Wyatt's REAL Birthday

In our family, birthdays are not typically just one day.  We tend to have multiple celebrations and drag them out for a week or sometimes longer.  We didn't end up letting him open his gifts at the party just because we ran out of time and also he tends to get distracted easily so we didn't think it would be so easy to do.  And since we like to drag out the birthday celebrations, we ended up having him open his gifts on Monday night after we got home from work.  He loved everything and made sure to tell me to hurry up and get his thank you notes written!  Seriously though, I think he will be thrilled for the 'toy shuffle' that I'm going to do this afternoon!!

He thinks this riding toy is HILARIOUS!  Also, he loves to sit and spin the wheels.

It wasn't easy getting him to sit still this long for a picture!

Don't bother looking at the camera, buddy!

I did take off the day Tuesday because you only turn one once in your life and I wanted to spend the day with him.  Initially, I had thought we'd go swimming or to the park and just relax and play but it ended up that we really needed to do his 12 month pictures. (Also, I can't even express how glad I am that the monthly pictures are done!  Scheduling is always so difficult but they change so much in the first year that we all think its important)  We went out to mom's house for the photo shoot and then headed back home late afternoon for the family party that evening.

Opening his gifts from Meme and Papa

Once again - not looking at the camera! 

 Mom and Dad came down and once Ben got home from work we picked up dinner then did gifts and cake.  It ended up being a little later than we would have liked so W was getting grumpy by the time we did cake but we of course had to sing to him and take pictures. 

I think I should have commissioned Meme to make his caterpillar cake!  She did a much better job making a cute cake than the bakery did!

"Take this hat off my head, Mom"

"I'm so tired.  Please put me to bed"

"mmm ... this icing sure does taste good.  But I'm still tired"

 He was so worn out so we put him to bed and ate our cake after he was asleep!  (Sorry buddy -- maybe next year you won't be too tired to eat cake WITH us.) 

I wanted to get a picture of Wyatt in front of all his gifts and since he was so tired on Tuesday night that didn't work out.  We dressed him in his caterpillar shirt again yesterday and I did the picture last night.  Here he is ... on the go as usual!

Thanks again to everyone for celebrating with us.  It sure did make his day/week special! 

Happy Birthday W!!

Today, my little boy is ONE year old.  I cannot even believe it!  I took off work today to spend the day with him and also do his 1 year pictures -- those will be posted eventually. 

We celebrated Wyatt's birthday with friends and family this past Sunday with a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party.  I have a jillion pictures that I want to share and can't decide which ones to post and which to leave out so be warned that there will be lots!

Before everyone arrived, we took a few family pictures in front of the balloon caterpillar.


Aunt Susan, Great Uncle Alfredo and Wyatt



Pops, Wyatt, Lolly, and Aunt Weez

The party was at our neighborhood clubhouse/pool mainly because I knew there was no way I could have my house in  order for a party after the busy weekend we had planned.  It really turned out to be a good place for the party though, I think.

Uncle Matt and Wyatt practiced fishing for a little while before the party.  Turns out the pool was a HUGE hit with all the kids. 

 We kept it pretty simple with the food so Ben and his dad manned the grill fixing hamburgers and hot dogs.  We also served caterpillar fruit skewers (which turned out to be a popular item), watermellon, and chips.  Oh and of course birthday cake! 

Wyatt had no clue that everyone who was there came to celebrate him, but he had a ball anyway.  Thanks to everyone who came to make this day even more special for our family! (Sorry these pictures are all wonky.  Blogger isn't cooperating)

When it came time for birthday cake, Wyatt was definitley unsure at first.

However, he quickly realized just how good sugary icing can be and dug in just like a baby should!

I had intentions of the main cake to be a 'centerpiece' of the party but the bakery did a pretty terrible job.  Probably won't be using them again.  It tasted good but just irritated me because I showed them a picture of what I wanted and what they created wasn't even close.  Oh well.  

I meant to bring a change of clothes for W for after his cake but things were just so crazy before the party that I plum forgot.  So, we just went redneck and stripped him down to his diaper afterward.  Ha!

