Carter's 1st Birthday

Did I really just say that? Is my baby a year old already? And I guess he's no longer a baby either. Toddler.....wow that's different. Anyway we had an amazing birthday weekend (except for him getting 4 new teeth in all at the same time). We headed towards South Bend Thursday night and got up there about noon on Friday. We went to Brett's grandma's house where Carter got his first birthday/Christmas present and then we stopped by the Pop Shop on 31 to see Brett's Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin. For those of you familiar with the Pop Shop or Michiana Archery, Brett's Uncle owns that, we weren't just randomly meeting them at the Pop Shop. After a couple hours of visiting with Brett's family, we headed to our hotel in attempt for me and Carter to both get a nap. Wrongo! No nap was had.

Later on we met my BFF, Casey and her husband Phil, for dinner at Hacienda. I've been craving their Mexican pizza for about 3 years now and I just had to have it. I was disappointed, they most definitely shrunk in size. Should've gotten a wet burrito. Oh well. After dinner we took Carter back to the hotel to play with some of the birthday toys he got. Like I mentioned early, he was getting 4 teeth in and had no afternoon nap, so the playing didn't last long. He soon turned into quite the grumpy little guy and it was time for bed. For those of you that have kids and have friends without kids, you can probably relate to the whole situation about trying to kick your friends out nicely so you can get your baby to bed. Kidless people sometimes don't catch on that quick. Anyway, once we got everyone out, Carter fussed for a bit but then went to sleep like a good little boy. At some point in the night he decided since it was his birthday, he wanted to sleep in bed with mom and dad, and that's exactly what he did. Here's Carter and daddy enjoying their ZZZZs. The next morning we got up and headed out to meet my former boss and his family for breakfast. I used to babysit his kids and I learned a lot about babies after watching his daughter, Ava, when she was little. I tell ya what, seeing those kids now makes me feel really old. Ava was 1 and Aaron was 9 when I started watching them. Now Ava is 10 and Aaron is 18. Crazy!! So anyway, breakfast was great and I'm so glad they finally got to meet Carter.

After that we headed to my Uncle's memorial service. It was a very touching service and just made me wish I had gotten back to see my Uncle before he passed away. I guess it's true, you don't know what you've got until it's gone. It was really nice seeing some of my family, but just wish it was under different circumstances. I wish my uncle had gotten to meet Carter, but I know he's in a much better place now and that's good.

Once the service was over, we cut out and headed back home. We had Carter's birthday party the next morning and lots to do to get ready for it. We hosted it at my parents' house and it turned out really nice. Our closest friends came and we had a blast. Carter loved all of his toys.

Nana got him a wagon. What's better than a little boy and a puppy in a wagon?

And last but not least, the smash cake. Need I mention we forgot to feed Carter dinner before we let him dig into his cake? Yeah, he would have eaten the whole thing had we not stopped him.