The Best Year

I can hardly believe that at this time last year I hadn't even seen my little Rocky's face. Who could ever know how much happiness that she would bring to our family.

We decided to celebrate the momentous occasion by having a party. The festivities took place last night because Brandon and I both have meetings at the church tonight. The party was great but I'm pretty sure it was a lot more fun for me than it was for her. The day started out by me neglecting her while I was getting things ready. Then we were so busy talking to people that she didn't really even get to eat any of the delicious appetizers that our friends brought. I made her wear a party hat that snapped on her chin and made her cry and then I kept her up several hours past her bedtime. She took it all in stride as usual and enjoyed all the wonderful friends that doted on her. It is sad that we live so far away from family and none of them could be there, but I found myself feeling grateful for the strong support that we get from people that I have grown to love here in Eugene.

I didn't get any pictures of my "mom" friends because they all had to get their kids in bed before things were calm enough to get out the camera. Later when it quieted down Brandon got some of our friends from his program.


Brandon met Adriana in his classes, and we hit it off very quickly. She has become a close friend of mine. Her baby is due any day.

This is Valeria, Adrianna, Noemi, Amy and Mayra. It is obvious that they are a lot of fun.


Uriel is one of Rocky's favorites. Whenever we go to parties he carries her around and tries to pass her off as his daughter. His dark eyes make it so he is hardly believed but she enjoys all the attention.

Those of you who really know me will be surprised that I actually made these cupcakes.



Brandon had his heart set on cupcakes and I just kept thinking that they take too much time. Then he scoured all kinds of cupcake websites for ideas and we found some that combined a variety of colors and sprinkles which looked cool but actually took very little skill. At first I was against it all, but then as I started playing around with sprinkles and food coloring I started to have a lot of fun. I never really pictured myself as a "Susy Homemaker" as Grandma Jolley used to say, but after making those cupcakes I can no longer try and deny that I've become one. I did it, and I liked doing it. The only complaint was that they were too tempting for little hands to grab and several kids went home with a sugar high.


It seems like every time it is a first birthday the poor kid is given a cake to eat in which he has very little interest. Well, that is not the case with my kid. She devoured it.



That's my girl.

Some of you may remember me saying that I wouldn't give my child all that sugar. It is easy to see that I ate my words as fast as she gobbled her brightly sprinkled cupcake. You may notice all the Spanish being spoken in the background. At this point the only non-Spanish speaker that was still there was Hema who, ironically, speaks 6 other languages. She and Rocky expressed themselves through body language instead.



This morning Rocky woke up at 7:00 and was still so exhausted that she immediately curled up on her daddy's shoulder and went back to sleep. It is almost 11 and she is still sawing logs. I think that she deserves to sleep in on her big day. I'm glad that we got the party done early because I don't have any jobs today, except to hang out with my baby girl, that is, if she ever decided to wake up.