One Year!!!

So last Saturday my baby turned a year old. *sniff, sniff*  I can't believe he's already a year.  We had a great birthday party complete with family and friends, young and old.  I was exhausted by the time it was over but I think everyone who came had a good time.  Here are some photos to highlight the occasion.

This is the spread of food and drink under the happy birthday banner.  That's pretty much all the decorating I do.  I prefer to decorate when it's going to last longer than a day.  In fact, I didn't even buy that banner, it was my mother in law who did.  I know, shame on me.  However, I did let my creative juices flow when I made the cake.

Actually I copied this from an article on parenting.com.  However, it said to use chocolate twizzlers for the hair on top (which I don't think you can even see in this picture) but apparently those are a commodity like gold because I couldn't find them anywhere.  Not even at Mr. Bulky's, the candy store.  So I had to be creative there.  Instead I used chocolate covered orange peels.  First step to being a fancy-schmancy mother--improvise.

Though we told people not to bring gifts (since a one year old doesn't really know that he's getting gifts), we assumed the grandparents would violate this rule.  However, everyone seemed to violate the rule and still the thing Elijah found the most interesting was this blue bag and the tissue paper.  I warned you, folks!

The best thing was having my mom and stepdad and my brother's wife and their little girl Addisyn for the weekend.  Addi is a total doll.  She is way more talkative than Elijah was when he was 6 months old--or even now for that matter.  And she seems way more outgoing.  She seems to want to get to know people right away.  Elijah is a bit more reserved.  It's weird how they have personalities before they can even really talk or poop outside of their pants.

Last picture for your viewing pleasure is my mom holding Addi.  I guess she's waving at someone.  She is way more animated.  She's only 6 months and seems determined to crawl at all costs.  Elijah didn't do it until he was like 10-11 months old, but I think he was just lazy.  Or maybe lazy isn't the word, but he was just content with where he was.  She wants to get up and go NOW!  So funny.  Also, she looks so freaking much like my brother it makes me want to puke. ;)  She looks like her mommy, too, I just remember what my brother looked like when he was little and I see him in her with many of the faces she makes.  She's so cute in spite of looking like him.  Love you, Miss Addi!

And Happy Birthday to my sweet Bitty Guy!  You're getting way too big for Mommy's liking!  Love you!