Happy Birthday to Drew!!!

I can't believe it's already been a year! My baby is officially one year old today (but not until 2:50pm - can't I keep him a baby for a little bit longer??) It's been a wonderful year and Russell and I have been extremely blessed. I still find it amazing that God would trust us with this precious addition to our lives. We learn new things each day (and so does Drew) and I am in awe of the way I see him grow and develop each and every day. My heart melts when he smiles at me, gives me a sloppy "baby kiss," or lays his head on my shoulder. I now know it's true the saying that says "To become a mother is to make a decision to have your heart walking around outside your body." I wouldn't trade this time for anything else - it's already gone by so quickly, but I am excited to see where the next year takes us!! Happy Birthday my beautiful boy - I love you!!

Birthday Party Time!!!

We had a wonderful weekend with lots of family traveling in to celebrate Drew's 1st birthday. The guest list included: Gigi and Grandpa Randy, Papaw Dave, Mimi and Papaw, Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Jack, Gramps, Auntie Randi, and of course, Mommy and Daddy and the guest of honor - Drew! We spent lots of time just being together and catching up (it's not often that both sides of the family get together) and ooohing and awwing over the cuteness of Drew. He was more than willing to oblige and content to be the center of attention.

Saturday was "Party Day" and we had lots of fun! After breakfast and morning naps the real fun began. I decorated the dining room with balloons, pictures of Drew, cake (decorated like a teddy bear to match the napkins and plates - I'm so proud), and of course presents!! We even had a special birthday banner and decorations for his highchair. This being Drew's first party he had no concept of what was going on, but when I took him around the corner and showed him the decorations his whole face just lit up!!! We opened presents, ate some pizza, opened more presents, sang Happy Birthday and then let Drew dive into his very own birthday cake. He was pretty unsure about what was going on (I think he was afraid we were tricking him into eating his vegetables or something), but he eventually got the idea. I don't think much actually made it into his mouth (which was probably for the best), but he sure did like squishing the icing in his hands! We all went out to dinner and then after Drew was in bed the adults had their cake and ice cream. It was a wonderful day and we were extremely blessed to be able to share it with so much of our family.

"Look, Drew, it's your party!!"

How CUTE is this cake??

Time for presents...

Time for cake...

Is this for me??
What is this stuff??
Hmmm, this is kind of good...
This is my favorite part!! It's squishy!!! The aftermath

Let Them Eat Cake

Drew's 1st birthday is coming up on Monday and we're having family over for a party on Saturday. I decided to try my hand at cake decorating (something I haven't attempted in several years) and make the cake myself. The napkins and plates that I found have a really cute teddy bear on them, so I decided to replicate that for the cake. I borrowed some supplies from my friend Carrie and went to Hobby Lobby for more. I had so much fun and it turned out so cute!!! Now, if only it tastes at good as it looks!

Happy Valentine's Day (a little late)

We just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day (even if we are a little late getting it posted). We had a wonderful day sharing hugs and kisses with our little "heart breaker." Plus, Drew and his Daddy surprised me with a beautiful set of opal earrings and necklace - they are so sneaky!!! Enjoy the pictures!!!

Looking good in my Valentine pajamas with my squishy big red dog - Thanks Gigi!

I love my Daddy and my Daddy loves me.

Definitely a "heart breaker" - who could resist that face??

(Thanks Grandma Joyce for the outfit and bib!)

Side note: My friend Michelle Carlson got a very special Valentine this year - her baby Allie was born Thursday evening!! She's beautiful and they're all doing great.

I Love Robeez shoes!!

I just have to share this, especially for those of you with a certain affection for shoes (you know who you are!). I ordered Drew a pair of Robeez shoes and they arrived today. (Robeez is a brand of shoes that are soft-soled (basically made of soft leather) and have an elastic ankle band that helps keep it on the foot. This type of shoe is recommended for children that are crawling and learning to walk because it mimics being barefoot while still offering protection.) First of all, they are super cute (I'll try to post a picture of him wearing them later). They look like little tennis shoes and are brown and blue. Secondly (and most important for me), when I put them on him it didn't phase him one bit. He just kept on crawling and pulling up and walking around like he wasn't wearing anything at all. I think it actually took him awhile to see that there was something new on his foot! I'm completely in love with them - I think I may check ebay and see if I can find another pair that I like (I'm partial to ones that look like real shoes, not so much the cutesy ones with pictures).

Pictures as promised...

I am ready to play!!

How cute are these???

Drew's First Haircut

Well, I promised more postings, so here you go!! Last Friday we took Drew to get his first haircut. I was totally prepared for a traumatic experience (more for me than for him), but it went great!!! His haircut looks wonderful - he still looks like my baby - and he handled it great. We'd been putting this off for weeks and it was finally just too much to take. (Russell was especially tired of people asking "what's HER name?") We went to the Family Cuts down the street from us and they did a great job. There was even a taxi cab seat for him to sit in while he got his hair cut.

Okay, I know it's long...

...but, it's so cute and curly, you can't really tell...

...I mean, how adorable are those curls???

The "Before" Shot

The "After" Shot

Computer Issues

I know it's been a little while since the last post, blame it on crazy life and computer issues!! Let me start with computer issues (most of which are at least temporarily solved). I came upstairs last week to check email and try to work with some pictures and post to the blog only to find that the computer could not access the hard drive. It would try to boot up and then repeatedly give me the error message "could not access boot-up drive, please try again." Talk about panic - ALL of our pictures of Drew are on this computer. I tried to be calm, but inside I was about to have a break down!!! Luckily my wonderful sister "steals" the pictures off my memory card and computer anytime she can so she has almost all of them on her computer. After trying a few different things we were finally able to reboot the computer and Russell was able to save all of our pictures onto his abundance of thumb drives. The computer seems to be running okay most of the time now and we have decided to look into getting an external back-up drive so that this doesn't happen again (Any advice??)

I'll post more later and bring you up to date with the latest and greatest escapades of the Wiggins' (especially Drew)