Little Man is ONE! - The Party

John Thomas' first birthday was a lot of fun!  I had a great time planning all the fun details and it came together perfectly!  He was born on Super Bowl weekend, turned one on Super Bowl weekend, so it was a no-brainer for us to have a football themed party!  I ordered his invitations on Etsy, and couldn't have been happier with the way they turned out!

 

 Invitation Front

 

Invitation Back

We decided to ask friends and family not to do gifts, but instead do a random act of kindness for someone else!  We got some really great ones, and I can't wait to share them with him when he is old enough to understand.  This is something we hope to make a regular part of our lives, and will help remind our children that we are so incredibly blessed, it is our job to pay it forward.  We also got a great idea from a friend of mine, to do a Time Capsule, you can read more about it on the invitation!  Some of the things people included were so creative!

All the photos are from my dear friend, Crystal, who came and took pictures so we didn't have to worry about capturing everything! 

 I found this cute canvas on Clearance at Home Goods and thought it would make a great alternative to a wreath!

 John Thomas' Smash Cake

 "Sideline Sweets"
Birthday Cake, Football Cake Balls, Cupcakes and Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Thankfully, our cousin, Danielle graciously offered to help me make cake balls, and we made over 100!

 Table with his Time Capsule and Favors, stuffed footballs and cake balls!

Close up of some of the Time Capsule Goodies!

 I found several signs on Etsy that I liked for his birthday, but instead decided I could make it myself!  It documents all of his stats and favorite things! It reads, "I am 28 inches tall and 22 lbs, I love to play with Lainey and chase her around, I love wrestling with Daddy, Bananas and Blueberries are my favorite foods, I love bathtime, Please read "I Love You All The Time" to me, I have TWO teeth"

 I ordered some of our favorite Instagram photos from his first year and hung them around his birthday sign. This was my favorite part of the decorations, and I still have it up today!  I can't bear to take it down, so I am trying to come up with a unique way to display them year round!

 I also printed out one photo from each month of his first year posts.

We opted to have tailgate food, which ended up being fairly easy! 

 We had "Backfield" Burgers & "Hail-Mary" Hotdogs

 

"Touch Down" Toppings

"Quarterback" Queso

"Wildcard" Weenies, "Cornerback" Chili, & "Blitz" Baked Beans

"Comeback" Chips

"Linebacker" Liquids

Everyone ate and enjoyed the almost springtime weather outside while the kiddos bounced in the bounce house until it was time for cake!

 I was so thankful that my parents, and my grandmother came down to help us celebrate! 

 Our niece, Kennedy, was in the football spirit with her cute football leg warmers!

We were all so curious to how he would react to his cake.  Since normally, he is a super messy eater, I assumed he would devour his cake!  It was also the first time he had eaten sugar, so I thought he would love it!  Much to our surprise, he was very cautious about the whole thing and ended up not really eating very much cake!  

"Hey, mama, what are these fun things?"

 He couldn't understand why everyone was singing to him and watching him! Our normal center of attention was a little shy!

 This was all the damage!  Not at all what we expected!

 Sink bath after cake!

 Happy First Birthday, big boy!  We love you and loved celebrating what a joy you are to everyone around you!

First Class Photo

I wanted to share John Thomas' first class photo because it makes me chuckle! (and to be 100% honest, I cried a little!) 

I also wanted to document what a blessing his Mother's Day Out program has been.  Like any new mama, I was a little nervous taking him somewhere that I wasn't familiar with, and he wasn't familiar with. But from day one, everyone at Tiny Town has made us feel so comfortable!  They are so sweet to gush about how sweet and happy John Thomas is and how much they love him and his dimples!  Now, I am sure they say this about all their "babies," but it sure does make this mama feel good!
Recently when I take him, he immediately reaches for his teachers, Ms. Vonda and Ms. Shanna, and turns to wave "bye-bye" to me.  It's almost like he is saying, "Ok, mama, you can leave now, it's time for me to play with my friends!"  Just for an example as to how great they are, the director took time to call me last Thursday afternoon on her way home, to tell me that she was so sorry she didn't catch me before I left with John Thomas to let me know he had spilled some of his milk.  She went on to share how much he brightens her day, and how much they all look forward to seeing him. She literally called me over nothing more than spilled milk!  :) How wonderful are they?!

How they are able to get 7 babies to stop and look at the camera is a miracle to me!

