Kaisa-Girl Turns ONE!

My sweet, spunky, sassy, girl turned one on Cinco de Mayo! As always, its seems like it was yesterday when I complaining of a big belly and pregnancy woes; however, in others I just cannot picture our little family without her. She is perfect. 

We had a little family party for our girl the Sunday before her birthday. Nothing too fancy. For months I knew I wanted it to be owl themed, just like her room! My dear friend, Alyssa, helped with decorations and everything was pretty simple. Being Cinco De Mayo the food was, of course, Mexican as well. Homemade Cafe Rio. Delish. I think it turned out pretty great. 

The birthday prep: I had seen these cupcakes before on like Facebook or somewhere. Simple and super cute! 

Alyssa is so talented! She made it so cute! 

Sweet little birthday girl! 

Kaisa loved all the attention. She loved opening her presents. Owen and Nathan were BIG helpers unwrapping each gift for her! She would get so upset when we would take a present away to give her another one. I don't blame her!

Alyssa got her this darling Owl Bank!

Loving all the attention on her!

Brother was a good helper opening gifts! 

Our little birthday princess! 

  

 She also loved everyone watching her eat cake. She has been my best first baby cake easter yet! Girl knows to love chocolate already! She went for it! 

This girl even LICKED up the crumbs! A girl after my own heart! 

It was fun to celebrate our sweet girl. She is well loved. Her brothers adore her, especially Owen. And all the rest of us just eat her up. I'm wishing I could freeze moments like these. 

At One Year Kaisa: 

-Can crawl, crawl, crawl... In fact, she is a walking Pro! My earliest and steadiest walker baby! She is ready to keep up with the big boys! 

-Can say a few words like: Mommy, Daddy, Owen, Baby, Happy, Wow, Cheese, Please, Baba (bottle) 

-She signs 'More' whenever she wants more food to eat. 

-Can clap, blow kisses, give hugs/kisses, "sign SO big!," and dance. 

-Sleeps pretty well... is getting better and better. She mostly sleeps through the night. She still liker her bottle between 5-7AM. But goes down at about 7ish. 

-She's a pretty great napper. She is mostly down to one nap a day, mainly because with the boys and trying to actually GO somewhere during the day, she has the skip a morning nap if I want to get anything done! But that usually means longer after naps. (During preschool too! and the same time as Nathan!) 

-Likes to wear hats! She likes to steal the boys hats and wear them around the house! 

-Understands many words like 'No,' 'Shake,' 'Stand up,' 'Come here,' 'Say_______,' 'Wave,' 'Blow Kiss,' etc... 

-Loves her bottle! This will be tough to wean her from. 

-Loves to snack and eat. She is like a little bird. Loves to pick at whatever you're eating. And is a food stealer... especially from her brothers! 

-Her favorite foods include: Cheese, graham crackers, blueberries, bananas, grapes, lunch meat (turkey/ham), pureed veggies, baby oatmeal, yogurt, & pears.

-Is a big-time Momma's Girl! She can be pretty shy, but isn't too bad with strangers yet. But if Mommy is in the room, she will always want me. 

-Also loves Grandpa... Grandpa is probably her second choice to Mommy. She loves him. 

-Loves to just walk, and walk, and walk around the house. She can entertain herself just by walking around. She loves to find a toy or stuffed animal and will walk around the house carrying it and jibber jabber. 

-Has an affinity for the toilet. This girls LOVES to splash in the toilet! She has super sonic toilet sensors. She can find any open toilet anywhere. Ugh.... 

-Loves stuffed animals and anything to soft snuggle. 

-Loves to be chased around and giggle. 

-Always wants to be outside and explore! 

-Hates a poopy diaper. Not that I blame her, but she is really bothered by it and always wants to be changed immediately. 

-She love the movie Frozen! Just like every other little girl out there! She doesn't really watch all that much TV, but loves Frozen! 

-Does okay in the car. Sometimes she doesn't mind it. But when she's done, she DONE. Long, loud screaming once she's hit her limit. 

-Loves to take a bath with her brothers! She immediately runs to the bath when its time and tries to jump right in! We also recently went swimming with her and she just loved the water! 

-This girl will eat dirt! Its so hard for me to let her roam around outside without her sticking some nasty dirt in her mouth! She is mostly passed the eat-everything phase. But once and a while... just yuck. 

