More First Birthday Planning

So, I'm still thinking all about that upcoming first birthday next month.  Our second almost Valentine baby.  I ordered the invite from shutterfly, using this pattern.  I pasted in photos from birth until now.  It's crazy how much his features changed in those first six months.  With that done, I moved onto favors.  I've been saving baby food jars for a while now, remembering vaguely that a friend made a favor out of these and looked here and found some inspiration.  And now my whirlwind of a brain began thinking about the cake.  Ambitious, maybe.  But I can plan for creativity, can't I?  One thing I have learned on this journey of parenting three is that you have to have a backup plan.  Mine is wal-mart bakery.  I'll be sure to post pics of the final event.  We'll see how much of plan A changes to plan B.  Sometimes, I think I just enjoy the planning.  Like that 10 year anniversary trip this summer....hmmm.

First Year Keepsakes

Today, I'm planning to gather all of Baby Pete's first year pictures and send them off to be printed for his scrapbook.  Being a former scrapbooking champion, I bow my head in semi-shame thinking of the pre-printed pages that these photos will be pasted onto.  The first baby's scrapbook was updated monthly.  The second's was completed by his second birthday.  Same amount of work, spread over a longer period of time.  This time, I chose one with beautiful preprinted pages, seen here.  Will he feel ousted from the hall of scrapbooking fame?  Doubt it.  These are boys.  They're girlfriends and wives are probably the only ones that will ever really look at these as intensely as I do.  What really matters is flipping through the pages and seing that sweet face go from this....

to this...

New Year's

The boys loved stomping on pop-pops.  Big brother had his first go with a sparkler this year.  They're a lot different now than the ones I remember.  These were like little colored flames.  The old ones actually sparked, which was probably more dangerous.  Wonder how many of those fake rabbit-fur coats ignited in the eighties?  The last photo is one of those that will always make me smile.  I was content letting the men handle the fireworks, but the baby kept wiggling to be set free from my hip.  Swapping hip-baby duties with daddy, it was my turn to light up the sky.  Jimmy cackled as a ran from the lit bottle rocket like I had just ignited a grenade.  Next year, I vow to be a spectator only.  Yes, I used to dress up and be all pretty and sparkly for New Year's Eve.  Yet this year, I'm photographed wearing sweatpants and houseshoes.  Hmmm...speaking of resolutions.

Welcome to My Life!

This was a couple of days after Christmas. Nothing better than some first steps caught on camera. What I love most about this is big brother's obvious excitement over baby's accomplishment. Yes, there is a cage around the tree. Sanity trumps pretty in this house.