Nathan's 1st Birthday

Nathan turned 1 on Sept. 24. The year has gone by so quickly. People will tell you, enjoy it while it lasts; they grow so fast. Having two little ones, I already know what they mean. Only yesterday it seems I was "in labor" for 22 hours, pushing for the last 2.5 hours to bring our son into this world, but wait - who's counting?

Seriously though (the part about the labor was not made up, by the way), it's been a great year and we couldn't be happier with how our family has grown. I must tell you that the other night, Sarah was up crying and I went downstairs around 4 am in my pjs which were a shirt and pants. I was leaning over Sarah's bed, trying to console her and she asks me very suspiciously, "why is your shirt out like that?" I was confused and said that it was how my shirt was hanging. She says, "Oh. I thought you had a baby in your tummy." Let's just say that IF the day ever comes when Kevin and I have another, we'd better be prepared for the wrath of the big sister!

Back to Nathan's birthday. Since Sarah is very aware of birthdays, we knew we had to celebrate his birthday on his actual day, so we had cupcakes. I wasn't sure how Nathan would like them since he'd not really had sweets before. Not a problem - the kid loved it! Ate the entire thing.

On Sunday (following the UT game of course) we had Nathan's party, which had a monkey theme. We decided to just have family over and keep it small. Nannie, Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Ann, Joseph, Benjamin and Matthew were all there. We had lunch, played outside, then had cake and finally opened presents. As you can see from the cake pictures - Nathan didn't like it. I think it was the chocolate. He liked the vanilla frosting on the cupcake, but the chocolate icing was kind of strong. Is he my son or what? Don't get me wrong - I like chocolate, but I'll almost always choose vanilla over chocolate any day.

Below are some pictures from the various celebrations. If you'd like to see all of them, click here.

The morning of Nathan's birthday -

drinking real milk like a big boy

Evening of his birthday - eating his cupcake

The birthday party presents - Curious George is Sarah's,

but he was fitting with the monkey theme.

Nathan's monkey cake made by yours truly! Very easy.

Apparently, Sarah likes licorice!

Nathan waits patiently for his cake

Don't think he likes it!

Sleepy boy

Present time - his first phone - and it says his name,

so it can't mysteriously end up in his sister's room...

Opening presents was a family affair with lots of helpers

What else is in here?

Looking to see how it all works

A video from Nathan's birthday while he's trying to eat his cupcake.