It's Party Time!!!!!

Remingtons first birthday party was an absolute success!!! I spent lots of time planning every detail of this day to make sure it was perfect!! .....and it was!!!

The theme was airplanes and the main colors were yellow and blue. I made some spinach, turkey and cream cheese pinwheels. My sister made her famous pasta salad and my mom made delicious weenies in the crock pot. Mikes dad also brought his home made guacamole and salsa. We had soda and water for the adults and juice for the kids as well as fruit loops, animal crackers and popcorn. Mike and I made the cupcakes and cake and airplane shaped sugar cookies.

The hot chocolate favor bags were a hit! I filled little bags with a packet of instant hot chocolate, a few marshmallows, chocolate chips and 2 mini candy canes. They were set up in a suitcase with a "baggage claim" sign above and the area to drop off Remis gifts was labeled "baggage check-in".
We had lots of personal touches such as the cupcake toppers: Remington Airlines- those labels were also used on the favor bags.


We had close to 30 family and friends come to celebrate Remingtons first year! They were so kind to get him all sorts of gifts including books, new outfits, bath toys, trucks, the alphabet train, two huge teddy bears (that ironically both of my best friends bought him without knowing), and my mom and sister also bought him the same gift- a musical helicopter.

Remington with his GREAT Grandpa

Mommy and Remi

Remi and Daddy

Remi LOVES stuffed animals and as I mentioned above, both of my best friends, not knowing, got Remi the same stuffed bear. And let me tell you......this kid spotted one of the bears from a mile away and did whatever he could to get it in his hands......

Like I said...he LOVES stuffed animals :)

Remi didn't miss a beat when it came to eating his first cake. In fact, as soon as daddy set the cake down in front of him, Remi went face first into it for the first bite. It was great!!!

This was his face when we were singing Happy Birthday to him :)

"Here you go Daddy"

"Try some cake Mommy"

 It was sure a great day :)

Busy boy!!

Yes.....Remington is suuuper duuper busy! He's so curious about what everything is, what everyone is doing, what your doing on your cell phone and computer (he'll literally pull your hands down to look at your cell if texting and he does some crazy maneuver to peak around at the screen. He LOVES playing with boxes and hiding in them. He's SO much fun!!!

This was his favorite 'toy' for a long time!!

"Look what I can do Mom"

Had to get comfortable somehow!

Lets just say he got under it a lot easier then he got back out

I think he's pretty handsome :)

He wanted daddy to play under the box with him too

Look at that sweet face...and his pretty eyes!!

He figured out this new trick at Grandmas when no one was looking......

And this new trick too!!

These two boys are my whole entire world!! I breathe these boys, love these boys and am complete with these boys

Gobble Gobble

Remington celebrated his first Turkey day!!! He had a blast trying out all the new foods. At first, I was feeding him bites off my plate then I realized that he's a big boy now and we got him his own plate. He was in "awe" and at first didn't know what to do. But once he figured it out...he went to town on his plate!
All in all, it was a pretty low key day spent at Mikes parents house. He did, however, take a 1.5 hour nap in grandpa Pauls lap :)

Things are getting close...

This coming Tuesday will mark 3 weeks 'till Remingtons "big day" and things are coming along nicely. I'll re-cap:

His birthday is Airplane themed. I made the invitations my self and will be sending them out ......TOMORROW!!! Here is the invitation ----

I am going to make cupcakes for the guests and have ordered custom made cup cake 'tags' that say "Remington Airlines". I have also ordered 144 plastic airplanes that will go on each cupcake as well serve as the decoration on Remis own personal sized cake. And today I just got the airplane shaped cookie cutter that will make the cutest cupcakes!
Speaking of Remis cake, It will be a small one, just for him. It will be green on the inside and blue on the outside, same as the cupcakes.
The colors theme of the entire party is blue, green and yellow. We will serve pasta salad (courtesy of my sister), pigs in a blanket and some snacks like goldfish, fruit loops and animal crackers and a side of crackers and cheese.
Not quite sure on what drinks we'll serve but I know one drink will be my famous 'fall' drink ~ few cups of pineapple juice, a few cups of apple juice and a few tbls of Cinnamon heated in the crock pot for a few hours. MMmmm!
On the creative side, I will have a video montage playing of Remis first year. I will also have the "alphabet pictures" and his "monthly time-line" pictures hung for viewing. And last but not least, we will have a time capsule. Each guest will write Remi a note with some advice and wishes for his future. We will keep it under lock and keep 'till his 18th birthday.
I can't wait to put all these ideas into reality! Only 3 weeks away!!!

One year 'deadlines'

As Remingtons First Birthday party "Celebration" (you must know, I celebrate anything I can and I go 'all out' for it) comes more near, I have some last minute things that I have to finish up. We have been working on some 'photo' stuff over the past year and am so excited to finally give it its' debut.

I love taking 'time lapse' photos. For example, when I was pregnant I took a picture of my belly every week, in the same outfit and in the same spot. It's so much fun to literally watch my belly grow.

