The Last of the Parties

Today was the last of the birthday parties...thank goodness. This birthday week has been lots of fun, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm grateful it's all over :) We had a bunch of our friends over, who all brought their babies, and we had a grat afternoon of toddlers & toys, cake & ice cream, presents & balloons!!

 I took some of Keegan's farm toys to our favorite bakery and I knew they would come up with the best cake EVER, and they did. These farm cakes were a huge hit and tasted good to boot! Keegan got his own special 'smash' cake that he could dig into all on his on, and as you will see, he certainly did!!!

 We had lots of friends to play with and boy did we play. We had four one year olds in our playroom and the toy shelves exploded with fun. Keegan showed his friend Sawyer how to use the gumball machine that Keegan got at his first birthday party.

Keegan loves his Aunties M! Both Missie and Mary were able to come play for the afternoon and certainly made sure that this little boy was completely spoiled on the occasion of his first birthday.

This poor little cake never had a chance :)

Happy Birthday Keegan!!!!!

Keegan's First Birthday

It seems hard to believe that Keegan is officially a toddler now! We had such a wonderfulday and it started first thing in the morning. Drew spent the night before building Keegan's castle that we got him and the wagon from the Grandparents Case. We brought Keegan out of his room and he immediately got to start playing with his new toys. He went down the slide, got to swing a little bit, and Dad even pulledhim around the house in his wagon, while still in jammies complete with pacifier in mouth.

 Drew got Keegan dressed for teh day so I wasn't the least bit surprised when the boys emerged into the kitchen with the babe in his tuxedo t-shirt. He was dressed for the party!!

We had Missie and Wes adn Grandpa Brian and Grandma Ardele over or dinner that night and Mama made lasagna and crescent rolls. And of course no birthday dinner would be complete without chocolate birthday cake. Keegan loved all parts of his first birthday dinner, especially the dessert. After opening a few gifts and getting in the bath long enough to wipe away the frosting, our little birthday man was ready for bed.

Two birthday parties down, one more party with friends this weekend. Keegan certainly feels very loved knowing that he has so many people who want to celebrate his birthday with him!!

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I seemed to find myself remembering what went on the day Keegan was born all day long. While I was sitting at work I would glance at the clock and think about where in our day we were and what we were doing a year ago. My day at work this year didn't even compare to the adventure we were on last year. I wish I had been able to spend my day with my babe, as I spent the day last year anticipating his arrival. This has truly been an amamzing 365 days and we have a beautiful little boy to show for it!

The First of the 1st Birthdays!!

Last weekend we took Keegan to Idaho Falls to celebrate his birthday with the Case family. We had a wonderful weekend!! We had his party at Leo's Place Pizza Parlor. They had little party rooms that we decorated a little and they had great pizzas! We had aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents- all 20 of us packed ourselves into the party room for all the fun. Keegan got to try some pizza and a few bites of grilled cheese before we moved onto the main attractions: cake and ice cream!!!

                                          

  Keegan got some new books, some building blocks, a set of drums, some puzzles, a dump truck, and a fun gumball machine that makes the most fun noises and it even lights up.

We got to play with Cousin Matix and everyone was very good about sharing the toys :)

Thanks Ashley and Aunt Carol for making a birthday banner to match the party invites- it looked great!!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the night. This was Keegan's first taste of anything horribly sweet, let alone a big piece of cake covered in frosting. His eyes got so big when he tasted the frosting and within a few moments he had green icing in his hair, behind his ear, all down his shirt and even down the leg of his highchair! Pretty impressive for a first timer!!

Keegan had a really good time, and we did too! It's hard to believe that we're already celebrating his first birthday. We've had so many wonderful adventures over the past year and we've loved celebrating with everyone along the way. We know that the next week of birthday fun will help wrap up the best year of this little man's life, and certainly one of the best of ours.

Let the birthday madness begin!!!

Our Generations

Within the past few months we've been able to get both family's FOUR Generations pictures taken. While we didn't have time to go to the professionals, we certainly didn't waste the opportunities we had to get some great pictures.

We recently celebrated Drew's Grandma Lennox's 89th birthday!! Let me tell you, this amazing woman is no regular 89 year old woman. She's got the gumption and loving kindness of anyone her junior and is absolutely devoted to her family in every way. With the weather being as mild as it had been, we ventured over to Burley for the day where we and 18 other fmaily members CRAMMED ourselves into the home where Grandpa Howard grew up to celebrate this wonderful woman. Drew's Aunt Ruth ( the family caterer) did all the cooking so no one went home hungry. The party was on Saturday and I don't think we needed to eat again until Tuesday! We got to see old family pictures and heard some fantastic stories. This was the first birthday party that Lennox ever had and we were certainly privledged to have been on the guest list. I have no doubt that we will have manymore celebrations within this wonderful woman's company!! 

