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!