First Birthday Party! Russellville Edition

WOW! This past few months have been so crazy busy. But I’m on Spring Break now, so let the catching up begin!
Griffin’s party in Russellville was on his actual birthday! It was at 5pm on Sunday night. It was so wonderful to see all of Brandon’s family and a few of our close friends come together to celebrate Griffin’s first birthday.

We used the same décor. No way I was decorating two different ways! Ain’t nobody got time for that!!


Daddy got to help G open presents this time. Griffin was much more interested than he was in Omaha. I was SO happy because all he got were clothes and a few books! He basically received his entire summer wardrobe that night. woohoo!

Love these girls! I was super excited to see Amber!

Nannie and Papa bought a plain, white cake since we discovered he was allergic to his monster cake. :/ He LOVED the singing!

He did not love the cake though. He did not want to touch it at all.

Griffin and his buddy Ethan. Love love love these two boys!

Some of my co-workers and greatest friends!

And final attempts at trying to get a decent family photo. Let’s just say we were ALL ready to go to bed. It was an exhausting weekend!

First Birthday Party! Omaha Edition

I still can’t believe my sweet little boy is one!
We had his party on the 23rd in Omaha. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. My AMAZING mom put so much work in to making his birthday so special. We started the party at noon due to Griffin’s naptime at 2ish. However, he was still incredibly cranky.

Aren’t these monsters SO cute?? I made them using the mini monster cricut cartridge.
So anyways, the theme was monsters obviously.

My mom made delicious sandwiches and vegetable beef soup for lunch. She also made brownies for dessert.

I made all the decorations. The cricut made is super easy. I loved how the table turned out too! It was just a simple plastic table cloth with a roll of wrapping paper on top. The cake shop in Harrison made his cake, and I LOVED how it turned out. It was adorable. Only bad thing about the cake… Griffin had some sort of allergic reaction to the dye in the cake. He broke out in a rash on his face, back, and stomach. Aunt Shonna said his tongue looked swollen as well. :/ After some Benadryl, all was well and he took a great nap!
So basically, that’s the layout. Now to all the fun pictures!

What a fun day! After everyone ate lunch, Griffin and I sat down to open presents. Well… he could have cared less! he wanted to nothing else but play on Nana’s stairs. Luckily, Drew and Emmalyn were there to open all of the gifts! ha! They were pros. Griffin got some money and some toys. I am going to open a savings account for him soon. His favorite gift by far was his Cozy Coupe from Nana and Papa. He loved it from the beginning and has loved it ever since!

Seriously! I have the sweetest little one year old EVA!

A Year Ago Today

I made a video like this for each month. The other videos have actual movie footage that we recorded of Griffin though. I cry and cry and cry every time I watch them.
I cannot believe my sweet baby is a year old today. It just doesn’t seem possible. How things can change in a short year!!

Griffin has six teeth! He has a big gap between his top two, and I’m not really sure if that is normal or not… He is wearing 12-18 month clothes and a size 4 diaper. He is not walking yet, but he stands on his own for a few seconds and is cruising everywhere. He even cruises down the hallway and will walk beside us if he is hanging on to our pants.
Griffin is exploring his boundaries and has learned behaviors that will let him get his way. HA! That means, my well tempered baby is slowly changing into a toddler that is getting a pretty big personality! He is still sweet as sugar, just more vocal. He says “dada” ALL the time. Daddy loves to ask him who is favorite is because the answer is always “dada.” This weekend he added the words Nana and Papa to his vocabulary.
Griffin still plays patty cake, waves bye bye, blows kisses, finds his nose and belly button, loves playing “this little piggie” and most recently, trying to do the motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider. He is learning so much so quickly. It’s amazing to watch him grow and learn.
Griffin’s favorite foods are turkey sandwiches, Gerber “cheetos", sweet potatoes, and apple juice popsicles. He is down to about three, six ounce bottles a day. He made the big switch to whole milk about two weeks ago! I’m so excited to NOT spend $70 a month in formula!!! I’m trying to wean him from the bottle, but it’s harder than I thought it would be. Switching to whole milk has made him so constipated and he just got over a double ear infection and some kind of virus. I’m hoping once he’s back to normal, we can try to wean him. He drinks from a sippy cup just fine and from a straw, but he still prefers his bottle.

Daddy turned his car seat around a week ago. It’s nice to be able to turn around and have a little chat with baby G! Mostly, I like to be able to find his paci quicker! haha. I’m not ready to fight the paci battle just yet. Maybe after we get him weaned from the bottle, we can think about it.
Griffin has changed our life so much since he entered our world. Words cannot express the amount of love and joy he brings to me. I can have the worst day at school, but as soon as I pick up that sweet baby from JoJo’s house, all is right in the world.

It’s amazing to think that God has placed this precious little one with Brandon and me. What a great responsibility we have! I cannot wait to see what this next year brings. I know that it can only get better with Griffin in our lives!!
Next post… The Monster Party