Well, here’s my first post about my baby.  My ONE-YEAR old baby!  I totally had intentions to make personal blog posts throughout this first year, but I gotta be honest…  I was tired y’all.  It’s a little like the expression about how the shoe maker’s kids have no shoes.  I photographed (not nearly as much as I wanted to) but most of those images are sitting on my hard drives untouched.  I’ll get to them.  I swear.  Thankfully, I did do a stellar job with the iPhone and posting to Instagram.  This year will be different though.  This year I made a personal vow to myself to photo and blog more.  And, with that I start with my son’s first birthday party + a couple of his one-year portraits. :)

The first birthday is a pretty big deal.  I mean first of all, my little 6 lb baby is now a running, climbing, exploring, filled with wonder little guy on the brink of becoming a toddler.  Like, wait… what?!  How does so much change happen in one short year?  Secondly, we kept a little human alive + happy for a year, which for first-time parents it’s a lot of learning as you go.  And thirdly, the crazy amount of love you can have for one person.  Sometimes thinking about him and the amazing love and joy he’s brought into my life can overwhelm me and I could easily well with tears. To know that kind of love.  To be so blessed.  It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around.  So with all that said, those are some pretty good reasons to celebrate and throw a party.

So here are the details…  I went with a Cowboys + Indians theme for no reason in particular other than I thought it was cute (and don’t get all politically correct and offended on me.  I’m also Apache and Cherokee Indian, so who cares :)  ).  I thought that I would do all sorts of DIY projects, but ain’t nobody got time for that (especially during peak wedding season), so thank God for Etsy.  The only DIY I got to was making the signs on the drinks and painting the letter C. :)  We threw the party at our very good friend’s beautiful home — thank you, Lipsitzes for being such gracious hosts.  We love you.  And, we also couldn’t have done it with out a few others, so thank you to the Burdos, the Nanas, Nick, Brit, Tayler, Gianna, Steph, Paige + Lee.  And, thank you to Renee (and Anthony) for photo’ing during the cake so I could be present in that moment.  I love you all.  And lastly, thank you to Brian, Cole’s daddy for helping me plan, organize, run around + host. So as much as the party was about our son, it was about us, too. Congrats, Dada on the first year!

I wish I got to spend more time chatting with everyone.  I wish I took more pictures of people and details, but hey, can’t do it all.  In the end it was a great day + I’m thankful for everyone who was able to celebrate with us.  So happy 1st birthday to our boy, Cole Timothy Lion!  I just love being his mama! ♡