a celebration of life.

our family recently celebrated life, in more ways than one.

my niece turned one.

seriously.

i look at her and my heart skips a beat.

my grandmother turned 80.

she and i.

we are one in the same.

and we celebrated both of them.

my sister is a rockstar baker.

look at these owl cupcakes.

freakin adorable.

we had a just dance 2 competition.

kyle got gram on the dance floor.

she loves him.

anyone who will pay her extra attention.

they got her love.

family snaps.

quite possibly the most.stressful.thing.ever.

the whole extended fam.

gram and her daughters.

gram, her grandchildren and their spouses.

gram and her great-grandchildren.

the kids call her gigi.

kyle and my brother-in-law got gram soup for her birthday.

haha.

sort of an inside joke.

but gram is always complaining that all she gets to eat is soup.

she says she is sick of it.

did i mention my sister is a rockstar baker?

check out big owl.

olivia wasn't so sure of her cake at first.

picky princess, she is.

she had more fun feeding it to uncle kyle.

haha.

my baby cousin is going into the Air Force. 

i am so proud of him. 

he spent a lot of time with us over the past year.

my kids absolutely adore him.

he leaves for basic training in may.

apparently the thing to do when a soldier leaves is to toast him.

with a shot of liquor.

who knew.

and if you are my mother ... you buy whiskey.

nonetheless.

toast him we did.

the only thing missing from this day was my grandfather.

although i know he was there in spirit.

he would not have missed it for nothing.

and to top the day off.

nigel grabbed a knee and proposed to his girlfriend.

*sniff*

it was so sweet.

i cried.

they make each other so happy.

and that makes me happy.