We're gonna party like it's your BIRTHDAY!!!

Beware...I'm about to absolutely overload you with pictures...

from our sweet, precious boy's FIRST birthday party!

We had an amazing time celebrating with our family and friends!

I spent a lot of time planning out all of the little details of the party, and I love the way everything came together!

party hats for the kiddos!

Food table!

Since we decided to get Mills a red wagon for his birthday present, I decided to take that theme and run with it! I chose the red and aqua for a fun and festive twist!

I made all of the food labels and many of the other decorations from graphic files I purchased from an awesome etsy seller - $20 for everything - you can't beat that! It was time-consuming, but a total labor of love, and I was so happy with the way it turned out!

"One-derful Kettle Corn"

"Wagon Axles"

 The sweet stuff! somehow I only ended up with two pictures of the candy buffet all together - I completely forgot to take a few when I got it all set up and you know how it is when you're running around doing last-minute things! Not that I ever do that, of course {ha, ha}

Coke and Izze sparkling pomegranate juice - I added labels to the juice and water bottles, too.

grab some goodies!

My first time making brownie pops - soo rich but soo good!

I'm a sucker for a cupcake...and anything "mini" too...trouble!

Red velvet cupcakes...you know, to go along with the theme. And also because they're delicious! :)

If you look closely you can see pictures of wagons, "Mills is ONE!" and even his cute little face!!!

Beverages, anyone???

Red Wagon Cocktail - champagne, cranberry, and frozen raspberries!

Mills' monthly picture banner!

The booze wagon out back - Nicholas came up with the name for the label "Falling off the Wagon" - and he even found Retro Red Wagon beer at Total Wine for the party! Dedication, people, that's what that is! :) He was really proud of himself and his contribution! :)

The cute smash cake that my friend, Kristen, made!

Poor thing had made a cake that matched the invitation perfectly, but it FELL!!! She showed me a picture on her phone! This was her "back-up" that she had to make - umm, it looked perfect to me!!! 

Party guests arriving! {and poor Daddy trying to get the slideshow to work! he did the first part, and I stayed up until 3:30 am the night before completing it...and he couldn't find the remote for our apple tv connection, so we couldn't play it...sad!!}

Presents piling up for the little man!

 These cuties snacked on some puffs!

Then it was party hat time...because, after all, what's a party without hats?!? :)

 Mills didn't mind the hat, it was the ribbon he had a problem with {note to self: should have tested that out beforehand and cut it off - it had an elastic band, too}

I don't know why but this picture makes me laugh.

"Mommmmmmm, this ribbon makes me look like a giiiiiiiirl!"

"I think I like cousin Gray's hat better!"

"Or maybe my buddy Thurman's!"

precious party babes!

Two of the newest and cutest babes in Mills' life!

High school buds and our babes!

 Woohoo, this is FUN!!!

Okay folks, it's after midnight and this momma is fading fast! I promise to be back tomorrow am with the rest of the party pics! I mean, we haven't even gotten to the cake fun yet!!! I'll also include all of the party details! And I can't wait to catch up with some of my new readers, too! Goodnight, friends!

We have a ONE YEAR OLD!!!

So one week delayed...here we are with our usual monthly post, except this month we're celebrating our precious

ONE YEAR OLD!

Last week we were a little busy around here, getting ready for the big party {which I'll post about tomorrow!} but we still managed to have some serious fun {keep reading on...}!

But first...my sweet Millsy-bear, what are you up to at 12 months old?!?!?

-Still no official walking, but you will push your little walking toys around the house, doing laps. You will also stand for about 10 seconds at a time, but not showing a real interest in taking steps on your own. You're currently satisfied as a speedy, little crawler.

-You love to clap, you can wave, and my very favorite thing you do is blow kisses - which your Daddy taught you on Christmas Day! It's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

-You still are one of the most momma-lovin' boys in the whole wide world, and that's okay with me. :) Although it does make it a tiny bit hard at times, I wouldn't have it any other way, my sweet precious angel boy.  However, you've forgotten how to say, "ma-ma" and your new favorite word is "da-da," which you say 24/7 (along with your "goy goy goy" noise) so you definitely love your Daddy, too!