-Has gotten more and more into books. Owen was always immediately into books, it has taken longer with her. But she got a bunch of new ones for her birthday and loves looks at them and reading them. 

-Love, loves, LOVES her 'Lovey Bunny' as Owen named it. She carries it around constantly. And snuggles with it every nap and every night. Its adorable. In fact, just this morning she dipped Bunny into the toilet!!! I had to wash it and she was so sad without it for a couple hours. :( (But ewwwww!!)

Kaisa with Lovey Bunny 

-Has never been one to take a binky, she always rejected it, until just recently. She found some of her old binkies that I tried to give her when she was teeny, and now loves them. She's especially attached to one in particular. 

-Is adventurous! My boys have always been right by my side, always. Never one to run off in the playground or climb things. But this girl does! She will easily climb up the big toy at parks, run away from me, and destroy all things. She is into everything and anything. Completely opposite of Owen! 

-Is our sassy and spunky little peanut. She is going to be one feisty little thing! She loves to play with the big boys, wrestle around with them. Chase them and can completely hold her own against those two! I love watching her little personality come out and see how spunky she really is. Its awesome. 

-Is our most expressive child. She wears it all out there! All her facial expressions are priceless! 

-And in true McOmber baby fashion, has some crazy hair!! All our babies came out with lots of dark hair! Each one curly, wavy, multicolored, and crazy as the next. She is no exception. But I am happy that its getting longer that I can tame it with some cute pigtails!! The only problem is that she had a MAJOR bald spot in back that still hasn't grown out... so, it still looks a little silly if I try to put it in a pony tail or pig tails. But it works for now. 

We. Love. This. Girl. 

Dear Kaisa,

Here is my first letter to my sweet girl. You have been a part of our family for a year and as always, its has gone by too fast. What a wonderful blessing and surprise you have been to our family. You have made me into a better mother and person each day that I have come to know and love you. The chaos of having three children still hasn't worn off, maybe it never will!? But you have helped our family feel more complete and filled a gap that we never knew was missing. Now I could never imagine life with our Kaisa-girl. I am so blessed to be your mother. At the end of each day I go into your room and feel such a since of pride and love for the little person you are and the little person you are becoming. Its overwhelming the love i have for you and our family. Just when i think I cannot love anyone more, you came to our family and once, again proved me wrong!

I hope that you will always be my little Momma's girl! i hope that we can always been best friends and you can always trust me to be there when you need me most. I love the sincerity of your hugs and the sweetness of your kisses! I love when your little arms reach out for me whenever you are sad or happy. I love your smile and goofy laugh. It lights up any room! And most of all i want you to know how special you are to me! You are my little girl! You are such a special part of this family. Your brothers were immediacy smitten with you from the start. Especially Owen. He loves and cares for your so much. He watches out for his baby sister and always wants to make sure you are taken care of. That is just the sort of brother he is. He will always protect you (And Nathan) i think. You absolutely LOVE Owen back. He can bring a smile to your face and no one else can! You and Nathan are also becoming and closer and closer. You two can play together, much differently that you and Owen. You and Nathan I think will grow into a great friendship. You are so close in age, that you will slowly become best friends, i hope! You love to wrestle and giggle with Nathan and he loves to make you laugh.

I LOVE your sassy personality! You are my mighty and feisty teeny girl! You are fierce and independent. Ready to make your mark! I am so excited to watch you learn and grow over the next year. And I can't wait to discover more and more of your sweet personality! To watch you play and discover the world around you. To meet new people and new places. I love to watch you explore it all!

I'm not sure I can ever adequately express how much I love you and how wonderful I think you are. But i do, I love you, so much. You are so sweet, caring, and gentle. You are beautiful. I think you are perfect. The most beautiful little thing I have ever created. It reminds me of how our Heavenly Father loves us. We must always remember that we are Daughters of God. To him, we are perfect, we are beautiful. We are loved uncondionally. I could never think you are anything less than perfection. I am so grateful for the opportunity I get to be your mother. What a huge blessing. And huge responsibility! Its almost overwhelming! But I would never ask for anything different. Motherhood is my greatest calling and my biggest blessing.

I love you,
Momma

This was my dress when I was little. I love seeing her in it! So cute!