Birthday Fun!

What a great few days it's been! We celebrated Tater's b-day on the actual day, June 23 with a small party with just a few family members. Here are some pics from the day.
Tater hanging out with Wiley before the party. He uses Wiley as a foot rest :)

Birthday hat I made for Tater. See my cake creations in the background? Yummy!

Tater's little cake. The big one was just like it, but well, bigger!


Look at the mess I made!

Then we had a BIG party with all our friends and family on Sat. It ws so special to have so many people come to celebrate such a special little boy!

These are the take-home favors I made for Tater's friends. They were soft & yummy!

Cake #2, not made by me, but it turned out awesome and was delicious!

Another cake for Tater. And another mess for mom! Overall, two cakes = 4 baths!

Next year, I think we'll just go to a park or something. It was really fun, but not a party meant for every birthday. We are blessed & now are parents of a ONE year old. Wow.

Happy Birthday Tater!

June 23, 2009 at 6:26 pm, weighing 7lbs. 3oz. 21 inches long, our little boy entered the world! It is about 9:40 right now, and it was about this time one year ago that I met him for the first time. I didn't truly greet him and hold him until about 3am the next morning. Wow...we've come a long way. It has been an amazing year.

David and I were reflecting upon the last year the other night. Laughing about all the fun we've had and sharing how much we have all grown. I mentioned that in the last year, we have all received scars. David for having his gallbladder out, me for having a c-section and Tater for the surgery he had. None of us had any scars before. Now I'll admit, David's wasn't quite the same, but all in all it's kind of ironic in my eyes. We've been through a lot the last year and we all have something to show for it, kind of like battle wounds. But, they have all healed and we've healed. We've become a strong family because we have each other to lean on and learn from. I told Tater's story to a girl I know the other day who is expecting her first son. Her reply to me was, "how can you be so positive and sound so calm about all that has happened?" I told her, none of what happened with Tater, whether it was his birth or the surgery was easy. They were both very trying moments, but honestly we have faith and that is totally what got us through. So it proves that no matter what battle your fighting, God is there and his plans are much greater than anything we can imagine.

My hope for Tater this next year well, and forever is health and happiness. I always pray that we will be guided to help him become the person he his meant to be. To help him find his passion. Because, as I've said before, this little guy is a miracle and he is going to do something great!

Enough mushy stuff...(b/c I am printing these posts and one day my son will read them and think I was silly.)

We went to splash time at the pool today and then had a picnic with some special friends. Tater loved the pool. Then we had a little party for Tater tonight. My cake turned out GREAT! Cute & delicious. Tater loved it and he made sure to let me know by smearing it everywhere, I mean everywhere. I gave him a double bath just to get it all off. It was a great memory and we get to do it all again on Saturday! I'll try and get some pics posted soon, I only took a couple hundred ;)

Happy Birthday Tater!! XOXOXO

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day. It's David's very 1st and I think he had a great day. Tater made him a cute little handprint picture at school and we got him a golf towel with his picture on it. But the best present was that Tater took his very first steps!!! David was the first to witness and quickly called me in to see for myself, but of course, Tater wasn't walking. So, I was only going to believe it when I actually saw it. So we tried for a while to get him to do it, but of course he wouldn't. Later in the day my parents were over and Tater wanted to show me PaPa's sunglasses so he just walked on over to me. We all cheered and a few tears were shed. Tater didn't even care, he acted like, "what are you people so excited about? You've never seen any walk before?" What a great moment!

The countdown is on. Three days till Tater is ONE! Can you remember what you were doing on this day last year? Well, I can. I was VERY pregnant and we had walked and walked and walked some more to get that little man to arrive. Only to find out on our Drs. appt. Monday, that I really shouldn't have done all that walking because I had very low fluid levels and it had been really hot. I've found myself reminiscing a lot. What hasn't changed in the last year? It's all been for the better. I am excited to celebrate his actual birthday on Wednesday with just a few family members. I want it to be such a happy day for him and us and remember all the good that happened that day, not the yucky scary stuff.

