Birthday Boy

I can hardly believe that Braden turned one on Sunday. Where has time gone this past year? We celebrated by having about 30 of our friends and family over to grill out, eat cake and par-tay. And then on Sunday, Braden's actual birthday, we spent with just the three of us for some quality Brady time. It was such a wonderful weekend and here are some of the highlights:

The collage of pictures of Braden (it was amazing when I was putting this together to see how much he has changed in just one short year) -

The cakes (they were from Whole Foods and apparently Whole Foods makes their icing out of vegetables instead of using artificial dyes - go figure, so the polka dots were not the color I was hoping for, but the cakes tasted amazing so I didn't mind so much)

The peeps (well some of them) -

Brady enjoying some hamburger, watermelon and pasta salad at his party

Singing Happy Birthday - Brady LOVED this part of the party, he smiled and smiled and then got shy and buried his head on my shoulder, it was so sweet - Digging into the cake - now my sweet baby has texture issues with some foods (more on that later), so as soon as he touched the icing, he made this face of disgust. He never would dig into his cake, I even tried to give him a taste of the icing and he wouldn't have anything to do w/ it. Clearly he didn't get my sweet tooth gene.

"All done" -

The clean-up begins -

Opening presents, we had to change outfits b/c Brady had too much fun in the sink -

Just the three of us - Happy Birthday baby boy! I have to say that in the days leading up to Braden's birthday, I found myself extremely emotional...crying as I rocked him to sleep at night, staring into his eyes as I gave him his bottles, cuddling him in my arms as he endlessly flipped through books on my lap and I found this time to be bittersweet. Sad that a year has passed so quickly and that my baby has gone from literally depending on me for everything to a walking, talking, signing little toddler and yet excited for all of his accomplishments, his budding independence and for what the years ahead will hold. In some ways, we wish we could go back to those tender, emotional days in the beginning when we didn't know what we were doing and didn't know how we were going to survive with a baby...I wish I could hold him more, slow down and take in more of life back then, but in some ways I am so thankful that gone are those exhausting days when I felt like I could barely function. It seems like overnight this gift from God has changed into a tiny person, full of personality and life...as I looked back over Braden's baby pictures, I could hardly believe how tiny he once was and how much he has changed. How can so much happen in just a short 365 days? Austin and I concluded Braden's birthday by reflecting back on favorite memories from this past year and I thank God for the blessing and gift that He has temporarily entrusted to us. I pray that as we move into the toddler years and the years beyond that, that God will equip us with all that we need to love, discipline, train and mold this child into a man after His own heart. Braden we are so proud of the sweet baby you are and of the little boy you are becoming. We love you baby.