In case you're curious...

Some have asked to see what our house looks like for Christmas, so I thought I'd put up a couple of pics. Our camera is officially DEAD (yes, in all caps), so I didn't get any pics of Phil chopping down our tree. These pictures were taken with our video camera, so they aren't the best, but you get the idea.

Here is our tree. We agree that it's the best one we've ever had! We had so much fun going to Yellow Springs to chop it down with Grandpa and Grandma Swenson while they were here visiting. Adam is a big fan of the tree and has learned the word "Christmas Tree." He waves to his Elmo ornament before going to bed at night.

I decided it was time for some new stockings (except Pooser, hers is the same). I'm really excited about these! Phil and I still get a little weirded out that ours say "Mom" and "Dad," but it's also pretty cool.

I also put up the nativity scene and I've had a lot of fun showing it to Adam and telling him about Baby Jesus - the real reason for all this decorating. Luckily, Pooser has left the nativity alone so far. In years past, she has made it her mission to knock Baby Jesus out of the manger!

Someone turned ONE...can you guess who?

If you guessed this guy (see adorably handsome one-year-old below) then you are RIGHT!

Just to warn you, besides the awesome pictures taken by Susie, these pictures are going to be pretty craptacular, due to our dying camera.

Adam turned one on Thanksgiving, but we celebrated on Saturday the 28th with his family and a few of his neighborhood friends. Thank you, everyone, for making it a very special day for Adam!

Adam loves Elmo, so we naturally had an Elmo party for him. Most of my planning energy and excitement went into the cake, so that's what a lot of this post is going to be about. (Isn't the first birthday party really about the parents anyway? I mean, Adam won't remember it, right?)

Here is the cake just after it came out of the oven. This guy needs some color, don't you think?

Aunt Jessie didn't want the bottom of the cake that I cut off to go to waste!

I was so glad that Adam's two aunts were here to help me with the cake - what a great team! We had so much fun with this cake...maybe a little too much fun.

Jess and I wanted to get his fur just right.

I was very pleased with how it turned out! Adam loved seeing his house transformed into Elmo's World. We got an Elmo balloon and a giant poster of Elmo for the pin-the-nose on Elmo game for the older boys.

Here's another of his one-year shots from Susie. How cool is this little plane??? He was loving it.

The decorating committee hard at work...

The finished product.

Here are a couple of videos to share. They are a little long, so I'm sure Adam will understand if you fast forward a little bit :) Grace took these videos, by the way...
This one is us singing "Happy Birthday."

The second video was too long (5 minutes) to put on here, but YOU CAN CLICK HERE to see it on youtube. It's pretty awesome - Adam digging into his first birthday cake. Excellent! We pretty much fired up the car wash when he was finished, and Mama is SERIOUSLY reconsidering the future use of red frosting.

Facts about our one-year-old:
1. At his check-up, he weighed 21 lbs. 10 ozs. Hard to believe he was only 8 lbs. a year ago!
2. He has started to dance by stepping back and forth and bobbing his head back and forth. Sometimes he bends his knees, too.
3. He's really started to understand language and follows simple instructions like "get your ball." He also loves to point at things. He has learned "Christmas tree" since we put ours up a couple days ago.
4. He also loves waving at people or things he identifies. He waves to his Elmo ornament on the tree before going to bed.
5. He is loving table foods, and ate a full Thanksgiving dinner. He eats a little bit (often times a lot) of whatever Phil and I are eating every day. His favorite snack is yogurt. He still nurses once a day, though, and STILL a couple of times a night. Yep, STILL working on the sleeping! He is much improved, however.
6. He really enjoys riding facing forward in the car.
7. He has 8 teeth - 4 on top and 4 on the bottom.
8. He absolutely loves his books. He will bring them to Phil or me to read to him or just sit and flip through them himself. He is getting really good at finding the mouse in Goodnight Moon.

