Madeline's 1st Birthday

Our last little baby turned 1 this past week!

Why are all my words underlined? I don't know. But this has taken so long that I don't care.

I can't fix it so...maybe you can live with it? Ok good. :)

Anyway, like I was saying, our last child turned 1!!
Here are some of the pictures of her party.


First of all here is a picture that was taken a year ago. She was only 3 days old. What an adorable little face! She was (is) an angel. She has always been a very easy going, happy baby. Which for our 4th child, and all of the others being under the age of 6, it was a real blessing!
When i found out I was pregnant with her, I was not very happy. I was quite content with 3 children, just getting my figure back, and really looking forward to just raising 3 children.
I fretted and pouted around the whole 9 months, but when she was born, she just took our breath away. And she has ever since. She is such a happy, lively, SMART, little girl. God has truly blessed us with her. We wouldn't trade her for the world!
But needless to say, we did take measures to prevent anymore little "surprises" :) "Whew"!

The little 'princess's' cake.
Deep, dark, moist, dense, almost black chocolate cake.
My favorite recipe. I will have it on the end of this post.
Hey! The underlining disappeared! Yay!

She was such a neat little eater, it was almost a little disappointing. :)

Our third little angel, Annabelle.
Such a sweet smile.

Sweet little Seth, our second born. Trying to go cross eyed.

Isaac, our firstborn. (can't you tell) Definitely too much cake in his system.

Opening presents. She really got the hang of it fast!

My sister Sarah, and the cousins.

My mommy, Karen.

My mountain man, father in law, Ken.
I'm going to tease him till he shaves it off. I know, I'm such a brat.

My camera happy mother in law, Judy. I say that in love, Judy! :)

I love our computer! It's a Mac, Teresa. :) We had an awesome slide show, set to music going during the whole party. Every picture we took of Madeline from the past year was on it.

The birthday sign, in case people forgot why they were at our house, eating cake.

The spread. I know, look at the pickle bowl! Only 2 left! The guests descended upon them, and were gone within the first 5 minutes.

The party room.

There were so many more pictures, but it takes a while to upload them, plus I don't want to seem like one of those mom's that worship the dirty (and sometimes poopy ground [clears throat] like today. Don't ask) that their kids walk on.

Hershey's "Especially Dark" Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup veg. oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Method:

Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2, 9" round cake pans.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water ( batter will be thin) Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Enjoy!