Happy 1st Birthday

Cale turned one on the fourth of July. We had a small party with mostly family in attendance. We celebrated at our new house. Luckily it wasn't too hot. It has been above 110 degrees since so we are happy we didn't have to deal with that variable. We did purchase misters and had lots of water toys to stay cool.

The family picture with all of us in matching festive shirts. A little corny I know. Brian always wants to be color coordinated and finally we were able to do so without me feeling silly.

Cale hanging out before all the fun began. I am in the background running around like a crazy person trying to get everything ready in time. He of coarse has no idea anything is going on.

Cathy (Brian's sister) had this AWESOME water slide that she brought for us to use. It was the hit of the party. all the kids had a great time on it.

I also bought this $5 sprinkler. The younger kids really enjoyed this too.

This is Cathy's son "Duce". He was apparently thirsty and took it upon himself to get his own refreshment.

Of coarse Brain and I couldn't resist the slide either. We were a little big for it, but it was fun nonetheless. I bottomed out a couple of times going down.

Birthday CakeI decided to make Cale's cake. At first I had ambitions of making it from scratch but that didn't last long. I did however make the frosting with a recipe my friend Lisa gave me. I was pretty proud of how the decorating came out and It didn't taste too bad either.

We didn't practice blowing out candles before hand, so I ended up having to blow them out for him. He will be good to go for next year though.

Cale hadn't had a nap yet and was getting very tired, but he was a trooper and lasted the whole party. Poor kid couldn't even enjoy his first taste of cake because he was so tired. he did a great job of getting it in his hair. YUMMMMM...cake + sunscreen = two rounds of shampoo.

Gifts

Cale got so many nice gifts. It was so exciting! I felt like it was my birthday!

He got this cool rocking horse from his grandma and grandpa Keehn. The thing is pretty amazing...it sings, talks, makes galloping sounds when it moves, even its tail moves.

The Day After

My parents came into town for the party too. It was so great to have them here. My mom helped sooooo much with getting things ready for the party. Thanks Nana. the morning after the party Cale's G-pa had him outside and before we knew it, He was going round 2 on the slide... ...This time in his real birthday suit.

We let him slide down all by himself. When he got down to the bottom he would sign, "more more more." He loved it!

The 12th Month

I know this is late even for me, but this time I have a good excuse. We moved to a new house and didn't have internet for a few weeks. This month we went to Maryland for a wedding, moved, and Cale TURNED ONE!!! In this post I will take you through our trip to Baltimore/DC and show some pics from our new house. But stay tuned for a birthday post still to come.

I thought it would be fun to try on Cale's hat from the hospital to show how far he has come in a year.

Still very cute:)

Cale is a lot more proficient at feeding himself now a days. We can fill his plate and he gets most of the food in or at least around his mouth (with the occasional speck on the forehead.) His favorite foods of the moment are beans (must be the Brazilian in him), pasta (must be the Italian in him), and watermelon (must be the 4th of July in him).




By the way, all of these pics were taken in the new house!




Cale signed his first sign this month! We have been watching Baby Signing Time and practicing for months and it is finally paying off.


His first sign was "more". We were in the pool at our condo and had been playing for a while. It was time to get out so I handed Cale to Brian who was already out of the pool. Brian put him down and Cale looked at us and did the sign for more; he wanted back in. So we put him back in the pool and 1 min later took him out again. Sure enough he did the sign again. We repeated this a couple more times to reinforce the signing and Cale did it each time. It was soooooo exciting! He has been using the sign more and more everyday. Signing is such a helpful tool for him to communicate what he wants/needs to us before he is able to talk.

The best part about the new house is by far the backyard. Cale absolutely loves to play outside. He has gotten very good at dribbling the soccer ball.

Washington D.C.

Because Baltimore is so close to DC, we had to make the trip. I have been a couple times, But this was Brian and Cale's first time in our nation's capital. We all had a really good time. It was a hot HUMID day, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. There is tons to see and we didn't even come close to seeing it all. We definitely plan on making another trip someday.

Vietnam Memorial

Lincoln

There are so many people that it is pretty easy to ask anyone to take a picture for you and then return the favor :)

George Mason was actually the first stop on the trip. Can you tell how enthusiastic Brian was? Cale, not so much.

Brian and Cale in front of the WWII Memorial. I didn't notice at first, but Cale seems to have the same blank look on his face in every picture.

Here Comes the Bride

The real reason for the trip was my good friend Lisa's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding for a beautiful bride and groom.

We took the dress up opportunity to take some nice group pics. Below we are with our friends Rosie, Mike and their little girl Braelynn. They are the ones Cale and I visited in Florida last January. It was really great to get to see them again so soon.

Cale really likes hanging out with Braelynn. They are so cute and entertaining to watch

These photos are from the State Park where the wedding reception was. Lisa and Jesse (bride and Groom) had us out the day before the wedding for a BBQ.

Humidity + Cale = Mohawk