Liam's First Birthday {Where the Wild Things Are}

We had a BLAST on Saturday having some of Liam's grandmas and grandpas over and his friend Alex for his birthday party. It was so much fun for me to plan and put together that when it was all said and done, I was wanting to live it all over again and looking forward to his second birthday all at the same time! I definitely will NOT be rushing that though.

When guests walked through the front door we had a table set up that they stopped at first. It had gold crowns for the boys and flower crowns for the girls. :) This was one of my favorite parts about the party and made everyone feel like royalty for a day! I should have done some pre-measuring on the crowns though because they weren't quite big enough for the grown up boys and just a little too large for the babies. haha oops. We also had the Where the Wild Things Are book on the table for Liam's guests to sign and write a message to him. This was such a special part of the party because it something he gets to keep forever. Something even more special, it was his daddy's book growing up. Nic's mom bought the book for him back in '93 from the ISU book store when she was in grad school. The third thing on the table were party favors/ treat bags. I filled ziploc baggies with salted caramel brownie bark (which was amazing by the way!) for the guests. I wrapped the top of the baggies in my favorite quote from the book, "(Please don't go) I'll eat you up, I love you so."

You better believe I jumped at the opportunity to decorate my kitchen shelves for the party. ;) I blew up pictures of the wild things characters from the book and added a picture of the King of the Wild Things from the photo shoot we did for his invitations. The sticks were from Joann's that I already had and just plunked them in where there was space between the shelf and the wall. I downloaded this font that matched the one from the book and used to it to create the happy birthday banner. I crinkled up the paper so it looked worn and added packing paper behind it for a background. I bought a package of moss that I had planned on using to create a table runner for the food table but that stuff is seriously messy and doesn't attach well so I sprinkled it across the bottom shelf instead with a few more pictures of the wild one. I loved making the tassel banner and it has found a new home in Liam's room above his name on the wall already!

Liam loved having his Sita in town for the weekend so she could be at the party!

Once all the guests arrived we had a few snack foods... veggies with red pepper hummus, a bacon parmesean cheese ball covered in "moss", and a cheddar cheese ball with almonds in the shape of a pinecone. ;) We had lemonade with fun paper straws and mini waters to drink. And last but not least, a simple little white cake for the birthday boy!

Cake round TWO in one week! After we were all done singing and blowing out the candle, he took one look at it like, "Oh, I got this!" and dived right in!

We saved presents for last. Naturally, Liam was more interested in the bows and the way the paper crinkled than anything else but since the party, he is loving playing with his new fun toys thanks to his sweet grandmas, grandpas, and friends! He has been tending to a fisher price zoo, cruising around with his radio flyer push wagon with everything you can imagine dumped inside of it, and learning to shoot some baskets and scores some goals with his basketball hoop and soccer net.

It may be grainy but this is seriously one of my favorite pictures of the two of us. Thanks mom for capturing that moment.

Liam carted around that little Elmo from Grandpapa and Granny Dee all day!

Liam with his little friend, Alex. Cute boys!

On Sunday evening, after everyone had gone home from the day before and my mom left town, Nic sat down with Liam and built him his very own pad for his new helicopter to land on with some magnetic blocks he got. Nic is just a little excited for the thought of spending hours with Liam building legoes in the future. This was the first birthday version of that. ;)

I think I have finally made it through all of my posts about Liam's first birthday. It was just too fun of a week to condense it all into one post. :) We'd keep celebrating this little boy every day if we could, we love him so much! 

pumpkin carving

One of my favorite things to do in the month of October is carve pumpkins. In fact, I usually get so excited to do it that I end up carving them way too early and they are rotting by the time it is actually Halloween. haha And no, I did NOT do that this year, I don't know what you are talking about. ;)

 Last year with the arrival of our little Liam we didn't have the opportunity to carve pumpkins so I thought it would be fun to invite some friends over and make a fun evening of it this year! We invited our new friends, the Haroldsens, who have a son Liam's age. We had yummy homemade pizza for dinner and a new recipe I've tried this fall, apple crisp in an apple for dessert (it is heaven!!!) and took turns watching the boys play while we carved pumpkins. Those two are becoming so fun to watch. Before when we would get together they would just stare at each other for a few minutes and then happily go back to playing with their own toy. That night they were chasing each other all over the place, it was the best!

I considered for a moment carving two holes toward the bottom of our pumpkin and sticking Liam in there for an adorable photo op but then thought better of it. Number one, the kid loves to eat and probably would not have easily fit into the pumpkin in the first place and secondly, I knew it would get a few eye rolls from a certain someone who already thinks I am bit crazy for the things I will do to get a cute picture. haha Instead, we eased our way back into the talent that is pumpkin carving and did a fairly traditional face this year. :) While it may be simple, it looks darn good lit up on our front porch! And even though we have had unseasonably warmer weather this fall and our pumpkin is already rotted, it just makes it that much more festive for Halloween night right?! ;) Good thing it is just a few days away. Can't wait!

A cute video of Alex & Liam chasing each other below! 

ONE YEAR

t w e l v e   m o n t h s   o l d

stats

..................

 25 pounds 

29.5  inches long

loves

...............

walking & running

getting into everything
carrying everything around
chewing on everything
chasing things
daddy's work badge
Rue
the garage door buttons
the vacuum
peanut butter
cake

dislikes

...................

getting face and hands wiped
sitting still
car rides (unless we are blasting one specific song)

A look back ... LOOK HOW TINY HE WAS!!!



