My Baby is ONE

April 12, 2012, my baby boy turned ONE! I can't believe it has already been a year since my tiny 4 pound 4 ounce little miracle was born. I'm going to wait and write all the sappy, mushy stuff with his 12 month post, but I will say that the night before his birthday, when I was putting him to bed, tears did fill my eyes. Tears of JOY, AWE and WONDER that God gave me this precious gift to raise, love and cherish. I lifted us a prayer of thanksgiving for his health and LIFE and I snuggled him extra tight. Because the next day, he would wake up a BIG BOY!

Okay, moving on I promise.

When Gray woke up, Jon and I went into his room together singing Happy Birthday. I think he thought we were nuts, but he had a big smile on his face. We changed him into his birthday jammies (thanks Gogo) and were ready to start the birthday festivities!

While we were getting breakfast ready, we heard hammering outside. We looked out the front window and look what was being hammered into the ground!!! This adorable birthday yard sign!!!!! So fun! Thanks again Gogo!!!!

Then it was time for our birthday breakfast. I got out Gray's official birthday plate, we stuck a candle in a big cinnamon roll and sang happy birthday again. (He's had a few bites of a plain cinnamon roll, but had never had one with icing...he loved it!) We got it on video!

He also loved these balloons I tied to his highchair. He thought they were so fun!

 After breakfast we played and all got ready to go to the ZOO! Gray loves animals and we have never been, so I thought it would be the perfect special outing for the birthday boy. HUGE bonus to our day...Dad took the day off!

Our first stop was lunch! We ate at a cafe the looks out to the Lions "den". Not the greatest lunch we've ever had, but the lions were cool. Jon was probably the most excited about them. He got this awesome picture:

Next on our list was the Giraffes. This was the main reason we went to the Dallas Zoo. We heard you could feed the giraffes and knew we wanted to get up close and personal. It was SO COOL! We paid for some lettuce (several times) and had a blast feeding these beautiful animals. Definitely worth the drive. (Jon was working the camera...but I promise he was there:)

 After seeing the lions, giraffes, some elephants, gorillas and penguins and hitting up the souvenir shop,  we were ready to hit the road. We were only there a few hours, but it was perfect. Great weather and most importantly, a special day out with the birthday boy!

We ran a few errands on our way home and picked up some food for dinner. P.F. Changs was Gray's birthday dinner. Funny right? He LOVES him some Mongolian Beef and Crispy Honey Chicken!!! Mom and Dad didn't complain...HA!

After dinner we were super excited to give Gray his first bite of cupcake! We sang Happy Birthday AGAIN and helped him make a wish. Then came the fun part. He immediately put his hand on the icing, but didn't like that it stuck to him. As he was trying to shake it off, I put some icing in his mouth. His attitude changed quick and he couldn't get enough. He L.O.V.E.D it! I finally had to take the icing off and just give him some cake because he would have made himself sick shuffling in all that icing. He had never had any sweets before and now we know...he has a major sweet tooth, just like his Mama!

Side Note: We got Gray a big Radio Flyer wagon with cushioned seats, cup holders and shade canopy for his birthday...too funny, but it was just in a big box so we didn't really "open presents". And I forgot to take a picture...darn it. We knew he was going to get a ton of cool things at his birthday party and we learned our lesson from Christmas and didn't go overboard.

After devouring his cupcake, we hit the bath, put our birthday jammies back on and took some more pictures before bedtime. It was a perfect day celebrating the life of my little love. Happy Birthday Baby!

I melt at these shots of Gray and Jon. This big boy loves his daddy and thinks he's so funny!

Me and my ONE YEAR OLD!

Coming up next...Gray's Birthday Party!!!!