Everything's Coming Up Rosie!

I can't believe my baby is 1 year old!! Where has the time gone? Our sweet little Ashlee Rose (or Rosie as her daddy calls her) is growing up too fast. She started walking at 9 months and has never looked back. She runs everywhere and is starting to talk. She surprises us everyday with something new that she says. It is all on her terms though. She is a spunky, independent, social, loveable little girl! She is most definitely the "baby" of the family. She has everyone wrapped around her fingers. Her brothers and sisters basically jump when she says jump. It is Ashlee's way or the highway. We celebrated her birthday with her grandmas and grandpas a few days after her birthday. She was loving all the attention! The more attention the better for Ash. She is so social and loves people. The video is from her actual birthday. We couldn't go to bed without singing happy birthday to her. She loved every minute of it!

At her 12 month checkup, Ashlee weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs. (15th %) and measured 28 3/4 inches long (25th %). She is a healthy, little Jacobsen girl!

Ash is such a happy little girl! She loves to smile, laugh, and tease. Her blue eyes just sparkle. Despite being sick more often than not, she is usually a pretty easy little girl. Yes, she is busy and keeps us on our toes, but I know that someday I will miss someone pulling on my pant leg, or emptying all the sacks out of the cupboard, or dumping the combs and hair things out of the bathroom drawer, or stealing her brother's frog (as in the pic above) and running with it so he will chase her. She keeps our house hopping and all of us smiling!

We had to have pics of the birthday girl with Daddy and Mommy! We are the luckiest parents to be entrusted by our Heavenly Father to have her sweet spirit in our home. We have an awesome responsibility to channel her energy and social personality to do her Heavenly Father's work!

I usually make and decorate my kids' birthday cakes, but when it came time to choose a cake for Ash I couldn't think of anything more appropriate than a cake full of roses for our little Rosie. BUT, my cake decorating skills are very limited and roses are not anything I would even begin to attempt. Thank goodness I have a sweet friend, Chrissy Lennon, that is a very good cake decorator and was willing to add making Ash's cake to her hectic schedule right before Christmas. The cakes turned out fabulous!! My mom and I were in awe of the basket weaving around the sides!! It tasted fabulous and made for a fun 1st birthday!

She was loving being sung to again and being the center of attention. She just wanted to touch the candle, so Mom had to help blow it out.

She didn't need any help figuring out how to open presents. She had already opened a few Christmas presents so she had it down pat. She was so excited to not get into trouble while tearing the paper.

The 1st birthday tradition is to have smash cake for them to tear into. I figured by the way she went after the big rose cake while I was trying to take her picture that she would just dig into her own cake. WRONG!! Notice the one little finger kind of touching the cake and the expression on her face. She was really not into digging into her cake. She never really got excited about it until we gave her a fork. The excitement came from flinging cake all over the kitchen! Crazy little girl! She did have some frosting on her but most of that was from spitting back out at us what we tried to feed her or what she had flung all over. She doesn't know what she was missing out on. The cake was delicious!! (But I guess I shouldn't have expected too much out of my little girl that will not eat table food!)

"Here! Maybe you would like a taste?"

"Just get me out of my chair. This really isn't fun like you told me it would be!"

"Nice try, Mom."

"Maybe just a little taste."

"Now this is how it should be! Flinging it all over the kitchen is so much more fun!"

"Seriously! The fun is over! Get me out of here!"

My darling little Ashlee,

You are my little lifesaver!! I would be lying if I told you that the decision to have baby #5 was not a hard one. After the long, difficult pregnancy with Kenna and the financial setback it caused, I really couldn't imagine being pregnant again. But, our loving Heavenly Father kept sending promptings that our family was not complete. It took a lot of faith to trust Heavenly Father that everything would be fine, but we made the decision that we needed to bring one more sweet spirit to our family. I am so thankful for those promptings. You have brought so much joy and happiness to our family. My pregnancy brought many trials and challenges, but it was through these that you became my lifesaver. Because I had doctors that were on top of things and listened to my concerns and didn't pass them off as nothing, you arrived into this world safely and 5 weeks after you were born, I began my journey back to a healthy body. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father blessed me with a wonderful loving husband and mother that took such good care of you for the several weeks that I was unable to even take care of myself. You were blessed with a sweet, laidback disposition as a newborn that made it easier on everyone when others had to step in and act as your mother. I am so thankful that I was able to savor the first 5 weeks of your life -for my chances to snuggle you, nurse you, kiss you, and bond with you. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father that has allowed me to stay on this earth to continue to be your mother. To watch you grow and change and develop your sweet personality. To be able to feed you, bathe you, play with you, teach you, kiss and snuggle you, help you learn your potential as a daughter of God. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for you and for his loving hand in providing doctors that are blessed with the knowledge they have to heal the human body. Ashlee, you are my sweet little angel. Thank you for choosing our family to join! I look forward to watching you grow and learn. Thank you for choosing me to be your mother! I love you more than you could ever know!!

Love,

Your mother