The Weather

In honor of the beautiful 88 degree day we are having in Austin today - I thought I would post a picture that has something to do with SNOW!

I was going through my phone earlier and found this shot of James and Brian back from when we went up to Iowa in December.  As you can see... I do not think James was too thrilled to touch the cold, white stuff all over the ground!

The Doggie Door

James has discovered the doggy door.

At first, he was just very intrigued with it and would watch as Brandy would go through it.

Sometimes, he would push out the flap - but only ever so lightly.

Now - he has taken to dropping his toys outside through the door.  

Yesterday, he even tried to lean all the way outside to pick up the toys he had just dropped.  Daddy had to rescue him before he fell through!

I think it may be time to retire the doggy door while James is playing!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

Last week, I had to go on a business trip to New York and it was the first time I had to leave James.  I tried to be brave, but I kept tearing up on the way to the airport while looking at my sweet little boy besides me in his carseat.

It was a LONG three days away and I am sure a LONG three days for Brian, who was on his own.  I got the following text from Brian on my second day on the trip and thought I would share:

I like cake!!

First Birthday Party: Picture Overload

I already shared the main details of the party - so, now it is time to share all the pictures from big day!

The morning of his party started off great.  James was in a good mood and was being his usual adorable self.  A few hours before the party, Brian and James took a nap together and unfortunately... James did not wake up on the right side of the bed!  Boy was he cranky!  

For the first half of the party - James was definitely not himself.  He was being very clingy and only wanted to be held by me, his daddy or his Auntie.  Luckily, he soon adjusted to all the people and the excitement - and before the end of the party, he was having a great time!  At one point, he just walked up to one of his presents and started taking all the tissue paper out!  We took that as the sign to open the rest of his presents...

Our family picture with the birthday boy!  

And who can forget about the cake??  

Although James did enjoy a carrot-cake cupcake on his actual birthday the day before - this was his first cake all to himself.  Of course it had to be in the shape of a football for my future quarterback!

First Birthday Party: The Details

I thought I would share the details of the party before I get to all the cute-pictures-of-James goodness!

When deciding on a theme for James' first birthday party, I only had to think for a second before I landed on a football theme.  After all - James will be a star quarterback for The University of Texas one day!

I started with finding the perfect football invitations:

The colors of the party were green, orange, brown & white and were inspired by the invitation and James' two favorite schools:  UT & Notre Dame. 

I had a lot of inspiration for the party decorations from several other blogs I read - so I bought a bunch of scrapbook paper and went to work!  It took me a few weeks worth of time to get everything ready, but I think it was worth it!  I love how everything turned out!

the party favors

hand-made & sewn party streamers

Happy Birthday banner

Month-by-Month photo wall

Stay tuned this weekend for photos of the actual party!

First Trip to the Park

Back in January, we had a nice weekend in between all the crazy weather - so Brian and I decided to take James to the park.  

We started at the swings...

James seemed to like the swings.  I think he did not quite know what was going on and was more interested in checking out what all the other big kids were doing.

Next we headed to the toddler play area.  James liked riding in the car...

He also liked going down the slide with Daddy's help...

And he really liked ALL the rocks at the bottom of the slide!  (see lower left corner in the picture above!)

That is - he liked the swing and the rocks... until Mommy & Daddy took them away so he would not eat them!

All in all - it was a great first trip to the park and I am excited to take James back there many more times as he gets older and the weather gets warmer!