Petey's First Birthday

my wee one is ONE! its a wonderful thing, that first party - i'm sure birthdays to come will be each one more magical as he is able to squeal with delight as he greets his guests and when he can understand what it means to unwrap a gift from someone who loves him. but this one, being our very first FIRST birthday party - this one was super special. and having a big bunch of family and friends who love the little man gathered round for the day was just perfect.  uncle matt and aunt ellyn hosted the shindig at their house and all the grandma's and grandpa's and all the great grandparents and all the special friends and guests - they all made it! it was a lovely day. he may have been totally overwhelmed by the amount of smiling faces looking his way and he may have been overly tired from all the fun we'd been having so far on the trip (and a crazy out-of-whack nap schedule) but he was a trooper and delighted everyone with his antics and business.  here are some special photos from the day: (disclaimer-my camera died after taking about 4 photos, great planning....so the rest are collections from those who have shared their pics. somehow, i have no pictures of the nannen family together -please if you are out there and have pictures of them with petey, send them to me!  i am so sorry i don't have pics of you to include in this post - you were such an important part of the day to us-thank you for loving petey!)

petey's birthday cake

 

petey and the simpson clan

petey's great grandma and grandpa hays (reid's maternal grandparents)

petey's great grandma and grandpa handel (my maternal grandparents)

petey's great great 'grandma' lula

petey's great grandma shirley

petey and the kortys

aunt lori and the boys came for a visit a few days before since they couldn't make the party (thank you for making the long drive to see us!) - you'll have to e-mail me some pictures since we took them all with your camera!  sorry we didn't get to see you, uncle wes!

petey and the thomson kids and nici - thank you guys for being such sweet family to us. you and john are like a big brother and sister to us (not that much older) and your kids are like siblings to us. we love you guys and are thankful petey is getting the chance to know you like we do! xoxo  we missed you, john!

lucky boy with a truck handmade by grandpa nannen with wood from great grandpa hays farm

 

ugly sweater party

the timing of our trip worked out perfectly to be able to attend matt and ellyn's annual ugly christmas sweater party (so super sorry if the "ugly" part of the party name offends any of you, especially the wonderful woman i borrowed my oh-so-very-christmas-y sweater from.  perhaps over-the-top-with-christmas-cheer is a better adjective to utilize?)...in fact, the official name of the party was "stache bash" and all the gentlemen in attendence were to grow a ridiculous mustache, shape and size of their choosing. there was quite a good showing. thanks for a fun party, sis and matt!  glad we could join in your celebration.

matt, my future-bro-in-law, looking quite daper.

reid and his blue steel model face?

family photo

 

 

 

milwaukee visit part I

two days after the trip to vegas, we all (baxter too!) hopped on an airplane and beat the snowstorm of 09 into milwaukee, landing just in the nick of time to sit at my parents house and watch the snow fall.  while the rest of the midwest groaned and grimmaced, it warmed my heart to see some real winter snow falling. i guess snow will always be associated with christmas in my heart. 

while we were there, we adjusted to the freeeeezing temperatures (its safe to say baxter had the toughest transition, especially in his winter gear).  my sweet mom ran out to the petstore right before the storm hit to help baxter brave the -11 degree temps for his walks and managed to snag the last little coat and booties in his size.  he was grateful for the coat, even if it did have a faux leopard fur collar. he didn't complain at all, grateful for the extra warmth!

 

we also enjoyed a lovely lunch out to a german restaurant downtown milwaukee, in addition to our first visit to see santa and petey's first haircut.

christmas has always been a favorite time of year for me, but adding a sweet wee one to the mix makes it all the more special.  thanks to grandma and grandpa simpson for a wonderful first few days to our trip to the midwest.  (and baking christmas cookies as a family makes it all feel just right!)

a long december

some catch up is in order after the whirlwind of activity we've had this month.  i'll do my best to go back in time and capture some of the action.  we've got some wonderful photos of all that happened, but it just hasn't seemed right to stop in the middle of the fun to write it all down. so here it is!  enjoy-

i started my december with a weekend getaway trip to las vegas to run the last vegas rock and roll half marathon. originally, my best gal shannon and i dreamed up this little trip to spend some time together and run a race. we invited a few friends and it turned into me renting a house for 20 girls and a few more joining us staying in hotels on the strip.  many of these dear ladies raced their very first half marathon and i am so proud of them for accomlishing their goals!  i had a new running milestone as well, completing my first pregnant half marathon in 3:05.  what a great way to end 2009!  we had a lovely time, made wonderful memories and some new dear friends and all enjoyed some much needed downtime from our daily lives back home (not to say we didn't miss our little ones and darling boys back home holding down the fort, much conversation certainly circulated around them!).

