Bleu's First Birthday Party: Cake

The thought occurred to me to do Costner's birthday in Kentucky a few weeks before Thanksgiving.  My mom always comes here for the kids' birthdays, but since we would be there a week before Costner's, why not do a party there with the whole family?  I almost felt a little funny about it because sadly, my extended family doesn't even really know my kids that well, but that doesn't mean they're any less loved.  Then we needed to come up with a day.  Rather than have everyone get together on a separate day of the week, we decided just to do it on Thanksgiving.  Getting a cake was almost overkill with all the desserts and food on Thanksgiving, but the kids liked it, and everyone has to have a birthday cake.  It ended up being just right, even though Costner was overwhelmed just by the sheer number of people.

His smash cake.

Being the mother of the year that I am, I decided before we sang that it'd be appropriate to light the candle for a 1 year old.  Hindsight is 20/20 because WHY I did this, I have no idea.  What baby knows what to do with a candle other than to TOUCH it?  So you can see me realize this too late, so he cried through the entire happy birthday song.  I'm a genius,I know.

But thankfully,the pure sugar I put in front of him quickly made up for my stupidity.

 Hmmm....this is all right.

 I think it's REALLY all right.

 I didn't even put the little cupcake that came on top of it that said My First Birthday for the picture, but there was one. :/

 I think I love this.

 Yeah!

 Starting to slow down

 But now getting his second wind!

 Can't stop

STRETCH it out!

 It got everywhere...his hair, his eyes...too much.

So we put him right in the sink for a bath.  There was no other option than to just fully bathe him so that he could open his presents.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a pretty, cold day in Kentucky, and we loved it.  Little Sage woke up so excited.  She LOVES the holidays, and it reminds me so much of myself when I was a child.  I remembered how I felt when I woke up on these days by seeing her.  We watched the Macy's parade...actually, I made my kids watch it.  That was always a big deal to me, but back then, the stars on there seemed to be actual stars.  Now it's like 2nd and 3rd rate people that you've never even heard of mixed with Broadway musical numbers.  I guess since Beyonce charges $300 per concert ticket (true story), then she can sit at home with Blue Ivy on Thanksgiving rather than ride a float and lip sync.  Anyway, they enjoyed it and after that, we headed to Mema's for Thanksgiving dinner.  I did a terrible job taking pictures except for Costner's party.

 Bleu's first Thanksgiving.  I think that this was his favorite holiday to date, as much as this kid eats.

 My plate.  I opted for country ham over turkey.  They got that with Travis in mind, but I love it just as much, and he didn't even get to come. 

 Some of the pretty pies

 Mom and Mema with us at the end of the day.  (Bleu's party was in here, and I have a lot of pics from that, but I wanted to keep it separate.)

 Me and my cousin, Amber.  We looked through ads and planned our Thanksgiving day attack.  I LOVE looking at Black Friday ads..which is now on Thursday.

 Speaking of that....I was there...in the midst of it...TWO hours before the doors of Target opened.  Now, I'm not really that kind of girl that goes out in that, but the Target by my mom's house is amazing.  It's the one mom and I went to years ago, and they run it like a well oiled machine. There are police officers everywhere.  There's no cutting.  There's no ambushing.  It's an organized chaos, if you will.  And who came with me, but Andrea?  We had a ball.  I stood in the cold before they opened the doors literally wishing myself 15 lbs heavier to have some warmth.  My toes hurt.  I wished for my Uggs.  I wished for heat.  Andrea got there after me because I ended up leaving an hour earlier than I originally planned to get in line, and then she couldn't cut to get up there, but we met up once inside.  It was like a mental test to get through that time in the cold.  I thought about using the money I saved for my hospital bill for hypothermia.  :)  Once inside I had a specific plan to get the things I wanted for sure, and I was so glad that I got every one and then I could enjoy my time and find some extras.  We stayed in there for hours and had so much fun.  As we waited in the LOOONG lines, we ate found a bag of mini Milano candy cane cookies and ate them and whatever else we wanted.  (Of course we paid for it up front)  I also found my favorite Hickory Farms turkey sausage, and I said, "If I had a knife, I'd cut this too."  Then the man in front of me whipped out his pocket knife and handed it to me. lol.  I politely declined...after some thought. ;)

 My favorite thing that I bought at Black Friday was my shirt.  :)  it was the only thing I bought for myself (that night).  I originally saw it a few days prior and texted it to a few of my girl friends saying that I found them a shirt, and then I ended up getting it for myself.  I hear Michael Scott from the office at the Christmas party pointing to the girls at the party and saying, "HO! HO! HO!...(then pointing to a guy) PIMP!"  Never gets old.  Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving, but my Bleu did not appreciate me shopping without him. Sage worked herself  into exhaustion trying to help mom with him.  She is such a good girl, and I have a feeling Santa is going to do her right this year.

