normally I wouldn’t splurge for such an extravagant birthday, but a few things came to factor in this decision:

1.  It’s her 5th birthday!  That’s a BIG deal!

2.  Our house is getting too small to accommodate both our families, her little friends, and their parents & siblings.

3.  I am going to be in Ethiopia in her actual birthday, so I felt guilty!

4.  I didn’t have to set up or clean up!

So, there you have it.  We had 15 of her little friends, all of our cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, friends, etc. down for her party & I didn’t have to pick up a thing afterward!  Ahhhh!

And to my big birthday girl:  I love you!  You were such a great girl today.  You played so well with all your friends & your sister.  You shared your throne so well with everyone, and we are so proud to have you as our daughter!

This photo is of my big girl Emma on her way to a sleep over birthday party.  She recently got this Princess luggage for Christmas and uses it any chance she can get!  She had a wonderful time, we were told, and slept in the longest of all the kids!  Way to sleep, Emma!

I took my camera to the high school girls bible study that I help lead last night, hoping to get my photo of the day.  I see these girls every Wednesday night and hadn’t blogged about them yet, so I thought I’d give it a try.  While we were waiting to start, I had Kelsey help me with trying to capture motion.  Kelsey takes photography in high school, so between the two of us we thought we could make it work.  We tried with this little jet plane.  First we tried having Kelsey roll the jet across the counter.  I couldn’t get the settings just right, so next we tried having the jet stay still & me moving the camera from left to right.  The above photo is what we came up with.  Pretty fun I think, even if it is out of focus.

And this next photo is a bonus!  Last night was also Trish’s birthday (she helps lead the study too) so the girls made her a birthday cake.  As you can see I didn’t expose for the cake, just the sweet faces that made it….

Photo:  John Waire Photo.  John is another local photographer…Baltimore I think…that I found through Twitter.  I really enjoyed his post today about his daughter Mady’s puddle jumping adventures.  Not too many words, but the photos spoke volumes.  I can totally relate.  And one of my girls has the same Hello Kitty rain boots!  Great work, John!