1st Birthday Party!!

You had so much fun at your birthday party! I cannot believe I have a little toddler on my hands now...not a baby anymore. You are walking around everywhere...no more crawling! Unfortunately, you had been running a fever the Thursday and Friday before your party on Saturday. I think it was just a little cold combined with teething. You did not have a fever on Saturday, but mama and daddy could tell you still did not feel your best. You were such a good sport and a good baby...little boy : ).....at your party. You had so many people come that love you and it was fun!
You were not a huge fan of your cake and I think part of it was because you were still not feeling well. You tried some of it and then starting gagging after a few minutes..but no crying. I had a little had for you to wear, but you did not want to wear it so we just stuck with the bow tie.

You had a good time opening your gifts and you loved all of the other children sitting around watching you open them.

You LOVED your car that grandma and grandpa got you. It was a huge hit and daddy took you out immediately to let you ride it.

Mama and Daddy got you your first chair to sit in. I had planned for you to sit in it while opening gifts..not sure what I was thinking. You love to stand too much!

Your cake after you played in it.

Mama, grandma, and Aunt Ashley spent a LONG time decorating for your party that Friday night. I hope you liked it! I think it turned out very cute and I loved it! I am so glad I did the "train" theme. It was perfect for a little boy!

We had ice cream and had toppings set up like different compartments of the train.

 Gift bags!

I had all of your picture printed out from the time that you were born and put them in an album for everyone to enjoy!

Your high chair. I loved the one banner that grandma made.

I printed out this blog for everyone to read through so that they could enjoy your first year of accomplishments.

The gift table...wow!

Cupcakes!

I loved the drink table. We had blueberry lemonade and cherry punch. Yum!

Grandma made a railroad sign for the party.

1 Year Old....Almost

Even though you do not turn one until next week, I have really been thinking and praying for you a lot these past couple of days. I cannot believe you are turning one! You are becoming more like a little boy and less of a baby by the day. Everyday, I pray the God gives your Daddy and I wisdom regarding how to raise you and help to lead you in God's will. My prayer is that you get saved and love the Lord with all of your heart. You have an amazing Daddy and I pray that you follow in his footsteps in his desire to serve the Lord. Not many people can say that. He loves you so much and is a wonderful Daddy and is a great example of a husband for you to look up to. I pray God is preparing a wonderful wife for you to marry one day that you can serve God with. I pray God gives you talents to use for His glory whatever they may be. I am so thankful that God gave us you. Lucas, you are such a precious gift and until you have a child of your own, you will not understand how precious this love is. I never knew how much I would love until you came.
This year has been one of learning for all 3 of us and I know we have a lot more to learn about being parents but you have made it so easy. You make transitions so easy. I was so nervous about going from a bottle to a sippy cup but you did amazing and love your sippy cup now. You LOVE to read. I love when you say "uh oh" and that you laugh whenever anyone else laughs even though you have no clue what they are laughing at. I know I have mentioned the meaning of your name in the previous posts but how true your name is. Mama and Daddy had a different name picked out for you that we really liked. However, God put Samuel on my heart and we felt like we needed to change it. As I have said before, it means "a gift from God" and you are the biggest blessing that we have ever experienced. The next post I will write everything you have accomplished this month and your stats after your doctor visit. We had your first birthday pictures taken and you did so well!! I was so excited, but not surprised.

One of my absolute favorites!

Happy Birthday Lucas! We love you so much!

11 months!

This has been a very busy month. We went to the Preacher's Jubilee at Welcome and I had to take you to the nursery both nights. There were lots of babies and you loved playing with them. Unfortunately, one of them had Hand, Foot, Mouth and we did not know it and you got it. It was Mama and Daddy's 6 year anniversary and we went out for the first time by ourselves without you. We missed you soo much! It made it even harder to leave because I could tell you were not feeling well before we left. Grandma and Grandpa kept you and they said you started running a fever. We had to take you to the doctor the next morning and your fever was 103! You did not eat well the entire week. You had blisters on your feet...one was really big and looked painful. Mama and Grandma actually caught it from you too! After you started feeling better, the following week, you got the croup. You sounded so bad when you coughed and off to the doctor we went again. Fortunately, you did not run a fever, and we some Albuterol treatments, you felt better in a couple of days. Hopefully, you will stay well!!


