Vanders 1st Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated Vanders 1st Birthday! As I said before, I seriously cannot believe how quickly the past year went! It has been a GREAT year and we had a great little party to celebrate!

Vander had NO clue what was going on all day. He stared at me like I was a crazy person when I woke him up in the morning for his party and shouted "Happy BIRTHDAY buddy!!". Its funny how you put so much time into a 1st birthday party and they literally won't remember a moment of it. But he will see photos and know he is loved!

To Vander it was any other day, but to me it was a sad reminder that my baby is no longer a baby. He's a big boy now! Anywho... Here are some photos of his party :)

 Adopt a Monster station- (Stuff and Build your own Monster)

 Monster cake and cake pops! YUM!!! (Ps- I did NOT make the cake pops.. I wish)

 Cereal Bar

 Foooood

 Happy Birthday boy- He carried around his cold medicine for the 1st 45 minutes of his party.

 Vander and Bop Bop... and Vander with his drugs....

 Van and Auntie Jess

 Everyone busy building their Monsters

Maddux showing off his completed Monster :)

 Vander and "Uncle" Jon :)

Vander and Daddy! Vander was long past nap time by this time...

 Cake Time! He wasn't so sure about this...

 Daddy had to smash his hand into the cake

 He wasn't in the mood for cake- considering he had just had 9 mini pancakes for b-fast.

 So many good gifts from great friends and family!

 So excited about all of his books

Loving his new ride on train from Grandma and Bop Bop

Vanders First Year

My sweet baby is turning 1 this week. I am a little in shock. Where did the time go??? I was looking through his photos over the past year and noticed just how quickly he grew up. He's not my baby anymore, hes a toddler! He has brought us more joy then I could have ever imagined. We are beyond grateful for everything he has brought to our life.
I made a quick little video of some pictures of him over the past year. Oh the memories! The video is below :) We LOVE our little boy. Thank you Vander for the best year of my life.
Heres a few things that Van is up to now a days

-Hes running around, no longer walking, running...
-He loves to talk- he wants us to understand SO bad
-If you talk to him, he will talk back like hes having a full conversation
-He LOVES going up the stairs, but refuses to learn how to go down
-Absolutely adores reading books. The second you walk into his room in the morning he points to his bookshelf
-He loves pancakes, and anything else with a ton of syrup
-He eats nearly anything put in front of him
-He also refuses to learn to hold his sippy himself or to suck out of a straw
-He loves chasing the doggies and trying to hit them with the golf clubs while they run (poor dogs)
-He gets so excited when you play peek a boo with him
-He adores his daddy
-He is very tender hearted. If you get mad at him he instantly does the cutest pouty face in the world and just wants to snuggle
-He loves bathtime and starts squeeling just at the sight of the bath water turning on
-He is very independant and will keep himself occupied for hours around the house while Joel and I get our work done
-He loves being outside
-He is an explorer, he gets into absolutely everything. But right now his personal favorite is the tupperware cabinet in the kitchen
-He has learned to clap, but hasn't quite figured out the perfect timing to when the clapping should happen :)
-He can now waive bye bye on cue- Hes actually been doing this for about a month now
-He has 3 teeth -Two top teeth, one on the bottom and another 3 on the way!
-He is the HAPPIEST baby in the world. CONSTANTLY smiling and giggling
-He loves life and family and brightens this home more everyday
-We LOVE our sweet baby and are so grateful for his sweet tender spirit

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Halloween

This was the BEST Halloween of my entire life. Trick or Treating and dressing up as a kid is awesome. But taking your little kid trick or treating- that takes the cake. Vander had no clue what was going on the entire time, but he LOVED being in his costume. I thought as soon as we stuck his monster cap on that he would rip it right off. Instead he would smile and get excited. He LOVED running around in his costume. He would get excited and start walking super fast and fall, but it was so cute. The little waddle he had when he was in his costume also made it hilarious.
We let him walk up to every house on his own and he wasn't scared a bit. He was able to make it to about 15 houses before he was noticablly getting tired.
He was a HAPPY boy and that made it the best night ever. Hopefully he is JUST as good next year when he is two and we have his 7 month old baby sister in tow. :)
Here are some photos of our fun evening....

 Grinning from ear to ear the second we put his costume on.

Happiest little Monster on the block

 

 Hanging out with Auntie Jessica

 Almost ready to go!!

 Dad and his favorite little Monster

 All the kiddos (minus Reese). Vander was so curious as to why all his cousins were in funny costumes- He would only stare at them and not the camera.

 Grammy and Monster Vander

 Here we go!!

 His first trick or treating house.

 Getting his candy- He wouldn't reach for it- He would just stare at it.

 This holiday was very perplexing to him. He would just stare at everything

Having so much fun with Daddy.

The little mans loot. He did pretty well for only a few houses.