We Love Tiny Town!

Happy Day of LOVE!

Happy Valentine's Day!  

Ours will be low key, we always choose to stay in and out of the craziness of all the people celebrating!

We did, however, enjoy some sweet goodness this morning before the boys went to school! 

I also spent the earliest hours of today with these wonderful ladies!  We spend lots of quality time together, and I am grateful for our friendship! 

Photo Courtesy of Sarah from www.HowMyWorldRuns.com - go check her out!

and I will leave you with a couple of pictures of my littlest Valentine cutie!

Love, 

Alisha

O.N.E. YEAR OLD!

Our "baby" boy turned one year old on February 2!  I cannot believe he has been blessing our days for one year!  

 John Thomas, 

Little man, you are a hoot!  We laugh and play, tickle and wrestle, snuggle (a little) and most of all just love on you! The past year has been the best yet, and I cannot describe how much overflowing joy and happiness you bring to us!  You truly love everyone, and can light up an entire room with your bright eyes and big dimply smile! We love you to the moon, sweet boy!

Here are some of the things you have been doing this month:

• You are climbing on everything and jumping off the furniture, I forsee lots of bumps and bruises in our future! You especially like climbing on your little slide and climbing OFF of the sofa! 
• Peek a Boo is still your favorite game, we play it all the time! 
• Daddy, Brother and you wrestle all.the.time! They have even started pillow fighting with you and you will pick up the pillow and bring it to us for us to throw it at you.  
• You will point to your head, nose and mouth when we ask you to!  Sometimes you get confused on where your nose is, but you can always point to it on someone else. 
• Learned to blow kisses, and always put your hand backwards to do it.
• You have taken lots of steps this month!  Some days you walk and some days you don't!
• You have started playing pretend with different things, and your favorite is talking on the phone.  You will use anything as your "phone" and in the most serious big boy voice you say, "Hey!" then wait for a response, followed by lots of babbling! 
• You are the best little signer!  You can sign lots of different things and seem to learn a new sign every few days!  Your most recent ones are: Dog, Airplane, All done, Play, Please, Thank You, Sleepy, Ball, Daddy
• While Nana and Papa J were here, he hung your swing they got you for Christmas and you love it!  The weather has been so nice and we have been outside a lot, you are happiest outside playing!
• On 1/14 we said bye bye to your Paci!  Turns out, we were more attached to the convenience of it than you were.  You never missed a beat, and haven't seemed to miss it at all.  Although, one day we did pick you  up from the church nursery to find you in someone's lap (first clue) with a PINK paci, apparently you had stolen it from another baby and found refuge in the nursery ladies lap!
• You say a few words, "hey" "bye" "mama" and "daddy" - to hear you talk you are certain you know more than that, but we aren't able to decipher! 
• The refrigerator and dishwasher are two of your favorite places, anytime one or the other is open, you are there in an instant to check things out! 
• You give the best kisses, open mouth, of course!  But will usually give them anytime we ask!

Eating:
We are still doing 3-4 bottles, or nursing combined with 3 meals and two snacks.  We have started to introduce breast milk in his sippy cup, and so far that is a slow process.  Trying to get to no bottles over the next few months! He is still a great eater, and I truly believe starting with Baby Led Weaning is to thank!  He will eat anything!  Sometimes we are certain he eats more than we do! 

Sleep:
Still a great sleeper. Normally 10+ hours per night with two naps!  

Toys:
Some favorites are, Little People, Elmo Airplane Ride On, Books, Balls, and his slide! He loves to play!

Stats:

At his one year checkup - 

21 lbs 15 oz - 45%

29" tall - 25%

He got a great report at the pediatrician, we have a happy, healthy baby boy!  We made it one whole year without any medication for sickness and only went to the doctor once for anything other than a well check, only to find out we had a cold!

We also had his iron checked again, which is a traumatic experience involving going to the lab and having 3 vials of blood drawn!  Thankfully, it was normal and we can stop giving him his iron supplements!

Clothes:

Mostly 12 month and 12-18 month.  He can fit in his 9-12 month onesies, but they are pretty snug! His waist is the challenge combined with short legs, pants are always too long! He is still in all cloth diapers when at home (unless Daddy is in charge!) and wears size 4 disposables at school and church.

It is bittersweet that this will be the last monthly update!  I still plan on doing them, just not monthly.  Stay tuned for a post on his one year birthday celebration!