The blister you had on your foot! 

Mama and Daddy before we went out for the first time by ourselves.

What a good looking man you have for a Daddy!

You have really taken off with your walking and walk more than you crawl now. You are soo cute doing it!. You wore your first pair of tennis shoes to cousin Levi's gender reveal party. We are so excited that you are going to have a boy cousin so close in age!

After you started feeling better, you are have been eating really well. You have actually ate meals with no baby food at night. You have made a meal with chicken and dumplings and grilled chicken with broccoli and cheese. We are trying to transition you to only a sippy cup, but you love your milk in your bottle. I am thinking about just doing it cold turkey, but we will see. You still have a few weeks...the goal is to be transitioned at 1 year. Things that melt Daddy and Mama's heart this month are you wonderful kisses. We can say "Give Daddy/Mama a kiss" and you do it so well. You also love to point and will sit in my lap and point while we read a book and talk like you are telling me what it is. You love to clap and make the funniest faces! You also like to throw and roll a ball back and forth. We are teaching you the word "no" and you are doing fairly well with it. You love to go towards the fire place and we tell you "no" and you will usually come back towards us. If we say, "Where's the ball?" you will go find a ball in the room and bring it to us. I think you are going to be like Uncle Colby and love vacuum cleaners.Your face lights up every time I turn it on. You are starting to show "stranger danger" when we are in different places with different people now. You are wearing size 12-18 month clothes, size 4 shoes, size 4 diaper. You are eating yogurt for breakfast, oatmeal/fruit for lunch, and a lot of what mama and Daddy eats for supper. You love cheerios this month and eat those with a snack.

 Just being silly. You love to open the Tupperware cabinet and pull out this. It is your favorite. 

In the nursery at church

 

Being silly taking your 11 month pictures.

Posing with Daddy in your Clemson jersey.

I cannot believe I am planning your 1 year birthday next month! Time is going by so fast!You bring so much joy to our lives! Happy 11 months Lucas!

Pawley's Island

We had so much fun at our first week long vacation to the beach. Although we went to Daytona when you were younger, this is the first time we went to the beach and you could actually enjoy it and you LOVED it. You absolutely loved the sand, loved the ocean, and splashing in the waves with mama and daddy. You tried to eat the sand and all of the sticks in the sand and crawled toward the ocean every time we went out. I could not believe that you kept your hat on the entire time but you did! I was afraid that little bald head would get burned. While on vacation, you took your first steps, ate scallops for the first time, and ate chocolate ice cream for the first time. You got to swim in a big swimming pool for the first time too!

This was the first day that we went out. You were hanging onto the umbrella.

Just throwing around sand.

After you took a bite of sand....

Eating at Angelo's for the first time. It is one of mama and daddy's and grandma and grandpa's favorite places to eat. You loved the cheese ravoli.

The second day on the beach.

Eating a little more sand.

Swimming in your float in the pool.

Riding a dinosaur with Daddy at Broadway at the Beach. We ate at Johnny Rocket's for dinner and you had some fries. Later that evening, Daddy and I saw you eating something and quickly panicked. It turned out to just be a fry that you had saved from Johnny Rockets. : )

Before heading out to eat.

Being silly with mama.

Waiting for Daddy to get chocolate ice cream!

Your first taste of chocolate icecream.

Climbing on mama's chair.

Taking over mama's chair.

Daddy wanted to bury you in the sand. You broke free within seconds.

We went out to eat with mama's best friend and her family at California Dreaming. You and Elliott are the same size even though she is 6 months older than her! We had so much fun and we love getting together with them every chance we get. I love your crocs that grandma bought!

This was by far the best vacation that we have been on and it was soo hard to go back to work after being with you for over a week for mama and daddy! You started playing peek a boo with your blanket for the first time on the way home from the beach and it was soo cute. You are such a joy to us and we are so glad God gave you to us. You were so good on vacation and have made parenting so easy for us.