Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet baby Kennedy Joanna

I really can't believe that we are already here, about to celebrate the beginning of toddlerhood and the end of babyhood for our very last baby.

Our little miss sassy pants Kennedy Joanna has changed our lives in every way imaginable and although this year has been wonderful in so many ways, it has also been a very challenging year with a lot of change and some super tough times too. She has been my joy and light through some dark days and I look forward to seeing her grow older and seeing the kind of little lady she becomes. I'm already so proud of her and how fast she is growing and changing and I get the feeling every single day that I'm going to have yet another busy and talkative little person on my hands. She already competes for attention against her big brothers.

Of course Jenn and I had to do a cake smash to celebrate this milestone, complete with a tutu (which she HATED), some pretty headbands and of course her now standard little piggy tails.

I'm going to start off as I always do with my favorite photo of the whole shoot. I'm not even sure why this one struck me as hard as it did, because even though it's not a super smiley Kennedy face, it's just so much her, and the little face I've stared into on dozens of nights as I snuggled with her in the rocking chair in her room. I wouldn't trade those moments for anything in my life. This picture literally makes my eyes well with tears and I've already ordered it big to go in her room beside the newborn one that I love of her too.

It was time to do an outfit change...into the tutu that she hated! She kept trying to pull it up over her head!

How big is Kennedy "SO BIG"

Another favorite for sure

 Giving her props to distract her from the tutu!

Figuring we were just making her crankier trying to get a good smile we decided it was cake time.

Trying a couple without the tutu to see if she'd dig in more.

She did like the icing!

Attempting a few more with the tutu

My favorite of the cake ones. I have loved this about her since she was little and started doing "so big"...I love how she tilts her head like that....so CUTE!

Her mad face when I took something away from her!

Gotta love the sparkly blue eyes in this one!

We told her to give the cake some kissses

Bringing in some reinforcements with her little ladybug stuffie

This part wasn't planned but she was so yucky that Jenn offered her a bath so we went with it...and both ended up loving the photos from this part!

This is an awesome cheesy giggling smile

Again with those big blue eyes

This was probably when I had turned the music on on my phone and she was dancing in the tub

All clean now and such a happy girl

Waving bye bye!

The aftermath of it all

Lastly here is the collage made with these photos

And a great little chalkboard about Kennedy too

Little side by side of how much she's grown and changed

I promised him something a long time ago...

...and I fulfilled my promise big time!

When James found out he was having a sister and they weren't going to share a birthday he was actually disappointed. He wanted to have a joint party with her and wanted to share his day. Most kids wouldn't want that, but I think because he's always shared his birthday with his Grandpa that he thought it would be cool if baby sister shared it too.

I told him that even if they didn't share a friends birthday party that we would for sure celebrate their family birthday together. Right away he had it in his mind that he wanted a Princess Leia and Darth Vader cake..and that's exactly what he got!

Jim baked the cake, my friend Kelly did the icing, and we ordered the fondant characters from a local cake maker. Needless to say, I think James loved it.

Bear photo comparisons - 1 month to 11 months!

Again I'm going to start with the current month and then throw it back to the first month!

11 months

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

11 months already...and I feel like it's flown by!

I can't believe that I've finally gotten my act together and gotten these photos organized so I can post a timeline of my sweet baby girl's monthly photos with Ruby, her special bear from her Auntie Tana.

Here is her 11 month photo taken on the 11th...then we'll throw it all the way back to the beginning to watch her grow right in front of our eyes!

After a long day of snuggling with Daddy for Kennedy and a really rough surgery for Mommy, I was exhausted but did remember to take a birth day photo with Ruby!

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

In less than 1 month we'll have a one year old on our hands and I am half sad and half excited. It's a weird mix of emotions that we are almost out of the baby stage and heading into the toddler stage. I already see flashes of a temper and also some great moments of amazing love and sweetness out of this little lady and every single day I try to drink up all the babyness that I can.

I'm glad I kept this sweater!

This has been one of my favorite baby clothes since James wore it. This comparison shows how different in size all 3 of the kids are. James wore it at 10 months, our hulk baby Jordie at 8 months, and our smallest little lady at 11 months. This might be a sweater that we keep forever for memories sake. It's one of a very few rare items that all 3 of them have worn.

I'm planning another comparison post tomorrow for each months' photos with their bears! These days I think that Kennedy looks more like James, especially as she gets more hair. She has the same eyes and nose as him, but I do think she's got the same smile as Jordie. Every day someone tells me how much she looks like me and I couldn't be more excited!