BIRTHDAY BOY

Aren't his invitations the cutest?! I decided to do a red wagon theme since it's a big boy theme and it goes with his room...and the colors were so cute, of course!

Here is a surprise only my father could be a part of!  He is the one responsible for mine and Chad's name on dumpsters all over Poplar Bluff while we were growing up, as well as the announcement on the First Midwest Bank sign the day of my wedding, so it is only fitting he would carry on the tradition for Anderson...

This was displayed on the electronic billboard right by our house for 24 hours the day of Anderson's birthday party.  Compliments of Grandpa Mike and GiGi!

 

Here are some pictures of his fun fun special day:

Guests signed in and wrote messages for Anderson to read when he learns how, like next year.

                                        

We had red cupcakes with blue icing, wagon wheels (party pinwheels), and chicken ranch dip...

and strawberries with dipping sauces and banana bread with strawberry cream cheese/marshmallow creme mixture on top...mmm, thanks Maria Keeton!

Cousin Christina, Grandpa Mike, Pa

 Uncle Chad and Great Grandma Hays

Daddy and Pappaw

GiGi and Uncle Chad

I'm not sure how my brother made it into so many pictures, but take a close look:

Name that baby!

(Looks a lot like Anderson, doesn't it?!)

We asked for no gifts, but Anderson didn't complain...

You can tell we had a full house!  I think the final guest count was 52...

Such a special guy!

 

A special gift made by Nana

This is Anderson posing with all his gifts.  Do you notice the large rake and shovel his Uncle Chad found for him!?  He was in heaven; there was even a hoe in the package too!  Now he has tools to grow with.  I need to get a picture of him carrying these around, because he does...!  (He's even been known to sit on the toilet hanging onto the rake!)

It was so much fun celebrating with everyone who waited so anxiously (and patiently!) to meet this little baby!  He truly brings a smile to everyone he encounters!

In leiu of gifts, Anderson asked for donations for children who don't get to have birthday parties or get gifts.  I have a friend from high school who started a ministry in Bronx, New York, called Graffiti 2 Ministries.  People brought everything from cupcake mixes to alarm clocks to toys.  We were so excited to ship up all the goodies and send them their way!  We have so much more than we could ever ask for, and it was so humbling to be able to do that.  I know Anderson brought tons of smiles to kids when they received it all!

It ended up taking two HUGE boxes to ship it all to New York!



Little birthday boy, so many people love you and pray for you every day, and you have no idea.  You really are a blessing and you bring joy to everyone who meets you!

Sick baby!

About a week before Anderson's birthday party, he woke up in the middle of the night and I thought he felt warm. He had never been sick, and I had never even had to take his temperature before, so I didn't even know where our thermometer was or how to use it on him! I ended up putting it under his arm, and it was over 100! I was so scared since he has been perfectly healthy! I called his pediatrician and was told if it got to 104, to bring him in. Otherwise, it was probably a fever virus. WHAT?! I did miss my first sick day at work in over six years! It lasted a good five days, and I was really glad we had scheduled his birthday party for the next weekend. He almost made it a whole year without getting sick! Nana jumped at the chance to spoil Anderson and brought over orange push pops and these cute little forehead chiller thingys:

Poor baby

Have I mentioned his love of shovels? I had always pictured my baby having a little blankie or stuffed animal he would carry around with him or snuggle with to go to sleep. My talented friend, Rebecca, even makes all these cute taggies, but he would never have anything to do with any of it! Well, for Easter, his Nana got all the grandkids beach buckets and shovels...the rest is history. He carries it with him everywhere. He even goes to sleep with it occasionally. This purple shovel got stepped on and broken, so I went out and bought three more while they are still in season. A family down the street even had several in a yard sale and I snatched them up. A man and his shovel... ?

Thankfully, he was good to go for this birthday party.  He knew he had lots of people coming to town to see him on his special day.

Here he is the morning of his party:

Notice what he woke up with?!

And yes, he wakes up, smiling like this often!! He definitely did not take after his daddy!

Anderson's First (official) Hair Cut!

Anderson was born with so much hair, it shouldn't be surprising that we'd have to "trim" it several times to keep it under control!  We thought that he needed a big boy hair cut before his first birthday and birthday party, so off to Pigtails and Crewcuts we went!  There was quite a wait, so we played in a nearby toy store...

And went for a cupcake...

Then it was Anderson's turn!

 He loved it!

There was ONE moment of "What are you doing to me, Lady?"

After church on Mother's Day!

Adam is so funny.

This is a day in my life...  :)

Playing catch up

I found these pictures I never posted, but definitely feel they are worth sharing!  These are from the mall when the Easter Bunny came to visit.  He didn't quite take to him like he did Santa Claus, but he did okay.  As you can see, once Rachel Kate left, he wasn't too sure about him!

Anderson and Rachel Kate will be good friends!

One day while I was getting ready, Anderson was kind of crawling around being fussy. Nothing I did seemed to help, so I just let him go.  About five minutes later, this is what I found:

Asleep in Daddy's closet!!

We said he must be missing Adam!  Spring football will be over soon, Anderson!

Anderson's first Easter Sunday!

I love this picture!  Can you see his teeth?!

We had an Easter egg hunt at Nana and Pa's (that is Adam's mom and stepdad)

Adam and Jeff hid the Easter eggs (they really got into it!)

Anderson needed lots of coaching to even pick up the Easter eggs.  Maybe next year...

He found other things he preferred doing.

These are just a few of the shots trying to get five children ages four and under to take a picture!

It seems like this picture was taken so long ago...this was what we used after Anderson got too big for the Tummy Tub!  He really didn't like taking baths for a while after we stopped using it.  He loved that thing so much, but we just couldn't get him clean because he completely filled it up!

We are now using the regular tub and he LOVES bathtime!  As you can see, Adam tried dumping every toy he had in that little blowup tub!

Some of you all might know my Grandma Reed has had a bad bout of being in and out of the hospital.  This is quite a change for someone who has never been sick!  Hopefully she is out for good now, but still has to take it easy.  She did break her ankle, so she uses a rolling walker sometimes.  I thought it was boost her morale to bring Anderson up for a visit.  I mean, how can you not smile just by looking at him?!

Playing with her new chihuaha, Cookie.  He loves dogs!

And of course, when Anderson goes to see Grandma Reed, Grandma Hays automatically gets a visit too!  Here he is reading his favorite book ever; it's called "Eat!"  Dr. Lu gives him books at all his appointments.  He loves this one so much, it is all chewed up on the edges from Anderson!

Can you see his big belly hanging over his diaper while reading the "Eat!" book?!

Something else we've been doing with Anderson is putting him on the toilet when he is doing the deed.  I mean, it's so obvious!  Why not go ahead and let him feel what he's supposed to do?  It actually works a lot of the time if we're home and can catch him grunting. :)

Here is a picture with me and two of my best friends from OT school.  Amanda lives in Denver now, but we are still close!  She came to Arkansas, so we had to get together.  We don't always get our routine Starbucks trip in now that Anderson is here, but we do what we can!

Anderson, Jennifer, Amanda, Julie after a late night visit :)

Okay, this is what I get for waiting so long between posting!  I've got so many pictures and events to post about and I have to go "backwards" and put them in order!  So hang out, there are about to be several more posts to bring us up to speed!