a little bit of precious

Will's Birthday Party

We had a fun little family birthday party for Will on Sunday. I tried a new chilli recipe (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-and-Bean-Chili-107079m - made it up on Saturday, put it in the crockpot Sunday AM with some beer to keep it moist), cornbread, veggies, pitta chips/hummus, fruit, hot apple cider, and chicken nuggets for the kids.

Bright, happy cupcakes, for our bright, happy boy. In honor of his first official word ("dog"), we made cupcake toppers.

Cuddle time with Grandma Dee Dee - he loves to chew on tags.

Mmmmm, chicken nuggets.

Playing with dear Monie.

He was all about his balloons.

Oooh, what's that?

Andrew was happy to help blow.

All five of us.

Looking excited.

And then not so much.

His siblings and cousins made up for his disinterest.

Finally.

The ladies - myself, Monie, Dee Dee, and Aunt Ginnie

Emmy and Kaleigh put on a show for Will - they were quite good (Kaleigh had some serious dance moves too).

He loved it.

The presents and banner all somehow matched. Andrew asked me if I put the banner in a "W" for Will - well, look at that.

Present time.

The scene - I am pulling wrapping paper out of Will's mouth. The downside to him now finally feeding himself is that he places lots of interesting things in his mouth (leaves, paper, old bandaids - yum).

Cute face - and yes, he does like sweet potatoes and squash ;). His doctor assured me that this is actually really good for him.

So proud to be standing.

Playing with Grandpa Jerry.

End of a long fun day. Happy Brthday Will.

Will turns ONE!

It's hard to believe our baby is ONE. We had a sweet little party for him yesterday (pics of that to come soon), but I wanted to document a bit of what he's up to these days (and mom, give you a few pics of the birthday boy). He continues to be super happy, and super laid back...in fact so laid back that he's making us work ;). The physical therapy seems to be really helping. No official crawling yet, but he's scootin backwards, and rocking back and forth on all fours. He's also getting more solid on his feet, but is still working on getting from standing to sitting and vice versa. We had his 12 month appointment today, and found out that he's actually lost 10 ounces since his 9 month check-up. I was quite concerned, but left the doctors office with a good game plan for getting more calories in him over the next month (dinner tonight include oatmeal mixed with half and half, a bit of ice cream, along with his veggies and a few bites of beef spaghetti). His sensitivity to food textures seems to be getting in the way of him eating enough, so we'll be stepping up the OT game as well.

He has started talking more lately - "da" for dog, and dada are his first official words. He has 5 or 6 teeth (still can't tell if that last one has cut through yet). He has no problem getting dirty, but doesn't always loved getting cleaned up (see below).

Will, we love you so much - we're the luckiest family in the world to have you in it.

Yogurt in the hair was a good look.

Yup, I'm a mess.

Love that sweet face.

Advent begins

The weather is finally COLD, and it truly feels like we're entering advent season. Decorating the tree, eating by the candlelight of advent candles, enjoying, or at least attempting advent readings (we're loving Lambert's Jesse Tree), Christmas shopping (I did brave black Friday, but have truly embraced the glory of online shopping this year), the anticipation of Christmas travel. It's a sweet time of year. Here are a few pics of the tree decorating:

Finding just the right spot.

Caden was SO excited.

Andrew was all business - glad he was willing to stop long enough to take this picture.

Love that look on his face (not so much the look on mine).

Will took most of it in from the floor...happily.

I stuck the camera around the corner to capture this sweet moment. Wish I could have recorded their voices too, but by the time I got to the video camera, they were long gone.

And lastly, we loved having some special Choi time with Nathan and Abby on Friday night. We did a pizza/movie night, and I was impressed with how much Abby enjoyed getting in on the big kid fun (she ate 3 pieces of pizza!).