He's one....ONE!

The day came. I couldn't stop it. We no longer have a newborn...or a 6-month-old. Or an almost-one-year-old.  We have a child...a child who is one. He's not an infant anymore. We have a toddler.

And surprisingly...I'm actually not full of panic.  And I didn't even cry on his birthday. B's birthday was on Black Friday this year. We went out a did a little bit of shopping for Christmas but not for too long.  He was really good but we didn't want to push our luck so we were only out for a few hours. We actually didn't end up celebrating his birthday at all on his actual birthday. We came home, he napped, Eric and I cleaned and decorated the house. Then later on, Eric's older brother and his fiancee came over for dinner and spent the night.  B even got an early birthday present on Saturday morning from them..which turned into his birthday outfit!

We had our family over, great food, company and a precious little boy who hammed it up all night.  I went back and forth for a while on whether to invite friends or just keep it family.  Friends, I love you all...but I'm so glad we only had family.  We only had one meltdown during the day and it was during presents.  Poor little BMan couldn't understand why he got a great toy, and we'd take it away from him. Every. Single. Time.  In our defense...he got pretty attached to each toy he opened and wanted to play with only that toy. He didn't want to look at anyone, or any other toys...just wanted to focus on one toy. And after a little while? Well he thought it got old that we would give him something new, steal it, grab him and put him on my lap and put a new toy in front of his face. I think he figured out we would just take it away!  Turned out, a little bottle fixed that real fast.  I'm so proud of our little guy. He was just so chill and so good throughout the day.  There was a lot going on for such a little person to take in and he did so well.  He was shy with almost everyone at first, but warmed up real quick and loved all of his toys (thank you, all!).  I know some people dread having two families coming together on any given day, but I love having our whole family together...there's nothing like having everyone in the same place at the same time and just enjoying each other's company. One of my favorite thing to see is my Nagymama and Eric's grandma (Brady's great-grandma's!) chatting and laughing and enjoying each other's company. Rather than rambling on, I'll let you all see for yourselves!  Let me preface this by B Man just hung out and chilled for a while before his party started..

And played in the leaves....and on the deck.... 

Definitely not spoiled or anything....no, not at all.... 

 Time to open a new present....and this is what happens....

 Nice hat, cutie pie

I also wanted to say thanks to my dad...for holding Brady...with a sword...pointing at the fan (did I mention B is OBSESSED with the damn fan....obsessed....).  Yesterday morning I woke up, brought B into the living area...and all he did was point at the fun and say "AH AH AH"...unfortunately, Eric and I aren't 6'5" so we can't hold him up high enough to reach the fan. He was NOT a happy camper. 

Scenes From Our House

*I'm still getting over the fact that Eric and I have a one-year old...we had a great party this weekend with close family, so wait to hear more on that tomorrow...

So I know last month I talked about our love of Halloween.  But, I think the entire stretch from end of October to just after New Year's is by far my favorite time of the year. Eric and I have always loved the holidays and being festive, and we have lots and lots of decorations but I feel like we've always been in a constant state of motion and never really had the chance to decorate for all holidays before.  Last year, we decorated for Halloween in our old house, and the house looked amazing! I'll preface by saying the pictures that we have honestly didn't do it justice.  We had a fog machine running downstairs where we had decorated, some scary Halloween music/sounds playing and even a strobe light upstairs with the scary guy in the window...

It's amazing to look at these photos and realize the difference that our new camera makes!  We had a great time decorating last year (even if the only people who came by to trick-or-treat were our neighbors...). And then Thanksgiving came, which was great last year.  We hosted (I was wayyy to uncomfortable to travel at that point) and had our families over and I know it was a Thanksgiving that Eric and I will never forget.  

But shortly after that, BMan was born, and then less than a month after that, we moved!  So while we were able to get a tree up and decorate, we definitely didn't go all out for Christmas.

We were definitely more focused on the new little bundle in our lives than full on decorations.  But this year?  This year we have a one year old.  Who loses his mind when he sees lights. The expressions BMan makes when he sees lights hanging or on Christmas trees is absolutely priceless. It's amazing that it takes so little to make that little guy's day.  Anyways, this year...we decided to invest in several actual decorations for our house...and Eric has done an amazing job decorating (inside and out!).  We even invested in a $20 inflatable Santa that lived inside until the day after Thanksgiving...

 Santa's waking up...

 Santa's awake!

 Testing out the new decorations!

 So pretty in the dark! 

As I'm writing this, I realize that we have no pictures of the outside of our house decorated yet. But it's bright out. And lets' face it, pretty cold soooo I'll get on that. Later. But lucky for all of you...I took pictures this morning of the inside of our house all lit up...and the sun coming up.  Sometimes something good comes out of the little one waking up at the crack of dawn.