Owen's 1st Birthday!

How did we get from this precious little bundle...


...to this monkey who loves to dance and bang on the drum (and everything else for that matter!) :)


Owen turned a year old on February 12th! How did that happen? The time has gone sooooo quickly and he has changed sooooo much- we really can't believe it! It's been a really good year for us and a really hard year at the same time with many difficult things coming up, yet, through it all this little boy has brought us so much joy and love that we just can't even begin to put it into words. He is too much- oozing personality and winning over everyone in the room. Our little monkey is quite a trip and we laugh daily at his antics.

I am finally posting some of his birthday pics- hopefully I'll be able to put up a video later this week, but this will give you at least a taste of the celebrations we had together for Owen. The day of his birthday we had a special breakfast just the 3 of us and sang to him and had him "blow" (or spit on, really) the #1 candle that we decided would probably be best to not be lit. Sometimes we do make wise decisions. :)



We picked up the various grandparents throughout the day- hitting 3 different SoCal airports by 2pm! My Mom and Dave and Brian's Mom and Dad flew all the way across the country to celebrate their gradnson and we had a great time visting with them and enjoying Owen together. Friday we celebrated Brian's Mom's birthday, the same day as Owen's- Feb. 12th and Saturday was the safari party for O. We had planned to have it at the park, but the SoCal sun failed to show and it was rainy and cool all weekend, so we ended up at one of the houses on Fuller's campus- how many 1 yr. olds can say they had their birthday party at seminary?? He is a very lucky boy! :)

We had a few of O's friends and our family and it was a lot of fun. We colored safari pictures, decorated frames, and spent a lot of time playing with safari beach balls that Nanny brought for everyone. Everything looked so very cute and our son had a fabulous time. He even (sort of) shared his new lion with his friends, however, he was not happy to see Mommy holding one of his friends while he was eating. I guess we have more work to do with fake baby (see Jan 08 entries for more on fake baby!).

The birthday boy and his new lion from Nanny & Grandpa...



The party!



We went with a safari theme, since we call O our little monkey!



A bit of healthy food before the sugar fest...



The anticipation mounts...



He was fascinated by the candle...



The monkey cake Mommy and Daddy made (we started a tradition of making all the birthday cakes for the littles)- this was our first effort

It started like this...



And this was the end result- not too bad! :)



Hmmm- what is this?



The fun begins...









This was O's first taste of refined sugar. As you can see, he was ready for more, but we cut him off at one cupcake. :)

My Mom cut off Bri's head in this pic, but the other ones were blurry. Sorry, babe.



Since O's birthday we've also celebrated my 30th and Brian's birthday!
We're busy getting things ready for the new babe, hopefully this one will stay in the belly a little longer than Owen!! We've been trying to think of names, searching for a new car seat on Craig's list for Owen, and generally trying to be more organized.

Here are a few fun pics of the bundle from this month...

Bath time fun!


I love to play with cars!


O and his music table form Grandpa & Grandma


Reading some books in my stylin hat