1st Birthday Party

When Shaw turned about 4/5 months, I started thinking about his 1st birthday party. I have always considered my self very organized. Josh would say I have a clinical diagnosis of OCD, but we will leave that up to him! To be honest, with everything we have had going on in our lives the last two months, God knew I needed to plan ahead and so he gave me the "umph" to start early. I searched the Internet (thank you Pinterest) and found every free printable possible, stocked up at dollar stores, and between myself, my mom, and my sister we made it all come together. It was EXACTLY what I wanted it to be. The antique blue and red circus theme couldn't have been cuter. Also, the clown was a huge hit with the older kids. Around 40 people ended up coming to help us celebrate and it couldn't have been more perfect.

The first two pictures aren't from his party, but his actual birthday.

Opening his gifts from Ganna and Pops on his birthday.

The birthday boys sharing homemade banana ice cream! Yum!

Now to the birthday party....

When guests first walked in I had this collage of all his monthly pictures. I loved seeing them all together!

This was the "photo booth" where I had everyone use different props and take family pictures. This turned out super cute!

Mason jars with striped straws for the camel water, acrobat juice (sweet tea), and carnival lemonade.



His smash cake.

cupcakes

This was the sweets table with different carnival candies and fruit.

The whole food table.

The cake, cookie, cupcake table

Main course food table with "dancin' dogs and buns", mini corndogs, and "macho man nachos"

Luckily, my mom and mother-in-law have these blow ups so we just used them instead of renting one and it was perfect! The kids loved them!

His favors. The tags said "thanks for clowning around at my party".

Pops getting the popcorn machine going

Our sweet family doing the photo booth. I decided not to put anyone elses on here because I would hate to embarrass anyone :) and they will be getting them in the mail!

Some of his gifts. Blessed boy he is!

Mom getting to enjoy some time with friends!

Mont Momma with two of her great grands. Shaw and Coy.

Getting to meet the clown for the first time. He loved her!

Having a blast!

His new move! haha

The kids watching the clown's "magic" show

He LOVED it!

Shaw, Allie, and the clown

 Ramsey and Shaw playing together in the bounce house

Part of the clown's show

Opening gifts

His favorite thing the whole time opening gifts was the watermelon mommy's friend brought her!

Clown making animal balloons. So neat!

Getting ready to dig into his cake!

Yum Yum!

Here Daddy you have a bite! :)

Now, that was some good stuff!

Saying bye-bye to everyone who came!

Thank you to everyone who came to make his day so special! We had a blast and couldn't have asked for anything more! We are so blessed with so many family and friends!

12 months

I knew the time to write this blog was creeping up on me. Looking back at where we have come over this last year does get me a bit quite a bit emotional, but it also brings so much joy to see the little (baby) boy that our son has become. I am a few days late on the post and have been absent from the blog world because our lives have been consumed with A LOT more important things than writing blog posts, including moving back to our home town which we are overly thrilled about. Also, this past weekend was his birthday party. As some would say I went a little over the top but my motto is he is only one once and we have a lot to celebrate....so get over it :). But, with all things aside, this past month has been great, and oh so much fun. Do we have a boy with a personality or what?! Here is what his 11 month held and what he is doing as of 1 year of age:

• I weighed him two days before his birthday and he was 18 lb. 2 oz. Since we will be moving next week, I still need to make his well child check up with our previous pediatrician so we won't get official stats for probably a couple of weeks. I feel like he is still pretty little but I am hearing more and more parents of full term babies say their kids were that weight or even less at a year. Regardless, he has done great and I know that!
• Still wearing size 3 and 4 diapers.
• Wearing mainly 12 month clothes. Today I put a 9 month Polo outfit on him and it was very snug. Wearing size 3 and 4 shoes.
• Still just two teeth, even though I can see and semi feel a few on the top.
• Doing everything but walking and oh does he want to. His new thing is standing up with his hands still on the ground with his head between his knees. It is hilarious and so cute. He can walk behind a walking toy, pivot and take a couple of steps between furniture, and cruise everywhere.
• Still sleeps like a champ. Goes to bed about 7:30 and wakes up anywhere from 8-9.
• We made it to a year with breastfeeding!!!!!!!!! (there are a lot of exclamation marks because that is me screaming it from the mountain tops). He randomly self weaned at 11 months and no matter what I did he didn't want to nurse anymore so I continued to pump up until his birthday. We also still have a few bags of frozen milk in the deep freezer we are working on.
• I have put him on a toddler formula to mix with his whole milk just because he is so little.
• He is eating all table food and we give him the packets of organic baby food afterwards just to make sure we are covering all nutritional basis. Some of his favorites are: buttered/cheese toast, whole bananas we can bite off of, peas, watermelon, yogurt, macaroni or spaghetti, chicken strips, mashed potatoes...just to name a few.
• Still loves ice water.
• Still obsessed with doors.
• He says quite a few words. The words he says consistently are: momma, dadda, dog, bottle, bye bye, yay, yum, ball, baby, and bite.
• He loves to look at books and flip the pages
• I've only presented cartoons a couple of times and he is not interested one bit.
• Loves all toys that he can control and that move.
• Obsessed with balls right now and throwing them. Loves to play catch back and forth
• He wishes our dogs liked him more. Haha poor thing, he loves them and they run from him.
• Likes playing peek a boo
• Still an outside lover
• Adores older kids and wants to follow their every move. Too bad not every child get an older sibling to follow around because it keeps him entertained for hours.
• Takes either a good morning and late afternoon nap or a 11-12 nap. Usually last about 2 hours each.
• He is into dancing. Every time music comes on his little legs get to bouncing.
• We have had some disciplining issues this month. Taps on the hand and saying "no" are no longer working.
• He has quite a temper when he doesn't get his way. Screaming and grabbing for things happens on a daily basis.
• His hair is SO long and he is in desperate need of a haircut but we haven't gotten around to it yet.
• His new smile is the "cheese" smile with his nose crinkled up.
• He laughs ALL the time!
• Points at everything and wants to know what everything is. I am naming or describing things all day long everyday.
• Still a snuggle bear when he wants to be. Loves to lay his head on mine or his daddy's chest and get lovins.
• Still shy around adults at first and if he doesn't know you he doesn't want you touching him! Ha!
• People are starting to say he looks more like his momma or a good mix of us. Honestly, I just think he looks like himself. He still has blue eyes and strawberry blonde/dirty blonde hair.
• He is really starting to become a daddy's boy.

Shaw Michael, this past year has been the biggest, scariest, most rewarding adventure your daddy and I have ever been on. You have taught us more about love in this one year than we have ever known before. You are our biggest blessing and we are your biggest fans! We love you!