At one year you can
......................................

 walk & run
say dada & momma
have 7 teeth!
blow a kiss, clap, high five, & wave

My little Liam,

One year ago today, in the wee hours of the morning, you made your debut into the world and we have never been the same since. That day holds so many emotions for me, many of which I can't even find the words to express. But one emotion I do know I felt, an all consuming love for a little somebody who I just met but felt like I had always known. I still look back fondly on the times it was just the two of us and I got the special blessing of getting to carry you with me wherever I went. Now, you carry my heart with you wherever you go and I'm certain you always will. If there is one thing I know with all that I am, it is that I was meant to be your mom. You are the joy in my life, the giggles in my day, the little best friend I was always missing, and the one who I adore. I've loved every moment we have shared and every memory we have made together over your first year and I can't wait for so many more! I hope you know that your dreams are my dreams and you can do anything your heart desires. I will be with you and supporting you every step of the way as you grow more and more independent every day. I hope that when you close your eyes every night you feel safe, happy, and most of all, loved unconditionally. Because boy do we love you. We celebrated your first birthday twice, once just us and once with grandparents and friends. I think it is safe to say you LOVE cake. ;) Happy First Birthday Liam! We love you to the moon and back!

Love, Momma

the pumpkin patch

Happy Monday! I'm feeling those Monday blues pretty strong today after the weekend we had. My mom came into town on Friday and we celebrated both her birthday and had a party for Liam's birthday. My mom left yesterday for Boise and Nic is back to work today so Liam and I are definitely missing everyone!

 

Anyway, something I have been looking forward to all year is taking Liam to the pumpkin patch. I was bummed to discover that this cute one by our house that we've been to in the past was no longer a pumpkin patch anymore so we had to find a new one this year. My sweetheart of a husband got off work a little early a couple weeks ago so that we could spend the early evening together at Swore Farms. We tried going the Saturday before but got lost in the boonies in the complete opposite direction of the farm until we decided to wisen up and use the GPS on my phone. Don't ask me why we didn't do that from the beginning. By the time we found it, it was growing close to Liam's bed time and it was quickly getting dark and cold. In other words, recipe for disaster and not a very fun time. After leaving disappointed, Nic was determined to make it up to me and made it up to me he did.

 

I promise, despite his face in the picture above, Liam was having a great time! He is at that stage where it takes an absurd amount of jumping up and down and silly noises to get him to crack a smile for a picture. We couldn't exactly ask for those kind of escapades from the pumpkin patch lady. haha

 

So of course they have ready-to-buy pumpkins neatly displayed on hay bails as you pull up to the farm and Nic was all for picking one of those out, getting a couple of pictures, and scramming out of there but someone else on the other hand, wanted the tried and true, trek out into the dirty pumpkin patch, tear your own pumpkin right off of the vine experience. I won't name any names or anything ... but off we went across the canal with our wagon in tow to pick the best looking pumpkin we could find.

 

As we're traipsing through the viney jungle, I had the pumpkin patch version of a Clark Griswold moment but instead of a "Dad, did you bring a saw" it was "Mom, did you bring some gloves?" Nope, no I didn't (deer in the headlights look, gong drum sound, and all)! After agreeing to take one thousand pictures, back we went to the perfectly displayed pumpkins on the hail bails ready to buy. haha oops. In my opinion, it was totally worth it and still a fun experience. I think Liam would agree with me judging by the amount of dirt that covered him from head to toe. We tried to pull him back in the wagon but every time you looked away he was reaching down to find something in the bottom of the wagon to put in his mouth. 
 



 

 

 

 

I can't believe it is Halloween week already! Can't wait to light our carved pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and dress up in our costumes to trick-or-treat at grandma and grandpapa's houses!

the birthday boy

And just like that he's one. ONE! Nic and I laid in bed a couple nights ago sifting through old pictures and videos we've taken over the last year of Liam's life and reminiscing about our favorite memories with him. We'd laugh and smile at the way he used to roll over and sigh with pride or shoot out his little froggy legs at a mile a minute and then I'd get teary eyed at the sound of his little grunts and moans he made while he was sleeping nestled under his daddy's arm. It has truly been the best year of our lives and we feel so blessed he is ours. While I've had my fair share of teary moments thinking back on the last year of this little guy's life, all I could really feel yesterday was joy! It is bittersweet to say goodbye to this first year but so exciting to greet the new one!

Yesterday we had the best day celebrating our favorite birthday boy! He must have known the excitement that lay ahead of him because he woke up an hour earlier than usual. We greeted him with a very scary rendition of the happy birthday song (morning voice problems) and rained balloons over his head and into his crib. His face was seriously priceless! He looked up at us completely confused like who are these crazy people and what in the world have you done with my parents. haha So you can expect this to become a tradition every year. ;) While he didn't really give the balloons the time of day at first, I plopped him back in his crib for a few minutes after breakfast and he had a blast bopping them around.

I wanted to spend the day with him doing some of his favorite things, one of which is stroller rides, so we bundled up and headed out for a run in the chilly morning air. When we got back, he warmed up by splashing away in the bath. After his morning nap we drove to Nic's office to have lunch with him and then made a trip to the store to have a few balloons filled for his highchair. He has been holding on to a balloon's string with one hand and eating food with the other ever since. haha When he wasn't napping, we spent the rest of the afternoon together giggling while playing soccer with the balloons until daddy got home from work.

We ended the fun with the best part of all, CAKE! This was pretty much Liam's first time having any kind of sweets and so we were excited to see what he would do the second his cake was in front of him. We dyed laughing as he tried to pick each individual sprinkle off the cake one by one! He started looking confused whenever he pulled his fingers away to find them covered in frosting and the sprinkles buried. The cake was a hit and he pretty much demolished most of it and in true first birthday fashion, made a GIANT mess of himself and everywhere around him! It was the best! I'd celebrate this boy every day if we could (I'm glad we get to do it all again on Saturday at his party)!

 

Happy First Birthday Liam Rex!!! We adore you!!