The Big John Deere Party!

We had a wonderful little party for the birthday boy today!

The Menu:

• Ham, Turkey, & Roast Beef sandwiches from Subway with all the trimmings


• Veggie tray


• Fruit tray with carmel fruit dip (I made it...recipe from the Laurie's Too cookbook)


• Artichoke dip (also from the Laurie's Too cookbook) with crackers


• Lemon Squares (a recipe from one of our CBS kitchen ladies...will put the recipe on the blog sometime in case anyone wants to make them!)


• Dainty cucumber sandwiches (made by Grandma D)


• Chocolate covered pretzels (brought by Grandma D and Grandpa A)


• Ghiradelli chocolate squares


• And the best chocolate cake EVER with a real John Deere tractor on top, "dirt" (crushed oreos) and corn stalks (made of green tie dyed fruit roll ups) made by the wonderful Julie Marshall!!!! THANK YOU, JULIE!!! It was beautiful AND delicious!! :) And it was a great idea to have a real tractor on top - he will enjoy that in the years to come! :)


• Our beverages were Coke, Diet Coke, DP, Diet DP, Sprite, and bottled water

The Guests:

• Grandma & Grandpa


• Amanda & Dave


• Mary Anna


• Alyssa & Josh


• Granny & Pa


• Kellie, Logan, Caden, & Kayla


• Julie, Gray, and Tess


• Barry, Mickie, Lindsey, & Shelby


• (We were missing Auntie Vicki & Auntie Liesel because they are sick!! Also missing were Auntie Alicia, Uncle Robert, and Cousin James since James is also sick! Mel & Riss couldn't make it because of scheduling! Missed you guys!!)

The Decorations:

• Handmade banners made by me with my Cricut..."Happy 1st Birthday Luke" (for the dining room) and "Welcome" (for the door)
• Green & yellow balloons and a tractor balloon that said "Happy Birthday"
• John Deere streamers

The Agenda:

• Ate the foods listed above


• Watched "The Story of Luke" over and over - made by Auntie Vicki. It is Luke's whole first year in pictures! Makes me cry every time I watch it!! THANK YOU, VICKI!!! I know that was a whole lot of work and a whole lot of time and I REALLY appreciate it. I really wanted to do it but ran out of time! Everyone loved it!! Thanks again!! :)


• Chatted and caught up


• Watched Luke open his presents - he got a vast array of wonderful gifts! He is becoming an old pro at opening gifts! He rips the paper off the boxes pretty fast!


• Watched Luke eat his first birthday cake ever - he loved it just as we thought he would! He took a big chunk of it in his hand and chowed down. Then he got really upset when we tried to clean off his hands because he was still working on the chocolate icing. He would wipe down his high chair with his fingers to get everything he could off of it!!


• Watched Luke ride the John Deere tractor that Granny and Pa brought over - he rode around on it like a big boy (though his legs aren't long enough to reach the pedals yet!). Daddy pushed him around.


• Watched Luke as he was introduced to bubbles! He liked them a lot! :)

Many thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us!! I know Luke had a good time and enjoyed getting to see everyone!! :)

Vicki, Liesel, Alicia, Robert, James, Mel & Riss - we really missed you guys!!!

My Baby is ONE!!!

Happy birthday to my baby boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (He will always be my baby no matter how old he gets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

I can't believe it but my baby is ONE today!!! The year flew by so fast and I just feel like I missed it. I mean I was here and even had the wonderful blessing of getting to stay home with him every day...but I still can't help but think that I missed out on so much because it just seems to have flown by so fast. I would practically blink and a month would pass!!

Thankfully I have taken thousands and thousands of pictures, written a lot of little notes, and lived in the moment as much as I could!

My little Luke has grown so much in the last 365 days! He has gone from a little 8 pound 1 ounce baby to a 20.4 pound almost toddler who is crusing the furniture, eating big boy food, and saying a bunch of words! His hair has even changed from blonde to brown! He just looks so grown up to me when I look at him.

Now, call me a sentimental sap (which I am!) but seriously?! Can't this boy slow down growing just a little tiny bit?!?!?

These photos were taken today on his birthday. Mom, dad, Vicki, Luke, and I went to Mimi's Cafe and had lunch.

