12 Months! One year! Party Time!

I sure did have good intentions of getting this post up Sunday night. However...it has taken us a few days to recover from a super exciting weekend. Can you believe it? Our little guy is ONE YEAR OLD! I can't, that's for sure! This weekend involved tons of party prep, food making, cupcake baking, present opening, hugs, balloons, bubbles, birthday breakfast donuts, cake eating, family time, pictures, and celebrating...whew! We sure are blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family to help us celebrate our sweet boy's first year! Some party recap {for the sake of my fading memory, at 27 sheesh!} Theme: Bubbles and Balloons. The menu: chicken salad croissants, pimiento cheese sandwiches, ham and turkey sandwiches, queso dip/chips, cheese/salsa tortilla roll-ups, veggie tray, fruit tray, little smokies, balloon candy melt pops, chocolate cupcakes, nutter butter balls, candy, birthday punch {no wonder it took us a few days to recover! food overload anyone?} The guests: mommy, daddy, Porter, Aunt Jesse, Auntie Em, Uncle Willy, Nonni, Papa, PopPop, Mammy, Emily, Grandpa, Roxanne, Uncle Hugh, Dawn, Angel, Ciara, Mimi, Papaw, Grandma Burgess, Nanny, Nana, Granddaddy Frank, Jeremy, Becca, Aunt Pam, Megan {yes, our small intimate  family party includes 27 people :) } Seeing as how we have over 500 pictures from 6 different cameras, I'll give you the highlights and maybe do a birthday blog here and there until I'm confident that all readers have been officially "birthday-blogged out"...

What a crazy, fun-filled day for the sweetest birthday boy I know! Thanks to everyone that came and celebrated this very special day with us :)

The doctor: We followed our day of celebrations up with a trip to the pediatrician for a one-year check up. Porter weighed 22 lbs 13 oz (85th percentile) and was 31.5 inches tall (95th percentile! Where did these genes come from? Have you seen me?) He got his first finger prick. Poor guy, but his iron level was great. Everything measured well and looks great! We have a healthy, growing, and quite active boy! {Side note: Dear all pediatricians, please warn me if you're going to start referring to my tiny boy as a toddler! I'll bring tissues next time! I was fine with going from 'infant' to 'baby'. But 'baby' to 'toddler'... not so much! Thanks!}

Going, going, gone!

So my poor teething boy spent most of the day yesterday fighting naptime! Basically, he was up from 5 am until...well, dinnertime. He was sitting in his high chair having dinner while I was making mine and Sean's dinner. I turned to stir the potatoes and within a minute, this happened...

The little guy literally fell asleep with a bite of chicken still in his mouth! What's a mama to do? Well this one stopped dinner, quietly wiped as many pickle seeds off of him as I could, got him out, and snuggled with him until Daddy got home. I know that someday {probably far too soon} I'll have to beg him to fall asleep in my lap, so until that day I'll snuggle my pickle and chicken covered little sweetie anytime he'll let me!

Thankful Thursday (flashback)

Somehow, here we are 3 days away from my tiny boy's 1st birthday! In so many ways, it feels like he just joined us a few weeks ago. Then again, in others it feels like he's been a part of our family forever. It is actually hard to remember what life was like before this tiny {and slightly orange} little guy...




This time last year, I was anxiously awaiting his arrival and 2 days away from being induced. {Just a funny story...on the way to the hospital on the morning of my induction, Sean and I were making guesses of what time that day we thought we'd be meeting our son. My guess was noon- as in 5 hours after the start of the induction. Sean's was around 2 p.m. Well, we were both off by about 13+ hours! He decided that 3:06 a.m.- the NEXT day sounded like a perfect arrival time. I'm so glad I didn't know that at the time!} Anyways, my what a difference a year makes! So I thought that this Thankful Thursday, I'd share some things I was thankful for back then. {As if it were that long ago!}

*Pain medicine and epidurals! Yes, I thought I'd try to do it without one. Umm, no thanks!

*A sweet nurse named Jill. Labor and delivery nurses sure have their work cut out for them! {And she was preganant to top it off!}

*Food! Ok, to put that one into perspective... going for 36 hours with no food (including 20 hours of labor and 3.5 hours of pushing!) will cause you to nearly eat the next person that walks by!

