birthday party

We celebrated Bryce's birthday yesterday with family and friends. We had a big party with lots of food and fun! We used a room at church because we knew our house would just be too small for the amount of people we wanted to include in the special day. We had lots of space for eating and playing.

MaMa and the birthday boy

We got Bryce balls for his pool because we thought it would be a fun toy for the birthday party and for the new play room. I think all of the kids enjoyed playing in the pool or taking all of the balls out of the pool, ha!

Nana and Pappy got Bryce this tunnel for his birthday. I couldn't wait for him to play in it. He loved it!

Bryce had some of his closest friends at the party. Here is his friend Charlie. He will be turning 1 in a few months.

This is his friend Dawson. He gets to play at Dawson's house when Kelly is sick or out of town!

This is Dawson's big sister, Camryn. I went to high school and college with their mom, Carrie.

And here is Bryce's cousin, Chase. They are like brothers! They are sitting on this adorable bench that MeMaw and PaPa bought him for his birthday. Chase's sister, Taylor, was there too, but she isn't big enough to play with the "big kids" yet!

Mama Pat got Bryce this red wagon. The boys are going to have so much fun riding around the neighborhood or park in it. I'm seeing a trip to Maymont when the weather gets warmer. Bryce got so many wonderful gifts. We are so thankful for everyone who came to the party and showered Bryce with so much love.

A party is not complete without the cake! This is the cake we got for Bryce to dive into. We actually got a coupon for the cake and it was free! He kept it pretty clean for the most part.

Here is a picture of the food table. We had pigs in a blanket, meatballs, crab dip, cheese ball, veggies and dip, and fruit and dip!

And this is the cake! I ordered it from a girl who makes cakes out of her home. One of the teachers I work with gave me her name. I was so happy with the way it turned out. If you live in the Richmond area, her name is Ginny Bishop. It was tasty, too!

My friend Beth made 1 shaped cookies for the party favors. All of the cookies were so stinking cute! She even individually wrapped them in clear bags and fun ribbon. Check out her shop on Etsy to get some of your own!

We put this picture frame on the gift table. I like this frame because it is a great way to see how Bryce changed over the year. I also framed his birth announcement and his invitation and used them as decoration for the food table.

tag

My friend, Kathryn, over at The Preppy RN (in training) included me in a photo tag. I decided to play along when I realized the photo I had to use was a great one with a great story!

Here are the rules:

Open your first photo folder

Scroll to the 10th photo

Post the photo (no cheating) and the story behind it

Here is my photo:

Three Generations

This picture is from November, 2008. I had found some really cute three generations picture frames and thought they would be great gifts for Christmas that year. My mom knew about the frames, but my Nanny did not. I had to get Mama and Nanny dressed in color coordinating outfits for the picture without Nanny catching on. The outfits and picture were a success and Nanny loved the frame!

Now, I tag:

Kelly at The Caddell Family

Danielle at Developments in Our New Little Family

Jamie at The Smith Family

Heather at Tenaciously Patient

Sarah at The Payne Family

Have fun! I'm off to finish preparing for Bryce's 1st birthday party today!

midget

Bryce had his 12 month well baby check up today. He weighed 20 pounds 4 ounces, exactly the same as he did at his 9 month appointment. How is that possible?!? He has grown an inch and he's up to 28.5 inches. However, he is in the 25th percentile for height and weight. Bryce got 4 shots today and he was such a good sport! He really liked the lollipop at the end. I didn't have time to snap a picture of him today because we are so busy getting ready for his party tomorrow. It's going to be tons of fun! Check back tomorrow for party pictures.

happy birthday, bryce

Our sweet little boy turned one today! I think he had a great day. I went back and forth forever about whether or not to stay home for his birthday. I knew that he wouldn't know either way, but it was more for me than him! In the end, I decided not to take the day off. We still had a great afternoon and evening!

We go to the doctor tomorrow for his 12 month well baby visit. I should have height and weight stats tomorrow. He is scheduled to get shots, but he has had a horrible cough this week so I don't know if he will end up getting them. I think he must have gotten my cold, but his sounds much worse. I took him to the doctor yesterday and he checked out fine.

Bryce had his favorite, macaroni and cheese, for his birthday dinner!

MeMaw and PaPa came over and brought Bryce a Leap Frog birthday cake. I think I was more excited than Bryce! I had seen this at Target a while back and thought about buying it, but I thought it was so cute that someone else was bound to buy it, too. Guess I was right!!!

The birthday cupcake for the birthday boy!

We started off neat and fed the cupcake to him.

Then we let him take over.

Yum-Yum....best first birthday cupcake ever!!

No better way to end the night than a story in Daddy's lap.

