Happy Birthday

We had quite the celebrations for Jackson for his first birthday.  We had 3 separate parties for him with different people and on different days.

We started out the weekend before his birthday with my parents.  Jackson wasn't too in to opening presents but he did love what was inside them.  

 Carter was thrilled to be the designated present opener.  He took his job VERY seriously and didn't waste any time.

He got a talking birthday cake and birthday book from my parents.  He loves them.  And so does Carter.  Carter reminds me daily that "It's good to share huh Mom?"  Meaning, I will play with these toys whenever I want because I am the older brother.

 He's only torn one of the pop-up flaps off so far.  Pretty good for a one year old

 We started our his official birthday, Thursday with a rousing round of Happy Birthday and his Home Health Nurse Missy brought him a darling bouquet of balloons.  Which Carter promptly took over as well!

We celebrated at lunch time as well with some hot dogs and beans.  Jackson ate an entire hot dog all by himself.

Since Jackson cannot have birthday cake, or anything sweet even, I decided to not focus his Birthday celebration that night around cake.  Our little family decided to hit up our favorite restaurant, Wendy's to celebrate.  And by "our" favorite I mean Carter and Jax's favorite!  They have a great allergy friendly menu for my 2 boys so we went there for a birthday dinner.

Jackson put away an entire hamburger patty and several of Carter's fries, much to his chagrin.  But remember, it's good to share!

 Me and my 2 boys worn out from all our celebrating!

Saturday morning brought Jax's big birthday party.

Carter was so excited to help me in the kitchen.  He insisted on wearing his apron like me.  His "helping" consisted of swiping his finger in the frosting so I had to redo the frosting.  

Neil and I didn't plan to wear matching shirts on this day but it kind of happened.  

 I didn't get a shot of everyone attending but we had so many family members come to support and show their love to Jackson during the 2 parties.  Above is Aunt Linsey and Grandpa E.

And our HH Nurse Missy again who is a part of our family.  We love her and so does Jackson.

My favorite part of the party was the game Neil and I LOVINGLY invented.  Maybe we'll play it each and every year.  It was "Pin the ostomy bag on the baby."  In case you forgot, Jackson had an ostomy for the first 3.5 months of his life.  I became quite the pro at changing those things(not to toot my own horn, but I was DANG good.)  Those ostomy bags were a source of many, many tears and frustration in our house.  I HATED THEM with a passion.  The basic idea of an ostomy bag is to take off the sticker and it just sticks and you go on your merry way.  False.  You can change them up to 14 times in a day.  And yes I counted.  

A couple months ago I was clearing out supplies that we no longer needed and I came across several boxes of bags.  My first reaction was "Oh these bags are soo cute and little."  Obviously I had forgotten about the torture they brought to our house.  Now I just view them as a great thing.

 Each person got a bag and had to pin it on the baby.  And apparently ostomy bags stick a lot better to cardboard babies than real babies.  Go figure.  Here is Tyler giving it a shot.

 And Grandpa got a turn

And in true Carter character he threw a fit about doing it and had to be bribed.  And refused to wear the bandana over his eyes.  So he just did it with his eyes closed(kind of!)

And big shocker........I won with the bag closest to the ostomy(red dot).  I didn't even have a prize for the winner.  If I had known I would win, I would have made sure it was a fantastic gift!

Then on to presents where once again Carter helped.  Jackson didn't care about the wrapping paper like I thought he would but loved the little things inside.

 Thanks to everyone who came and brought gifts and helped us celebrate our wonderful little boy.  We couldn't have made it through this year without the support and help from our wonderful families and friends.

Then on to the best part of the party.  The food.  The theme was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" because Jax really is a hungry little guy and like the caterpillar, his life revolves somewhat about food.

 I got all my ideas from the internet but none of them turned out as perfect and cute as the internet pictures.  Craftiness and cuteness is not my forte!

Our rainbow fruit dish.  The color green is missing because grapes were like 4$ a pound and I didn't want to pay that much!

Caterpillar cupcakes

Caterpillar sandwiches.

Our Happy Little Family.

I was a little bummed that Jax didn't get to experience cake that normal babies but I tried not to dwell on that.  And luckily he didn't mind.

Even when Catherine ate her cupcake in front of him.  Kidding

 Brothers sharing a new gift.  Who knew gifts aimed towards a one year old would entertain Carter so much as well.  This stand came with a phone and Carter is addicted to phones lately so he quickly took that over and started in on his long distance calling.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby.  We are so proud of everything you have accomplished in your 1 year of life.  You are so strong, so brave, and so amazing in every way.  I am in awe of your patience and resilience.  

I think Elder Rasband quoted it perfectly in April's conference:

“A perfect body is not required to achieve a divine destiny. In fact, some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail frames. …"

Here's to many, many more birthday parties!