Ben's Birthday Celebrations

The morning of his birthday-enjoying the decorations.

First present from us was a Spiderman guy on a four-wheeler

McKenna quickly stole it from him. :)

Daddy doing what he does best :)

McKenna told me "Ben" wanted chocolate cake and pink ice cream.  :)

Gma and Gpa Webster brought over some other presents as well.  Some new draining cups for the bath, a shape bucket, and this dinosaur ball bouncy thing.  Clearly, it was the fave and the girls loved it too! 

Thanks Gma and Gpa!!

Two sets of Ben's great-grandparents (Condies and Nelsons) sent Ben some thoughtful cards as well.  

Ben's birthday was also celebrated at the monthly Nelson Family Birthday party...

 ...and with just the Webster Fam.

 He got some cute new clothes and some sweet Hot Wheels from the Stewarts.  

Phew!  I think we celebrated Ben the MAX!  He's definitely our favorite one-year-old!  Love you Benny.

Cupcake Fun!

Ben's First Birthday!

"Just give me the cupcake!"

Patiently waiting while we sing.  

Aaaand... GO! 

McKenna thought this was so funny to watch and kept saying, "Oh no.  He made a mess."  I don't know where she would have gotten that from? :)

Enjoy the many different ways he stuffed his face...

Couldn't resist his cute little lap.

Rubbing the nose

Time for a sink bath before the real bath.  I love his little knee pop. 

I wish I would have gotten pictures of his adoring audience who came to celebrate with us.  Gma and Gpa Webster, my two siblings Mickelle and Jonathan, Dan's sister Sarah Jane and her family, and Dan's brothers Sam (and wife Lara) and Jake.  Thanks for coming!

Ben is ONE!

1 YEAR STATS

Height: 30.5 in (2 in increase in 3 months) 75th percentile

Weight: 20.2 lbs (1.7 lb increase in 3 months) 15th percentile

Head: 18.4 in ( .5 in increase in 3 months) 55th percentile

He's a one-year-old!  Into everything!

At least he cleans up. :)  Sorry it's sideways. 

He's into mimicing

He's a snuggler-- Who wouldn't love that?!?!

And this picture makes me realize just how big he's gotten. :(

Very into puting things into containers.

He's a dancer too! 

He's also into driving his big sister nuts!  

Or she's into LETTING him drive her nuts when he wants to play with her princess stuff. :)

Other things he's done in the past 3 months:

• Lots of excited biting
• Teething along with an ear infection and pink eye Thanksgiving week
• End of November- started standing alone and balancing
• Getting very bugged by big sister taking his toys
• Sat on Santa's lap 
• Beginning of December- Waving
• Two top teeth came in within the same week
• Currently has 6 teeth, three on top, three on bottom.  The left side is coming in first.
• Mid December- Clapping
• Took his first steps on Christmas Eve.  It's finally his preferred mode of transportation now
• Dancing at ANY music he hears, including hymns in church
• Loves to give BIG open mouth kisses
• Beginning of January- pointing at what he wants
• Starting to get quite attached to his binkie and blanket
• Has had four hair cuts in the first year of his life
• Starting to ween- I'm quite sad this nursing era is coming to an end.  I'm letting him lead the way though.  
• Introducing whole milk
• Had a blast at his birthday devouring most of TWO cupcakes!  Pictures and videos of that still to come

We just love having this little boy in our family!  

New Year's Eve

We left St. George and headed straight for Mantua.  For you non-Utahns, we drove almost the entire length of the state that day.  New Year's Eve morning was the Webster extended family breakfast and white elephant gift exchange.  

 There was also a fun craft.

 Unfortunately, I couldn't get the designer to actually wear it for a photo.  :)

 One of our white elephant gifts was a Hello Kitty jump rope.

 Too bad McKenna didn't like it very much. ;) 

We stayed at Mantua through lunch then went to see the new Muppet's movie.  It was very cute and McKenna loved that Princess Giselle (aka Amy Adams) was in it.  Then we went home for dinner, unpacking, and early bed time since we'd been traveling all week.  Though Dan slept through it, I did, however, get woken up at midnight by so much noise from fireworks throughout the neighborhood.  Good times. :)  

HAPPY 2012!!