Boys vs. Girls

Delaney's first birthday:


Jude's first birthday:


The boy child is such a little monster!

Jude's Party: The Set-Up

We celebrated Jude's birthday on February 4th, and I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. It was one of those days that remind you that sometimes, living in California ain't so bad. As I have mentioned before, the theme for Jude's party was a Western Round-up Cowboy theme, and golly did I have fun with it. Well, truthfully, party planning started out as a lot of fun, got really stressful somewhere in the middle, and then ended on a positive note when I saw it all come together. We really did go all out for this party, and to quote my husband, "We can't have any more kids because we can't have any more first birthday parties." So, prepare yourself for an obnoxious amount of pictures of just the party set-up. Please stop rolling your eyes and remember that this blog is really my family's digital scrapbook. Jude, are you reading this? This was all for you, baby.

This served as a fun photo-op for the kiddos, and they had fun putting one another in jail. We owe Uncle Monkey a great deal for all of his artistic handiwork, and this was one of the many things that I commissioned Mike to create.

The entrance to the backyard of Nana and Papa's homestead.

Remember all of Jude's wagon pictures? Yes, this makes me cry.

Pin the Tail on the Horse, another one of Uncle Monkey's creations.

This was the favors table. The loot bags are filled with "Golden Nugget" caramel corn, and the mason jars are filled with "Happy Trails" mix. Yes, I'm a dork. I also had out Jude's baby book for people to sign...I guess I should start filling that thing out now, right?

Remember all of those loot bags filled with caramel corn? You can thank this lady right here for that. I love you, Mom. You put up with my crazy ideas so well.

Bean bag "shoot out." All of Uncle Monkey's hard work almost makes up for the fact that he bought Delaney a Whoopie Cushion for Christmas. Sheesh!

We had a lot of little games around the lawn, but I liked the look of this one the best.

You can't see the sign, but this was the "Lil' Buckaroos" craft area. Grandpa, Jude, and Delaney make for pretty good-looking cowpokes, don't you think?

The food layout. We served up cowboy food, meaning hot dogs, baked beans, peanuts, root beer, real beer, and lemonade.

We had a few tables in the backyard for seating, and I wish I had a better picture of the runners and flowers. It was pretty cowboyish, trust me.

This isn't the greatest view, but we had picnic seating out front with tablecloths and hay bales.

Steve and his dad made these amazing saw horse ponies. My original idea was that the kiddos would take turns roping the horses, but really everyone had a great time climbing all over them. One of my former students let us borrow her saddle, which everyone loved.

And I just had to add this picture, because it's too good not to show it off. I love this cowboy.

So stay tuned for like, actual pictures of the party!

12 Months

Today is J. Billy's birthday. Crazy, am I right?

I didn't forget about blogging. It's just been wild around here, gearing up for Jude's Wild West Birthday Round-Up. The party was great, the sun was shining, and Jude was surrounded by love. But that's another post for another time.

So, Jude turned one today. I spent the day with 25 third graders, discussing fractional parts of a group, prefixes, and appropriate pacing when reading poetry aloud. Thankfully, I didn't have too much time to get emotional about my little man not being so little anymore. But yes, a few tears were shed.

Jude is such a fun little monster. He is such a wild, slobbery, happy baby man. We are all so in love with him.

Can you see his baby mullet blowing in the wind?

Sister had to help out because Monster kept eating his sign...

Oh, these two rugrats. I want to gobble them up.

Jude loves his Laney Cat!