*The family and sweet husband that patiently waited at the hospital with me while Porter made his way into the world.

*My mom and Sean for being an amazing support during LONG hours of pushing! {My mom still hasn't decided whether or not she'll personally attend the births of her next grandchildren.}

*Our best friends that brought snacks and love to the hospital to meet our sweet boy. And the nutritious meal comprised of pizza and strawberry frosted donuts (with sprinkles, of course!)that they brought to us the first night we were home b/c that's what I had craved for weeks and not been able to have. Darn you, gestational diabetes!

*Sleep! What a hot commodity you have become this past year!

*All of the meals brought and prepared for us those first few weeks to help us survive, no literally! {Everyone needs a mom who will stock their freezer with weeks of homemade goodness, thanks mom!}

*All of the friends and family that came along with the aforementioned meals to meet and visit with our sweetie.

*I could go on and on...the point is, sweet times like these give you the truest picture of just how much your friends, family, and equally sleepless husband care about you!

Happy Thursday Y'all!

Big boy shoes

Porter and I decided that today would be a fun day to venture out for some shoe shopping. Well, to back up some... our boy has never been much of a fan of shoes {aka- hates them!}. We have tried them a few times, and it usually ends in tears and frustration. However, since he is starting to walk, (with help, of course) I think now's as good of a time as any to get those little piggy toes used to shoes. So, armed with patience and a large amount of goldfish, off we went! The sweet lady at the shoe store fitted P's little feet and decided he was a size FIVE! What?! (Yes, that does sound huge to me seeing as how we didn't really go through 1,2,3, or 4) Since 5's mean no more leather soft-bottom shoes, we skipped right over to the 'big boy shoes' {there may or may not have been a small tear, I'm not an emotional mama at all! ;) } and found the perfect ones! And the result...

Could this boy's feet be any cuter?! 

Pickles + Porter = LOVE!

My little guy has chosen a new {and quite smelly!} favorite food...pickles!! We went out for sandwiches the other night and when he started getting fussy, I let him try the pickle that came with my dinner. It was love at first sight bite! He "mmmm'd" and chewed until there was nothing left but the skin. {Thank goodness it was bath night, yuck!} I like pickles and all, but a 24-pound, wiggly one, no thanks! Anyways, he has had almost an entire jar of pickles in the last 6 days. Hey, I figure there are a lot worse things he could eat :)

And all it takes is a pickle to make this precious little boy happy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

So if you haven't figured me out by now...I LOVE holidays! All of them, every last one! And Valentine's Day is no exception. Yesterday, I helped Porter make a card for Daddy...

And this morning, we went on our first Valentine's Day date to Dunkin Donuts. We decided to bring it home because it was super crowded, but this will definitely become a tradition. Porter has never had much sugar before (other than some jelly here and there), so we'll see how this day turns out :) He tried his first donut- a blueberry munchkin, for my munchkin. He was skeptical at first, but was squealing by the first few bites. Another fun tradition has begun...



{Video to come later...}



140 choices?!

So I'm taking a brief break from blogging about all things baby-related to tell you about the awesomeness  that I discovered this weekend. Ok, don't have high expectations, it's not that monumental. It's the drink machine {a.k.a. fountain of fun} found at Firehouse Subs and it's amazing! One of my favorite things about going to Atlanta is the "sampling room" at the Coca-Cola museum. OH. MY. GOSH! I'm not that much of an avid soda-drinker, but all of the choices are monumentally overwhelming and I LOVE it! The drink machine at Firehouse subs was almost as overwhelming/exciting/awesome! Have you been there? No? Well GO! There are literally 140 choices all right there in ONE machine! You won't be disappointed! Oh, and the subs? They're pretty fab too! Does it take a lot to excite me? Nah :)

{Ok, so I found the best picture I could, but it's one of those 'you have to see in person to truly appreciate its life-changing power' kind of things!}



Thankful Thursday (from P-man himself)

Porter asked if he could have a turn to share some things he was thankful for.  Here's what we came up with... {in no particular order}

~Bananas. This little monkey eats at least one everyday! Potassium overload anyone?

~Books. He has figured out how to turn pages and will sit and play with books FOREVER! (Side note: as a teacher, his love for books makes me SO proud!)

