Birthday Party....Success

My house is "semi" back in order...all the guests are gone...there are a lot of leftovers that I am maxed out on...I am exhausted.  My girl is spoiled but boy, is this girl loved!  This little girl has brought joy we never knew we were missing.  She had a fantastic birthday party.  I wish I had the energy to say something profound....maybe later in the week.  I'm too busy right now listening to Hailey laugh at and beat up her brothers!

Here is a photo bomb of her party and the day after.  She crashed before opening her presents on Saturday so she waited until Sunday morning.  Blogger is doing something crazy so I can't add captions.  Hailey was funny opening presents.  She only wanted the wrapping paper until Ian had a hold of her present, then she was giving him the look like "what are you doing...that is mine".  She is in love with her new chairs and was putting on quite the show for the boys.  Everything seems to make the girl laugh these days (especially herself!)

Why isn't this icing coming off like the others?

Uh...excuse me.....where did my cake go?

Hmm...what is this?

Whatever it is, it tastes good!

This is good, mom!

Yum!

Where did all these come from?

I'm picking her up and she is STILL shoving cake in her mouth!

What a difference a year makes!

My oldest son plays Upward basketball.  If you are not familiar with Upward, it is a Christian-based basketball program where everyone plays regardless of your ability or disability.  It is non-competitive and by the end of the year....everyone will score.  At the end of the season, they have a year-end celebration.  Rewind to last year....the celebration was on my birthday...5 days after our little peanut was born.  5 days after we were given news that rocked our world....questioned our beliefs....made us sad...you know, I've shared how I felt after Hailey was born.  I was living in a fog for those first few weeks.  My husband thought it was a good idea if we both attended for my oldest son.  He needed to know that his parents loved all 3 of our children equally.  That day was for him.  We left Hailey in the hospital...looking tiny and struggling in the NICU.  We still weren't sure what her medical condition was...we still did not know much about Down syndrome.  At the beginning of the celebration, they had the cheerleaders perform on stage.  I sat there with tears streaming down my face.  Hailey will never do that.  Hailey will never play basketball.....STOP!  Wait a minute!

Fast forward to last night's basketball celebration.  All 5 of us attended because that is what Brayden wanted...he wanted us to all go as a family.  Bray sat with his team, the other 4 of us sat several rows back.  Jason and I passed Hailey between us...she is quite squiggly and had to see everything.  Cackling as she switched parents.  Similar to last year, the cheerleaders walked on stage and I had tears streaming down my face.  These weren't sad tears for Hailey's future...they were sad tears for our past.  I was ignorant a year ago...who is going to stop her from cheering or playing basketball....do I think for one second that we won't be attending her basketball celebration a few years down the road....NOPE!  Nothing has stopped her yet, I don't plan on anything stopping her ever.

A year ago, I never thought we would feel normal...that we wouldn't be happy...that Down syndrome would be a cloud that would follow us everywhere that would dominate our lives, our world.  I'm quite happy to report, that is not the case.  We are just as "normal" as the family with 3 "typical" children.  We are happy and loving our life with 3 wonderful children!  Thank you Hailey for showing mom how normal our life is!

The girl is still in love with her car!

Feeding herself mashed potatoes

Thanks mom...one of my favorites!

Love this shirt!

This smile makes me so happy!!!