ONE!

So I am sitting home with a sick little man today (hopefully just a cold) so I am finally going to get out the blog I promised 2 weeks ago! Hey, it’s better than the 6 month gap we had previously

So my sweet little Elijah Nicholas Oaks turned  ONE on October 22nd. It is literally still hard for me to believe a year has gone by. This time last year we were getting the hang of feeding, changing, sleeping, and all things baby. And now its chasing, disciplining, and still feeding. Ohh motherhood, the job where the requirements are constantly changing but it is truly the best job around. It is a blessing to be Eli’s Mommy and I want him to stay little forever but at the same time I am excited to see him grow.

So how did we celebrate this big birthday? Well, it all starts with a BIRTHDAY PARTY of course . . .

Eli’s 1st Birthday was celebrated Sock Monkey style on Saturday, October 20th at the Family Life Center at our church. There was food, presents, and lots of fun with friends and family. I think Eli had the most fun opening gifts and then playing afterwards. I would get him started on one gift then he would get it all out and opened and then I would have to try to get him to focus on the next. He loved taking stuff in and out of bags and handing stuff to me and his Daddy. He also seemed to enjoy the paper ripping.  Thank you so much for everyone who attended and made Eli’s big day special! I have tons of bday party pics but in order to keep this from being the longest post ever I am only going to give you a small sample:

The awesome cake and smash cake from The Cake Gallery. Thanks Hannah for a fabulous cake as always!

The sweet birthday boy enjoying some cake!

With the Birthday Boy! Happy Birthday Eli- love you!

So Eli’s actual birthday was on Monday, October 22nd and Nick and I both took the day off to be with our little man on his day. For the actual birthday fun we had birthday pancakes for breakfast, play time a home, and then an afternoon at the playground at Warrior’s with pizza for dinner. Ohh and we did take Eli to early vote with us that day We had originally intended to take Eli to a corn maize or pumpkin patch for his birthday but had 2nd thoughts on that and opted for the playground. I am so glad we did, he had a lot of fun at the playground. he loves other kids and spent a lot of time watching them, running around, and sliding with his Daddy.

Pancake Breakfast!

Playground Fun!!!

Birthday Boy after his Pizza Dinner

I spent most of Eli’s actually birthday day feeling like I might cry at any minute. I am so happy he is growing and learning but like I said earlier I just want to keep him little FOREVER.  And I do wish time would slow down just a little. This 1st year has been exciting and full of milestone rolling, crawling, and walking and I can not wait to see what the next year has in store for us. I pray that our Eli continues to stay happy and healthy no matter what.

I will leave you with 2 final pictures:

Eli at 2 weeks old. When he was born he weighed 6 lbs 4oz and was 19 inches long.

Eli at 1 year old- 31 inches tall and weighing 20.8 lbs

Photos courtesy of Affection Photography who did a great job of capturing Eli’s 1st year!

What a difference a year makes!!!

The Birthday Boy

I love a good birthday even it is not my own, but I especially like coming up with stuff to do for Nick’s Birthday. Yesterday he hit the big 2-8 and I tried to make sure he had a good celebration. Since Nick and his twin sister Nicole were “Christmas Babies” they often got over shadowed by actual Christmas celebrations, so I try to make sure he has his own dedicated day. This year there were gifts, cake, and a trip to Barter:

Gifts

Nick in his Birthday Suit 

 

Windows 7 Secrets - Every good Programmer and Windows enthusiast need this. Did I mention that it is 1,000 pages.

I should note that these are only the gifts I got him, we will be eating with family tonight and I am sure he will be getting more wonderful presents.

