Almost Party Time!

Well, my baby girl is going to be a year old next month. I can't believe that she's going to be a toddler soon! This has without a doubt been the best year of my life! Nothing could've prepared me for how much I would love motherhood. I mean I knew that I always wanted to be a mom and that I would love my child(ren), but I had no idea how it would change me (in a good way of course). Things that used to seem so important to me are no longer, it's all about my daughter now. When making decisions, I always think of her first; how it will affect her, if it's in her best interest and if it's good for her well being in general. It's all about her now, sure I need my own time too, but not if it comes at her expense.
With her 1st birthday rapidly approaching, I've no doubt been planning her 1st birthday party. We're just doing a casual thing at our house in the backyard with friends & family. It should be a really nice day. Just hoping that the weather holds out and we don't have rain on that day. It should be ok since it's the middle of August, but you never know since we do live in Ohio where the weather often changes every 10 minutes. I received her invitations the other day & have been getting the addresses on the envelopes as I'd really like to get them out sometime this week, I mean it's only 5 weeks away! We decided not to do a character theme this year, I figure she'll have plenty of time for character birthday's when she gets older & has her own opinion. So, we're just doing a "fun to be 1" theme with pink & purple, very girly & very cute, at least I think so anyway.
Other big news: we may be buying a house! We weren't really "looking" or anything, we'd discussed beginning to look after the first of the year, but I of course got online just to get an idea of what's out there right now & I happened to find one that we both really like. It's in a neighborhood that we both love & in a really great school system. It's funny how not too long ago, we may not have even considered schools in a decision like this, my how things change. We wrote up our offer the other night, but it won't technically be submitted until Monday morning. So now we're just kind of waiting out the weekend & hoping to hear something by Tuesday. I'm really trying not to stress out about it because I know that if it's meant to be it will be & if that's where God wants us, he'll put us there, but it's hard not to worry about it. If they do accept our offer & everything moves forward according to plan though, our close date will be around August 19th & Hannah's birthday party is on August 14th! I'm pretty much freaking out about that too as we'll most likely have a lot packed up already the day of her party. I know we'll make it work, but it will definitely make things a little more difficult.
Back to my little Hannah now, she's growing up so fast & learning new things everyday. When she started pulling up, I really thought that she'd be walking well before her birthday, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not worried about it or anything since she definitely gets where she wants to be & she's cruising all over the furniture just not showing any interest in letting go yet. Her little personality is really coming out more & more as well. She definitely knows what she wants & when she wants it, which has lead to a tantrum or two, I feel her testing us to see what she can get away with, I must say it's pretty darn cute to see her becoming her own little person. I feel for her though because she's at that age where it's difficult for her to communicate since she isn't talking yet, she knows what she wants, but doesn't have the ability to let us know & I can understand her frustration with it. I have been trying to do some signing with her, but I don't think I'm being consistent enough with it. As her parents though I think Rick & I do a pretty good job of interpreting a lot of her cues and figuring out what it is she wants. I suppose that's all we can do for now.