Next, Since Remi was 4 weeks old, We have taken his "monthly" birthday photo in the same rocking chair with the same stuffed animal with the occasional holiday photo in the chair as well. So we're nearing 12 or so photos of him in which you can also literally watch him grow. I am going to display his monthly birthday photos at his "celebration".

And, last but not least, starting when he was just a few weeks old, we took pictures of him with objects that made up the alphabet.We have a few letters left (we forgot about this project for a few months, playing catch up now) but they will be done this week!

Only 3 weeks left 'till my sweet baby boy reaches his One Year milestone and what better way to show him 'growing' through pictures...literally. Oh, and I've made a video montage of his life starting from the day we got our positive pregnancy test and it will end with Remis first birthday cake smash (one week before his actual birthday) We have it set to the song "Anything like Me" by Brad Paisley. Its the most perfect song ever.

Now.....like I said, we're just 3 weeks away from turning one...... I'm getting the itch to change things up and think of a new way to take his monthly photos for "Year Two".....Hmmm...This could get fun!!

Do YOU have any ideas for me??

Teeth!

I had forgot to mention that Remingtons 7th tooth (top, left side of his front tooth) came through on Halloween day. And the 8th tooth (opposite #7) is starting to peek through! WOW-za!!

11 months old....already!?

Most of the day went by before I realized that today is November 6...which means my sweet little boy is 11 months old. Holy moly! One month away before he turns ONE!! Not sure how I feel about his right now. Well, excited but kinda sad that my 'little baby' is turning into a 'big boy'.
So here are the stats from month 10:

Weight: He weighs 22 lbs (50%)

Height: Probably about 30 inches (will find out next month)

Head Size: Close to 18 inches

Diaper Size: He wears size medium and large cloth diapers and size 4 in disposables

Clothes Size: 18 month although he owns a few 24 month old sizes

Sleep: Still a great sleeper. He's going to bed a bit later now, between 9 and 10 and sleeps in 'till 8am or so. (talk about nice that he lets mommy sleep in )

Favorite Activities: He's recently discovered how fun it is to feed the doggies his crackers. He thinks is soo funny to smash it up in his hand all throw the crackers and the floor and watch the dogs go crazy. He also loves feeding the dogs straight from his hand. Though....we run out of crackers pretty fast now.

Favorite Toys: He loves sticks! We keep rods in the window cracks and since we keep our windows open now, the rods are propped in the sides. He figured out how to get them out of the window seal to play with them. He loves swinging them around and actually laughs when he hits himself in the head with them.

Eating: He is officially on whole milk. We have been switching him over from formula to whole milk for the last few weeks. He actually prefers whole milk over formula (wont finish all his formula bottles but will if its whole milk) Anyways, so he takes about 6oz of whole milk every 4 hours or so. He's doing great on it. Never had problems with constipation or diarrhea.

Talking: His newest 'word' is "Gag"....which we believe is him trying to say Dog. He also says "baba" which is what we say for bottle. He gibbers allllll daaaaaaay loooooong. Definitely a talker!

Milestones: WALKING!!! Yes...hes taken steps more and more. He gets soo excited when we prop him up, and let him go....'till he realizes what he's doing then freaks out. LOL!

I can't believe he's almost a year old!! WOW!! We went out and bought all of his party-ware and I bought his first birthday outfit for his big day...and photo shoots of course :) In just a few weeks, he will be celebrating his first Thanksgiving!

Halloween and Mommys birthday

Remi just celebrated his first Halloween! Officially, he was a dragon (we dressed up as "The Rubbles") for an earlier costume party) and the cutest dragon ever! We started off trick or treating in our own neighborhood with a few neighbors. After about an hour, we headed to my parents neighborhood (in which I grew up in). We stopped at all of Remis "Aunties" houses. It got very emotional in every way when Remi "walked" up to them all to get some candy for the first time. His "aunties" have wanted Remi in this world just as much as we did so He is so very special to them.

Remi with his best friends

Hanging out with Papa Paul afterwards

Halloween is also my birthday. Last year on my birthday, I was 8 months pregnant so it was so much fun to celebrate  my birthday with my son this year. I held him while everyone sang happy birthday to me and he helped me blow out my candles :) And Mike got me a beautiful diamond and sapphire ring. Sapphire is Remis birthstone :)

And as I mentioned before, we went to a costume party the night before Halloween and we dressed up as "The Rubbles". I made our costumes out of old sheets. I thought we looked pretty darn good!

Pumpkin Patch

As a side job, I am a photographer so this month of October we were at the pumpkin patch two weekends in a row, both Saturdays and Sundays. Remi and Mike came along to them so that we could also get pictures of Remi with the pumpkins. It was pretty darn hott still ( at least 100*) so his dragon costume wasn't the greatest choice. The very last day of my photo-shoots, Remi had pneumonia (didn't know it yet) so he wouldn't smile and wasn't too cheerful.