 

CAKE

I am just going to be honest here and say that I LOVE THE CAKE, maybe even more than Nick. I actually planned the cake way back in November. I let him pick the flavor but I picked the shape. The cake is from Hannah Meade at The Cake Gallery. I have had several cakes by her and they were all FABULOUS and this one did not disappoint. I highly recommend her for all your cake needs. Nick picked strawberry cake with strawberry moistening syrup and white chocolate butter cream icing. As I type this I am having to restrain myself from going to the refrigerator to get another piece. IT IS SO GOOD!!!! The shape only a true Trekkie can appreciate

Star Trek Com Badge Cake

The Happy Birthday Boy

Barter Theater

Nick took me to Barter for my Birthday and we both enjoyed it so much that I decided to try to do the same for him. This time we got to see WMKS Christmas 1942.  The show centered around the cast of WMKS’s radio show and featured live music and singing of many Christmas and Gospel favorites. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot since I definitely feel that everyone should see it. The show was FABULOUS! They sang Beautiful Star of Bethlehem and Go Tell It on The Mountain, 2 of my favorite Christmas songs that you do not hear too often. I am always so impressed with how professional the Barter shows are, this time the set was just amazing and they even had snow. Most importantly Nick enjoyed it and that is what really matters!

Thus, another Nick birthday comes to a close. Happy Birthday Sweetie! I love you!

 

 

Now just to stress everyone out:

2 Days till Christmas- Can you believe it? It got here so fast!

They Say It’s My Birthday!

So another wonderful birthday week has come to a close and it was FABULOUS as always. Here is a recap:

Digital Camera

It all kicked off about a week early with one of my personal favs an EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENT. Nick had ordered me a new digital camera and he went ahead and gave it to me the day it arrived.

Here I am with the New and totally wonderful Canon A1100IS and it is PINK! It has 12.1 megapixels, facial detection, and image stabilization. My digital camera is officially updated to 2009 and I could not be happier!!! The picture above was the last taken with the old Kodak, all pics going forward are from the Pink Canon!

Bathroom- DONE

I am not sure if Nick attended for this next part to be a Birthday Gift but I am going to take it that way. I am proud to announce the official GRAND OPENING of the MASTER BATHROOM! YAY! 2 years of sweat, blood, and tears finally paid off., Praise God! We moved into the bathroom on Friday, September 25th and I could not be happier! Nick did a GREAT job on everything it is so AWESOME! Here are a few Before/After pics so you can see how we went from BAD to FAB!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

Barter

Several weeks ago I had decided to take a vacation date on September 25th so I could do something special for my Birthday but it came down to the week before and I just could not think of anything to do. Nick to the rescue . . .he suggested we go to the Barter Theater and see a show. Neither one of us had ever been to the Barter and we had been talking for several years about going So Nick went online and got us tickets to Frankenstein which was playing on the Main Stage.  The Barter was AWESOME!The show was very professionally done and totally enjoyable. The play itself, Frankenstein was very sad, it was not the “scary monster” you always see at Halloween. It made me think about the way I treat people.

We had a great time at the Barter I just wish I had gone years ago when I could have gone for free with school (I was to dorky to miss school and go). I was glad to be able to experience it with Nick and I am looking forward to going back ;)

Prior to the show we took in another Abingdon,VA, favorite Alison’s. Many of our friends had recommended this restaurant to us and I was looking forward to finally experiencing it. Our friends were right it was wonderful. The place does not look like much but the food was great The potato soup was to die for and the ribs were EXCELLENT. Nick got a half rack of ribs and when they brought them out they were literally falling off the bone. If you ever get a chance to go to Alison’s I definitely recommend it.

Here are a few pictures from our evening:

The Actual Birthday

Well, it POURED the rain on my actual Birthday- seriously monsoon season hit Tennessee. However, I did not let the wet weather dampen my Birthday spirits. We spent the morning actually cleaning out the Master Bedroom so we can begin our next home improvement project. That evening I went out for my traditional Birthday dinner with my family at Olive Garden. I ate to much but had a fabulous time.

All in all it was a wonderful Birthday! Thanks so much to all my friends, family, and co-workers for all the gifts, meals, and well wishes! You all always make my birthdays FABULOUS!