Look Who's 1!!

This post wasn't supposed to be so late. I started on her birthday and didn't finish it. Then I almost finished it on April 1st, which was my due date so I was going to justify it. But alas, I have no justification now, so Happy Birthday you sweet little girl.
Mercedes birthday was on March 25th. My family came over and we opened gifts and let her play with them for a while. I thought this was really sweet. Avri wanted to give her a gift, so she went and got her very favorite doll and "wrapped" it up in a towel and set it in the pile with the other gifts. She still hasn't reclaimed it. She now calls it Sadie's doll. Here she is with her "new" doll and the stroller Uncle Ammon gave her. (Talmage was having a hard time letting Sadie play with her own toys.) And there is also a pic of her giving the baby doll kisses. She LOVES babies!
Then we had cake and ice cream. This is the first cake that I made for her. (It was a white cake when I put it IN the oven and a black cake when I pulled it OUT 2 1/2 hours later. I went downstairs to exercise with Kendall and I guess the movie distracted me enough that I didn't give it another thought until I came up to go to bed.) So we tried again.Not the fancy thing I usually do, but it was delicious!!Sadie was having fun taking off her birthday hat. She loved the cake and ice cream and had no problem at all just diving right in and eating it all with her hands. Unfortunately, my brother has all of those pics on his camera and I haven't gotten them from him yet. So no messy pictures.
Mercedes has been such a joy in our lives every day of her life. We were so surprised when we found out that we were having another baby and it took me a long time to get used to the idea. But I couldn't be happier or love someone more than I love this little spirit that the Lord sent to us in a somewhat miraculous way. I can tell that she is going to be the family prankster. She loves making people laugh and she loves to cause trouble and get into things. She knows that she is cute and has already figured out how to get away with things.At one year she has no desire to walk or even try to stand on her own. But she loves to pull herself up onto the furniture. She is very snugly and loves to be held and give hugs and kisses. She is our quiet child. She doesn't try to talk too much, but she is getting REALLY good at sign language. Every day she learns at least one new sign. She loves talking on the phone. If you give her any phone, play, real, cell, she will immediately put it to her ear and say "Hiiiii" in the cutest little high pitched voice you've ever heard.She still only has 2 teeth that aren't all the way in. But that doesn't stop her from eating just about everything. She is barely 20 pounds but we still haven't turned her car seat around because we need to go buy a new one. I'm sure she will love it when we finally do it. She LOVES to take baths and since learning how to Sign "bath" she asks every time I change her diaper if she can take a bath. She has a new fascination with babies and everything that looks like a baby. She wants to hold all of the dolls in the house and gives them kisses and pokes them in the eye. She also loves pictures. Every time she sees a picture hanging on the wall she points and leans so that you will take her over to see it and we have to name everyone in the picture. This is really cute the first 115 times.

We just LOVE you Mercedes. You have brought so much happiness and laughter and joy into our home. We can't imagine life without you and we thank our Heavenly Father every day for sending you to our home. Happy birthday little lady bug!