{ He's 1!!! }

 When I first had Baker, someone told me, "The days go by slow, but the years go by fast!" I never realized the truth of that statement until now! Seriously, where did the time go?! We took Baker to get his 1 year photos done at a local place called Camera Shy last week, and I was so impressed with their staff! Naturally, the day of the photo shoot, Baker refused to nap. I scheduled his pictures in the afternoon, thinking he'd have a good nap before lunch and then we'd go take pictures when he woke up. Wishful thinking! He was so hyper when we first got there and the staff kept saying how expressive and funny he was. Then the meltdown occurred. LUCKILY, the staff was amazing and they were able to snap the picture at just the right moment between tears. We got a lot of great shots - at the very end of the shoot, we let Baker get into a little cake we brought and he went crazy with it, smearing it into the floor and not really caring about tasting it! Doesn't he look pleased?

On Saturday we had a little gathering at our house with our families. I really didn't go all out (compared to some parties, which is fine - I just wanted something more low key & low stress)! My mom brought a delicious tomato bisque soup and my mother in law brought a fabulous relish tray! I had big plans to make Bakers cake and homemade breadsticks, but then I thought, "Ain't nobody got time for that!" so I ran to the market instead. Our local market will do a free little "smash cake" if you order a cake, and they make a dang good cake, so I had them do it! It was only $12 and I couldn't have made it that cute or that tasty on my own! I also picked up the breadsticks there and the balloons. Yay for one stop shopping! 

The one thing I did put time and effort into was this progressive banner. My friend McCall had done one similar and I loved it from the  minute I saw it! I used photoshop to zoom into a picture from different stages of his life and printed them out. Then I pasted them to black cardstock and cut around the face. I used scrapbook paper I had and made the little hats. The fringe is from green tissue paper I folded and cut and glued. Easy peasy! I loved it so much that I hung it in his room after the party!

 Baker was so spoiled and loved all of the presents he got! I think the first child, and even more, the first grandchild gets the most spoiled! It was fun seeing his reaction to all of his presents.

 

We saved cake until the very end so he could get into it and go crazy, which he did! It was near his nap time and he was a bit temperamental. He cried when we took his clothes off to get ready to eat cake, then he was happy when he had the cake, and cried again when we laughed as he smashed it. Silly boy!  But he did love the cake and ate a lot of it!

We're so grateful for our little guy and can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays! Love you Baker boy!