Happy Birthday Big Boy!

As promised, here is the post on Arden's 1st birthday and his party! We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, June 26th (his actual due date, mind you) at Missy and Pop's house. We had gone to Indianola that morning, so we had to hurry back to Memphis to get to the party in time. We showed up just in time (although a few guests were already there), changed him into his birthday suit and got the party started! I had made him a birthday bubble with colorful balloons on it prior to going to Memphis, so I decided that would be the theme for the party...colors and balloons! Appropriate, right? Anyway, lots of friends came including: Missy, Pop, Aunta, Frank, Uncle Stevie, Mimi, Laura Fearnow (soon to be Allen) and Eric Allen, Auntie Em (Emily Gray), Elaine, Caleb, and Charles Clowers, Lindsey, Gardener and Josh Hughes, and Amanda Woods and Aly Stone (Frank's roomates). It was fun to see everybody and to see Arden playing with his friend Caleb, who is only a week older. We visited and ate some snacks and then opened presents. Well, Mommy opened presents while Arden played with the paper and tried to escape my lap after each present was opened. I think Caleb was more interested in the presents than Arden, but that's ok, we like to share! After presents, we had cake. I had made an all natural, non-hydrogenated, no high fructose corn syrup cake with an organic buttercream icing. The healthiest cake you can get, basically. Arden had his very own small cake with a big yellow 1 on it to dig into all by himself. He was a little hesistant at first and didn't quite understand what was going on, but eventually he dug in and enjoyed it. We played around with the balloons and everybody that was there for a little longer before the party ended. It was a great party and we are so blessed to have had Arden in our lives for one whole year!

Frank decorated the cakes and did a great job!

His birthday bubble!

Hey Man, that's my card!

Charles, Caleb and Elaine Clowers

Mimi, Amanda with Gardner Hughes, and Aly

Emily Gray, Aunta and Pop

Josh, Lindsey and Gardner Hughes

Silly roomies inside the igloo tent from Aunta

Favorite part of the party....

...the balloons!

A sit n spin!! (or as we called it a spit n spin)

Ahh finally the bedtime bottle after a long, fun party!

Happy Birthday to You!

At twelve months he has 7 teeth in all - 4 on top and 3 on the bottom. He was crawling all over the place and climbing stairs and anything else he could get up on. He took his first steps all by himself at 1 year and 3 days old on July 3rd, then again on July 13th, and really took off all alone on July 18th (my birthday!). He babbles all the time, but still really only says Mama and Dada and not always toward that particular person. He loves water! He loves "swimming" in the pool - kicking his legs and waving his arms- he loves his bath time with Daddy, he loves getting into Molly's water bowl, he loves playing with ice...basically, you get the picture, if it involves water, he's all for it. He sleeps really well at night, going to bed around 8 and sleeping until 8 or 8:30. He loves people and is always happy to see friends. He loves playing outside and playing in the dirt or the sand at the beach. He is most of the time a joy to have around and it is fun to see him learning and growing all the time. We look forward to this next year with him and many more to come!