Eli's First Birthday Party!!

Eli loves dogs! One of the reasons he loves going outside is to see the dog. He loves to look out the window to try and find the dog. The dog noise was his first animal noise he learned to make and "dog" was one of his first words. His love for dogs made thinking of a theme for his first birthday party a no-brainer! We decided to do a Go, Dog, Go party! I saw many cute ideas on the internet for invitations and decided on making this....

To go along with our Go, Dog, Go theme we had hot dogs and chips, puppy chow, and puppy dog cupcakes! Yum. 

It was so fun to have lots of family over to our house to celebrate Eli! Everyone had a blast! And speaking of blast...We got balloons for decorations, but decided just to leave them on the floor for the kids to play with. The balloons were a bit over-blown up and would randomly pop. It was pretty funny and added to the fun. 

Eli loved all of his presents! Eli enjoyed opening everyone of them! He also loved looking at each card. I have never seen a kid love cards like Eli does. It is so funny. He sees them as little miniature books. We save all the cards he gets and put them with his books and enjoys looking at them over and over. Cards with music are extra fun, he will study the front then when he opens it and hears the music he starts to dance. So cute!

Thank you everyone for making Eli's first birthday party special! He is so thankful for all his new fun toys and books! Thank you also to Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Sanders who sent Eli a sweet birthday present all the way from Colorado!

I wish I would have gotten a picture of everyone who was at the party, so Eli could look back at it when he gets older....but i didn't. Maybe I will remember next year :) 

Here are some pics from the party! 

Puppy cupcakes!

Cute and yummy!

Some of the chow!

Early arrivers and some of the popping balloons

Eli was a bit more interested in what everyone else was up to, lol.

He liked all the attention on him.
Making everyone clap :)

Our little family :)

Go Eli! Yay for chocolate!

Thanks again to all our guests!

Papa and Grandma, Caleb, Lindsey, Granny Boo and Grandpa Dadee, Gran-nana, Uncle Zach and Aunt Leah, Aunt Missy, Madalynn, Aunt Melanie, Aunt Lisa, Amye, Kai and Sully!

We love you all!

 

Birthday Cake!

Since we planned Eli's birthday party more than a week after his actual birthday, we had to get a little cake to celebrate on his actual birthday. We were all ready to give it to him after dinner on his birthday, however, he was too tired from all his birthday fun. We decided to wait and let him have it the next afternoon since it wouldn't be any fun to watch a tired baby reject his first birthday cake. After lunch at Granny Boo and Grandpa Dadee's house next door, we brought over the cake and celebrated!

After he was done, Eli got cleaned up in Granny Boo's sink! Fun times!

Clean, happy birthday boy! :)

Photo Shoot

The day before Eli's first birthday I took him outside to have a little "photo shoot" 

Here are some of my favorites :)

Eli is 12 months!

One year old. How did that happen so fast? Our little guy has grown and learned so much over this past year!

Here is what Eli has been up to this past month....

Eli has loved playing with his cousin Madalynn. We got to take another trip to the zoo.

Madalynn loves having a baby cousin to push around!

Enjoyed Valentines day treat from Aunt Missy, Uncle Andrew, and Madalynn! Yummy!

Yummy peep hearts in his new high chair!

Eli is learning more animal sounds! This month he has mastered the monkey sound....so cute!! He leaves out the who who, and just says ha ha! Other animal sounds Eli can make are for a dog, duck, cow, and cat.

Eli even recognized the monkey on his DVD
 and started making monkey noises

Eli is finally over his army crawling and is always up on his hands and knees. He still isn't walking on his own, but he uses his walker to get around everywhere!! He loves it! We have been so thankful for all the nice weather it has been so nice to spend so much time outside in February. Eli loves playing outside and go for walks with his walker.

Eli and is walker!

Eli discovered his baby swing in his room this month and decided he needed to try it out again. I brought it out of his room and let him have a swing in it and he thought it was so much fun. he would laugh and laugh. He would also let some of his stuffed animals go for a swing. He's going to be a great big brother!! :)

Just a swinging!

Eli is still eating baby food. He loves to eat big people food too, but sometimes he still prefers his baby food over real food.

So excited to feed himself!

Yum!

Now thats some serious baby food!

We love how affectionate Eli is. He is becoming such a great little hugger and is pretty generous with his kisses for Mommy and Daddy too. We hope this continues! His loving is so dear to our hearts!

Kissing that baby in the mirror!

awww :)

Cutie pie!

 We love you Eli!

<3 Mommy