Nathan's First Birthday

Nathan is one year old! Okay, okay, today he is one year and one month old but the following is all about his FIRST birthday. I know it's totally cliche to say, but he is growing up SO fast!

Leading up to the day of the party, I was suffering from "Pinterest Pressure". I love finding ideas on Pinterest, as many do, but the birthday party pictures I came across were magazine perfection. I am neither crafty enough nor have enough time in the busy end of year weeks to recreate the beautiful color coordinated buffet tables and decor I found.

After a few brainstorming trips to the party supply store, the craft store, the thrift store, etc. I made a simple banner seen in the first picture above, which reads, "Happy Birthday", the felt triangle banner attached to his high chair and a blue cake. More crafty Auntie Ellen made Nathan's princely crown and helpful Auntie Jennifer played paparazzi for the day (she took all the pictures). Nathan enjoyed the cake but was less than crazy about present opening (cried every time Mom tore the paper open).

In the end, the sun shone more than forecasters were predicting and we had a nice party. We were truly thankful to have so many friends and family come celebrate with us. Each of you play an important role in Nathan's life!

Nathan and his Great-Grandma Davolt

The next day, Jeff and I took a few photos of Nathan in our brown leather chair, as we have been doing since the first month. He hardly sits still anymore, making it tricky to catch a good shot. Nathan is getting closer to walking each day. He loves to hold hands and parade around the house or to cruise along the walls and furniture. I'm hoping that our summer together will allow me to catch those first few steps.

Last but not least, we took Nathan to get some portraits taken to honor his first birthday. We ordered a few for ourselves and immediate family. In addition, we purchased the CD copy of the photo session so we can reprint as many as needed and include them here as well.

Comments

Christmas 2020

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on Our troubles will be out of sight As a result of the pandemic, the model train festival we typically enjoy this time of year was canceled (thus no pictures with Santa). We missed family and friends this year. The fun energy of the last few school days before Winter Break was not quite the same over Zoom. I missed singing carols in church during month of December. As the season progressed, I couldn't help but reflect on other times in history where celebrations were small and often just a nuclear family. Times and places where travel was too difficult or too expensive to justify leaving home. For those generations of families, the traditions were as simple as reading the Christmas story together or baking a special bread. In so many ways that was our Christmas this year and by seeking the joy in each moment, we found our hearts lighter. We visited our favorite local tree farm to find THE TREE. We...

Tradition

At no other time of the year do I think about "tradition" more than during the holidays, from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I do like the sense of timelessness that traditions afford, reminding us of past Christmases and the people or places we cherish most. As much as I love the traditions of years past and years to come, I think it's healthy to miss or change traditions every now and then. My own childhood was filled with traditions for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as was Jeff's, but I also recall the experiences when traditions were put on hold or changed, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes for reasons beyond our control. I suppose it's the same for all of us as we grow, move, lose, and gain. Not that I go out of my way to disrupt any plans for my family now, but rather, to remind us that life doesn't always go the way it has before and we can enjoy the time together no matter what. Having our own family caused Jeff and I to decide on what would be...

Embracing Joy

I made a goal not too long ago to write something about once a month or so. As November winds to an end, I have been feeling pressure to put something down. Trying to steer clear of a simple Thanksgiving post, I've noticed something else that has stuck me as we head into the Christmas season. The joy, excitement and wonder that children bring to just about everything. Photo courtesy of Erin's Instagram page We hosted Thanksgiving this year and in order to make room for everyone, and have everyone at least in the same room for dinner we did some serious rearranging of furniture. We moved a couch basically into our kitchen and used our front room, our library, as we call it, to add a couple tables so everyone could eat more or less in the same room. While this chore was not at all remarkable, the reaction to it by Nathan and Andrew has stuck with me. We had moved all the furniture prior to the boys coming home from school....

The Davolts

Search This Blog