 Around Christmas time my mom's mom, Nana Pat, came to Boise to meet her first great-grandson. My grandma doesn't travel often so we were very pleased that she was able to come spend some time with us. She was VERY pleased to meet our little man and wasted no time, like a good grandma does, getting down on the floor and showing Keegan how to romp around the living room with his new fire truck! They had so much fun together. I think they tuckered each other out and I'm sure both slept very well that night.

Drew and I feel so fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends to love on our son and take such good care of him. We especially feel very blessed to still have our grandmas around to share in his little life. We remember the grandparents we've lost and know that they are all together very pleased with the life that we've been given to watch over, and thank them everyday for watching over us.

We love you all!!!

An Island-Size Surprise

 A few weeks ago Drew had decided to take me out to dinner to try and remedy a string of very bad days for me at work. He suggested we go to Chili's over by the mall- even though we have one closer to us by the university. I didn't dispute it because I was simply impressed that he was being spontaneous enough to throw this together last minute. So off to dinner we went!

We got our drinks, some chips and salsa and got our dinner ordered when around the corner, seemingly out of nowhere walked our dearest friends Bethany and Claire Quigley. Normally, this wouldn't be such a big deal, but the Quigleys live in Hawaii, and I had absolutely NO idea that they were in town. Moreso, I had no idea that Bethany and Drew had been in secret contact for nearly two weeks putting this together. I am usually not one to be surprised, nor speechless when a surprise is carried out. I literally sat in my chair for an entire minute trying to figure out what was going on before I figured out that I had been the blessed recepient of a very, VERY big surprise visit. The last time we had seen the Quigley clan was the September that we were pregnant with Keegan (2009). We went to visit them in Seattle and they moved to Hawaii shortly there after. Perhaps the most fun part of it all, was that this was the first time the girls got to meet Keegan- it was so wonderful to finally share him with them. While we don't see each other often, Beth and I are on the phone every week as we try to work conversations into the time difference that we share. Bethany had planned a HUGE week of surprises for her family, and she kicked it off with stopping by to see us first. Her younger sister had just had her second baby, and Bethany decided to "drop by" for a week long visit. I couldn't have been more happy to see anyone else! If that's what happens when Drew decides to take me to dinner, he can take me anytime he wants to!!

Thanks girls soooooooo much for this amazing visit! We miss you all so much and can't wait to have you back on the mainland! Mahalo & Aloha...for now!!!

A Very Special Valentine's Day

In an effort to take this holiday's embarassing pictures of Keegan, I decided to try my hand at my first baby photo shoot. I grabbed some props from work, laid out some bed sheets, cut out some construction paper, and charged my camera. I wanted to make the cutest little Cupid ever and I think I did a pretty good job. I emailed some of the finals off to a girlfriend who helped me with the editing by adding the words and the heart shapes. She made them into what I couldn't make them on my own-Perfect!!! And while some folks mention often that these pictures will be nothing but embarassing when Keegan is older, I simply remember how happy he was playing in the blankets and eating the paper hearts. While he might feel embarassed later, he and his mama had a fun morning playing dress up and make believe. He has truly struck my heart with his love potion!!!

This one might be my favorite...

As Keegan's Valentine gift to his daddy, he decided to make a Heart Brownie for tonight's dessert. He asked me to help with the pouring and mixing stages, but he did the rest- including some of the clean up. He sat in his high chair in the kitchen and watched me work my magic with all my fun kitchen gadgets that move and spin and make fun, loud noises. We got the batter mixed and poured into the mold and watched through the window in the stove door as it baked into its gooey goodness. It turned out really well and Keegan and I had a great time- clearly his favorite part was licking the beaters afterwards. Who knows, maybe we have a chef in the making...in him, that is!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!!!

Big Kid Bites

Keegan recently decided that he was DONE eating baby food. He has been yelling at us about half way through his blended squash and pureed mixed fruit and refuses to finish it. With him only having two teeth, we've been trying to figure out what to feed him. So little by little, we've been trying new snacks and bites and some of them have been a great success.

So far his favorites include:
~graham crackers!!
~goldfish crackers
~shredded cheese
~mashed potatoes
~and tator tots

Tonight he had mashed potatoes, bananas and some cut up deli turkey. He was in toddler food heaven being able to pick up his little bites of food and feed hinself. We always put him in his high chair next to us at the table and try to give him some bites of whatever we're eating and I think his little mind appreciates being included (at least I like to think so). We're very much enjoying getting to try new things with him and look forward to what he gets to experience next.