One Last Glance...

... back on the quickest year of our lives!

~ We paid off BOTH of our cars! Trying to clear up extra debt, this was this past year's goal since we have no credit cards. It was hard work, but we did it!

~ I returned to school in January after a 10 week maternity leave. It was hard to leave little man, but we absolutely love where he's at. She is like a second mom and has helped me more in the "mommy" process than I've realized.

~ We celebrated our 6th anniversary with a trip to Mobile, staying in the Historic Battlehouse Hotel. It was beautiful, and I've tried foods that I never wish to try again!

~ Little man celebrated his first Halloween as Popeye the Sailor Man, complete with a can of spinach and BFF Piper a.k.a. Olive Oyle at his side.

~ We made it through the year with a total of 2 ear infections and one cold. He's a healthy boy, and for that, we are extremely grateful.

~ His first birthday came and went in no time! Celebrating with friends and family, we couldn't have asked for anything more.

~ He sat up by himself, rolled over, crawled, pulled up, cruised, and even took a few steps on his own this year. He says Daddy and Mama all the time, and will repeat what I say. He "talks" nonstop. (Wonder where he gets this from!) He can tell you what a lion says, what a duck says, and recognizes many friends' names.

~ Chris started a new job this year and really enjoys it, aside from the dressing up every day. He travels a little, but only occassionally and rarely overnight.

~ I ended a fantastic school year, and started another. Full speed ahead is how I feel most of the time, but we manage. I sleep well at nights, anyways!

We are extremely blessed with a wonderful church family and support base here. We have families that love us and would do anything for us, even from far distances. I can't say we've made it through another year, because that would seem like we're hanging on to survive. Instead, we made the year a great one, full of memories. We've overcome a lot and tackled many challenges. Life it what you make of it, and we made it a great one.

Here's to 2012 and making the very best of it!

Diaper Drama, Volume IV

Well, we've done it again. 1) COMPLETELY gross me out, 2) give me another blog post, and 3) allow me to experience something that I have NEVER seen before.

Let me set the tone with his lunch: 2 hotdogs. Leave out an afternoon naptime poo. Pack up in a car and drive to the beach. Semi poo diaper after a hamburger dinner at Burger King. Finish drive to beach. Arrive and shortly thereafter, put to bed. In footie pajamas. An hour later? A mess unlike any other.

I'll leave off here and let you imagine the rest. All I'm saying is that if it happens again, I will NOT be washing backs, bums, and entire outfits.

13 Months

With Thanksgiving, family visiting, ball games, and photo shoots, time has been flying by. But hasn't it done that for forever now? When someone asked how old Cutter was just the other day, I said a year. Then when I thought about it, another month had already passed!

Each day, and with each expression, I see more and more of myself. Sometimes, I can see my siblings too. He's still his father's son... and a BIG mooma's boy! The picture above reminds me of a young me, with the round face.

His smile makes me happy. He has a light in his eyes that I could stare at all day. There are moments when he cuddles that makes me want to hold him forever. I cannot remember life before him, and cannot imagine our family's life without him.

Cute, huh? Makes me think that he's up to something. He can be so sweet, but can be a pill too! He expresses himself well. Whether you like it or not. He lets you know if he wants something or if he doesn't like what you have said. He knows "no" but doesn't always want to hear it.

We go for his 1 year checkup on Tuesday. I'm really curious to see how he's grown and is developing. More info to come!

1st Birthday Cake

The cake table- I decided to make the cakes myself, so worked on them the day before the party. I started baking as soon as I got home, and finished by about 10:30 that evening.

All of the cakes were funfetti with cream cheese icing. Straight out of boxes and containers, but they taste great so why not? Louise let me borrow the cupcake pan, and it turned out to be SO CUTE! Thanks Louise! My brother-in-law Tim, aka Icing Extraordinaire, did the green icing with the star tips. I added the blue polka dots, and found a matching candle at WalMart.

This cake ended up weighing a ton! There were originally a lot of people coming, so I wanted to have enough. This was two layers, since they did not rise much. I ended up using about 7 tubs of icing! Julie let me borrow her cake decoratin kit, so I had practiced throughout the week on cupcakes and cookies for his birthday and Trunk-or-Treat. I think I could have added polka dots all night long, it was that fun!

Daddy lit the candle and brought it over. He was so busy watching all of the kids that he didn't even notice!