I am amazed at the fact that we have a 1 year old. Where did the time go? I have enjoyed every minute of this past year with Bryce. I may not have always acted like it in the moment, but I wouldn't have traded the gift of motherhood for anything. I can't wait to see what the next year brings for Bryce. I don't want to rush it, but I look forward to all of the amazing things he will be able to accomplish as he grows. He has already impressed us beyond belief. It is just amazing to me that he can see a bus and say "bus" or say "bye bye" when we tell him to. Happy Birthday, Bryce man. We love you SO much!

sticky mess

We went to Bruster's tonight for some ice cream. Bryce very much enjoyed himself!

The ice cream cone is bigger than him!

We thought he would make less of a mess with himself if he used a spoon. Not so much!

Yum-Yum

Here we are one year ago today! We purposely took this picture knowing it would be our last picture with just us and Macy. You might remember THIS post. It would have been appropriate to also post a picture of all of us today, but I don't have a picture of all of us and there was no way to take one today. Maybe we can get a family picture on Saturday at Bryce's birthday party!

out with the old, in with the new

our new house

I got my garage and Jason got his!

kitchen

living room

master bedroom

2nd master bedroom (Bryce's playroom)

we got the house!

We will officially be moving into our new house on March 26! More to come.....

grocery shopping

Grocery shopping with a baby is not fun or easy! Well actually it was easy when he was a baby, but this age, not so much. Bryce can no longer tolerate riding in the front of the shopping cart. He gets bored because he can't see where he is going and he tries to stand up and turn around. I can usually keep him at bay for a little while with snacks, but he is a quick eater. Today we decided to let him ride in the big part of the basket. He really liked it. He started off standing when there weren't many groceries, but he sat down as soon as we put stuff in the cart. He was very interested in all the new items to explore. He did great until he saw the bananas and he really wanted one. Luckily I had a cereal bar to distract him.

house update

We found out today that our contract was accepted over the other contract. Now we are waiting for the first right to expire on another contract that had been on the house for a while. We have our fingers crossed that the people with the other offer won't sell their house over the weekend or find the financing to get this house. We should know something by Sunday night. I promise Bryce will make a blog appearance again soon!

whirlwind day

Today has been a BIG day. Jason got a call from our agent this morning letting us know we were having 2 showings on our house. I got very worked up the last time we found out in the middle of the day that we were having showings and I hadn't left the house perfect. He decided not to pass on the information today, which was good because I had parent teacher conferences today and that would have gotten me all distracted. The second couple liked the house and put an offer in. We counter offered and the couple verbalized confirmation and will hopefully be signing the contract tomorrow and we will either be homeless or new home owners on March 26.

Here is where things get tricky. We thought the market was slow because of the economy, but apparently not. We put our contract on the house today that we have been looking at since April. Another couple put a contract on the house today, too, and there has been another contract on the house for months, but they had to sell their house first. So now it is just a waiting game. We have to see if the seller is going to accept our contract or the other couple's contract. We are hoping that our closing date is more appealing to the seller since he has been out of the house for months and he is ready to be rid of it. However, if he does accept our contract, the original couple with a contract have to come up with the money in 48 hours if they want it and then if they can't, then we would get it.

I just feel like this is meant to happen in our favor. How come the other house has been on the market the whole time we have had ours on the market? Why would it get swept out from under us at the last second?! Keeping our fingers crossed that things work out. It is already emotional enough to leave our first house, but to leave it with no new house in sight will be even worse!

temper

Bryce has been practicing his walking with his Mickey mobile that he got for Christmas. Recently he has not needed the help of the car and he stands up on his own and takes a few steps and he is doing a great job. Now he prefers to ride on the Mickey mobile and have Jason or myself push him around. And for some reason, he thinks he can sit on anything and he can ride it around the house. Tonight he decided to sit on his lawn mower and try to ride it across the floor. He was in a much better position for riding at times, but I didn't get the camera in time.

As you can see in this picture, Bryce has quite a temper and when something doesn't go his way he feels the need to bang his head on something. Here he is banging his head on the lawn mower because it won't go. Normally he sits down on the hardwood floor and bangs his head when he gets mad. I sure hope he gets over that as he gets older.

shave and a haircut....two bits

Bryce got his wings trimmed up a few weeks ago, but today he got the full-on haircut. Aunt Kelly sat him down in a diaper and gave him a lollipop and went to town! He looks like such a big boy now! Thanks Kelly, we love it!

I couldn't get him to look at me to save my life, but I think you can get a good idea in these pictures. I think Chase taught Bryce how to say snow. We have been working on it since there has been so much on the ground. This morning when I pulled this shirt out I asked Bryce what was on his shirt and he said "no" (snow).

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