Happy First Birthday Livie Girl

Well, here we are.


Has it really been a whole year since our precious little girl greeted the world with the tiniest little squawk ever? We were so excited to hear that noise, because we knew it meant that her lungs were functioning a little bit. That's a cry that I will never, ever forget.


It really is hard to believe that it's been a whole year. In some ways it feels like it was just yesterday. I can remember every detail of that day perfectly, as if it really was just yesterday. When I close my eyes, I can picture her little NICU room and isolette, and remember exactly how I was feeling at each time throughout the day. 

However, we've come so far in the last year and have had some BIG changes. The biggest one of course is that we're MARRIED now. It feels so good that Olivia, Kurt and I all have the same last name. I hated that the newspaper obituary said something like "daughter of Kurt Miller and Betsy Hills". Obviously I know we weren't married at that time, but it just makes us sound more like a family to have the same last name, you know?

Today, we got up and went to the cemetary. Abigail (who we refer to as AUNT Abigail) and Jeremy (and I guess Uncle Jeremy? haha) met us there because they''d never been to the cemetary before. Abigail was in town and able to visit us in the hospital after Liv was born, but they lived in Nashville at the time, and had to fly back to get back to work before the funeral.

They surprised us with this placque...



They said that they bought it for her grave, and we set it out there with her flowers. But as we were driving away, I told Kurt that I loved it too much to just leave there. So, we had Kurt's mom grab it for us when they went to the cemetary a little bit later on. We want to be able to put it out every year for her birthday. Isn't it beautiful? I just love it so much. We have such amazing, thoughtful friends.

Abigail took this picture of us in with her grave marker. We've always gone to the cemetary alone so we've never had one taken before. I'm really glad we finally got one.

This picture is one that my mom took later on in the day, after everyone had already been there and taken flowers. I love that there are so many. Livie is a very, VERY loved little girl!

Tonight, one of Kurt's best friends and his fiance hosted a "friends' potluck Thanksgiving". When we first got the invitation, I was a little bit hesitant. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to any plans for today. I guess I was worried that I/we would be upset or feeling pretty depressed, and I didn't think we'd want to go anywhere. After talking about it though, we decided that it would be good for us to spend the evening eating really good food with really good friends. I am SO glad we decided to go. I made Presbyterian Potatoes (basically just baked mashed potatoes), crab & artichoke dip... and these birthday cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream frosting. For Liv's birthday, of course. That I made from scratch. With my new Kitchen Aid mixer. (Pretty much amazing that you can do something else while the mixer does all the work - I never knew what I was missing!)

I didn't take any pictures at the Thanksgiving party other than this one of Kurt's giant plate of food. :)

Afterwards, we watched a little bit o the Nebraska/Texas A&M game, and then came home. Right now, we are relaxing in the living room watching the rest of the game (which is pathetic, by the way), and getting ready to snuggle into bed with a Netflix.

On the way home tonight, Kurt asked me if Olivia's birthday had lived up to my expectations. I told him that I really didn't have any expectations. I just wanted to have a nice day and and not allow myself to get too upset. We were overwhelmed with phone calls, text messages, facebook comments, etc. from people letting us know that they were thinking about our little girl today. I am so thankful that we have so many wonderful family members and friends who helped us feel special today. That's really all I could have asked for.

Happy birthday, little girl. We love you so, so much.