Play Ball!

This past Saturday we celebrated Zane's 1st birthday with a baseball themed party, complete with hot dogs, peanuts and baseball decorated cupcakes. We had a great time with family and friends. At first, Zane was traumatized by the balloons on his highchair, so they eventually had to be removed. Thankfully, since the party, he has made peace with the balloons and even enjoys playing with them now (thanks to Papa and Grandma).

Here are some pictures from the special day. I am especially proud of how the cupcakes turned out, my first attempt at decorating any type of cake, not too shabby if I do say so myself (it did not come about without it's share of headaches, however, as I had to experiment with 3 different types of red icing and decorating tools until I found the right one. There were a few rejects that did not make the cut for the party!)

Thanks also for all your sweet comments and birthday wishes for our boy. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family! We love you all!

A Year in Pictures

Well, I was trying to select a few pictures of Zane over the last year to share. I thought I would do about 12, but instead I have over 40! Oh well, thank goodness for the slide show. It's crazy how much they change in a year, isn't it?

Oh, and by the way, I wanted to give a shout out to Zoe- Happy Birthday! I hope that you have/had a great day! Love you!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today, Luke and I drove to the hospital at 6 something in the morning. I thought that my water had broken, but I wasn't sure. When we arrived at the hospital, I stepped out of the car, and I knew in no uncertain terms, that my water was in fact, breaking.

** Side note: I was really glad that I had curled my hair the day before. I even put on a little makeup on the way to the hospital!

One year ago today, Luke and I anxiously awaited becoming parents. I had been having sporadic contractions, but nothing consistent, so since my water had broken, they decided to put me on pitocin to speed things along. (Clearly, this picture was taken before I started to feel the effects of the aforementioned pitocin.)

One year ago today, Luke dressed himself in scrubs so that he might come into the operating room with me while the doctors delivered Zane by c-section. You see, after the pitocin kicked in, my contractions had become quite intense, and Zane was showing signs of distress. So, since I was only at a 3, the doctor decided that it would be best to do a c-section. I was so thankful when I saw Luke come in the room.

One year ago today, Zane Asher was born at 2:25pm. He was 7 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches long. His poor little face was so badly swollen. He had been trying to come out face first, with his neck bent back- no wonder he was showing signs of distress! The doctor told me later that even if they had waited and let me try for a normal delivery, I would have had to have a c-section any way due to the way he was presenting. I am so thankful that she made the call early on and spared me from hours of labor and pushing that would have ended up with the same result. One year ago today, Luke became a father.

One year ago today, I became a mother.

One year ago today, our family of two became a family of three. And our lives were forever changed.

Zane, we are so thankful that God blessed our lives with you one year ago today. We have so enjoyed this first year with you, it has gone by incredibly too fast. We love you so much and pray that God would give us wisdom and guidance as we raise you- that we would show you God's love. We are so proud of you. We love everything about you- your sweet personality, your contagious smile and laughter, your love of music and dancing, your incessant "talking"(we only wish we could understand what you were saying!), your curly hair, and your beautiful eyes. You have made our lives better and less focused on ourselves. I'm sure that God will continue to use you to mold us into the parents and individuals that He would have us to be. We love you, Zaners! Happy 1st Birthday!

Whitefish Lake

Today, Luke, Zane, and I went to Whitefish for lunch. We ended up eating at the Buffalo Cafe, a local favorite. After lunch, we headed to Whitefish Lake, not to swim however, as the temperature never rose above 60 today (as evident by our wearing of long sleeves)! I just have heard so much about it, but had never been there, so Luke decided he would take us there.

We did not stay too long, but managed to fit in a many photo session with Zane. It was Zane's first experience being that close to a body of water bigger than the bathtub! He enjoyed getting his hands wet, and also just looking at all the water as Luke held him. I think his favorite part of the outing was getting to ride on Dad's shoulders.

Taking the plunge...

Well folks, after eight years of traditional scrapbooking, I have decided to take the plunge into the world of digital scrapbooking. I have only completed one digital storybook, a Father's Day book for Luke, and I wanted to share it with you. I was really pleased with the final product, and more importantly, so was Luke.

I'm embarrassed to say that I had worked on this off and on since April, and I just published it last weekend, over 2 months late for Father's Day! Oh well, better late than never, right?! Any way, it was fairly easy to do (this was a template that I just had to drop in pictures and add journaling, the part that always takes me the longest to do!)- it was just taking the time to sit down and work on it. I had a lot of "technical support" from my friend Marie in Arizona, and I think with a little more practice, I will definitely get faster at it. I really enjoyed the fact that when I did sit down to work on it, all I needed was my laptop, as opposed to the endless amount of scrap crap that I used for my traditional scrapbooks.

Now I am excited to finally get to work on Zane's first year album. I was beginning to think that I might never scrapbook again. But now I have a plan...

July, in a Nutshell

July proved to be a very busy month (obviously so, as it is the middle of August and I am just now posting about it!). We had several family gatherings including, but not limited to the following: 2 birthday celebrations, a few cookouts, and visits from Luke's cousin and brother's family.

In between family functions, we kept ourselves busy with frequent walks taking advantage of the awesome weather, our usual church activities, Zane cutting his 5th and 6th teeth (see screaming pictures), frequent housecleaning (long story), and trying to spend as much time together as a family when Luke was actually in town, not working or busy with school.

Well, here are a few pictures from the month. I really like this slide show feature- it's great when you have too many pictures.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Oh Zane!

Why do we even buy our children toys? Last week, after I had gotten out a few safe kitchen items for Zane to play with, including but not limited to this baster, I caught him crawling around with this part in his mouth! I guess it makes a good teether- who knows?! Anyway, I thought this was too cute not to share!

Ok, now it's your turn. What random things have you found your kids playing with or teething on?