For those who are interested, here are some detail shots.  I definitley googled 'very hungry caterpillar' party plenty of times when trying to gather ideas for W's party so this may be helpful to someone at some point! 

 Wyatt didn't nap all that great on party day.  Not all that surprising -- isn't it like a law that a kid either is sick or overly tired at their first birthday party?  After it was over, he just passed out in his Lolly's arms.  I think that is a sign that he enjoyed himself thoroughly.

Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy!!!!

W The Wedding

Are these not the best wedding coozies you've ever seen?  LOVE them!

Such a fun and very busy weekend we had!  Ben and I were both in a wedding for some of our best friends - Taylor and Erin (aka Terin).  I particularly love weddings where both the bride and groom are college friends because it seems to bring a huge group of our friends back to town.  Its been a looooooong time since our college days so its always fun to reminisce and catch up.  

First up was the bridesmaid luncheon at Cafe Intermezzo.  When I think of Cafe Intermezzo, I immediately think of their fabulous desserts but the food is really good as well.  Anyway, other than the food the lunch was a good time to relax and chat with everyone.  Excuse the poor lighting in this first picture, but its the only one I have of the whole group.

That night we had the wedding rehearsal followed by another amazing meal hosted by Taylor's parents.  His aunt and uncle worked so hard (in the heat, nonetheless) whomping up a low country boil.  Of course since we were all dressed up, we took advantage of a few photo opportunities!

Ben & me

Becky, Tiffany, Erin holding Bella, Tracey, me, Carrie

 Saturday morning started fairly early with hair appointments for the girls followed shortly by pictures.  Both Erin and Taylor went to Georgia Tech so they decided to do all the pictures before their ceremony down on campus.  The wedding party took a trolley down to campus where we did all the pictures.  I  can't wait to see how they turn out!!

We had a little excitement on the way back to the ceremony site when our trolley broke down.  In 100 degree heat.  I guess its something we can all laugh about now, but at the time I think everyone was pretty worried but luckily the driver got it started back up and we hauled ass back to the ceremony site!  

I failed miserably at taking pictures during the reception.  (I hate that I don't have one of TErin because they both looked amazing.  (That said, I'm going to swipe one off FB as soon as I find one!)  I do think I'll blame my lack of picture-taking on the fact that I fainted.  During the wedding.  Yes, I am THAT bridesmaid.  It was super duper embarrassing, but supposedly it was fairly drama-free and hopefully didn't detract from Terin's special day in any way.  (I am only editing to include this because everyone I know has given me shit about it and I'll probably never live it down)

It was a great weekend, with good friends and Ben and I were both thrilled to be a part of it!

Beach Ball Shim

Remember this?

I do.  This was taken when I was 4 days past-due with the little monkey we used to lovingly call Shim.  Its funny, for 10 months we called this child Shim but one year later referring to my son as 'Shim' sounds so strange to me!  I guess that is a good thing since some people were worried our baby would carry this unfortunate nickname with him/her through their adolescence!  Ha.  How times have changed.

One year to the day that this picture was taken, instead of anxiously waiting 4 more days for my baby to be born, I am anxiously waiting 4 more days to have an official 1st Birthday celebration with Wyatt. 

Tuesday Mish Mash

• I saw the PRETTIEST blue orchids at Home Depot on Saturday while I was searching for the perfect plants for my new planters. I wanted to buy it so badly, but just couldn't bring myself to spend $43 on something that I would inevitably kill.  

•  Speaking of things I will inevitably kill, I spent an hour and a half picking out the right plants and had this great vision in my mind of how these planters would turn out.  That vision did not include a droopy sweet potato vine.

