Logan's 1st Birthday!

 We just can't believe our little monkey is 1!  We have spent the last two days celebrating this special milestone in Logan's life.  Yesterday the 21st was Logan's birthday and he awoke to balloons all over his room.  See him peeking through the rails.

 He thought that was pretty cool!

Then we had to take our 12 month pictures.  Oh I remember propping him up on that chair when he was just one month and now I had to take the pictures quick because he is a busy little guy now!

Then today was Logan's 1st birthday party.  It was a busy day but so much fun!  We had it at the Cosley Zoo in Wheaton, IL.  If you have never been there and are near that area I highly recommend it.   We were going to do a monkey themed party so I thought it would be cute to have it at a zoo so I just googled and found it.  It is a small zoo but was so cute!  They have barn yard animals and IL native animals and during the winter have a festival of lights show.  

The party started with the cute invitations my cousin Jen made.  She is so awesome!  Check out her shop at The Polka Dot Posie for all the cute stuff she and my aunt make!  

Then came the decorating. 

Here are the centerpieces.  I used my cricut to make the bananas and monkeys and my cousin made the tags for the center that said "It's Logan's 1st Birthday; Let's Go Bananas"

Here is the cake table.  You can see they even had the party room decorated with Christmas decorations  too.  

The monkey cake Mommy made.  

And cupcakes with monkey and banana toppers.

Smash Cake!

This is before the mess

It took him a little bit to dig in but once he did he was loving it.

After:

There was even a visit from some animals.  First a turtle.

Then a hedgehog.  This picture makes me laugh because it looks like Logan just touched his prickly fur  but this was actually us getting ready to gently touch him.  

But Logan's favorite was the last animal: Petey the Rabbit.  

Then all the kids left with their treat bags which had some stickers, animal crackers, a monkey ornament and the barrel of monkeys game of course.  Tags courtesy of The Polka Dot Posie!

What a cool place.  

Today was so fun to celebrate with family and friends!  And for Bill and I today was just as special as yesterday the 21st because the 22nd was when we saw Logan for the first time.  I am getting teary right thinking of that moment when we laid our eyes on the most beautiful sight we have ever seen.  And I looked at him and said "He is just perfect".  Happy Birthday Sweet Logan.  Mommy and Daddy love you so much and we look forward to the adventures your second year will bring.  

Reminiscing...

on what an amazing year it has been.  As Logan's 1st Birthday was fast approaching I began to think of all the moments "at this time last year".  Tonight I can't stop thinking about how at this time last year we had no idea that tomorrow would be completely life changing.  

There are many things that happen in our lives that we will never understand, but I feel from the bottom of my heart that God completely revealed one of His plans to us on December 21, 2011.  It's like my mind could go on rewind quickly through the previous years and truly see each and every heartbreaking and joyous moment in our journey unfold.   Adoption is never a "you can always just adopt" or a second choice.  It takes an extremely thoughtful decision from all involved.  This verse was one that we kept going back to:

Ephesians 1:18

{I pray that} the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

We are so thankful that God opened our hearts in this way and provided us with everything we needed. 

One day our dream of a baby was a hope and continuous silent prayer in our hearts and the next day we had a son waiting for us in Springfield, IL.  We had truly thought we would have a baby before Christmas so as the month was quickly unfolding we were disheartened.  We never doubted God and His good timing but we prayed He would spare us any more waiting.  Tonight I am sitting here thinking of how God's hands were working hard to put everything in place.  I believe He answered the prayers of many who wanted the best for this child.  

My mind is racing in anticipation of the weekend ahead that will be full of celebrations!  

11 Months Old and A Trip to Nashville

Ahh time is moving so quickly I can't even keep up with getting Logan's monthly pics up on time!  Here is his 11 month picture.

He pulls himself up on everything and anything now and is cruising around all the furniture.  He loves seeing the world from this new height!  He says mama and dada and gives the sweetest kisses if you ask for one.

We spent a couple days in Nashville for an early anniversary/ Thanksgiving trip.  I had stayed at the Opryland hotel when I was younger with my parents and after passing through a couple years ago Bill and I had wanted to go back to stay for a few days.  We heard about a special when you stayed in the month of your anniversary and then saw all the beautiful decorations and events for what they called their Country Christmas and it was booked.  The hotel is beautiful any day with its many atriums but then add Christmas decorations and it was gorgeous.

We took a carriage ride around the grounds enjoying the lights and Nativity scene.

There was a hall of trees and craft show.  They also had a display called ICE where artists use over 2 million pounds of ice to create sculptures.  This year's theme was Shrek the Halls.  Everyone put on parkas because they had to keep it 9 degrees in there to keep the sculptures.  Thank goodness they had parkas for us because Bill didn't even bring a coat.  It was so warm outside that day that he thought he would just cool off inside.  Uh freeze is more what he would have done.  

It was very "cool" to see.  And at the end they had ice slides you could slide down but Logan is too little to go by himself and they wouldn't let me go with him.  Sorry Logan, maybe next time.  

They also had a room that had a Nativity scene carved in ice too.  It was beautiful.

My favorite part of our trip was going to the Holly Jolly Town Square where Logan got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time!  This is not his first Christmas but it was his first Santa visit.  We were excited to take him and when we got up to the front of the line the helper asked if this was Logan's first time.  We said yes and she then said to the photographer "you better get ready we have a newbie on our hands.  Ok honey put him on Santa's lap and then move away quick so he can snap a pic before he gets upset."  Well this helper was obviously doing her job in making sure the photographer snaps one good pic before any breakdowns, but she does not know our Logan.  Logan is easy going and all smiles in most situations and this was no exception.  

He looked right at him, gave a big smile, and enjoyed his time with Jolly Old St. Nick.  

The helpers were all pleasantly surprised.  It is going to be a fun Christmas:)    

10 Months Old

Hi Everyone!  Logan is moving around non-stop now so if you are wondering why my posts have become scarce it is probably because I am running circles around the house chasing after our little monkey!  But I hope to keep up with my blog more often.  It has become a great way to keep family and friends updated on what Logan is up to.

He is 10 months old now and there is no slowing him down.  He is now pulling himself up on everything!  His favorite things to get into right now are the dogs' water bowl, door stoppers, and the carbon monoxide detector.  These are all VERY fascinating.  It's just too bad we don't have any toys around here ;)

He discovered the stairs for the first time the other day and I sat by him at the bottom wondering what he would do or think of them.  Well he crawled up about 4 steps like he had done it before.  Then he looked up and then looked back at me like "yeah that's pretty far I think I'm done with that for today."

Logan has two top teeth now along with the two bottom ones.  They gave him some trouble sleeping while they were coming in but he has been sleeping better the last couple days.  And so have Mommy and Daddy :)

He interacts more with Kahlua and Oreo, our dogs.  He laughs when he realizes they want the toy he is holding and he just waves it around.  And he likes to follow them around.  We are working on petting gently because poor Kahlua lost a chunk of fur the other day.  The dogs are really good sports...  and they are Logan's buddies.  One of their favorite things to do together is look out the window.  It is the perfect height for everyone.

:) :) :)