Chris and Kristen + 2: One Year Old- November 2011

Happy Birthday my precious babies! On 11/11/11 Hannah and Owen officially turned one! I think they had the coolest birthday date ever this year. I really wanted to do their party on their actual birthday, but it was a Friday and it would have been an evening party. This can be their fussy time since they play hard all day long so I opted for a quiet day spent celebrating with mommy and daddy on their birthday, November 11th and their party followed on the next day, November 12th.

I had a really hard time this week thinking back over the past year and how quickly time has flown by. I can hardly believe they have turned one-my precious babies are growing so fast. Each time I look at them it amazes how much they grow and learn in just one year. Just this time last year they were fully dependent on us to do everything for them as they were sweetly cuddled in our arms and now they get around independently, feed themselves, drink from sippy cups, interact, understand words and phrases, and play and manipulate their toys. On November 10th they drank their last bottle of formula, yes, we just happened to use up the rest of the package that night for their bedtime bottle. So they are drinking all 2% milk now and loving it. We have also phased out all bottles except for their nightime one which is soon to go. This makes me more than a little sad because I treasure that special cuddle time with each of them. I have replaced it though with rocking, stories, and songs before bed. Chris and I have treasured every moment we have spent with Hannah and Owen in this incredible year. It hasn't always been the easiest and we've had our challenges with Chris working out of town, but we survived and I'm proud of us for the way we've made it through. We've learned a lot, grown a lot, and loved the most! Being a mom was and is my dream come true.

Hannah and Owen just a couple of days after they were born.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the past year.

To celebrate Hannah and Owen's birthday we wanted to do something special and fun with them since we both took off from work to commemorate the day. While Hannah and Owen ate breakfast we read Dr. Suess' book Happy Birthday to You! After breakfast Hannah and Owen opened their gifts from us-their own chairs from Pottery Barn Kids and a soft/foam toy car. I think they enjoyed the plastic bag that their gift was wrapped in the most!

After a morning nap we bundled up and headed out to Crump Park for Hannah and Owen's first trip to the playground. This playground is awesome and has lots of playthings for little ones. I've been dying to get them in a swing and they had 2 toddler swings at the park. Hannah loved everything! She grinned and giggled on the swings, was practically jumping out of my arms to go down the slide, and loved spinning around in the buckets. Owen was much more cautious. He enjoyed the swings after he warmed up by trying them with Chris first, and he liked the slide too, but his favorite I think was standing in the train and playing with the steering wheel. After the park we had lunch with Hannah and Owen at Panera and ran some birthday party errands. Here are the pictures from our fun trip to the park.