Will's First Haircut!

Yesterday Pops was going to get his hair cut at Mr. Clay's Barber Shop and John and I decided it was time Will get a trim. The hair on top had gotten really long and he looked like he just had a bad comb over sometimes :) My dad has gone to Mr. Clay for as long as I can remember and he has teased Will about taking him there for about 6 months. So we only thought it appropriate for Pops to accompany Will for his first hair cut.

Mr. Clay was super patient with Will and talked to him about the whole process before he actually brought out the scissors...Once the pep talk was over, Will got suited up...

And then the cutting began...Will was not a fan of the squirt bottle, but he held it together...because this is what he was more interested in...
His sucker! The kid has never had one. I think we can add Dum Dums (particularly the blue raspberry to his favorites list).
Pops even helped out holding the sucker so Will would stay still. As long as that sucker was in his mouth, he was good to go!
This is what he did when we told him how handsome he looked. I think he just wanted his sucker back (look at that blue mouth)!Thank you Mr. Clay for making Will's first haircut such a pleasant experience (and thank you for having Dum Dums!!!!)

THE PARTY

We had a GREAT time throwing Will a monkey themed first birthday party. Obviously it took a lot out of all of us-Will is now sick with what we think is a fever virus (puny/congested on Sunday, very high fever Monday, still fever off and on/congested/cannot sleep anywhere but on me today) and my mom has walking pneumonia and bronchitus. Thus the delay on getting pictures posted.

My mom added this little touch to the "1" to greet Will's guests...

The food table...minus the chocolate covered bananas (you have to have some sort of banana at a monkey party)...I made them myself in about 20 min and they were so yummy and super easy!Seriously...I get to do this again!?!

Wednesday was good practice for me! No worries...I know exactly what to do!

SO good!

I clap when I am proud of myself!

Cousins

Does it have to be over yet?

I think there is room for a little more icing on my face...

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!

Opening presents with Kate

Cake and Presents??!! This day is awesome!

Can't we just read the cards later, mom?

I love balloons! Check out my hair

Cousin Emma partied too hard! I love her

Best shot of the kids we could get. Will was thrilled. We are just missing Emma and Lane.

The Damage...done entirely by Will!

Big Day Ahead!

ONE

I cannot believe that our sweet little boy is ONE! Today was the perfect day. I planned on taking off work months ago and as of last week had our day all planned out. Today totally exceeded my expectations. To say that Will has been a blessing to us just doesn't seem enough. 20 months ago when I took a test I had a lot of emotions running through my head. I was mostly scared, nervous, anxious, not ready. Never could I have ever imagined how good it would be. How rewarding, fulfilling, amazing. People always tell you how wonderful parenthood is, but you never understand until you have a child of your own. I love Will more than I ever thought I could love anything and I feel like that love grows with each passing day. Last night I read our ENTIRE blog. I was catching up on Will's baby book and it totally took me back and I felt like I relived my life for the past year. I was reminded how quickly time just slips away and today I just wanted to stop time. To enjoy every single second. Will has added so much to our little family in his one year of life. I can't wait to get to know more of his precious personality!

The Big Boy in his birthday shirt!

We love this face!


We went to the Galleria for Chick-fil-A and the carousel. Will had a chicken strip, a few fries, and a banana. When they found out it was Will's 1st birthday, they brought him a sundae to our table!

We stopped by Build-a-Bear and let him build a stuffed animal. Will (Mom) chose the monkey...He (Dad) named him Bananas!

I used my giant cupcake pan to make his 1st birthday cake. Yes, the one in the middle is his. The little ones are for us :)

Kiki, Pops, Yia Yia, Papou, and Aunt Steph all came over to help us celebrate. After all that baking, I was really glad I decided to just order pizza!!

Family Pic. Please excuse how rough I look. I was so busy trying to get everything ready and make sure that it was perfect, there was not time to worry about myself! :)

The cake...

He wasn't so sure at first, but it didn't take him long to realize 1) it was pretty tasty and 2) no one was stopping him from diving right in.

And dive in he did! His hands got so sticky, he just decided to go straight in with his mouth!

But he couldn't cram as much in that way, so he went back to using his hand.

And after about 10 minutes...he was OVER it!

I followed these instructions on how to make a candy shell for the giant cupcake and I thought it turned out super cute! It was very easy!!

