What a difference a year makes!

I just can't believe that this hale and hearty, robust child was this:

only a year ago.

I praise Jesus that all of that is just a bunch of lessons learned and nightmarish memories and testimonies to the faithfulness of God now, a year later. I'm so thankful we ALL survived it! I know I'm probably going to be posting a few more comparison pictures over the next few weeks...but I want to celebrate just how far this jolly bundle of energy has come in the past year from the sickest baby on his hall in the nicu to where he is now!

Wesley's (2nd) FIRST Birthday Party!

We had a little Family Birthday Party for Wesley at Bertie's house this weekend! The guests may have been few, but the fun was overflowing!

Auntie Rachel and Uncle Jeff couldnt be there because of having company in town, and a less than 2 week old sweetie-pie, but Rachel did call right as we were getting ready to sing, so she sang along with us over the phone!

He enjoyed his cupcakes

a lot!

finger-lickin' good!

he also enjoyed smearing it just about everywhere

opening presents...

Jack enjoyed helping...
and I'm excited to have a few pictures with ME and my boys! :)

We got to play "Stick the Nose on Elmo"

Granny Ruthie snuggled with Wesley while Jack played ball with Bertie and Daddy

I also HAD an adorable picture of Wesley and Granny Ruthie sticking out their tongues at each other, but she made it clear to me today that she DOES NOT approve of the picture, so I am being a good daughter and taking it down...but I need to remember IMG 0183 when the time comes to put together the blog book...because it DEFINITELY goes in there, even if it is no longer in cyberspace!
Bertie and Granny Ruthie also got some pictures of the boys playing with Wesley's new Bubble Machine and other fun stuff too....when they get a chance to send them to me (hint, hint) I'll post some of those too!

Wesley's (first) 1st Birthday Party!

Wesley turned 1 today!! I will share my thoughts on his first year and his progress in a later post...for now I'll just write about his little family party the night of  his birthday!
I am pretending like I make "healthy" cakes for my boys...at least for the first few birthdays...Jack's 1st cake was individual "fruit pizzas" made on sugar cookies (and getting a variety of fruit in DECEMBER was quite a financial challenge!) and 2nd was carrot cake...Wesley's was a pineapple upside down cake...so much fruit and veggies in these birthday cakes....they are practically SALADS! ;)

 Dont you just love what he does at the end? :)

grabbing handfuls to eat in true 1 year old style!

Jack saw us laughing at it and joined in the snacking fun!

Man, I LOVE this face!

YUM! Cake...at BEDTIME!

There is something about this picture that just makes me well up...Jack snuggled up to Wesley and said "Awww...we love you so much Wesley! Happy Birthday!" It was SOOOO sweet!

It was so good, I'm gonna eat the plate too!

ummm..wasnt it yesterday we were having this big goys 1st birthday party?????

yumm....soooo good it hurts! Wesley is like his brother in that it seems they have no gag reflex...they can cram so much food into their mouths its amazing! Josh kept trying to fish cake out of Wesley's mouth and Wesley would give him a look of amazement like "How rude....would you want me to do that to you on YOUR birthday?)

 I had Jack help me pick out Wesley's presents. But when it came time to open them he would say "Can I open MY presents now?" and we really had to talk to him about how they are WESLEYS gifts and he should let Wesley open them....so here...Weskey is trying to open with just a little daddy-help 

but then big brother brings over a bigger gift and starts sneakily taking off little bits of paper.....and baby brother is distracted....

now back on task.....

oooh...a book that makes noise!

now gift #2....with help from daddy and "help" from big bro

oops...she caught me tearing paper again!

"sharing" the book...actually they shared and played better togetherall day  today more than ever before! It was really quite cute!

cute!!!

oooh, forget about the book...I see Mommie and a shiny silver thing....

I'm going to investigate this shiny silver thing...

GOTCHA!

The 2nd gift was an inflatable weebly toy. I saw the Fisher Price version for over $20, but the Walmart verison was $9....but it also leaked a bit of water on our carpet...so maybe I shouldnt brag about how cheap it was! Daddy got to work blowing it up while watching Vandy win their game! The camera ran out of juice before I could get a picture or video of them playing with it!



All "Hail" breaks loose!

On Father's Day the sky was falling! I have never seen anything like it! The hail started falling around 7 or so, and it just kept getting heavier and heavier for several minutes. Jack was fascinated and scared at the same time! He asked why rocks were falling down.

quarter sized seemed HUGE to me...can't imagine "egg or golf ball size" like you hear on the news!

These videos are wild...do you see the hail bouncing around on our wooden walkway? Needless to say, my garden was less than thrilled about hail...especially my squash/zucchini...those huge leaves were just decimated! My cucumbers are looking really sad too! I looked up advice online about how to clean it up...so we'll see if what I did actually worked. :(
Can you hear all of Jack's questions in the 2nd video...I especially love at the very end when I say "Oh my poor garden" and he says "Why is your garden POOR?" Yes, our days are FULL of  his questions...and he usually keeps asking them over and over until he gets a response...which doesn't end the questions...oh no....usually it will just trigger a few more...I try really hard to see it as a sign of intelligence instead of getting worn out by all of them...anyway, back to the hail storm....
 On the advice of our sweet next door neighbors we called insurance, and it looks like our roof  may need repair and our car too! WOW!
Did I mention also that as a result of the storm our electricity was out for about 4 hours....at bedtime...oh joy! I am VERY thankful that our sleep/sound machines can be battery operated so our "white noise addicted" little boys could sleep soundly. Josh and I just lit candles, opened up the back door for some fresh air and lots of nature sounds and played some skipbo...and the power came back on right as we were going to bed! This will be a Father's Day we wont forget!

On the road again...

The hot 90+ weather finally had a break and we went for a walk to try out Jack's new helmet.

I tried so hard to get Wesley to look at me, but he only had eyes for his bruddah!

he figured out how to lock his knees and "slam on brakes" and thought that was a fun thing to do...the.whole.time...so the walk took a really long time!

he's gotten so much more coordinated with pedaling though! I'm really impressed! Maybe there is some hope for him yet...maybe he inherited a little of his Daddy's coordination and athletic skill instead of my lack thereof!

"Poppin' a wheelie" aka Daddy took over because we were tired of the whole "slamming the brakes" scenario

hunting for fireflies later

our new camera takes some pretty good nighttime shots!