Happy First Birthday Ian!

I can't believe Ian has been with us for a year (well, over a year now)!  He's turned out to be such a cute, fun little guy.  Very happy-go-lucky and loving.  He doesn't care much for sleep, but he does love food!
Anyway, I wanted to throw Ian a little party, nothing too fancy or elaborate. I just did simple cupcakes with homemade frosting. I do not like the greasy, stinky, overly-sweet store-bought frosting, yuck! I made Ian a little smash cake (you'd NEVER know I took 4 classes in cake decorating by looking at this cake!).  I also made a pinata that turned out much better that I thought it would.  The party was simple and fun.  We invited a couple of friends and I even ordered a parachute off of Amazon for the kids to play with. My decorations were minimal, but the streamers I hung vertically over the archway between the front room and the living room were well-received by the guest. There were a couple of snack dishes, a kid's music mix playing in the background, and that's about it.  Nothing too over-the-top.

The pinata was actually really quick an easy to put together; it was my first using cardboard.  The most time-consuming part was putting the crepe paper on (specifically cutting with scissors the 10,000 horizontal cuts).  I cut a good chunk of my finger off in the process.  I also got my iPhone stolen at Walmart on a last-minute trip to buy some more crepe paper for the pinata.  But that's a story for another day. I did get my phone back though!

 
I didn't have my phone to take pictures (worst two weeks ever), but a couple of friends tooks some pictures for me.  I don't think Ian really knew what was going on, and he was a good sport for having in nap cut into by the party.  Nevertheless, it was Gabe and Elisa who had the most fun, afterall it was mostly their friends that were invited.  Ian did have one little baby friend, Preston come to his party.  Ian got a couple of nice gifts, even though I said no presents were necessary.   All in all it was a cute and fun little party.  Ian dug into is cake like a champ.  Here are the links to the videos:
The pinata: https://youtu.be/Zoe5N09kbhM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLK1qG_Hk84
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wRXCsphE9o

  I have some still pictures of Ian eating his cake somewhere on the computer, I will post them if I ever do find the file.

Gabe's Field Trip to the Houston Zoo

 Skipping around here...let's jump to February 10th! Gabe's first grade field trip was to the Houston Zoo this year.  Last year it was the Rodeo but I didn't go because Ian was so little.  But this year I got to go with Gabe as a chaperone! The note said no siblings, so I left Ian with a friend, but I could have totally brought him.  Oh well.  I went with my friend Teresa.  She drove and let me mooch off of her zoo pass.  It was a nice cool day and Gabe and I had fun! Gabe was the only boy in our group but he didn't seem to mind.  He really likes his friend Angelica. I was happy that the trip wasn't too long, because I actually do not like going to zoos.  I find them to be boring, hot, and there is way too much walking to see some partial animal fuzz under an obscure bush.  But I enjoyed the company.  I couldn't care less about seeing the animals.  I can google pictures on the internet if I'm that interested in seeing them.  We did get pretty close to the giraffes which was pretty neat.  Teresa treated us to that experience. Which is so nice because I'm way to cheap to shell out $7 for a couple of freakin' lettuce leafs, haha!  Although, I guess you are paying for the experience rather than the lettuce itself.  Afterwards we went to a little shop.  Gabe saw that there was a train ride to go on, but he was the only one who wanted to go.  But I pacified him by buying him a little train key chain, and Teresa helped out with that by offering to take us all out for ice cream.  We went to Cold Stone (or was it Marble Slab?) on our way back home.  All in all, a very fun trip!

Cute kids.

 Why yes, yes I would.  I do not like monkeys.  But I do love me some chocolate!

 Lunch time!

  The Giraffe-feeding experience.  Those guys have some long tongues!

Cutie-patootie.

Ian's One-Year Portraits

 I took my sweet little Ian to the JCPenny Portrait studio to have his 1-year portaits taken.  I have to say that this was one of our best sessions!  Almost all of the pictures were print-worthy.  But I won't give the photographer too much credit; its hard to make a face this cute look bad.  The only pictures that didn't look as good were the ones that I am in.

 Dance, baby dance!

  I have one just like this of me and Gabe!

 Love this one!

 Awww!

 Love this.  Cute in any filter!

 I love this one too, particularity in the sepia.

 But I got a print out of this one, to go along with...

...this one!  Any edits done at JCPenny are 3X the price.

My favorite.  It is hanging on my wall.

Love this too!

Ian is especially darling.  I love his ginger-tinted curls.  And his beautiful, vibrant blue eyes.  And his sweet button nose.  And perfect ears.  And pouty lips.  And chubby pink cheeks.  And strong eye- brow line.  I love his chubby belly and his short little legs. I love his fat feet and big ol' hands.  Yep.  I really doesn't get cuter than this one.  And these are just Ian's physical traits.  Ian is so very sweet and very loving.  He is a busy-body and loves getting into things.  He is so curious about the world and loves to mimic his siblings. He is happy, happy, happy! It is so easy to get him to smile or laugh. He doesn't say many (okay, any) real words but he makes all sorts of very loud noises! He is an okay sleeper.  We are still working on that.  He loves putting things into other things (i.e. a piece of crayon into a cup).  He loves watching Mother Goose Club.  He still loves to nurse! He is very good-natured and easy going. Ian eats more than Gabe and Elisa combined.  And for that reason, he gets his diaper changed quite a bit! We love Ian!!