Party Day!

Today was Landon's 1st Birthday Party. The party I have been planning for months. I believe I recall feeling somewhat sad when Adalyn turned one, but I have to say, I don't really feel like that right now. Instead, I feel happy, excited, proud, and accomplished! I have a 1 year old!! (well, I will tomorrow) Wow! It is just so hard to believe. The reason I feel accomplished is because when I first had Landon, Adalyn was 22 months old. She was still learning her boundries, throwing fits every so often, talking non stop, and was a bucket full of energy. (still is) How was I going to meet a newborns needs when I had to also meet the needs of a very stong-willed, precious toddler? How was I going to deal with the day to day of being home by myself with 2 kids? There were days where I was about to pull my hair out, days where I cried, days where I thought, "oh, I finally got it!",days where I walked into another room just to sit down and pray, days where I wondered, "What in the world have we done?" and days where things went smoothly and I could look at my children's faces and know this was God's plan for us and was content with not having a daily shower and look like I just rolled out of bed at 3:00 in the afternoon. So yes, I feel very accomplished. 2 under 2 is difficult at times, but I am happy to say it is getting easier as the days go on and the kids get older. We had a wonderful birthday party for Landon today. I am so thankful for the nice weather. It was just truly a perfect day. For whatever reason I woke up a little before 5:00 this morning. I couldn't go back to sleep so I just laid there and my mind was going a million miles a minute. Thinking what all needed to be done today, food to be made, etc. I finally just couldn't lay there anymore so I got up and curled up on the couch to wait for Landon to wake up. It was a little after 6:00 and once I realized both kids weren't getting up, I grabbed a cover and made myself comfortable. A little after 6:30 I decided to peek in at Landon. When I looked over his crib, he was flat on his stomach, both hands straight above his head and his legs stick straight down below him. I just smiled. And I thought, Geeze, he looks huge. I decided to sit down and just stare at him. Listen to him breath, watch his back go up and down, his fingers twitch. I thanked God for my little boy. So very thankful for his first year. The ups and downs. The sleepless nights. His first smile. His first giggle. The first time he sat up. Crawled. Walked. His "belly" laugh when he is cracking up about something. The way he points at every light he sees. Just so thankful for everything. I guess he "felt" me staring at him so he opened up his eyes and saw me. He started grinning and sat right up, lifted up his arms for me to get him. I gave him his bottle, changed his diaper, then started cleaning while he looked at books. By now its close to 7 and Adalyn wakes up then Adam shortly after. I got Adalyn and myself ready and I took her to Kathy's house so she could play all day today. That was the biggest help so thank you Kathy! I know she had a wonderful time playing with Emily and Sam. I then went to pick up the cakes. (ah, you will love them! ill post pictures soon!) Came home and continued to clean while Landon napped. Adam worked outside. After 2 hours, Landon woke up from his morning nap and ate breakfast and then I took him to Wal-Mart with me to pick up a few things. Got back, put his sign language video in and straightened up some more. He went down for his afternoon nap around 1:30 and napped almost 2 more hours. I was so glad he got great naps today. When he woke up, Adam and I had completed everything that needed to be done. Adalyn wasn't there yet so it was still just us three so we let him see his wagon my parents got for him and his new pottery barn chair Adam and I got for him. He loves Adalyn's. He walks right over to it, sits, and watches Mickey or whatever else is on. Him and Adalyn climb all over it and sometimes whine about who gets to sit in it so it was a no brainer that we get him one, too. Don't you know though I ordered the wrong size and got the size up from Adalyn's. His is bigger than hers which bugged me but I was really just annoyed at myself for messing up and not checking her dimensions! I mean seriously, his is huge. A huge, obese kid could sit in it and be nice and comfortable. Aside from that, he was excited to see two new things in the living room and kept walking back and forth between the chair and wagon. Shortly after that, people started to arrive. Let's get this party started! Everyone ate, watched football, and played. We had a lot of kids which was great. They were occupied with toys in the play room, toys outside, and the swing set. Landon walked around with a chicken finger and ate about half of it. He left a trail and I kept finding pieces throughout the house. After all the playing, and while a commercial was on during the UT game, we sang Happy Birthday and watched in hope that Landon would dig into his smash cake. Didn't happen. Instead, he cried. ha. Bless his heart. Didn't want to get messy I guess. Beats me. We gave him a banana and he quickly stopped crying. His birthday cake was just so totally awesome I really hated to cut it! Are you SURE you want cake people?! Since I'm not a cake eater, I didn't have a bite but everyone else commented how good it was. I knew it would be. The Kake Lady does the best job! After cake,we opened presents and then some went back to the UT game, while others went back to playing. The weather was perfect. People started leaving I think around 7:00 or so. I had some help to clean up. Adam gave the kids a bath while Nancy and Tori watched and assisted. I finished throwing trash away, stored left over food, and vacuumed. Ahhhhhh. My house was clean again. I can breathe a sigh of relief. Adalyn by this point was so tired and didn't want Jerry and Nancy to leave. I held Landon and gave him a big hug and kiss before Adam gave him his bottle and put him to sleep. Both kids were in bed by 8:30. Whew. What a busy day we had! It was a lot of fun though. Can't believe it has been ONE YEAR! We love you Landon Riley.

and one year later...