My Baby Boy is ONE today!

Today, my little angel turned ONE! I can hardly believe it! I am so excited but a part of my heart aches... I truly, from the bottom of my heart, miss the midnight, 3:00am, and 6:00am feedings. I miss when his entire body would fit into my arms .... and I miss his sweet little quiet cry.

This week I put together a little video/slideshow so that I could always remember just how special Carter's first year was. So much has happened... and I never want to forget a minute of it! The video is 10 minutes (so.. you have been warned...) you maybe would say I got carried away... and I say... I put 365 special days into 10 minutes and 3 good songs... I did good!

I hope you feel a bit of the love that we feel for Carter each and every day. He truly is our saving grace, our little angel and our Sunshine.

Ahhh.... I could watch it a million times over. I wish I could write and explain the love I have for Carter... but no words can explain it. I LOVE you bud!

So, our little guys is ONE!! I never knew how much fun planning a one year old birthday party could be! We decided to do a "Dr. Seuss" theme for his party. It was perfect! First, out went the invitations...

I designed them and we had them printed as a 5x7 photo!

Since Brian has been working late and going to school in the evenings... I have had WAY to much time on my hands after Carter went to sleep each night... so I made decorations!

Welcome to SeussVille!

I made little Thank you cards with a strawberry candy stick attached to the back of them for people to grab on their way out.

As people first came in we had the Cat In The Hat book out for all Carter's guests to sign.. so he will always remember who came to his Birthday and how much everyone loved him! It is such a fun keepsake!

I made little water bottle labels for his party.. which was perfect, easy and cheep! No trying to keep the punch cool this time!

And of course who can have a birthday party without some fun balloons!

Now, I wasn't brave enough to make Carter's cake but I did venture out and make a couple dozen cupcakes! (The ones with the polka dots we bought)

And of course the "extra" treats I made just HAD to be theme related so... I have one question....

Pretzels, melted white chocolate and green smarties!

How about... One Fish....Two Fish.... Red Fish.... Blue Fish....

And these might look familiar... I made them for my sisters baby shower in the fall... super cute Dr. Seuss storybook lanterns. I am glad I was able to use them again!

One of my very favourite decorations was the birthday Banner I did for Carter. Last week I took Carter's handprint and Footprint at one year old, and put them on either end of the banner.. and in the middle of his prints I made a little square for each month of Carter's life! It was amazing to see just how much he changed every month! Something I will treasure all the days of my life!

Uncle Mark, Auntie Kyla & Little Logan were first to arrive!

And in no time at all everyone else was ready to party too!!

We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends to celebrate this special occasion with! In fact, a couple of our best friends... Andrew & Andrea and their two little ones Lincoln (who is 3) and Autumn (who is just 6 weeks) were able to come over and celebrate too.. and thank goodness because Lincoln is SO CUTE! He is the funniest little boy you will ever meet! And he made Such a good little helper! He helped Carter open all of his presents and gave us a ton of laughs!! Thanks Linc!

It really was the cutest thing!

Carter honestly L.O.V.E.D all of his new toys! He was so excited to play with them all!! I think he was so excited to get rid of his "baby toys" like rattles and such and move on to "Big Boy Toys!"

lol Carter got right on top of this present and just took a little break... sitting there... just hanging out and in no time at all Carter was getting excited about what was in each bag or box!

Brian was such a good sport for this party! Carter went as "Thing 1" and Brian was "Thing 2" (thank you Brian I love you so much.. you and Carter looked so handsome!!)

As for me.. I sported a Dr. Seuss Apron!

Next on the Birthday party list... is the singing and birthday Cake! For Carter's Birthday Party on Saturday we decided to just do the cupcakes and leave his birthday cake for his actual Birthday on Sunday. We had both families over on Sunday for Dinner so it was nice to celebrate ONE more time!

Carter wasn't to sure what to do with the candle so good thing Lincoln was there to help! Lincoln is such a fun friend to have!

We gave Carter free-range with his cupcake... and he started off slow....

But dove right in after no time at all!

It must have been a good cupcake.. even little Logan was all over them...and Loving Life!

What a memory to treasure... Oh the memories of best friends.

Once Carter's Saturday birthday party was done, the little Birthday Boy was fast asleep, our friends we gone and the house was cleaned... Brian and I headed up to call it a night. I looked at the clock... midnight... I immediately got anxious .. I looked at Brian and said "Hunny... exactly a year ago today we were in the hospital and just started the induction". I was feeling so excited and nervous and could not sleep.... it was like I was reliving his birth all over again.. .but without any pain this time lol.

Now I have to admit... every year on my birthday my mom is ALWAYS calling me at 12:51pm and saying... "THIS VERY MINUTE YOU WERE BORN!!!". I usually replay with rolling my eyes.. giving her a little laugh and saying ... "that's fun mom" and she goes on to tell me about all her feelings on the day I was born.. which is SUPER SWEET.... but kinda gets to be the same after 24 years lol. (sorry mom) ...

...BUT heres the funny thing... I AM TOTALLY DOING THE SAME THING! It must be a mom thing and mom, I will appreciate the calls ALOT more now!! So Carter.... you can look forward to me saying "Carter, exactly __ years ago today you were born!!" for the rest of your life! And one day when your a daddy... you will understand!

Sunday morning came so fast.. the second I heard Carter at 7:45am I rushed into his room.. picked him up out of his crib... gave him a big kiss and said "Happy Birthday Mommy's Big Boy!!". He had no idea what I was talking about.. until we went downstairs... he saw all his new toys sitting in the living room... his face literally lit up!! It was like he was thinking "HOLY COW.. THESE ARE STILL HERE... are they mine?!... They must be Mine!... PLAYYY" It was priceless! He played with all his new toys ALL MORNING!

Carter's first birthday was a great day.. we played all morning, went to church in the afternoon.. and came home and enjoyed homemade corn chowder, a meat & Cheese platter (from my mom) and homemade buns (from Bri's mom)! It was delicious.

And the birthday chair was ready to go for a second round of cake!

The Cake was set and we were ready to sing!

This time Daddy helped Carter with the Candle...

And this time Carter knew EXACTLY what cake was!! Needless to say... I think he enjoyed himself!

Now THATS how its done!!

Carter's first birthday was exactly how I imagined it would be! We had so much fun... and instead of "entertaining the entire party.. Both Brian and I made sure that we just relaxed and enjoyed every moment. Usually Carter's bedtime routine consists of bath time, story time, prayer time and straight to bed time... Tonight was different. I took a moment (actually it was about 30 minutes) to go upstairs and rock my little baby to sleep. Since Carter is not really a cuddle boy.. I had to wrap him up in his blankie and stand up and bounce him until he was sooo relaxed that he was ok to rock with me. I rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.. and believe me I cherished every single moment of it.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy. I love you to the moon and Back. Forever & Ever!