•  They did perk up, and I think are doing okay -- apparently I did a few things wrong including under-watering them and putting them in full-sun.  I'm hoping they last for the summer but we'll see. 
• I do not, for the life of me, understand men named Dana.  (Sorry, I'm sure I'm offending someone but I truly don't get it)  There is absolutely zero ambiguity about the name 'Dana'.  It is 100% girl's name.  There are lots of girl-boy names that I can get behind.  Dana just isn't one of them.  I'll never get it ....
• I hurriedly made a tomato-asparagus quiche last Thursday night and because I was in such a rush, I spilled the egg/milk mixture all over my oven when putting it in to bake.  I was mad enough at myself for being so careless and then I looked down at my bottom oven and saw that the mixture had run between the glass.  Awesome.  I guess I have to take the oven apart to get that crap off?  It is driving me CRAZY to look at though.  
• We've been busy at our house preparing for a birthday party for a certain little boy!  All his party stuff as well as his presents are in our (still un-furnished) living room.  Can't believe he is almost one.

•  That birthday-boy and I were at the grocery store on Sunday and I noticed a new flavor of yogurt melts on the baby aisle.  I picked them up and was inspecting them and he literally almost crawled out of his skin to get them!  I had to open them in the store and let him snack on them because he was so excited.  

End-Of-Week Randomness

• Last weekend, I was out running errands and decided to take Wyatt to Chick-fil-a for lunch just to see what he thought of it.  Turns out, it was a mistake to give him chicken nuggets before he ate any fruit because he LOVED them!  (Much like his daddy, he is starting to show a preference for processed, junk food over fresh fruits and veggies ...)

• We had Mother's Day lunch at Fox Brothers BBQ after church on Sunday.  We remembered being there around this same time last year and had taken a picture in front of the restaurant -- it was actually the last picture of the 2 of us before Wyatt was born.  We thought it would be neat to re-do the picture so we can compare the two side-by side.  A year makes a huge difference, huh?

• Speaking of Mother's Day - this is a picture of what Ben and Wyatt gave me.  It is awesome!  This picture doesn't do it justice all that well, but he had a mosaic made of tons of pictures from right before Wyatt's birth up until Easter.  Isn't this fantastic?  

• Mom sent me this picture earlier this week of our hydrangea bushes up at the lake.  My absolute favorite flower in the world.  This picture makes me so happy!  

•  We've got a busy weekend prepping for an extremely busy next week/weekend!!!  Ben and I are both in a wedding AND we're nuts enough to have Wyatt's birthday party the Sunday after the wedding so it should really make for an interesting week!  Ha.

Weekend in Tennessee

This past weekend, we all traveled up to Tennessee.  I had a bachelorette party in Nahsville so Ben and Wyatt rode up with me so that they could spend the weekend with Ben's parents in Murfreesboro. 

We started off on Friday night by having a few drinks at the Parker (or was it Patterson ... I can't remember) house right behind the hotel we were staying in.  This picture may make us look lame because all you see on the table is water - I promise we had legitimate drinks too! 

It was just a small group of girls on Friday night/Saturday morning so we enjoyed a relaxing morning brunch at Noshville followed by a hellacious attempt to pick up a friend at the airport (damn you, Nashville Marathon)!  After that adventure, we walked to a local restaurant to have appetizers and drinks and enjoy the nice weather.  We ended up sitting there all afternoon because people kept arriving and needed to have lunch ... but we had a really good time talking and catching up.

We had a little lingerie shower for Erin in the hotel room.  I didn't take many pictures of that, but I do have one of the guest of honor opening gifts.  Notice in the background her male companion for the evening - D'Angelo. 

Then we headed off to dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Boundry.  The food and drinks were awesome (special thanks to Wes for the surprise champagne delivery), and we were really enjoying ourselves but the icing on the cake was when Taylor Swift walked in with her band!!  We couldn't get a picture without being totally obnoxious, so we opted not to do so. 

Meanwhile, back in Murfreesboro, Wyatt was having the time of his life with his Lolly and Pops!  And his Daddy too, of course.  Ben's mother told me before we left that I didn't need to pack too many toys because she had a "few things" ... well, we get there and her house seriously looked like a Toys R' Us!  I think he had more there to play with than he does at our house.  That, combined with tons of attention made for one spoiled and happy little boy! 

Sorry for the random picture arrangement at the end of this post.  Blogger seems to be muggin'