Then back home for a little while... (I made that birthday banner with my own two hands! ;)

And then on to Chilis for dinner with Brad's family...

Luke had his first sugar...a Chilis ice cream sundae! He tried it and after that he was head over heels for it! We kept trying to put his nay nay (pacifier) back in his mouth and he would take it out and chunk it and insist that I give him more! I am afraid we have a little sugar addict on our hands now (much like his momma!)!

Check out the video of the Chilis folks singing to him...he wasn't sure what to think. We thought he might wave at them or at least dance a little but he just stared at them like they were crazy!

(Just FYI...if you tend to get carsick stop watching before the video is over...Logan gets a little crazy with the camera! lol)

So we are getting the house ready for his little birthday party tomorrow that we are having at home. It is a John Deere themed party (hence the first photos that you saw on this post!). More pictures to come! :)

Happy Birthday to Brad & Gene!!

Wanted to wish my sweet boy and father-in-law a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!!!

Brad is the big 2-5 today...Gene would rather forget that it is his birthday!

This picture was taken last year on their birthday at work...

(Gene would not wait for me to get my camera so he is showing off his empty cup that used to have cake and ice cream in it :)

We are celebrating by going out to eat tonight :)

BVOTD: "Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." Luke 12:19b NIV

Meet our First Son...

He's cute, isn't he?! He has Brad's dimples :) (and my large pouf of hair on the top of his head...but at least he is happy!!).

This is just one of the many things we enjoy about going to Dave & Busters to celebrate birthdays (we celebrated Vicki & MAM's birthdays last month {also Kevin's but he did not get to attend the party} but I never got around to posting the pictures)...a picture booth that shows you what your children will look like. Always fun.

Perez & Josh had a girl...through she looks a little bit like a boy. But anything beats the "monkey child" from last trip (children are usually cuter when the father does not have a lot of facial hair that the child is blessed with).

Amanda & Dave also had a girl. Dave was too busy shooting things to take a picture with his wife and child though!

Love hanging out with this crew (even Alicia & Daniel came!)...it was the first married outing for Perez & Josh...and the first time all of us had seen them since the wedding.

It was the perfect time to go to Dave & Buster's because they had a big game on so most people were hanging out at the bar. There were hardly any lines for the games :) I did the boxing game again. Quite fun if you ask me. I also got to play the police game and the shooting game (with Vicki). The whole gang raced cars...I played against Brad and actually won for a change! :)

I love the annual Dave & Buster's trips...we always have a ton of fun. And who doesn't love pie??? The annual trip to Marie Callendars for pie is always welcomed. YUM! PIE! :)

Amanda and I took our "surfing" picture at Marie Callendar's again...this time she wasn't quite as excited about doing it...not sure why. (I would post the picture but blogger won't let me...maybe some other time!).

This is your friendly reminder to go enjoy a piece of pie with your family :) Have a fabulous day!!

Check This Out!! . . .

It's my birthday (23 whole years today!)! And I got rollerblades from Bradley for my birthday...

It has been a while since I rollerbladed. Vicki used to have some and we would take turns wearing the rollerblades and hanging on to the back of the bike...we would hold on for dear life while the other one peddled away.

If you ask her about it she will tell you about the time (she claims) that I took the corner way too fast on the bike and she ended up laying on her back in the middle of our table and chairs outside. Quite an interesting memory if I may say so myself :)

Good times, good times...

One of the joys of owning a home with tile in it is that I can rollerblade wherever I wish :) I have been rollerblading around the house for a while now...

Hopefully Brad can now run at a normal pace while I rollerblade. He doesn't so much care for running at granny pace with me...not sure why...

All in all, it was a wonderful day. I took the day off work and organized all of the CBS stuff that is taking over the house. I printed name tags and made roll sheets and laminated memory verses. I got quite a bit done! (And my wonderful boy helped me with verses when he got home!)...

Brad took me to Mangia Pizza for lunch and we ate the yummy leftovers for dinner...then he took me to get a Bombstick...my favorite :)

We also got wireless Internet tonight which is really, really cool. Less wires to fight with!

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes...I really appreciate it :) We have plans to celebrate all of the August birthdays on Saturday...should be a ton of fun!