Lincoln Alexander turns ONE!

Well, here we are... about 3 weeks late. But hey, it's better late than never, right!? 

LINCOLN ALEXANDER IS ONE YEAR OLD!!! I know, I'm still in shock over it. On May 2nd, we celebrated Lincoln's FIRST Birthday! How is it possible that my baby boy is already ONE! Seriously!? 

Lincoln's actually birthday was pretty much like any other day. Jesse had to work and I was prepping for his birthday party the following day... as well as putting the finishing touches on packing for Florida for the boys & I. I had a lot to do... buy balloons, decorate the building, make his minion car, finish making decorations... the list goes on. Luckily, it all turned out great! :) 

The only downside to this wonderful weekend of celebrating was that Jesse had to work (BOOOO!) But, we didn't let that interfere too much in giving our baby boy (aka: Baby Ninja) a full on celebration. The theme of his party was SOCK MONKEYS! Little did I know that you can't really find sock monkey decor... so most of the ideas I grabbed from Pinterest and got to work. It turned out soooooo cute. I just loved it!

The day of his party was great. Our family and close friends were there to celebrate with us. Rachel & I decorated the night before so pretty much everything was done except a few minor details I had to finish that morning. I brought the bounce house for the kids and the Batmobile for them to play with. The kids had a blast! We had Little Caesars pizza, fruit, and cupcakes. The cupcakes weren't exactly how I wanted them to be... but hey, don't sweat the small stuff, right? And Diana (Jesse's mom) got the cutest sock monkey smash cake... seriously, just check out the pictures!

I was sooo excited to see how Lincoln would do with his smash cake. On Gabriel's first birthday he wanted nothing to do with the cake. In fact, he's not much of a sweets person besides cookies or coo-coo's as he calls them. Anyway, I took Lincoln's shirt off, sat him in his booster, lit the candle, and we started singing. I was totally prepared to jump in just in case he decided to go for the candle... apparently I wasn't prepared enough because he went straight for it with 2 fingers and yep, you guessed it... That was the end of the birthday song. HALT! CRISIS! But nothing that a little hug and kiss couldn't cure. We were back on track and he was LOVING every single bite of that cake! 

The party was wonderful... it could only have been better if Jesse would have gotten to be there. Lincoln is so blessed with great family and friends. He got a TON of new movies to watch on our trip to Florida that evening (blog post about that later this week...) 

Now here's what my BIG ONE YEAR OLD NINJA is up to these days: 

Weight: 20 pounds
Height: 30 inches
Favorite Foods: ANYTHING & EVERYTHING
Drinking: Whole Milk and Apple juice
Favorite song: Pat-a-cake
Loves:: 

- Playing with his big brother
- Eating
- Dragging all the pots and pans out of the cabinet
- Bath time
- Laughing at Rylee
- Playing outside
- The Pool 
- Mickey Mouse
- Curious George
- Monster's, Inc. 
- Despicable Me 
- Grapes
- Strawberry Mum-Mum's

Dislikes: 

- Carseat (this comes after a 12 hour car ride to Florida & Back) 
- His big bro beating him up (He's learning to fight back) 

Teeth: 8 (4 on top & 4 on bottom)

Dear Lincoln, 

MY OH MY! I still can not believe that you are ONE year old! Time sure does fly by. It seems like just yesterday that you were being your stubborn little self and refusing to come into this world... hence the 5 LONG hours of pushing you put me through. haha. That's ok though... because in the end, we got to meet you. Our beautiful baby boy. I can't believe how big you have gotten this past year. You are growing so well. You LOVE to eat... your favorites are pancakes, pizza, grapes, bananas, and quesadillas. Though, you will pretty much eat anything & everything you can get your busy little hands on. You LOVE to watch and play with your big brother. You try to copy every single thing that he does. He likes to push you around a little, but you're learning that you are big enough to push him right back. Despite having your "brotherly" fights... you two really are best friends. Your big brother LOVES you so, so, so much. You had your first trip to Florida and the beach this month. And though, that 12 hour car ride ruined every single car ride since for you... you had a great time. You LOVED the pool, ocean, and sand. You and your brother had a blast and I honestly think it took you about a week to recover from the trip. 

My child, you are growing up so fast. I look forward to seeing the young man that you will one day become. I can already tell that you are smart, quick to think, tough, and loving. You're definitely going to be a little heartbreaker one day. 

Love, 
Mommy