Dallin's First Birthday

It's hard to believe this guy is one year old. Some days, it seems like he is growing up fast, but mostly it feels to me like he's been around a LOT longer than one year! It seems like his newborn pics were taken soo long ago!! 

I call Dallin our "Little Love Bug" and "Love" because he is just that! Even while I was pregnant with him, I could feel the love that he has brought us. He is a sensitive little guy and seeks love from us constantly, hates being alone. He cuddles us and kisses us and nuzzles and hugs. He is also a determined little guy. When he sets his mind to doing something, he does it, from climbing a box to getting a toy to finding someone in the house. He loves reading and being read to, bringing books to us dozens of times a day, and fusses until we stop what we're doing to read to him. Dallin is a quick learner, seems to learn by experiment really well. He will quietly try new things at his high chair or in the corner of the kitchen or playroom. Then one day, I catch him doing something new and I'm like "Hey! When did you learn to do that?!" He can sign "more," "thank you," and "all done." Dallin is silly, happy, musical, athletic, tender, loud, curious and friendly. We love him dearly and are so grateful that he is our son!

Dallin's hair grows so fast, I lost track of how many times we've cut it. His birthday cut was something like the 8th or 9th time. 

Before

After

With spike.

On a walk/bike ride in this cool car we are borrowing.

Tanner loves his tricycle!

Walking pretty well by his first birthday, preferring it over crawling. 

He figured out how to stick legos together.

Also, this one year old has the coolest dance moves. He does a little twist and sways his arms side to side. I've tried posting videos but can't seem to get them working.

Family birthday dinner at Perkins Restaurant 
We like to go out to eat as a family instead of having a party/presents. Our kids are generally pretty good at restaurants since we go about once a week. My favorite part is walking away from the mess!

Tanner was really excited all week for the birthday. He insisted that it was HIS birthday. 

The restaurant gave Dallin a free piece of pie. When it came out, he looked for a second then started touching it and trying to get a good piece to grab. Dallin held a big strawberry in his hand and just stared for a second. Then, he leaned over the side of his high chair and spit out a chunk of bacon! That thing must have been in his mouth for a good 20 minutes!! Once the bacon was out of the way, he devoured the strawberry.

  Dallin was really excited about the balloon and fascinated how it was tied to his arm.

All tuckered out.

Dallin's birthday fell on a Sunday. So the Perkins dinner was on the Friday before. Here are some poses of him on his actual birthday in his Sunday clothes, along with cake and service project that we also did on his actual birthday: 

Dallin's birthday present from us: CAKE!! I think he was pretty happy about it once he figured out how yummy it was! 

Don't be deceived. Tanner, me and Jeremy ate most of the cake. 

What a happy baby!

Birthday Service Project

This is a birthday tradition that I started because I want my children to be reminded on their birthdays of all that God has given them, that being alive on this earth and having a birthday is such a great blessing. With each year that we get to enjoy life, I feel we can celebrate by giving back in some meaningful way to our friends, family and/or community. The birthday person gets to choose the service. For example, for Tanner's 2nd birthday he made muffins for the neighbors because it was his favorite thing to eat at the time. 

Dallin and I "talked" about what we could do for his birthday. We decided that since his birthday is really close to our one year anniversary of moving to Minnesota, we should thank all the people that we possibly can who have had anything to do with us coming here and having such a great first year. Dallin "said" he can't write yet. So I "told" him we could use his hand print on every card. This is what we came up with:

We lined up all these blank-inside cards on our dining room table. Jeremy held Dallin, I held the ink pad. We stamped as many cards as Dallin would let us. After about 35 cards, he got tired, so Tanner volunteered his hand for the remaining 15. Funny fact, you can't tell the difference between their hands because Dallin's is really big for his age and Tanner's is pretty small for his age. Can you tell the difference? 

(Dallin's hand is the one on the left).

We decided to let Dallin try some writing. He likes making marks with pens and crayons, but since we used marker, all he wanted to do was eat them.

Oh well! The cards still turned out really cute.

Happy Birthday, my Little Love!!