Ian is ONE!

Has it really already been a year? Ian is already one year old! The weekend went wonderfully. We have a billion pictures. I will try and control myself and only show a few. Thank you for everyone who could make it, we had a full house. And thank you to everyone who couldn't make it, your thoughts were appreciated! Let's see, I weighed Ian on his birthday, 18.6 pounds. So, no forward facing car seat for a while. He has his one year check up sometime tomorrow, where he will get his mumps and polio vaccine... I think.

We will start this blog by letting pictures tell the story. I will add commentary as well.

This is Ian on is actual birthday. He has no idea what's about to happen to him. He's just excited that so many people are here to see him! Robe and Caroline, Granny Janny, and Grandpa!

Caroline and Robe got Ian a 'Little Gentlemen's Outfit.' It took a while to get this smile out. But there were flippin' paparazzi around! I have a picture of that too somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment. There are about 4 or 5 camera's and we're all crowded around him taking pictures. It's a shocker he's smiling and not crying. But come on, isn't that outfit adorable?!

Before we went out, we met up with Granny Janny and Grandpa so that they could watch Ian so Caroline and I would help my mom prepare. Ian is playing with a new toy truck. He's having so much fun! I'm so glad that I have such a happy baby, so full of personality. Speaking of which, Robe and Stephen went to a bar while we were gone. Which brings me to an adorable story. Stephen would be embarrassed if he read my blog, but he doesn't, so here it goes:

Caroline and I caught Stephen and Robe sitting outside of a Starbuck's sipping on their drinks while talking about the wedding. When these two ladies get together, it gets ridiculous. They also went on a 4 hour hike together in which they swam in the water holes on the green belt. That's right, there's water there now.

Back to Ian.

So, of course we baked the cupcakes and cake, but this is one more thing we made. Looks confusing right? I got this idea off of another blog, maybe I'll write one with what we did. But basically, it's home-made hot chocolate sticks. You warm up some milk, water, or, as Stephen and Robe did, coffee, and stir in this chocolate goodness. Caroline and I added marshmallows to the bottom to make them look cool. We then individually wrapped them all and gave them away as the adult favors.

Food pictures! Sadly, we did not get pictures of the pizza or hot dogs.

All of those cupcakes are homemade except for the white ones. Those are from central market! Like the wind up bugs on top? My mom found those for really cheap. The kids (young and old) enjoyed them. They were adorable. They added some pizazz to the cupcakes.

Behind Caroline is a banner we made. It has 13 pictures of Ian from Newborn to One Year! It didn't turn out as expected. Next time, I have some very different ideas. By the way, the boys hung it up. It was pretty adorable though. Ian looks the same size from 6 months on. You can also tell that his ridiculous personality kicked in around 3 months. The picture idea was fabulous. I also picked that up from a blog. I'll add the inspiration links later... after Robe and Caroline leave. Ian is awaking them right now.

Now for Ian's cake. Notice how my child is not dirty. Weird right? Also notice, my kid has a hat on. Very strange. He never wears hats, he always throws them off in a fit of rage. Surprisingly, he didn't cry when we all sang Happy Birthday to him. He looked around confused, and by the end of the song, he was smiling with his famous cheesy smile. What a ham. Anyways, we put the cake in front of him, and he begins to neatly pull of the sprinkles. Eventually, my dad stepped in and helped him, that's why there is a chunk missing. However, Ian still did not get dirty. Leave it to my kid to eat his first birthday cake very neatly. He's adorable.

Ian even started feeding those around him. Here he is feeding my dad. I guess it's nice that he shares. He's still clean. FWIW, he stays clean the entire time. Only getting his hands slightly dirty.

Onward to the presents! Notice D-Money in the background. He read ALL of the cards for me, very helpful. Marissa opened all of Ian's gifts for him, very helpful as well. Ian was on overload not realizing there was a new toy until a few gifts later. I think it's safe to say he was always two gifts behind. He seemed to enjoy it. I think I'm going to put some gifts away and leave some out and rotate them. Finally, we leave...

Here is Ian with Caroline. He's tired. Can't believe we let him stay up late (he had TWO naps, which is incredible, I think this only ever happened one other time when he was sick with the measles). Needless to say, the birthday weekend was a success. He loved it. Remind me to tell you at a later date what I did for his Thank You cards. I haven't done them yet, I'm awaiting for something to arrive in the mail first, but I already wrote them out.

Time to see the guests out, Ian has FINALLY awaken Robe.

Scrambled

It's later in the day today. I know. Ian and I are at my parent's, waiting for the repair man to come. Ian has been walking around like a crazy man. He has a kickball and a glitter ball. He just walks around holding them, throwing them, etc. It's adorable. He looks ridiculous when he walks because he's so tiny. I will try and get a picture up later this week. Ridiculous I tell you! I've also realized that his version of 'mama' sounds more like 'mimi.' I've become mimi! Also, insane.

Ian's birthday is this weekend. We are pretty excited! I can't believe he's already going to be a year old. He's got so much personality, it's ridiculous! He's that tiny tot that says 'hi' to all the strangers he sees; he is constantly shocked and surprised; he has the biggest cheeziest smile. He's full of HUGE personality. He's already made two ladies come close to crying because he said 'hi' to them and it made their day. He's such a ham. And he knows it. I don't know how I feel about that yet. He has super cutie powers. He knows how to use them.

Here's another reason I'm pretty happy, Caroline and Robe are coming up this weekend! WO! I know this is hard to believe, but Caroline has NEVER met Ian! (Well, in person. We totally video chat). It'll be nice to have someone at the casa to help me get some things prepared for Ian's birthday. Speaking of which, lovely Franny is coming over tonight to help me make a practice cake for Ian's birthday. I don't bake... or cook for that matter. It would be nice to, but I just never have the time. I just want to make sure that when people bite into it, that it's possible. I don't want to bake a brick. I've never made a banana cake before! I need to insure that Ian is in love with it. :)

Well,  I must go now. Many things to do, little time to do them.

Amanda