The Big ONE!

Yep, it officially happened. My sweet little baby is no longer a baby... he's one year old! We are so blessed to have this sweet little boy in our family!! Because he is the cutest little boy we had to have a big party that lasted for days to celebrate.

Here's my little guy the morning of his birthday. Isn't he just the cutest little boy EVER?

Caden's birthday was on Thursday and the kids went to daycare. They had cupcakes there and the other kids sang happy birthday to him at lunch. 

We took the birthday boy and Kay-bugs out to dinner that night at our family's favorite restaurant, El Rancho Grande. I got what I normally get, 2 cheese enchiladas and a taco, and split it with the kids, but our kids must have been extra hungry because all I got to eat of my whole dinner was the taco and few bites of my encha. The kids ate my whole dinner! :) Luckily Tyler shared some of his dinner with me or else I might have starved! :)

 This little kid downed his food. We ended up taking his plate away because I was worried he ate too much.

 Love me some Kay-bugs!!

 After dinner we came home and Caden got to open his presents from Mommy and Daddy.

 Kayla was such a good helper and opened all of Caden's presents for him.

 Caden got a toy vacuum and a tricycle.

Then on Saturday we had Caden's family birthday party. I have been planning his 1st birthday party since he was born and decided to do a "monkey" theme since I like to call Caden our little Monkey.

We sent out invitations a few weeks before.

Tyler helped me come up with the saying that said: 

"Swing" on in for lots of fun; 

Our little "monkey" is turning one!

Be at Caden's on April sixth, 

for pizza, salad and banana splits. 

It starts at four, so don't be late,

 'cause Cader-tot's asleep by eight. 

Then we decorated the basement with all sorts of monkey things

On the table I made a monkey centerpiece and had two of his 1 year pictures sitting out. We also had animal cookies, green and yellow M & M's, and Banana chips for people to munch on. 

 I made this for our game. We played "pin the tail on the monkey"

We had green and yellow balloons

 And Caden's smash cake with a banana on it.

 But my favorite part were the monkeys and bananas hanging from the ceiling. Thanks to my sis-in-law  Meg for making them.

We have the best family that is so supportive, and with both families we had over 30 people come to Caden's party. 

 We started out with pizza then moved right into our game. 

Here's everyone before we started: 

Colton, Makayla, Caden, Sadie, Carson, and Maddie. (Cole and Hannah think they are too big now to play games)

 Caden got to go first at the game, but he needed a lot of help from Mommy to put his tail up.

 Then all the other kids got a turn.

 After everyone went, we determined the winner was Colton!

Colton got a special prize of cotton candy, but everyone got a goodie bag that had a green drink, animal cookies, monkey fruit snacks, a monkey pencil, candy, and toys. 

Here's #3 playing with #6

Aren't they so cute together? :)

 Then it was time for presents. I'll tell ya, this little boy is sure loved and spoiled by all his family. He got so many cute clothes and toys. 

Obviously one year old's don't have a very long attention span, and every time Caden would get a toy, he just wanted to play with that and threw a few little fits when we tried to open another present. 

Thanks so much to everyone for all the cute gifts for Caden! We appreciate it so much. 

After presents, Caden got his very own smash cake. 

 We sang Happy Birthday to him then I helped him blow out his candle.

 I thought he would dig into his cake right away, but he didn't know what to think of it at first.

 I finally gave him a taste of it on my finger and he gagged on it... funniest thing ever!

 But once he got used to the taste and texture, he was hooked.

 This is what my cute little monkey looked like by the end.

Daddy was in charge of giving Caden a bath while the rest of us went off to enjoy our banana splits!

 We had such a fun birthday with our little monkey who is now walking!!

Guess it's time to start planning his 2nd birthday.

Happy 1st Birthday Caden! We love you so much!

Caden's 1 Year Pictures

Today my little Monkey turns 1 year old. I can't believe how fast that year went by and how much our little guy has grown. He is the best little boy we could ever ask for and we just love him to pieces!!

We had Caden's one year pictures taken. They all turned out so cute! Here's some of our favorites. I had to scan them, so the quality isn't the best, but you can definitely see how cute our little man is.

Happy Birthday Caden!!!

Happy Easter

We love Easter time because it means that spring is finally here and we get to spend more time outside. This year was especially fun because Makayla seemed to get the whole holiday. First we colored Easter eggs for our FFD. BTW, Kayla is wearing a 4th of July shirt. Just thought I would clarify that we do know what holiday it is. 

 Makayla loved coloring Easter eggs. We had about 12 eggs and thought it would take her a while to dye them, but she was done in about 10 minutes.

 Caden needed a little help from Mommy to color eggs. Oh ya, did I mention that Caden is wearing his Thanksgiving shirt? Maybe I do need help remembering what holiday it is. :)

 Then we got to put stickers on the eggs. Makayla got to pick eyes and a mouth for each egg.

That night we set out our Easter baskets and hoped the Easter Bunny would come to fill them with a surprise. P.S. Caden isn't in the picture because he wasn't feeling great, so I put him down early. 

Easter morning we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny hid our baskets! We had to look all over the house to find them. Makayla was so cute because she would look in every room and say, "nope, not in here" then run to another room. 

We found Caden's basket first. It was hiding in the bathtub. The Easter Bunny brought Caden a fun toy ball and an outfit.

 Then we had to search the house for Kayla's basket. We finally decided to look downstairs and we ended up finding it in the closet. Makayla got an outfit and a Rapunzel Barbie. 

Later that day we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Evans for our first Easter Egg hunt. 

This was the best picture I could get of my two cuties together, but don't they look so springy in their new outfits?

 While we were waiting for the hunt to start, Caden decided he would start walking by himself!! We knew Caden wanted to wait for a memorable day, and he picked a good one!

Then it was time for the hunt. Caden and Makayla got to go first.

 Kayla's favorite part was finding all the real eggs. I think she collected all of them herself.

 Caden didn't really get what was going on, but he loved being outside.

 Grandpa and Grandma had to help Caden put all his goodies in his basket.

And Daddy helped Kayla find all her fun goodies. 

 Once Makayla realized there were toys for her, she started picking up whatever she wanted... even if it didn't have her name on it.

 Ad you can see, Caden was pretty stoked about his cotton candy.

 Aww... I think my family is pretty cute!

 And so are the rest of the lurps we like to call family!

After that egg hunt, we headed over to my family's party. We had dinner and then it was time for another egg hunt. By this time, our kids were pretty tired and right before the hunt started Caden fell asleep in Grandpa's arms, so he missed the hunt. 

 But the rest of the kids were all geared up for a hunt.

 By this time, Kayla understood her task. She ran around the yard as fast as she could and picked up as many eggs as she could carry in her little basket. Even when we tried to help her carry her basket, she insisted on doing it herself.

 When the hunt was over and we told Kayla it was time to go inside, she put herself in time out. See what no naps can do to a sweet little toddler?

 We finally convinced her to go inside where we got to count all of her money.

 I think this is the kids' favorite part of the whole day. They love to see who gets the Golden Egg, and this year Preston won it!

 Kayla was pretty excited for her money. When we got home we put it in her piggy bank and told her someday she would be able to go to college on it! :)

Whelp, our Easter this year was pretty fun filled and busy! We love this time of year and love that we get to spend it with our families.

Hoppy Easter!!!