The "1" hanging on our front door is compliments of my mom! A few weeks ago I told her that I envisioned a big "1" hanging on the door for his birthday party. We brainstormed about what we could use and finally decided on felt. You see, I usually can come up with the cute ideas but it is my mom who makes the thought bear fruit. I thought it wouldn't be ready until the day of his party, however my mom was outside my door hanging it up at 7am this morning so it would be hung on his actual birthday. I love the way it turned out!

All in all I would say the day was pretty great. Thank you so much to all of our family and friends for the LOVE, HELP, and SUPPORT that you have given us over the past 365 days. We would not have made it this far without each and every one of you.

Good Night everyone...and Happy Birthday Sweet Will!

Will's New Game

Despite having two rooms of his own filled with exciting toys that talk, light up, cheer, etc, Will's favorite toys to play with are....you guessed....Bentley's! We keep Bentley's toy basket in the kitchen. Every chance Will gets, he takes all of them out and throws them all over the floor. Bentley just looks on in utter disgust.
Will has also learned to clap this week. He thinks it is so funny. He claps when he is finished eating, when he builds with his blocks, and anytime we say "yay" or "good boy."

Christmas/New Years Recap

Christmas break was so much fun. It flew by but I enjoyed every minute. I spent my time playing with Will, napping, planning Will's first birthday party, etc so there was not much time for blogging! I will try to quickly recap all of the happenings around here.
My brother and his family always come in and spend a few days with us before Christmas because they like to be home for Santa. The first night we were here we went to the Galleria for the kids to ride the carousel (Kiki is the coolest grandma-she rode ON the horse with Will) and spontaneously decided to go to the movies. My parents kept all of the grandchildren. It was SO NICE to go to dinner and a movie, especially since we hadn't planned on it. At the movie theater, my sister in law was going to take a picture of Alvin and the Chipmunks to show my niece and nephew. We decided it would be a much cooler shot if their daddy and Uncle John posed with them! It was hilarious. Of course a ton of people started walking by when they went to stand over there. Tessa and I were giggling so hard because they looked so funny-we were acting like we were in middle school :)We celebrated Christmas Monday night. We went to church and then had dinner and exchanged gifts. I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Will with his cousins. This is what Will did during the entire church service...

After church, during dinner, Will got his first taste of a pickle. He LOVED it!

He received 2 of his favorite presents that night. EE gave him a Dirt Devil that actually works. He LOVES my vacuum so we figured he would love one of his own. He is hysterical with it. It has a hose and he drags it all over the house with the hose. My brother and his family gave him a talking Sid the Science Kid. If you don't know about Sid, you are missing out. It is a show on Alabma Public Television. It comes on here every morning at 7:30. My mom found it once she started keeping him and it kind of became a part of their routine. The songs are so cute.
Wentzel the Webb family Elf came and filled our stockings at Kiki and Pops house on Tuesday morning. There are now 12 stockings (so many that she had to hang them down the stairwell instead of on the mantle). Needless to say, we keep Wentzel very busy this time of year. Will enjoyed all of his fun things Wentzel left him, especially the keys and the Handy Manny Band-aids!

Christmas Eve was spent at John's parents house where Will was given even more fun toys to play with. Among his favorites were the Ride on Lion and the Music Table. Yia Yia and Papou gave him a Cozy Coupe, which I know he will love once it is a little warmer and we can take it outside for a ride.

We came home from Yia Yia and Papou's to prepare for Santa to come...and come he did. I think Mommy and Daddy were more excited than Will! Santa did not disappoint! John and I were of course looking forward to Christmas with Will but it far exceeded our expectations. We never imagined how fun Christmas would be with a child. We could have cared less about our presents-it was far more entertaining to watch Will!

The day after Christmas the Vakakes cousins got together. Will had so much fun playing with James (17 months).

New Years Eve we headed to Troy to spend some time with my college roomie and her family. She has 2 boys, Cole (3) and Owen (17 months), so there was never a dull moment with 3 boys around!This was the best picture I could get of the 3 of them...they never stayed still very long. Cole's 3rd birthday party was on Saturday. He had a bounce house. Will has never been in one of these so this was a new experience for him. He loved it! We got there early so he could have it to himself before all of the big kids arrived. He smiled the entire time he was in there. He loved for someone to jump beside him so he would bounce. He also really liked the slide. Check out these faces!

We look forward to 2010 and all the blessings it will bring!