I had planned to purchase him a cake for his birthday, but, now I have the big bright idea to do it myself. So my friend loaned me her cake decorating supplies and I'm going to attempt to bake & decorate a cute little cake for my Tater. I'll let you know how it goes. I also purchased the cutest Happy Birthday banner on etsy.com and of course a photo op is running through my mind. If it turns out as cute as I think, I'll be sure to share my pics!

Well Happy Father's Day to all you dads. I am blessed to have a husband who is as great of a father as the one I have. The men in my life are great examples to my son and I couldn't ask for anything more!

Lovin' Summer

It has been steamy outside lately. I detest HOT! I would rather be cold any day, really a nice 70 degrees with a breeze is perfection for me, but it's summer, so I guess I'll have to endure the heat for a few more months. Since last year at this time I was about ready to have Tater and then, well once he came I didn't see the outside of my house until summer had passed, I'm in desperate need of some SUN! David and I put Tater out in his little pool in the yard on Monday and he loved it, so I thought I'd give it a try today and soak up some rays at the same time. Not happening. All he wanted to do was get in and out of his pool and he only lasted about 10 min. Oh well, maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to find a pool or something.

In exactly one week, my little 7lb, 3oz. bundle of joy will be ONE! Can. not. wrap my mind around how fast it went by. I finished his first birthday video this afternoon and the grandparents got a chance to preview it. Rave reviews of course! It will be great for him to watch when he gets older. My dad's comment to me at the beginning was "I thought this was about Tater?" My response to him was, "well, dad, we did have a life before he arrived and I'd like for him to see that we were "real people" not just mommy & daddy :) Thank you very much. There was a whole 12 yrs. of pictures I had to sort through, but I did a pretty good job. However, it's a little long, the video I mean, but you know me, picture-a-holic, seriously. I forgot how much work that was when I made my nephews, so it's a big relief for me to have it completed. Now just have to get my head on straight for next weeks festivities. We will be having a small intimate b-day celebration on his birthday, just us and my sis & her family since they won't be able to make it to his BIG party. Then Saturday, all our family comes into town and friends will be here, we are going to Celebrate! I can't wait. I'll be sure to share a few of the hundreds of pics I'm sure I'll take :)

We're here!

Oops, I did it again! Hehee. We've just been so busy, really. But we're back! I know I'm going to have so much to post on here soon. Someone has a big birthday coming up and mommy has been consuming her "extra" time planning and prepping. My biggest challenge right now is finishing up his 1st b-day video. It's really for David and I and for Tater one day to watch, but we will show it at his big party. I debated making one, but, I made my nephew one, so got to make my own baby his! It's been fun, but it is time consuming and I haven't had a lot lately!

Thankfully, I've been pretty busy with work selling and listing houses. Yippeee! I wish I could say Tater has just been free from sickness this whole time, but that ain't true. He had tubes put in his ears 3 weeks ago and last week, he got a-nother ear infection! Wait a minute, wasn't that the point of the tubes? That's what I thought, but otherwise, I can tell a big difference in him. He's talking a lot more, I think b/c he can actually hear himself now and he's got much better balance which should help him take off walking any day now, and I do mean any day now. He uses anything he can as a walker, his high-chair or his little table & chairs we bought him, he's quite creative. Almost every morning you can find him in the kitchen with three boxes of ziploc baggies strung out all over the floor, then he moves on to the tupperware cabinet, then the basket of eggs I keep out for him. David has changed his nickname from Tater to "tornado". I just think he's keeping himself occupied, so I'll clean up the mess later.

He's been absolutely precious lately. Waving bye-bye, blowing the best kisses and the cutest is the little hug and pat he gives me almost every time I pick him up from a nap and school. It truly melts my heart and I just hug him as long as he wants. He's also quite social. He waves at anyone, the other morning he just waved himself into church as if he was announcing his arrival to anyone that would notice. I bought myself a journal so I could start writing down everything super cute he does that I know I'll forget one day, then as he gets older I can write down all those funny things he says.

Stay tuned, there's a lot of excitement ahead. I can't believe he'll be ONE! This has really been the fastest year of my life. It's bittersweet :)