{see what I mean...haha}

-You're so focused, and you want to learn how everything works. You see your dad's socks around the house and you try to put them on your feet. You do the same thing with your own shoes and you get a little mad when you try and try and try and can't get them on! But you want to do it by.your.self.  You watch everything and everyone around you.  On the other hand, you have a really short attention span a lot of the time, and you are a busy, busy, busy boy! 

-You can destruct a clean room in 2.2 seconds. You love to pull things out of drawers, knock over and drag around all of the clean laundry that is neatly folded and stacked, and pull your toys out of the bin in record time. Typical.

-You are silly, goofy, and fun-loving!

-You learn new things every single day and it's so fun to watch you grow! I absolutely cannot fathom that you are a year old.  It feels like just yesterday that you were born. We made it through the first year of parenthood, woohoo! :) Oh, and we also made it through a year of breastfeeding, too, which is totally a huge accomplishment to me! You've never even had a drop of formula, and we've just been introducing whole milk this week. You've gradually been weaning yourself from nursing, as you're just sooo busy you can hardly stand still long enough throughout the day, which I think will make it easier on both of us. You spit out the whole milk the first couple of times, but you're starting to get used to it I think!  I'm just so proud of us - you and I - for making it to a year!

-You continue to bring more joy to our lives than you could ever even imagine, buddy boy!  We think everything you do is pretty stinkin' awesome, and we are completely smitten with you! We love you more than you'll ever know, our precious ONE-year-old!

With all of our love,

Mommy and Daddy

So what did we do on your first birthday???

Well, Daddy had the stomach bug, which we thankfully did not get, so it was a good thing we had planned to be out and about anyway!

We started out our celebration with a play date at the children's museum!

gross picture of me, but calee and I were playing around with my new lens!

hey handsome!

you were such a little gentleman...ladies first!

playing with your buddy, Jameson

Then we headed to lunch at Rue de Jean - to celebrate both your birthday and Calee's, which was January 1st!

Katie and Kirksey joined us and brought you your very first cupcake!

You weren't so sure about it at first...

But you were willing to share with me (this was before you knew how tasty it was!)

...So I showed you how to do it...

Mmmm!

Wait a minute...this is pretty good stuff!!!

Then we headed home so the little guy could take a loooong nap after all the bday fun, and I sprayed the house with Lysol like Nicholas had the bubonic plague {he actually did tell me he felt like he had the plague}, but hey, all precautions had to be taken, my friend! I did not want Mills to get the bug, and especially with such a big party weekend ahead! Luckily the Lysol-spraying antics worked for us!

On Wednesday we headed to the pediatrician's office for the big 12-month check-up!

Millsy weighed in at 21lbs 1 oz (25th percentile) 29 inches long/tall (also 25th percentile) and his head circumference was 67th percentile. Nicholas has been calling him "the little runt," but I think he's juuuust perfect. :) And of course Nicholas is just teasing!

The pediatrician said he was a perfectly healthy little guy! His iron was a little low, but the dr said that was normal in breastfed babies and the numbers should go up as he starts eating more foods - nothing to be concerned about. Nicholas said filets for dinner from now on - HA!

Mills already eats a variety of foods, but the dr said to continue that...for example if we go to eat sushi, let him taste the ginger and a little of the wasabi, too! He said it helps to develop their taste buds!

It was all fun and games until the finger prick (which broke my heart b/c it bled so much!) and shots! But it was over quickly and we're thankful to have such a healthy baby little boy!!! :(  :)

I can't wait to share all of the birthday party pics with you tomorrow! Sorry I've been so MIA - hoping to catch up in blogland this week!

One Year Ago...

{Yes, it is, in fact, 2:30 am on January 4th...I've been up putting Christmas decorations away and preparing for Mills' big party this weekend!}

But one year ago today, at this exact time, I was HURTIN'!!! Like with some serious contractions! 

I had gone to see a movie with some great girlfriends a few hours earlier.  Nicholas was at work, I was realizing it was the "real thing," and we would shortly be making our way to the hospital... {you can go back and read more here if you so desire}

Can you even believe it???

One year ago today...

we were welcoming the most precious gift that we've ever been given!

Our sweet baby boy.

And now we don't know what we ever did without this precious face...

God is so good!

I'll do the usual birthday post "tomorrow" (aka later today) - as well as a New Year's follow up in the next week - but my next few posts will be definitely dedicated to celebrating our sweet ONE YEAR OLD!!!