monkeying around

We celebrated Will's first birthday on Saturday with a monkey party! It was a blast, and we really enjoyed hanging out with family and friends, making monkeys, and eating cake. Here are some pictures of the festivities.

birthday banner

{by Holly Webster, who also did our invitations, timeline, and thank you notes...all awesome!}

We had a "build-a-monkey" station for the kids {big and small}

step one

step two

step three

step four

step five

Here's a close-up of the timeline of Will's monthly pictures. Holly did an awesome job!

And we had lots of yummy food!

fun monkey cupcakes

sandwich wraps

and chocolate chip "1" cookies

Got this idea from Kristen at Lullaby Lubbock {check the blog for awesome craft and party ideas!} - people got to take bananas and a banana bread recipe home after the party.

Will loved playing with all of his friends. Lots of fun with Ben...

...and Sally

...and lovely Lucy {he especially loved her black patent leather boots!}

...and of course, girlfriend Harper, who also celebrated her first birthday this weekend!

We also played some lasso golf.

{thank GOODNESS for beautiful weather!}

and took some wagon rides.

and played a little tickle monster

{Will loves Blair!}

Will loved hanging out with the family too. Here he is with Aunt Ryan.

He loved having ALL of his grandparents at the party!

{wish I had gotten a picture with them all, but we got one with Mimi!}

one of my favs - sweet Ben checking out the bananas

And of course, Will got to have his very own cake! He was skeptical at first...

Then he decided to pat the cake for awhile.

Parker helped with the candle.

I love this one!

Crazy pic, but I like it.

Finally, Will tried a bite...

...and then really went for it!

DELICIOUS!

What a fun first birthday party!

And this is Will the next morning, when I explained the concept of writing thank-you notes. ;)

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate this weekend. It was a blast!

one

William turned one on Friday, February 11th. I can't believe it! This last year has been, without a doubt, the best of our lives. We are so blessed to have a healthy, happy, loving little boy. Watching him grow and learn this year has been such fun.

We had a great day on Friday, celebrating Will and getting ready for his birthday party on Saturday. We started the day by selecting appropriate attire - a birthday shirt and his "birthday boy" bib. You know, in case anyone forgot what day it was.

Then we had some blueberries in the shape of a 1.

And some birthday pancakes.

Then we took Will's monthly pictures with his bear. These pictures get more challenging each month, as Will really has no desire to sit still next to his bear long enough for me to jump far enough back to snap the picture. But I have forced him to keep doing it all year, and I'm so glad I did! We ended up with a bear pic every month, and I have them all in a frame, plus we had an awesome timeline made for his party. {more on that later}

Happy birthday, Will!

I wanted to get one in the chair, because that's where we took his first few monthly pics. I was able to get this one before he realized where he was and immediately tried to launch himself headfirst to the floor.

For perspective, here he is at one month with the bear.

Love this one - making his surprised face.

Happy little guy

{probably because he thinks it is hilarious to pull off his socks}

Here are a few things I want to remember about Will at one year:

• He cracks me up. The new surprise face is just great, and he now does it when I do it first, so I can see it almost anytime I want. :)
• He talks a lot, and he has the sweetest little voice. He has started saying "mamama" a lot more these days, although I am not yet convinced that he knows Matt as dada and me as mama. He talks about us a lot though. I am pretty convinced that his first real word was "duck." We play with his ducks at bathtime, read about ducks in his books, and he also has a little pull toy that has 3 ducks in a row. And several weeks ago at bathtime, he started repeating "duck" pretty clearly - and looking at the duck! Matt is skeptical, but I think he knows duck. He also says a Will version of "uh oh" when I say it after he drops or throws something, and he makes the "k" sound when he sees Ally, our inside cat, or Omar, our outside {street} cat. I love seeing him start to communicate. Can't wait for more!
• Will has really started dancing this month, which I LOVE! Whenever a song plays, he will bob up and down. Cutest. Thing. Ever.
• He loves to wave, and will usually do it anytime you say "hi" or "bye" to him.
• Will points at everything. He loves to point and grunt to tell me that he wants something.
• Still not walking, but he took a step this month! He can stand for awhile by himself, but he definitely has days that he wants to stand, and days that he has zero interest. I get a lot of jello legs when I try to stand him up and he's not interested. I'm OK with not rushing it - it's hard enough to keep up with him now!
• Just this week, Will has moved to just one nap a day. He really never had any transition period - just stopped taking the second nap one day and never turned back! I actually think I'm going to like the new schedule - seems like it will be a little more conducive to out-of-the-house activities, plus he naps much longer for the one nap.
• Still rocking just 2 teeth, but he eats like a man with a full set! He loves food, and we've expanded his menu this month. Mostly, we've added lots of new fruits. His favorites are grapes, blueberries, and melon, and it's hard to get him to eat anything else if there's fruit around. He also loves to share anything that I am eating. Other favorites are cajun deli turkey, yogurt melts {he would eat the whole bag if I'd let him}, tortillas, and baked ziti. Don't worry - I still make him eat his veggies! We just have to eat those first before he notices the good stuff.
• We take baths in the big tub, and bathtime is super fun. Splashing, playing with toys, and getting shampoo mohawks are good times.

Happy birthday, sweet William!! We love you so much, and can't wait to watch you continue to grow.

what fun it is to be one!

Will is ONE! We have had a fun couple of days. Will's birthday was yesterday, and we had his birthday party today. Lots of pictures and details coming soon!

crazy

hearts and love

After a simply fabulous Valentines episode of Glee, I got into the Valentines Day mood tonight. So I present to you....

hearts...

{made a bunch of these tonight and LOVE them!}

...and LOVE.

{that's right. street cats fall in love too.}

time flies

How did this guy...

turn into THIS guy...

sooooo fast?!!

I can't believe Will is going to be ONE on Friday. Feeling pretty sappy and sentimental this week. Watch out for cheeseball posts from me. I'll try to keep it to a minimum. :)

snow is more fun than ice!

Day four of our house arrest got a lot more fun, because it snowed about 6 inches!! And for the first time in years, it was cold enough that it ALL stuck. {Remember, it snowed 11 inches on Will's birthday, but I think temps hovered right around freezing, so the roads were fine.} We have decided that Will is a snow baby, because after he was born on the record snowfall day, it has snowed more times in his life than Matt and I can ever remember in one year!

We had lots of fun playing outside, although only in short bursts because Mr. Will doesn't like to be cold. I, on the other hand, could have stayed out all day. Although I generally don't like to be cold, I found that I turned into a giant child when the snow arrived. No joke - I saw the snow start to fall about midnight on Thursday as I was going to bed, and I got so excited that I couldn't sleep! It looked like a snow globe outside, and I knew it was definitely cold enough that it was going to be a winter wonderland the next morning. I had a blast running around in the snow, having snowball fights with Matt, taking Will on a walk in the wagon, and making our tiny snowman. Maybe I just had lots of pent up energy from being confined to 1700 square feet for the previous 3 days?

So fun to have Matt home!

can't believe Will is almost one!

snow baby

flying with dad

a little more standing practice, this time with snow!

learning how to make snowballs

The 5 minute snowman

{Will was cold and ready to go inside}

And I just couldn't resist posting this. Matt and Will were playing on the couch, and the static got out of control. Haha!