A Birthday Bash

Yesterday was the coldest, dreariest day of the year thus far.   A chill air,  numbing rain, and grey skies dominated from morning to nightfall.

Not so in our household.  :)

What a blessed, warm, happy day we had... full of loving friends and family, delicious fall food (complete with mulled cider), laughter and kids running amok, and a very happy birthday boy.

Today my heart is overwhelmed with gratitude for all that we have--both in the blessing of our dear son, and in the blessing of our life here.  I am so, so very content.

In the busy-ness of providing for 30+ people, we really didn't take too many pictures.  But here are a few:

My mother's heart had been looking forward the entire year to giving Stephen a piece of birthday cake to smash.  He certainly did it justice--ate most of an enormous piece, and then proceeded to walk around the house with his little walker for the next couple of hours with impressive amounts of sugar energy.   Followed by a really bad night's sleep.  Oh well.  :)

A Happy 1st Birthday to you, my sweet boy.
Love, your Mommy.

I'm the Serious Type.....

I had one of those "Living Social" deals that I bought for a discounted photo shoot.  I thought it would be nice to have those typical "studio" baby shots of Stephen.  On the ride to the studio, he was such a happy camper in his carseat--I could hear him happily chirping his mama's, baba's, dada's, and the new favorite: nananana.   Awesome, I thought.  He'll be in such a great mood, and I'll get lots of cute photos.  


Alas, as soon as I plunked him down in front of the screen,  Mr. Serious showed up.  Nothing the lady said or did could get him to crack a smile.  I weighed in, squeaking his giraffe like a crazy lady and making all sorts of ridiculous sounds.  Nothing.   So here's what we got:

He's still so cute.  Love my kiddo with a mind of his own.  :)

8 Months!

Wanted to share some new photos, made crisp and oh-so-clear courtesy of my parents.  They gave us an amazing, schnazzy new camera for our anniversary (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) so now we are able to take pics of our son and not have a conniption because they are blurry.  ( Take a guess who was guilty of the photo conniptions.... haha love you Steve)

Here is my (almost) 8 month cutie pie.   I'm in love with that sweet face.... 

.... and that smile....

.... and those gorgeous eyes!   Still haven't figured out what color they are.

Chillin' with Grandma, Aunt Shan, and Uncle Pete. 

This has to be my favorite family photo.  There's just so much personality-- the two guys have the same smile!

At Tam's wedding.  Stephen loves a good spoon.  This was before he spilled fish soup all over Daddy's suit.

Hey!  Hi!

I don't know what it is, but Stephen is obsessed with beer bottle tops.  Makes us look like TERRIBLE parents, but hey, it keeps him occupied for like, 20 minutes.  We'll take it.  (Caveat--no beer actually goes into the baby. :)  )