Garrett's First Birthday...

We spent this past weekend up in Georgia for my nephew, Garrett's, first birthday. His party was Friday night, so we left Thursday after DW got off work in hopes that our sweet girl would sleep for most of the trip. She did so good. She only had one meltdown, and it was around Macon. She'd had enough of her carseat, and to be honest, so had I! So we stopped at a Wal-Mart and got a few things we needed. Such things included; Gerber fruit snacks, juice, and Johnson's No-More Tangles spray. AB's hair is getting so long and it's super curly when it's wet, so it was time for the detangler! We let her walk around and stretch her legs for about an hour and then headed on. Not long after she went to sleep and slept the rest of the way.

Garrett's party was at the creek on Friday evening. (My two aunts live next to each other and behind their house is creek. They've built a screened in pavilion and fire pit and have lots of tables and chairs and swings and toys for the kids down there. It is honestly, the perfect set up for gatherings and parties.

Kristy had printed pictures of Garrett's first year and they were strung up on jute twine using clothes pins around perimeter of the pavilion.
Kristy had a cake-lady she knows do the cake and the fondant monkey on top was beyond adorable!

The Birthday Boy with his Daddy & Momma...

All the kids had so much fun just running and playing together outside.

Garrett seemed to love his party, but most of all he loved his CAKE! He dug in for sure! He loved chewing on the monkey that was on top! His Momma took it from him after a while, and after we noticed that a whole corner of it was gone! We thought little man was going to be on a sugar-high for sure, but he was just saving it for later.....we found it later, in his high chair.

He didn't really get into his presents much, he just wanted more cake! Ha... There was one present he really loved though. It was from his Mom & Dad. It was a "My first" welding set. How cute! AB got in on the action, and LOVED the helmet, too!
After cake and presents, there were s'mores by the fire pit! Yum!

It's hard to believe that Garrett is already a year old. Time flies.

On Saturday, I got to have lunch and do a little shopping with my cousins. AB was the only kid that went and she showed out big time. She had gotten up the night before for a solid 2 hours. She was so excited to have Momma & Daddy in the same room with her, that she just couldn't go back to sleep. She wanted to talk and play. Every time we'd tell her to "Shhhhhh" & "go night-night" she would growl. It was hilarious, but not at 3:00 in the morning. She also hadn't gotten a morning nap and by lunch time she was just awful. Honestly, it's the worst she has ever been. I was mortified and so tired from the night before, that by the time we sat down to lunch, I was doing whatever it took to just keep her in her highchair and not fussing. I know, great parenting technique, right??? When I say "whatever it took" I mean even letting her have her own ketchup, which she drank. It was desperate times, ya'll! She was none to thrilled when I took it from her, as evidenced in the photo below....

On the way back from shopping, she slept about 30 minutes, and it wasn't nearly long enough. I just knew our trip home was going to be miserable with her not having any of her regular naps. We went to Beau & Kristy's to say goodbye and see them one more time, and then around 4:00, we headed out. Little Miss went right to sleep and slept until around 7:00 when we stopped (again, in Macon) to eat. We let her walk around outside and get her tummy nice and full (I even let her have sweet tea...it was another "whatever-it-takes-restaurant-moments"). We got back on the road and after a couple episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she was back asleep and slept the whole way home. Thank you, LORD!

Our trip up was really short and good... seems they are always like that!

~amw~