His 1st Birth-Day Celebration

About a week ago (on the 11th) Andy turned one year old.

I wanted to have a little get-together, with stress on the little, and actually no stress was desired at all.

We invited some church friends and air force friends over for dinner and cupcakes on his birthday. We ended up having an even smaller group than we thought because one family had a sick kid, and then two of the couples didn't make it due to pregnancy. One of the ladies was at the beginning of the pregnancy and not feeling top notch... and the other was at the end of her pregnancy and having contractions.

We obviously invited the Atkinsons over. Oliver was the first guest on our list.

And Jed took a break from studying for finals to come celebrate with us.

Warren, and Nicki and made it as well. I didn't get a picture of Nicki and Jesse together, and I didn't even get a picture of Warren. He was busy taking a bunch of pictures with his nice camera which he graciously shared with me. :)

After everyone arrived we had some Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner. It was delicious, and a very simple group meal to prepare, so I was happy about that.

After dinner was singing to the birthday boy and cupcakes! When I turned one I had cupcakes in the shape of "C" for Chelsea so I thought we'd stick with tradition and give Andy an "A."

Andy loved the singing. And I loved the pictures Jed was able to capture for me.

Here he is just waiting in his sweet birthday hat. I made Oliver one too, but I didn't get a picture of the both of them together.

He wasn't quite sure what to do with the cupcake in front of him at first.

But he was really good at sharing the frosting with Jesse.

I think he did this at least 3 times...

And then finally he started to get into...

Taking a milk break.

I think he liked his cupcake.

Stretching back to relax after eating such deliciousness.

And here's Oliver with his cupcake.

Before dinner we let Andy open a couple of presents. One was from Aunt Nicole and her family. He got two awesome books from them and some sweet bath toys that he loves.

And he also opened up a present from Nicki and Jesse.

It was pretty funny because their present was the exact shape and size and weight as the Atkinsons. Nicki and Jesse gave him a set of Dr. Seuss books.

He loved the carrying case they came in, but it was a little too heavy with all the books so we took them out for him.

And when we finally got around to it we figured out why the Atikinson's present was so similar. They gave Andy a set of little golden books that came in a case just like the Dr. Seuss set.

And then he got more books from us. It was definitely a book birthday, which was totally okay with me!

I made some LDS Temple books for Andy. I printed out pictures of all the temples and then stuck them to some construction paper in order of dedication and then after laminating them put them together with some rings.

I really like how they turned out. (Although the laminating was a lot more expensive than I anticipated.... too bad it's kind of necessary with a young child.)

Brig ordered some Russian kid books for Andy, but they haven't shown up yet.

Andy also got some blocks and a baby potato head. Since we had a Mr. and a Mrs. we figured it was time to start branching out the spud family.

Grandma Shirlene was pretty sad that her Birthday package didn't arrive on time, but Andy didn't seem to mind. He was actually pretty sad the next day so it was good we had something to cheer him up and distract him. His little legs were pretty sore after getting stabbed so many times for shots.

He got plenty of cool toys and new clothes.

Happy Birthday to my little buddy!
I can't wait to see what this next year brings.
(Should be fun.)