Dear Adam,
I can't believe you are one! What a year we have had! I have such sweet memories of your birth and the start of your life. It has been amazing for us to watch you grow and learn. It is so fun to take you to new places and watch your face light up. You are so curious about everything and you really keep us on our toes!
You are so cute and you have a lot of fans around these parts - lots of friends to play with. You are so loved, especially by your dad and me. Thank you for changing our lives and filling our days with so much fun.

We love you!
Mama and Daddy

P.S. Could you please just sleep a little bit better at night? Thank you.

Silly Unco Matty

If you know my brother, this video will come as no surprise. If you don't know him, don't worry, he's not completely mental or anything. He is, however, hilarious and will do ANYTHING to make people laugh. Especially his nephew, who he adores. Adam pretty much adores him, too.
Make sure your volume is up so you can hear Matty's antics and Adam's laughing.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok, I've been a little slow getting the T-giving and Adam's B-day posts up, but that is because our camera broke so I've been trying to collect pictures that look half-way decent. So, you'll see the quality of the photos diminish as these posts go on. Shooters, huh?

We had a great Thanksgiving, though. Adam's birthday was ON Thanksgiving this year, but we didn't celebrate it until Saturday, so I'll talk about that in another post. My parents, Matty and Jess, and Grace joined us for Thanksgiving this year. We had a wonderful time!

Here is a shot of the Turkey (or as Matty and I say, The Goose!) before it went in the oven. I learned how to do a turkey from Phil's mom, and I'm a huge fan of it with the butter and herbs stuffed underneath the skin.

Here's a look at what was going on in the living room:
Adam did lots of reading with Grandpa Rob. Adam was a little annoyed in this photo since I was interrupting the story.

He also did some good playing with Uncle Matty.

There was plenty of relaxing and football watching going on...

and even a little bit of napping.

The Wii competition got a little fierce... (this photo was staged, but that's pretty much what Grace looks like when she plays anyway)

and it even got a bit physical at times...

but it was all cool at the end.

Grace also clocked some time in the kitchen.

Here is the centerpiece I made for the table.

Phil carvin' up a storm!

Adam's first Thanksgiving dinner. (Don't worry, he had cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, too. I just hadn't put it on the plate yet.) He liked everything!

The fam, all ready to dig in!

It was pretty awesome to all be together. That doesn't happen very much anymore. We had so much fun and Adam loved spending time with his grandparents and aunts and uncle. We certainly have had a lot to be thankful for this year!

Bible Study Thanksgiving Brunch

This fall, I have been blessed to be a part of my church's Women's Bible Study, which meets on Tuesday mornings. We've been studying Esther, a Beth Moore study - absolutely phenomenal! We had off this week, for Thanksgiving, but Susie opened her home to our small group for a little breakfast and girl time. It was great!

Here is our group, minus Ginger and Laura.
L to R: Becky, Susy (with Lauren), Me (with Adam), Ashleigh, Melanie, Janelle, Susie. What a great bunch! Adam loves Bible study, by the way. He gets to play with his friends in the nursery for two hours!

Janelle and me. I did not know Janelle before our study, and I am so glad to have met her.
She = awesome!

Susie and me. Finally, a good picture of us! We've only been trying for a year :) I continue to be overwhelmingly blessed by her friendship.

Susie had a cute Christmas card for us to make together. We love being crafty, you know!

Pioneer Woman Potluck

Ok, so the women in my small group are VERY into the Pioneer Woman. If you are not familiar, she is a super creative famous blogger. What we are all so excited about, though, is the portion of her blog devoted to cooking. So, we decided to have a Pioneer Woman Potluck - all dishes had to be out of either the Pioneer Woman's Cookbook or off her website. So much fun! Our husbands made fun of us, of course, but had no problem eating the food that we had made...funny how that works out.

Here is our Pioneer Woman spread! It was a Mexican theme. Notice her newly released cookbook in the background.

Of course, I had to have a close-up shot of my contribution: Bacon Onion Cheddar Biscuits. Yes, they are every bit as bad for you and every bit as delightful as they sound!

Adam had great fun playing with his friends after dinner...
Telling Clara what's up...

Having some fun with Ashleigh...

Here are three of my favorites. Christine, Susie, and Corrie.

