Mac and Laura

I cant believe it has been a year since the best gift of Hope came into our lives! Hope has been such a joy and brings so much fun and laughter into our lives. We celebrated her first Christmas and first birthday several times over the past few weeks. Hope seemed to enjoy it all and take it all with stride. We were at Jim and PJs for Christmas in Remer. It was a huge snow storm so we made the best of it and made a 7ft tall snowman. Hope played out in the snow for the first time and really seemed to enjoy it. She had a 1st bday party in Remer as well and loved her cake!

After Remer, we went to Burnsville to celebrate Christmas with my family. We had lots of fun playing games, sledding and enjoying some of the new toys with the cousins!

We returned home for 2 days and celebrated Hope's actual birthday on December 30th with my family and Carrie, Avery and Davis. It was a lot of fun playing with the cousins again and enjoyed another cake to the fullest. We played some games as a family and read the stories about her birth and the meaning of Hope from these blogs.

The next day we were off again, up to Little Falls for Christmas with the Smiths. Santa came to visit, which was fun in theory, but Hope really didnt like Santa at all. She played with her cousins again and we had another cake and bday party for her.

We came home Sat night and Sunday afternoon had the 4th and final bday party with some friends at our house. We made lots of nummy treats, played games and watched her 1st bday slideshow. she has lots of new friends with the high school girls having kids and some of the college girls are having kids now too. she is going to be a good big sister to all her friends.

I have been having so much fun startingmy part time schedule and being home with her on Tuesday and Thursdays. We starting swimming lessons today and it took an hour to get there because of the snow, but it was worth it. Hope had so much fun in the pool. She loved to do all the activities and was such a big girl. The teacher used her as her model for a lot of the activities and Hope seemed to enjoy that. She is such a happy girl - I am having such a good time being her mom!