What a great year 2010 was! As I scroll through blog posts from this past year, I am grateful for so much God has done in our family!
Earlier this month, on December 9th, Elisabeth Anne turned one year old! We had so much fun recounting her birth from the year before (36 hours before finally meeting her via C-section!). We celebrated her first birthday with a small family party at our apartment, and Elisabeth had so much fun opening presents, playing, and eating cake! I contemplated making her a healthy birthday cake, but then decided to just order a small one since I didn't think she would actually eat any of it. She hadn't taken an interest in feeding herself up to that point, but then the day after I ordered the cake she started feeding herself Cheerios. Sure enough, she devoured her cake at her party! It didn't make her sick, so I was thankful for that!
Here she is, pre- and post-cake!
Elisabeth's Grandma Kester made a special punch for the party, and it was actually the punch served at our wedding in 2007! I made cupcakes, and we used the cupcake tiers from our wedding as well. The cupcakes at our weddng were a Martha Stewart monongram recipe:
My mom gave me a Martha Stewart cupcake cookbook last year for my birthday so I made cupcakes for Elisabeth's party from this book. I wanted to make homemade frosting but ran out of time, so Jason saved the day with cupcake frosting in a can. (I didn't even know they made that until recently!) Didn't he do a great job decorating them? I like to call them "modified Martha" cupcakes!
Speaking of Martha Stewart, my friend Kristin introduced me to her pom poms as an easy and inexpensive way to decorate for a party. I gave them a try for Elisabeth's party and they were a fun project! They are easy to make and I was able to "modify" them to make them even easier than the website:
http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/pom-poms-and-luminarias
Over Elisabeth's first year we took her picture every month with her stuffed animal friends, each month adding one more to correspond with how old she was. We included them on every blog update, and her final picture includes 12 friends surrounding her in her new big girl chair she received for her birthday:
We returned to Lawrence last Wednesday from Wichita where we had a great time celebrating Christmas with family. Elisabeth was able to be with all 7 of her cousins at her Grandma Donna's house on Christmas Day! It was a special time to be together. She also had so much fun with her Kester Grandparents.
Jason and I look forward to this new year with eagnerness and anticipation. We are approaching our final semester here in Lawrence and have been reflecting on what a neat season the past three years have been to begin our marriage and ministry here at KU. We are so grateful for this opportunity! We will post soon with updates on our next assignment!
We are also directing the Jacksonville Summer Training Program this summer and will be preparing and planning for this neat opportunity throughout the spring semester as well.
May you have a joyous beginning to 2011. We are grateful for your love and support of our family!
