Christian's First Birthday - Part 1

For Christian's 1st Birthday we decided to just keep it low-key and have a family birthday party. Since our family is HUGE and we didn't know what to expect with the weather, Jared and I decided to break up the parties. A small party with just my immediate family, and then a second party up at Jared's mom's house a week later (when my sister in law Jen and four of her kids were in town). It was a little hectic and so I am not sure that we will do it this way again, but we really did have such a wonderful time!

Dad and Aunt Bethany with the Birthday Boy waiting for his special dinner. We made delicious spaghetti, my parents made a fresh salad and Beth brought DELICIOUS cheesy-garlic bread.

Here's CJ playing with his ball

My parents got Elaine a gift to open too so that she wouldn't freak out when Christian was opening his. It worked like a charm!

This is a little turtle that makes noise and teaches kids their numbers and letters. It was an instant hit!

He got tons of great books from my parents and Brooke and Beth.

Aunt Brooke got him a nice green frog shirt which is hiding in the bottom corner of the picture. I have no idea what I am doing in this picture, but please ignore the cleavage ;)

This has to be the best gift of the night. Aunt Bethy got him his very own TV REMOTE! He loves playing with, and losing, ours, so I am so happy he has his own that we can distract him with.

Here's another winner from the night....the BOX that the slide was in :)

And here's a picture of our little family!

I cannot believe that I had NO pictures of Christian with his first birthday cake! I know we took video, so maybe I will have to load part of that. The short story is that although he liked the cake, he liked being FED the cake more. He got really cranky when we put him on the table to play with it, but if Jared was giving him bites...oh man, he could not get enough! I am so grateful for my family and their generosity and willingness to celebrate such a great day for my little boy.