Birthday Week Extravaganza

Here we go...another LONG post! But the pictures make it worth it, don't you think? :-) Our Birthday Week Extravaganza began on February 6th, Eddison's one-year birthday! We began the celebration early by enjoying football-shaped french toast (I'm all about using cookie cutters for every day cooking! LOL!!). The rest is history!!! (Actually, just follow the photo-journal below...)

A rare, never before seen view of a ferocious and wild Eddison in its natural habitat. Notice how with great stealth he stalks his prey...(this was actually taken just a few days ago, but was too cute to leave out!)

A Birthday trip to Costco!!! Eddie LOVES riding in the front of the cart instead of in his carseat in the basket. Costco carts are the best because they accomodate TWO kids in the seat!

When in Rome...(or Costco)...eat as the Romans (or Costco-ians) do! Eddie munched on the crust while Jackson showed the rest of the slice who was boss. :-)

Fresh baked carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting. Eddison loved it when we sang 'Happy Birthday' and Jackson helped him blow out the candle. The little guy was pretty pooped since we weren't able to have cake until around 9 p.m. (that's about 2 hours past his bedtime!). This was because the Daddy (who works Uptown) needed the Mommy (and the boys) to come jump his ghetto-Mustang. Justin insists the 'Stang has another good year or two left in it, but I'm ready to put the keys in the ignition with a sign on the window that says, "Take me, please!" Anyway - after driving up to Charlotte and rescuing daddy we finally made it back home for a late dinner, cake, and presents!

He may have been tired, but his curiosity got the better of him! He seemed to like the way the frosting felt as he mushed it between his fingers.

And of course he loved the way it tasted...I had to take it away fairly quickly because he was just going to town on the frosting!

After a much needed bath Eddie went to bed, one year older. Here's to hoping the next year will go by much more slowly!

FEBRUARY 8TH:
JESSICA TURNS 26 YEARS OLD (but would like to remind everyone that JUSTIN is turning 30 this year and will always be older than her! :-)

To celebrate my birthday and my friend Nellie's birthday (she shares a birthday with Eddison) we had planned, along with our friend Julie, to go out to lunch. Unfortunately, due to an unsuccessful attempt at making homemade sushi the night before, Nellie was unable to make it to lunch as she was busy with a nasty case of food poisoning. Julie took Nellie's daughter, Riley, for the day and we headed to lunch with the toddlers and Eddison. I thought it was cute how they all ended up wearing green. :-)

Do I look 26? I don't know why that number seems so much older than 25, but I'm still adjusting to it. I LOVE the sweater Justin's mom sent me (SO soft!) and Eddie looks so handsome in the new clothes she sent him for his birthday! Here we are modeling our new styles. (You can see my latest project in the background...Repainting the formal dining room! It's now done and I love it! I'll have to put up before and after pictures soon!)
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For dinner (our big 'Friends' dinner was postponed until the following evening so Nellie could come without running to the bathroom every twenty minutes to be sick...Poor Nellie!) we decided to go out with the boys. All I really wanted to do was be with my family for my birthday! We had a great time eating Mexican food and Jackson even agreed to pose for a picture with me. Of course looking at the picture now I understand why he was so agreeable...What a turkey. :-)

As previously stated, we had our friends over the next night and had homemade Cafe Rio salads (those of you who have been to Provo know what this is, right?!), and then enjoyed snacking on the leftover ice-cream cake Justin bought me for my b-day and a HUGE chocolate cake from Costco that Julie brought. It was SO MUCH FUN having an evening without the kiddos around! Jack, Eddie, and Katelyn slept upstairs at our house and Riley and Tyler were asleep at their home while Nellie's sister babysat.

We played a game called, 'Apples to Apples' (which Jack calls, "Apples, Apples, Apples!!!") and then watched a couple of episodes of Rob and Big.

FEBRUARY 16th:
D-DAY!!! (Or should I say, B-DAY!!!)

Eddison's Birthday Party invitations! We decided on an ARMY theme since little Captain Eddie did the Army Crawl for SO long before finally crawling normally. He made the best little wounded soldier I've ever seen... Really, he could have won an Oscar.

On standard issue dog-tags the information includes name, date-of-birth, blood-type, and religious affiliation. So - that's what I put down! LOL!
Here he is! Captain Eddison at his party...So NOT loving his hat, but looking as cute as a bug in it!

Some Daddy and Eddie time at the party. Mommy went a little crazy with the streamers and balloons...But then again, doesn't she ALWAYS?! :-)

Our little Military Family. Eddie looks like he's about to hurl, doesn't he? Poor kid was pretty tired and still recovering from a stomach bug a few days earlier. He just wanted to sit back and watch the party most of the time... Though he did LOVE playing with all of the kids!

He didn't seem to know what to do with his TANK cake so I gave him a cupcake instead. After a few pokes at the frosting it was apparent that his heart just wasn't in it. Take note: these may be the ONLY pictures you'll ever see of our Little Chef NOT eating a food item set in front of him! :-)

The TANK cake, in all it's glory! I was pretty proud of this one if I do say so myself! :-)

NOTE: How to make ARMY green frosting: 1 container vanilla frosting, 1/2 container chocolate frosting, 1/2 bottle green food coloring. :-)

We were so happy to have so many good friends come to celebrate Eddison's 1st year with us! I think our grand total was 12 kids and 13 adults. Eddie received some wonderful gifts and it's just always fun to have friends over - even if an exceptionally large portion of my time was devoted to figuring out how to make ARMY green frosting. :-)

Thanks to all of you who helped make his First Birthday a special one! We also loved and appreciated every card he received in the mail from his Aunts, Grandparents, Great-Grandma, and cousins! We love an miss you all!