What a Wonderful Year

  Can you believe it?  A year has gone by since Chris and I first greeted our son.

Sammy ~ four days old

Sammy is one year old!

  Can it really only have been a year ago that we held Samuel for the first time? He's grown so fast and it seems like he's always been here. He is so much in our hearts, it's hard to believe he's only turning one today.  That is until you here his silly sweet jargon and his insistent, "Yom yom yom!" as you make his meals.  (In fact as I type this, Sam is in his highchair yelling, "Ahhhh!" and pointing at things around the room. "Hey, Mom, pay attention to me while I eat my snack.) Yes, our Sammy is a toddler now.

  It's such a fun time. Sammy is learning new things everyday. This week we watched him figure out that his "O" in his alphabet puzzle matches his circle block and he carried them around for an hour as he played with other toys.  His favorite shape right now is the circle.  But alas, the "O" has gone missing and so he has settled for the "Q", but as soon as that "O" pops up, he'll drop that "Q" like a piece of broccoli.

  He has a big red car that he loves for us to push him around in.  He recently learned how to get in and out of it all by himself.  Such a big boy!

  Our new family tradition is to get our tree and decorate it the night before Sammy's birthday, just like mama did the night before he was born.  So Sammy woke up to discover a decorated Christmas tree with birthday balloons around the bottom of it. He loves to check out all the ornaments he can reach!

 

We were sure to have some party hats for our birthday boy! While Sammy thought the party hats were awesome, Hagrid was not so keen on them. But look how cute they are! 

Sammy enjoyed some blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and some turkey bacon for his birthday breakfast. Now that's happy birthday boy.

Later in the day, Sammy was watching his Papa through the window.  Papa was out front raking in the yard, so we decided to go out and join him.  Sammy loves inspecting the leaf piles!

  It is such a joy to be Sammy's mama and papa. He's a curious explorer and we love introducing him to new things. He has a determination about him that makes us laugh and keeps us on our toes. Our lives are richer because of him!

Birthday Cake!

  We celebrated Sammy's birthday early with our Fort Worth family (though I am just now posting about it).  The whole gang was there, even Sammy's Mimi was there (having flown in early just to see him eat his first cake). We had a blast watching him figure out wrapping paper and gift bags with tissue paper. I mean this was a pretty good gift all on it's own.  Sam would pull off a tiny chunk of paper and show it all around to us and we would all cheer.  He soon realized the bigger the rip the louder we cheered and clapped for him.

How do I do this?

Starting to figure it out with Papa's help

Tissue paper is fun!

  Sammy also loved his party balloons!

Gifts and balloons for the birthday boy

Playing with his balloon

Look, Mama! Balloons!

  Sammy discovered a love for cake at his first birthday party.  I made his cake and it was pretty fun.  It was a layered cake with lemon curd between the layers and cream cheese frosting with some blackberry jelly mixed in... sound delish right?  Well it was!

Here I am wearing Grandpa Bill's apron while frosting the smash cake. 

Aunt June is testing the frosting to be sure it is acceptable. Pass!

Decorating the cake. 

The big cake (for those who know, I am no Kristie Camet - if you want to see pretty cakes check out her blog)

Sammy's smash cake

Sammy is all about that candle

  And now what you've all been waiting for, the boy in action! Here are the parts to Sammy's first discovery of cake:

Part one: frosting

Part two: cake

Part three: smashing good time!

Part four: clean up

  

  We had so much fun celebrating Sammy together!  He is a joy and a blessing to our family.