the big ONE!

ethan's first birthday was today, and boy was it a busy day! i am exhausted, but not nearly as tired as i was this time last year! ha! i will take having 15 people over for lunch after church and & 7 more for cake outside on a (really) hot summer day ANYTIME over a c-section. :) (but ethan has definitely been worth the c-section!) :) anyway, i think ethan had a fun day. when he woke up this morning, i sang "happy birthday" to him, and he just grinned and grinned... as if he knew what i was singing! after a lunch of lasagna (thank you, stouffers!!), we crammed in the living room to watch ethan open presents... well, natalie and i opened presents. :) ethan loved his first gift so much that he didn't care about the other ones. (this afternoon, he played with all of them, though...and daddy did too!) he got some great little boy toys, like trucks and tools... and a fun radio flyer wagon from nana & pappy! we then headed outside for cake for no other reason than i really wanted some good pictures, and i figured outside would be the best place! (so everybody sweated due to my obsession with photography...) but i think it was worth it. thanks to our new camera's "continuous" feature, i was able to take 80+ pictures of ethan and his cake in a matter of 7 minutes! thank you, gram, for making the cake & cupcakes. i will be enjoying the leftovers for the next few days! here are a few of my favorite pictures from today...

where's waldo?
ethan has lots of people who love him!

ethan loved his presents!

ethan's "smash" cake...
i think i want one for my bday next year!

cupcakes for our friends & family

ethan and his cake...
before the damage was done

a star-spangled birthday!

mommy & daddy love the birthday boy!

"so you want me to just smear this all over my face?"

"this is kinda fun!"

"hmm...all this icing would look really good in my hair!"

"i'm the star today!"

william and joseph join ethan in his new ride...
joseph tells us all how old ethan is!

ethan with the bennett kiddos

lots of kisses for ethan!
watch out for icing, everybody!!

we actually kicked off ethan's birthday celebration on friday night at my dad's house. dad & joy had to go out of town this week, and they didn't want to leave without honoring our birthday boy... here's some pictures with the fun blocks they gave him.





what a blessing ethan has been to us this past year! God has been so gracious to us with a healthy boy full of laughter and smiles. he amazes us with new things that he can do everyday, and i know it just gets better from here. praise God for our growing family. we can't wait to watch ethan be a big brother to little caroline this fall... our children are a gift from God!