~His highchair. Anytime he gets near this thing, food is on its way and believe me, this kid loves to eat! (He got it honest ;)

~Bottles. Again, food makes him happy anytime, anywhere! But bottles are especially fun because he gets to snuggle with mommy and eat all at the same time. (I am well aware that bottle-weaning is NOT going to be easy for this little guy) :(

~His stroller. Whenever mommy gets that big green thing out of the car, we are sure to go on some kind of fun adventure! The park, the mall, the library, it doesn't matter. (Excellent way to fulfill his adventurous needs and keep him contained at the same time, score!)

~His dogs. While I would have probably found them a loving new home months ago, he wakes up searching for them EVERYday! He finds dogs in books, on the TV, at the park, etc and very excitedly shouts "Dog, dog, dog!" (Funny story- he recently mistook an older woman with a bit of a wild hair-do at the park for a dog, oops! Good thing she didn't speak 'Porter' or she would have known he wasn't just giving a friendly wave, yikes!)

~Baskets of toys. Not just a toy and not just a basket, but baskets full of toys! His newest favorite thing to do it to take all of the toys out of the basket one-by-one and put them all back in one-by-one. Hey, it keeps him busy and he's already learning to clean up after himself, I'll take it!



Library Love!

Porter and I have discovered our new FAVORITE outing...the library! Can I say FREE and FUN?! He had a blast at story time today. He got to pet the puppets, shake some musical instruments, pop lots of bubbles, and sing songs in mommy's lap. What better day can a little boy have?! He hasn't quite learned the whole 'taking turns' thing though and didn't understand why he couldn't have the dog puppet, instead of just touch the dog puppet. So the story lady was nice enough to let him sit in her lap and hold the puppet while she read the dog story. After nap time, {that is, assuming he takes a nap instead of laying in his crib saying 'dada dog dada dog' like he is currently doing} we plan on going on a 'bubble hunt'. The story lady had the coolest bubbles I've ever seen! She blew them and they didn't pop when they hit the ground, so the babies had plenty of time to crawl around and have fun popping them. So cute! I'm not sure where you buy these special bubbles, but I'll let you know ;) In the meantime, we will become frequent visitors at library story time!

Proverbs 31

One of my all-time favorite Bible passages has always been Proverbs 31! I loved it even before I was a wife or a mom. And now, it's even more meaningful. This is what I have been studying lately in my devotion time and trying to search my own heart for ways that I can live out this passage in every area of my life. It sure is a tall order to live up to, but what better way to honor the Lord in my own family! Making my own 'bed coverings' and 'selling linen garments' might be a little out of my reach {for now anyways} but there are plenty of other areas I'm working on ;) Using my spare time more wisely is my goal for the rest of the week. I'd love to find a good book or Bible study to help guide me through learning more about how to live out Proverbs 31, so if you have any suggestions send them my way!

Thankful Thursday

This has been such a wonderfully blessed and fun-filled day that I almost forgot about the blog world. Not to say that there aren't plenty of things to be thankful for today. Sometimes when I sit back and wonder why God chose me to be Porter's mommy, all I can think is 'my cup runneth over'. No, really. I was always one of those little girls that dreamed of growing up and being a mommy, but I had no idea one tiny little person could enrich my life so much. I feel like 'thankful' just doesn't quite cut it. The Lord knew what he was doing when He planned this little boy for this little family. While we do want to grow our family and I try to calm the fire inside of me that desperately wants another baby, I can honestly say that I am so content with this season of my life. Porter and I spent hours outside today walking in our neighborhood, swinging in the park, watching dogs walk by, and playing with (a.k.a. eating!) sidewalk chalk. I love every minute that I have with this little darling boy! There are so many other things I'm thankful for today, but this one is the one that the Lord has placed heaviest on my heart. As I continue to pray month after month (going on 6 months now) that this would be the month that God would see fit to bless us with another baby, I am becoming more and more aware of the everyday blessings, big and small, that I keep overlooking in my quest for the 'next chapter' for my family and I. I'm sure Porter will grow to appreciate (or at least tolerate, but we'll call it appreciation ;) his overly emotional, loves-to-hug, wants-to-touch-him-ALL-the-time mama. But until (and ever after) then, he'll never truly know how much of a blessing he is to his mommy and daddy's lives! {I mean come on, would YOU not hug this little face all day long?!}