Costner's First Birthday

Well, nostalgia has hurt me all day, so let's get current.   Look at this precious piece of heaven.  He is STILL that, and I know him so much better than I did a year ago.  For instance, I know the difference between, "EEEEEEE!!!!"  and "UHHHHHHH!"  and "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  Generally, they all mean, "Mommy!!!!  GET ME!"  OR, "Give me what you have."  But YOU wouldn't know that.  :)  He has a smile that lights up the room.  He smiles with every bit that he is, and it is contagious.  I think he's going to be like Jaggar in that he's rotten and that cuteness will save him.  He is a climber now, too.  If you're on the bed or couch, he's right there, too.  He has taken a few steps over the past few weeks, but so far, crawling is our main way of getting around.

I planned on him wearing that shirt on his actual birthday.  It was a perfect fit for the day.

Playing at home while his siblings were in school.  He has starting dancing like real bouncing instead of just waving his hands (he still does that too), and I tried to get it on video.  I got a few seconds.


Here he is this morning.  Sometimes, he just throws his hands up like, "YEAH!  Feelin' good!" and it's so funny.

 See?

 The brothers.  Jaggar kept saying, "I love him so much!"  And he was also irritated that we acknowledged Costner's birthday today.  See, we had a party for him on Thanksgiving in Kentucky (which I'll get to), so Jaggar was like, 'But he already HAD a birthday."  NO WAY should he get two!

 LOOK at him and that wild hair.  I just can't bear to cut it.

 Look at that.  Doesn't even look like the same child.

 I LOVE this pic.  I have to give my new iphone props for taking beautiful pics.  The clarity is awesome for a camera phone.  (That was my Christmas gift from Travis.  It was supposed to be a surprise, but it couldn't be purchased for my upgrade price without activating it then and there.  I was really upset about that. ;)

 In laws came over this afternoon and brought him some presents.  He is actually starting to care...somewhat.  He was so sweet smiling at his things.  Sage took these pictures?  Why?  Because Travis is in Florida (going on 3 days, which feels like 3 weeks) on a tv shoot.  I've been slightly bitter about it today, but at least I'm not married to a deadbeat, so that's a huge plus.

 He was like, "Who are these people?  What is going on?"

 I LOVE that sweet face he has.  I just want to squeeze him.

 Precious angel

 I got a small cake from Publix because...well, I did his party last week and had a big cake.  I had intentions of having ANOTHER party here with friends here...then Travis went out of town unexpectedly, and honestly, I'm just beat.  And would it be for him?  He'd be totally overwhelmed.  I'm kind of pushing myself to bring some things down a notch.  He is one.  I do not have to order custom invitations and get my cricut out and make a personalized banner.  I LOVE THOSE, btw...and I don't think those are bad.  But I just don't want to MISS life while I'm so busy trying to make it a certain way.  I HAVE to do enough of that.  So this was good...and the cake was amazing.

 Just ask him. ;)

 I have a LOT more messy birthday cake pics from his party in Kentucky.  Don't worry, I'll probably post them ALL. ;)

 Bleu had another interesting surprise, but it takes another post to set it up.  More to come.

One Year

It happened....today, at 3:55 pm exactly one year ago, our Baby Bleu took his first breath.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  It, along with the births of my other two children, will always stand out as some of the most glorious moments in my life.  A real live supernatural experience because there is nothing in the world like watching life literally happen.  A life that my husband, who I LOVE, and I made together... in all of our imperfections came perfection.  A real, tangible piece of heaven.  And in that moment, all the stress of life and the year (ESPECIALLY that year) didn't exist.  Because he was here.  And I could touch him and smell him and kiss him.  He didn't look a THING like what I thought he'd look like.  But that was okay.  He was still so perfect.  And today, he still is.  Here a a few of my favorite moments from that day.

Just born

 Remember he was tongue tied?

 

 Seeing him for the first time

 

 He was so perfect...and I felt like a rock star.  A shaky one..because that epidural or adrenaline wearing off or a combination of it all gives me the shakes right before, during and after delivery that I can't...haha, shake.

But shout out to all the folks saying how awesome and amazing I looked.  And to YOU, friends, I say, "I agree."  ;)  jk

 Jaggar, realizing that I didn't have a doggy in my belly after all.  And sweet Sage on top of the world.  She's ready for another baby, specifically a GIRL.

 LOOK at him.

 He had a cone head...for weeks.  I remember when I was pregnant with Sage...I want to say this is a foggy dream that I didn't actually do, but I'm pretty sure I did...pray that her head would be perfectly round.  God bless her for having to grow up WITH me.

Here we are again.

 One of my favorites.  This is EXACTLY how I felt, too.

 Travis took this, and I love it, too.  Perfect moment.
 

 Such a sweet Christmas gift he was.