My little boy is 1!

I can't believe the day finally came, my little baby turned 1! It's true what they say, kids grow up so fast and I feel this first year has flown by. It has been the best year watching this little boy grow and develop and I love the stage he's in now with his personality coming out and everything!

Before we had kids I knew I wanted to throw my kids a fun 1 year themed birthday party, themed personalized cake and all. Now if you know me you know I am no party planner, so planning and throwing this party was a new experience for me. Luckily I had a lot of help from my wonderful sister-in-law Megan!

My handsome 1 Year old
Gone are the days he'll sit this still for a picture

Pictures are more like this...

and this

Our basement apartment is a little to small to throw a party so Megan was sweet enough to let us throw it at her house.

Nixon has started showing an interest in Sesame Street so of course we had to make the party Sesame Street themed, more specifically Elmo themed.

Found this cute sign idea on Pinterest (of course)

These fruit/veggie platters were another Pinterest find. I was pretty proud of myself with how cute they turned out. :)

The cute birthday boy

These are the pictures that are hung by the window

The full set up

Finishing getting the food ready with the help of Magnificent Megan

Waiting patiently for the party to start

My cute birthday boy

This kid is known for his many adorable facial expressions

Favorite photo!

Checking out the decorations, making sure mom did a good job

Eating some goldfish in such a dainty way
(look at the proper pinky placement)

Sharing with grandma Kathy

We couldn't come up with an Elmo costume, but we happen to know a guy who owns this nice Beaver costume, so he paid the kids a visit.

Some of the kids enjoyed meeting Mr. Beaver...

Orin and Gavin thought Mr. Beaver was pretty cool

Clara even gave Mr. Beaver a nice hug

Even Adam wanted to give Mr. Beaver a high five

But Nixon....

wasn't a big fan of Mr. Beaver

All the attention on the birthday boy

Getting ready to eat his Elmo birthday cake.
(I believe he's pointing to his Elmo balloon)

Lance did all the decorating on this cake. It turned out so cute, I kind of didn't want Nixon
to eat it :)

Bring on the cake

Mom almost forgot to add the candle

Waiting patiently while we sang Happy Birthday

Once the song was over he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do

I helped give him a taste to get the ball rolling

He still wasn't sure about the whole dig your hands into the cake and stuff it in your face concept.
It's probably my fault because I usually don't let him get to dirty while he eats, so now he doesn't like to get his hands dirty.
I have a feeling that won't last long.

Cousin Ben trying to help out

After a while of just barely touching the cake Lance and I were rude enough to get the ball rolling even faster by sticking Nixon's hands deep into the cake. The following pictures show how well he liked that.

I'm not sure if any piece of cake actually made it into his mouth and hopefully this first birthday experience won't traumatize him for the rest of his life.
(If you want to see the video of Nixon and the birthday cake Click here)

After he got all cleaned up it was time to open some presents.

At first he was unsure what was going on and what he was supposed to do...

But once he started realizing the fun stuff that was coming out of these bags he started to catch on

So excited about this gift

Like I mentioned earlier Nixon has started taking an interest in Sesame Street, specifically Elmo, So of course we had to get him a tickle me Elmo

He loved it!

I love this adorable birthday boy!

Everyone having fun with Nixon's presents

Playing with his Bateman car with dad

I think the winning toy was the bubble machine from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Reese

I love this picture because it looks like Nixon's about to attack Clara ha

After the party we went to visit Lance's Grandpa who was visiting family in Ogden. It's sad to say that this was Nixon's first time meeting his Great Grandpa Mitchell, but Nixon sat on Grandpa Mitchell's lap and gave him lots of hugs like he's known him his whole life. It was so sweet.

4 generations of Mitchell men. Nixon has some great examples to look up to.

The party was a big success and by the looks of it I would say this little guy had a great first birthday.