Zion's ONE!

It is hard for me to believe that at this very time last year I was on my way to the hospital hoping against hope that the pains I was experiencing would finally be the pains of labor that would deliver my baby boy. The days that my two babies were born were by far the happiest days of my life. Each year that I get to celebrate that day with them is a blessing beyond measure. 

That being said, I must admit that I had trouble getting motivated to throw Zion a big 1st birthday party. We decided to do it a week early so that his school teaching aunts could attend. Perhaps because it was a week early, I felt like we just threw Eden's party and I could not bring myself to invite basically the same people to set aside another day to celebrate one of our kids. Kind of sounds awful in writing. But we ended up just having family, and I have to say it was absolutely the perfect 1st birthday. I can't imagine anything better. Even his great aunt and second cousins from San Diego made the trip up to celebrate with us which was such an extra special treat. The only people that were missing were, Jen, Terrik & Easton, which was sad, but they were with us in spirit. 

These three were doing some form of this the entire party.

Zion's 1st boogie!

Zion & Ben

I love the way Zion is looking at my mom here.

Zion is super into feeding me lately. He is always trying to share his food. It's kind of sweet.

Cousin Robin & baby Cruz (15mo(?))

Cousin Wendy & baby Davi (4wks)

Believe it or not, this is Zi trying to stand

***

The pics below are from Zion's actual birthday (today) (except for the xylophone pic). Today I kind of went all out. Eden and I filled his crib with balloons (didn't get any good pics) which Zion & Eden LOVED, we made him banana pancakes for breakfast, carrot cake for the afternoon celebration with the Wallas and his favorite Mac&Cheese for dinner. I got so carried away in the kitchen this morning that I actually missed Eden's swim class altogether. But they let us go to a later class and afterward we headed to the beach with Mimmi & the boys. The waves were a little rough today so Zi did not get to boogie, which I think he was a bit disappointed about, but he was super stoked to hang with cousin Ben, mowing crackers and digging holes. Later in the day the Wallas came over to open presents and have some cake & watermelon popsicles. This literally feels like the birthday that never ends, but thats what first birthdays are for right?

Eden & I made Zion his favorite breakfast this morning

Zi & Ben are becoming pretty close these days. In fact, Zi could not be troubled to open presents this evening. All he wanted to do was play with Ben & Max

So stoked on the xylophone - already making music with it!

Zi was amping on his watermelon pop - thank you Auntie Tracy!!

Zi was playing with this fire truck right up until bedtime tonight. He has perfected getting on it, but gets super frustrated that he can't make it go (his feet don't quite touch yet) so he just yells and yells till someone comes to help him off or he gets a push. And Eden is stoked on it too. She got some firefighter boots for her birthday, which she has constantly been rescuing people in, and now she thinks she has the truck to make rescues with too. It's pretty cute.