hustle and bustle and then...

december has been a blur. a wonderful, memory-filled, exhausting blur. a trip to vegas. a trip to the midwest. a quick visit with our best friends. and now today, for the first time in the month of december, petey and i have the day to ourselves to dig out from it all and figure out where we go from here. i woke up this morning with a little gloom over my heart, seemed like i was letting everyone down not having all the Christmas everything all planned and stashed and ready to go. but as the day has gone on its given me some time to reflect and figure out that Christmas is a magical, wonderful, love-filled day that is a big beautiful vase that you can fill up with whatever you want.  whatever matters most to you. and right now what matters most to me is making memories with my family. so today  my priority is getting the grocery list right and making a trip to the store so that i can do over the Christmas weekend what i've been trained to do my entire life - cook some yummy food for the people i love.  beyond that, we have everything we need except one little surprise to petey.  we have some gifts, already wrapped.  but what we need is a tree. i'm sorry i just can't go without a tree. so i'm hoping to add a little magic to Christmas morning that we can all go as a family tomorrow to find a sweet little tree to stash away in the garage until Petey goes to bed Christmas eve and have it all decked in lights when he wakes up Christmas morning.  a little coffee cake i made and froze will be ready for nibbling and then we will take our little family to the top of the mountain we live near and spend the morning reflecting on the year we've shared and the year to come. and from there, i'm hoping to fill the rest of the weekend with some cuddling, some baking and nibbling, some dancing, some gaming and some good old fashioned, low-key, slow paced just being together. strangely, its an art that requires a little bit of practice. to turn off the tv. to close the day-planner. to shut down the computer. to turn your attention outward to those around you and enjoy the moments with nothing else coming up in the day to ready yourselves for. no preparations. just pure simple easy delicious enjoying the company of those you love. and that's what we shall do.


and just as a wonderful little update, i had an appointment today at the birth center and got a little gift early for Christmas - my exam was in the ultrasound room so the midwife said "let's see what the baby is doing in there, just for fun" so we spent a few minutes looking at our little one, all tucked into a ball looking oh-so-sweet.  can't wait to meet that little one.  what a wonderful thing to add even more love to our little family!

of course there are thousands of pictures from the rest of our trip home to the midwest and a few hundred of petey and tommy together. and those will be posted....when i get to them. :) enjoy the holiday season with those you are blessed to share it with. make the most of your moments. stash some happy memories away in your hearts. and Merry Christmas to you all!

Christmas with the Nannens

a very special day

today is peter's first birthday. i'm absolutely amazed at how he's grown and changed and along the way how he's changed reid and i. and what a special way to celebrate his birth day with all his grandparents and great-grandparents and even a wonderful lady who is essentially his great-great-grandmother. to share his birthday with those who celebrated first birthdays for reid and i so long ago and are now love our son along with us is just magical. we are so grateful for the family we share and for those friends who are just like family! our family and our son are so blessed because of these wonderful people.  although he was overtired and overwhelmed by all the new faces in such a short time, petey enjoyed the party and was particularly tickled with the helium balloons, the new flavor of icing and the beautiful wooden scooter-truck made out of wood from his great-grandpa's farm. he received so many thoughtful gifts and heaps of love and tickles and chuckles and grins from all those people who love him so. thank you to all who helped celebrate our day! thank you to those of you who were loving him from afar today! and now that its all over and his first birthday is filed away forever in my memory as a joy-filled, sweet day and my wee boy is snuggled into bed for the night, i can close my eyes and transport myself once more to that beautiful night one year ago when i first met this child who has changed my life. that first time i touched his beautiful hair and cuddled him to my chest and my heart melted and my soul poured out into his. that night when my husband and i stared in awe at our gift and our family of three snuggled into a shared bed for some sweet, sweet rest after hours of hard work to meet in this magical moment. that night, that moment, that beautiful joyful meeting will always be a cherished memory i hold in my heart. and every year as my boy grows i will be sure to stop and remember our special first meeting. happy first birthday petey! the depth of love i've come to know because of you is the most beautiful thing in life. here's to your future and all the adventures, memories and magic our family will share as you travel down your path in life!