The night before her big day, I held Nola and told her all about the day she was born, how she was almost named ruby, how I was happier than i'd been in months when the nurse said, "its go time!" I told her about how anxious I was to meet her, and that unbelievable moment when they finally laid her on my chest. She didn't seem to care much about what I was saying, but telling her made me remember what a wonderful day it was. The best day of my life. I tucked her in and tried to accept that it would be my last time kissing my 11 month old baby goodnight.
My mom makes the best cakes. She doesn't make them from scratch or anything, but she's got these secrets, that make those cakes fluff up to absolute perfection! Unfortunately, I didn't get her talent... For Nola's b-day cake I choose a simple betty crocker, white cake mix. "What could go wrong i thought?" apparently everything. I threw it in the oven and then Zach and I proceeded to watch our movie. At the buzzer I got it out of the oven and resumed the show. I headed over to turn out the lights and lock up and I caught a glimpse of the cake.... or (giant doughnut)i'd created. The entire middle was gone. It had sunk and was all goopy and gross. I even did the tooth pick trick?! I wish I had a picture to show you the lovely thing! I frantically searched the kitchen over for something round that could work to replace the hole. I ended up using the lid of my parmesan cheese shaker, rinsed it out and it worked perfectly! I may have not gotten the cake making gene, but I sure can improvise! (thanks modern dance)
We filled Nolie's room with balloons and woke her up a bit earlier than usual that morning. We had a snow shoeing adventure planned for that morning. I had this great idea that we would hike up to the top of some awesome peak and let Nola release ONE single balloon into the sky. It felt so symbolic and like a fun tradition, plus it would make for an epic photo! We drove all the way up big cottonwood, and it was windy and stormy, but we decided to give it a try anyways. The second we opened the door, out flew the balloon. It was such an anti climatic moment... I was pretty bummed, but what can you do? We found a nice spot halfway down the mountain and enjoyed the nicer weather traipsing around in the snow. Nola is always so happy in her hiking backpack, so I felt like it was a perfect activity for her birthday!
When it came time to try some cake, she really wanted nothing to do with it. In fact she wanted as far away from the cake as possible. She loved when we sang to her, and when i went to blow out the candle she leaned in and made a tiny little blowing noise. Where did she learn that from!? It was the cutest thing ever. Once we finally convinced her to sit down by the cake again we had to trick her to touch the frosting by placing one of the yarn balls on top so she would grab it off and hopefully touch the cake. Wow talk about crazy parents! I don't know why I was so persistent on her touching it? It just seemed like something that needed to happen. It ended up that we were the ones eating, and poking at the cake. When she did end up getting frosting on her hands, she waved them in the air so fast and wiped them on the table about 100 times. I think its safe to say she didn't enjoy the experience all that much.. The cake ended up tasting pretty nasty too so I don't blame her. Hopefully she'll enjoy her second birthday cake a little better.
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| its my birthday i can cry if i want to. |
As you can see there were a lot of mixed emotions, and a lot of convincing on our part. Zach was snapping some pictures towards the end, and would count down from 3, then she would give us the cheesiest smile/yelling face ever. It happened every time. We were cracking up!
Im dying over those two front teeth and that gap, well and everything about that face. hahaha
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| yumm.... yarn cake. |
I wouldn't have changed our special little celebration with this girl. We had such fun just the three of us. We sure do love her. Our lives were forever changed on January 6, 2015. We are the luckiest that she's ours!