Thanks, Mark and Susy, for a fun night with friends! You are awesome for opening your home to us every week!

Fall Family Photos

Did you enjoy the alliteration in that blog post title? I hope you did. If only the word "photo" started with the letter "F" it would be perfect. Anyway...Susie took our family's photos again this fall at a park near our house. We are SO blessed by her talent! I wanted to share some of my favorites with you. They all came out so beautifully, it was hard to choose...

The fam.

Adam and his daddy.

My baby and me.

Another great one of Adam by himself.

I'll leave you with my ABSOLUTE favorite. Oh, how this photo melts my heart!

Thank you, Susie!

Hello and Goodbye

We went over to Mike and Kelly's house the other night to bring them a meal and to enjoy some time with them and their new little daughter, Anna.  She is absolutely precious!  It's funny how we forget just how tiny babies are when they come into the world.  Was Adam ever this tiny???

Hello Miss Anna!

It was also a night of goodbyes, since Mike and Kelly are moving to their next assignment in California.  This is a hard goodbye for me, since Kelly took such good care of me after Adam was born and has been such a good friend.

Since they won't be here for Adam's birthday, they gave him his present while we were there.  I can't believe with all they have going on, they still remembered Adam's birthday!

Adam with his friends Ella, Abby, and his brand new friend Anna.  Thank you, Abby and Ella, for taking such great care of Adam and always choosing the best toys for him to play with when he was at your house!

Adam was so excited to play with his new toy from Mike, Kelly, and the girls - a little tool bench!  He figured out the hammer pretty quickly.

It was a bittersweet visit, saying hello to a precious new baby and goodbye to dear friends.

Newport Aquarium

My computer has been giving me loads of trouble, and Phil has been so great putting in a lot of work to fix it for me.  He was going to make ANOTHER pilgrimage to Cincinnati to bring the computer to the Apple store to get her looked at again, and I decided we should make it a family trip with some fun mixed in.  We started at the mall where my computer WAS fixed (thank you Phil and Apple Man!).  Adam and I walked around the mall, saw the sights, and ate some lunch.  

After the business part was taken care of, we visited the Newport Aquarium.  It was so cool, and the bonus was that Phil got in free since he's active duty military!  Here are a few shots - Adam was pretty much on cloud nine the entire time, and was exhausted by the time we left.

Playing a bongo drum in the rainforest.

He got to touch a Horseshoe Crab.

He loved all the tanks with the bright colors and lively fish.  He was in a constant state of excitement!  He only bumped his head on the tank once, while trying to get a closer look.

He especially liked the "tunnel tanks" where you could see fish swimming all around you.  He liked to see the underside of the sharks as they swam over us.

One of my favorite parts - the jellyfish exhibit.  It was so beautiful and very relaxing to watch them float in the water.

Another highlight was the bird exhibit.  You could buy nectar to feed the birds and they came right up to sit on your hand.  Adam loved them since there were so many flying free all around us and they were very bright and beautiful.  It was great, too, because we didn't even have to buy any nectar.  Everyone thought Adam was so cute they let him come right up to see the bird while it ate off of their nectar!  So sad I left my camera outside the exhibit with the stroller.  Sorry - no pictures!

Ride 'em Cowboy!

Adam got this horse from Grandma Ann a while ago, and he has recently learned how to get on and off of it himself. As you can see, he LOVES riding his horse!

The Countdown Has Begun!

This is a fantastic idea that I got from my friend Susie, and a really fun way to countdown to your kids' (or spouse's, or your own) birthday. Since we have a very exciting FIRST birthday coming up around here, I had to get my act together and create one for our family. I don't have as much time to be crafty anymore, so I get pretty excited when I have the chance to indulge my love for crafts.

Here it is - Adam's birthday countdown!
The name and the little airplane marker are magnetic, so you can switch them out to use the same countdown for multiple people.

Don't worry, Adam may be the star of the show around here, but here are the pieces all ready to go for Mom and Dad too.

If you'd like to make your own - here is Susie's Mini Tutorial from her blog. Only 24 days until Adam's big day!