Happy Birthday Eli!!!

So I am kinda torn. Did any one else feel super emotional when their first child turned one. I was so sad, and happy at the same time. It is really good to see how big he is getting and how smart he is. I love him so much and he is by far the greatest and blessing that Matt and I have ever had. Well anyways, enough the mushy stuff. Today was a great day. We had so much fun and Eli well..... The pictures will tell the story.

We wanted to go with a monkey theme for his birthday, because Eli... well he is about about as monkey as they come. So, Grandma Gaye, being the amazing wonderful grandma that she is, totally lived it up with this theme. When we first got there, this cute little jacket was hanging on her front door for Eli. It is a Curious George jacket and he looks so cute in it.


So we helped to set up a few more decorations. We had brought a banner that said Happy 1st birthday and we had brought some party hats and noise makers. Grandma had bought some balloons ( Which Eli had a blast with by the way). And then the party began.

This is Eli and John showing off their cute party hats. Eli was struggling to keep his on, he was not loving it, but eventually he did leave it alone for a little bit.

This is Uncle Justin and Eli just looking cute for a picture.


Daddy had fun helping Eli to open all of his presents. He was very spoiled. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME TO HIS PARTY AND MADE THIS SUCH A SPECIAL DAY FOR HIM. I DON'T KNOW WHERE WE WOULD BE WITHOUT ALL OF YOU. WE SEND OUR LOVE TO ALL OF YOU. Another picture of Eli with some of his gifts.

Aunt Heather and Aunt Taylor got Eli this very cute Build-a-bear... well actually a build-a-monkey, but same concept. You couldn't tell that we like Batman around our house at all, could ya. Well anyways, Eli loved this monkey and was very fascinated with it. He loves to hold on to it when he is trying to go to sleep. Thank you Aunt Heather and Taylor.

This is Eli's birthday cake. It took me all morning, but it was so perfect and it was really fun to make. I know this picture doesn't look like much, but believe me, it was everything we could do to keep Eli from diving into the monkey long enough to take a picture of him with it.


So I know that Eli definitely didn't need to cakes, because the raised part on the monkey that has the "E" on it was suppose to be the part we took of and put the candle in for him to blow out and then dig into, but Albertsons gives you a free 1st birthday cake so we decided, since it was free, why not use it too. So this is why Eli ended up with two cakes. So this is the way the cake started......

This is Eli enjoying his cake.........

And this was what we ended up with at the end. Needless to say, Eli was not shy at all when it came to eating his cake the proper way that a one year old should. He knew exactly what to do.

This is a picture of Eli's Great Grandma Hatch holding Zander.
He is Eli's newest cousin. Isn't he a cutie.

This is my cute little boy all cleaned up and wearing a pair of his new pajams that Great Grandma gave to him. Justin and him are having fun playing with some of his new toys.

Drew, Sarah, and John gave Eli this Car's Car. As the picture plainly shows, he really liked it. Every time they come over, the boys have a tendancy to fight over this one particular toy of John's but now they both have one. We will see if that fixes the problem, but I have my doubts. Boys will be boys. They just want what someone else has. Thanks again for the Car guys. He loves it.