Happy 1st Birthday Leah!!

Yesterday Leah turned one!!! I think I am still in a bit of shock...how can that be? It has been a long year for me (I think), but in some ways I am incredulous at all Leah has been through in such a "short" time!

We had a family celebration for her yesterday...it was great that her birthday actually fell on a Saturday. I spent the day prepping the food and picking up her cake and balloons. I bought some pink carnations and pink tulips and made a few nice arrangements for her party. The theme was pink!

When Leah woke from her nap she checked out the balloons...seemed to like them. After everyone arrived she spent the time showing off her walking skills & playing with the other kids. It was her first time to try cake, but she really wasn't too sure about it at all until we cut a small piece and broke it in pieces. Once she tasted the cake part (versus the icing) it was better received. She then ate 2 small slices (of her baby cake). Publix gives you a free small round cake for the baby's first birthday when you purchase their cake. We love Publix cakes...they are the best!

When we sang Happy Birthday to her she was a bit mesmerized by the whole thing....why would we all be standing there singing at her and staring at her!! She appeared to like it. She liked all her new gifts...I took a lot of pictures and hopefully I can get a slideshow made of them this week. Things have been so busy since my last post here with our van accident on Nov 12 (everyone is okay thankfully) and the holidays...plus we went away to visit Ken's family for 11 days (it was 2100 miles roundtrip by van) for Christmas. I hope to post more often now that things are starting to slow down (only a bit though!)

2009 has been a great year so far! We've had a visit from my brother and now my aunt is in town. We've had friends over for dinner and Wii, and plan on doing that more often. Off to bed as it is getting late.

Thanks again to all of you that have prayed for Leah over this last year!! It is hard for me to believe how far she has come. She had outgrown her last helmet and her craniofacial surgeon has given her a 2 month break from her helmet to concentrate on the torticollis therapy. He wants to re-evaluated in mid-February. I am really working hard with her at home to help improve her neck muscle (she has a slight head tilt due to a shortened, tight muscle). We are still driving to Fort Lauderdale every other week for her therapy. I am praying that her torticollis will start to improve so we can go less often & that another helmet won't be mentioned. I'll post pics as soon as I can...for those of you that are my friends on Facebook, I've posted some there.