He was kind of ill that day, so didn't dive into it much. He played in the icing, and of course, put it in his hair. Chris cut it up some, just to see, but it didn't help either. He was fine just watching everything else that went on!

How cute is this smile... and the icing in the hair, all over the chair, on his clothes, up his nose...

What a great way to celebrate our first birthday!

1st Birthday Gifts

This was the best shot we got of the three of us,, just before opening gifts.

He loved playing with the paper, even carrying a piece around with for a little while afterwards.

We got him a little red chair, just for him. He watches morning cartoons in it now. If only it came with a cup holder, he would be set!

He loves his little car! It has a horn, so when you tell him to Beep Beep, he'll hit it! The floorboard is removable, so when he gets older and can push himself with his legs, we can take it out. Right now, he just climbs in and out of it and rides up and down the street.

We are so blessed with such awesome friends and family! Thank you for spoiling him, and filling my living room with more color and stuff!

1st Birthday Decorations

I had a fun time planning Cutter's first birthday party. I wanted to keep it simple, since were having it at our church building and I'd have to haul everything there. I decided on lime green and turquoise. These are the colors of his room, and seem to be my favorites these days.

I decided to make chocolate covered pretzels as party favors. These would be good for everyone to enjoy, and trust me, I did. We covered them in green, blue, and white icing and topped them with sprinkles and things. It was so much fun the night before. There were pretzels everywhere!

For decorations, I tried to keep it simple. Blue and green tablecloths filled the room with color. Matching ballons topped the tables and the mantle. We even found some with polka dots! Centerpieces were bits of patterned blue or green material with pictures of Cutter from his 3, 6, and 9 months photo shoots.

The food was perfect! We had Bradshaw's BBQ and Thomas Pitts potato salad. I made a huge batch of beans. We figured that everyone would eat barbeque. Even Cutter for this great day!

First Haircut

Cutter has had the neatest head of hair so far. It started off with a red tint, and has grown more blond. Between 6 and 10 months, it stuck straight up! Once it started laying down, the length in the back became VERY noticable!

Chris asked if Buddy could do his first haircut. Buddy cut Chris' hair most of his life. He still cuts his brother's and dad's hair. Since we were going up there for a wedding, we figured it was as good a time as any to get it done.

Before.

He is laughing at the scissors!

That Dum Dum was the best thing ever! He was never even phased by all that was going on around him.

All done! He looks like a little man. Even more than before.

And yes, we saved some of the little blond locks.

Popeye, The Sailor Man

For trunk or treat, Popeye and Olive Oyl made their debut. Aren't they the cutest?!

Don't look too closely, but he might have his hand on her thigh. He absolutely LOVES Piper! He was grouchy this night, but was facinated by her when we sat them down.



We tried to get the kids together for a picture. This was the best one I got.

Because then, you can tell which one didn't feel like sitting still!

He got a few goodies he can eat. Those dum dums came in handy for his first haircut!

It's a little bright, but we had a great time! Next year, he'll be walking (hopefully!) so we'll have to see what fun things go on then.

Diaper Drama, Volume 3

I interrupt your irregularly scheduled updates to bring you the most late-breaking, diaper drama news.

Raisins do not breakdown in the digestion process. I repeat, raisins do not digest.

I just don't want anyone else to wonder what in the world was filling the diaper as I did earlier today. You may now return to your blog reading!

Cutter's Birthday

Cutter's 1st birthday was on a Tuesday. We were so excited, but he had no clue why we had these goofy looks on our faces and kept saying "It's your birthday!" I made lollipop cookies for him to take to daycare with him. They were so cute, but I never took a picture! Everything for his party was going to be turquoise and lime, so the cookies were Funfetti with cream cheese icing, complete with green and blue polka dots. They loved him!

For dinner that night, we had mexican. With everything else going on, I put Chris in charge of his actual birthday. Since I had mexican hours before going into labor, we thought we would celebrate that way. The retaurant we had eaten at has since closed, so we ate at home. We did cupcakes for the three of us.

As you can see, he LOVED it! Those are only crumbs left behind. He enjoyed it, and we enjoyed the time with just the three of us to celebrate his special day.

After getting cleaned up and ready for bed, we gave him his present. He has a stuffed lion that he loves, so we decided we would get him another animal like it. He got a blue elephant this year! He fell asleep that night holding onto the ear of his new elephant.

Happy First Birthday, Cutter!