Parker's big day.... he's ONE!

Parker's Birthday was November 23rd, just one day before Thanksgiving this year.

It's amazing to think this cute guy with a melt-your-heart personality has already been in my life for an entire year!  What a cute boy he is. 

I have a certain mind set (I don't know why or where it comes from really) that I want to do things just right for my cute kids.  I sometimes wish I had more resources to make things absolutely perfect, but then I realize I can be perfectly happy with what we have. 

Anyway, I admittedly spent too much time and effort on Parker's Birthday festivities, but I sure had fun with it, and I think he deserves the best.  What else is a mom supposed to do than to drop everything and try to make his special day a really special day?

  Parker really does LOVE cars and trucks.  I didn't think someone so small could enjoy them so thoroughly, but he does, to the point of giggling.  The night before his Birthday I spent far too many hours making these Birthday banners for Parker.

It was fun to do, and I realized how much of a perfectionist I am.  Each checker was measured with a ruler, and colored with a marker.  Each triangle was carefully measured and cut.  I'm a little weird, and the computer was unavailable.  :)

 The day of Parker's Birthday I baked and baked and frosted and frosted, and of course mothered my children.

Here are the cupcakes for everyone who was not turning one.  They are wheels.... can you tell?

Here is the "red" car birthday cake.  I literally used an entire new little squeezie bottle of red food coloring on this thing.  As the frosting set, it turned more and more red, but I almost turned back when I thought for awhile I would end up with a Barbie Dream car birthday cake for my baby boy.

It, of course, took me way longer than I thought it would.  But it's worth it.... right?

Waiting for the party to begin.  By the way, having a party the night before Thanksgiving is just a little hard.  We knew not a lot of our friends would be able to make it, and none of our family was in town.  We had one great family come and celebrate with us, our great friends, the Ryans.

There is just something about Parker's profile that I love.

Party time!  The dads always talk about school.  :)

Then the moment of truth.... what does a one-year-old do with the cake on his tray?

He honestly wasn't interested at first, because he had no idea it was food and wasn't in the mood to play.  Once I stuck a little frosting in his mouth with my finger he got interested.  It was a little too gooey for his fingers, so he gave the straight in the mouth technique a try.

 Enjoying the bliss on his thumb.

 Cohen was sad he didn't get the car cake, but handled it pretty well.  We let him have some the next day, so that seemed to work.

 The damage.  He hardly got any cake, probably because his mother put WAY too much frosting on the cake.  (Hey, I was just trying to hide the imperfections of my car sculpture!)

 This is a very happy face.

 Playing with his buddy and his new toys - post cake. 

Parker is a wonderful boy.  I love him to pieces.  He is loving, and cuddly.  He is bashful, and gives great smiles.  He walks very well, and can't crawl. 

He can almost stand up on his own.

A day or two before he turned one tooth #5 broke through, and then a week later tooth #6. 

This is the status when he turned one:

He tries to say lots of words:  more, mama, dada, cat, truck, throw, tickle, light, and banana.

He enjoys carrying things around.  He'll find a random object and just carry it all over - he'll even come back to it if he gets distracted.  He doesn't like me or anyone to take this object away either - it's his! 

He has such a cute personality. 

He loves to chase or be chased by Cohen and Daddy, and me too sometimes.  He can walk really fast and breathe hard and he thinks he's running. 

He loves to play peek-a-boo and tries to say it and play it during diaper changes. 

He loves his cuddly blankets.  I know he's tired when he finds our green blanket on the couch and walks up to it, and lays his head on it.

I have a sweet heart on my hands, and I love it!