Happy 1st Birthday Rylan!

Rylan turned 1 year old on October 13th! I can't believe it has been a year already! I spent a lot of the day thinking about exactly what I was doing at specific times just one year ago. Here are just a few of the special times I enjoyed reminiscing about: 7:00am-started feeling contractions, 3:00pm-arrived at the hospital, 9:30pm-he arrived! Oh, it brings tears to my eyes!

We celebrated Rylan's birthday by having a party with family and friends on Sunday (Rylan's actual birthday was on Monday). I must say that the party was a success! Most of our family was there! We also invited several of Rylan's little friends and their parents too. It was so fun to see all the little ones playing together. Rylan has been really into cars and trucks the past several months, so we decided to have that be the theme of his party. Everything from the cake to the balloons to the party favors was cars and trucks related. Even some of the food was served out of dump trucks. I had a fun time planning and decorating! Thanks Suanne (my mother-in-law) for all of your help too!

Here are just a few of the guests chatting away and enjoying some of Rylan's favorite foods that we served at the party.

Rylan is getting a little extra help from Kariya on opening this present. She was pretty good at ripping that paper off. She must have had plenty of practice at her first birthday party. Thanks for jumping in there Kariya! You must have known that Rylan wasn't extactly sure what to do! What a helper!

"Oh boy! A new fire engine that I can actually ride! I only dreamed that this existed! Thanks Grammy and Grampy!"
Mom and Dad, I want you to know that Rylan plays that song on his new fire truck so often that I find myself out in public singing "I see a firetruck, a big red shiny firetruck. I see a firetruck coming down the street." At least I can count on Rylan enjoying my singing.

We got two cakes for Rylan's birthday; I made him his very own personal cake (backhoe loader) with the help of my mother-in-law and a Costco cake for everyone else to enjoy. Oh, I guess I should mention that Bryon and his step dad Mike did help out a little bit with the homemade cake. Using their knowledge of backhoe loaders, we were able to assemble the cake to look as real as possible. Thanks for the advice guys!

Here we are singing "Happy Birthday" to Rylan! If I were to guess what Rylan was thinking at this moment, it would be..."I don't care about that stupid song everyone is singing. Just put me in my high chair and let me dig into that cake already!"

And...what you've all been wondering. Did Rylan like his cake? Of course he did! I thought I'd show you some sequential pictures of this glorious event! So, here's the before picture. Rylan is about to dig in!

During: "Forget the spoon...that takes too long. It's much faster to get this delicious cake into my mouth by using my hands! Oh, so tasty! How did my parents know I'd want chocolate cake with cheesecake filling, and buttercream frosting and Birthday Cake ice cream to top it off? I'm in heaven!"

After: "Whew, I'm stuffed! I know I'm an eater, but this time I really outdid myself. I ate that whole piece of cake and all that ice cream all by myself! Aren't you impressed? Is is time for a nap yet?"
I have to tell you that Rylan actually did start to nod off shortly after finishing. He laid his head down on the tray of his high chair and was ready to take a snooze and probably would have if I hadn't startled him by turning on the camera. I hate it when I miss good photo opportunities like that!

On Monday (Rylan's actual birthday), our family of three celebrated again! Daddy made him a really yummy breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and fruit, he got to open more presents from Mama and Dada, and he got to eat his truck cake. You can tell how much he likes it from this video! What a fun birthday! Thank you friends and family for joining us in celebrating Rylan's first year of life. It meant so much to have you all there! We hope that you'll be celebrating his birthday with us for many years to come!