Callen's First Birthday!

I can not believe that Callen is a one year old! I know it is cliche, but our time with him has flown! It has been such an incredible journey and Josh and I are truly blessed to be Callen's mama and dada. Callen is really blossoming into a funny, talkative, and sweet little boy. He is so amazing and I have just cherished the opportunity to watch him grow, learn and develop.

We did a Teddy Bear's Picnic theme for Callen's first birthday. I really enjoyed planning and decorating for such a special event. At the party we had guests sign a copy of the book Teddy Bear's Picnic. For party favors we had trail mix and binoculars to go on a Teddy Bear hunt. To stay with the picnic theme, we served sandwiches, fruit, salad, and potato salad. We also entertained the kids with a pool, water table, sandbox, and painting.

We are so grateful for the friendships we have made over this past year and I absolutely loved watching Callen play with all of his friends. Although to be honest Callen slept through the majority of his party, he was teething and incredibly sleepy :)

Our little Teddy Bear.

The chalkboard reads: Callen we wish you a lifetime of: love, support, adventure, encouragement, bravery, charity, art, and friendship.

This gorgeous cake was made by our friend Jen, I simply loved it!

Callen's smash cake

We love our little pumpkin/buckaroo!

Callen's milestone pics. This project made me tear up. I just can't believe how much Callen has changed over the year. He was such a tiny little man with dark brown hair. Now he is a chunky little boy with blonde hair. The one thing that has not changed, is Callen's sparkling personality! You can tell by his smile in each picture that Callen is such a happy baby!

Teddy Bear Crowns.
In the book it reads:
If you go down in the woods today you better go in disguise.
For if your go down in the woods today you're in for a big surprise.
I made Teddy Bear crowns so kids could be in disguise!

Callen's board
His likes are snuggles and chasing the dogs
His favorite toys are stackables and the dog bowls
His favorite book is the Pout Pout Fish
His favorite foods are string cheese, grapes, and strawberries

Matthew, Rich, and Kim

Party favors

Callen wasn't to sure what to think about his cake. He started by grabbing a handful of frosting and throwing it on the ground. It took a lot to convince him that he would love cake!

Trying a different approach

Finally daddy had to help him!

 I love the following pictures. Josh and I are so honored to have such amazing friends who came to support Callen on his big day. I just love these kids so much!!

Stella, Matt, and Rachel

Sadie, Keith, and Amanda

Liam, Stuart, and Stephanie

Quinny, James, and Moriah

Mila, Jamie, and Christina

Luca, Fernando, and Jen
Hunter, Daniel, Sheila 

I love this pic of Luca and Hunter assessing the cake. They look like little partners in crime. I am sure they are both willing to show Callen how to properly eat a cake!

Dex, Ben, and Stefanie
I think Dex might be trying to take some cake for the road.

Wes, Will, Billy, and Shathar. What an adorable family photo!!

Look at that little Teddy Bear!! I was so pleased that all of the kids kept their crowns on!!

First time painting and he loved it. This was actually super hilarious to watch!

Thanks auntie Moriah for helping the birthday boy get some pool time in!

Miss Mila enjoying hugs with the Teddy Bear

 Thank you again to everyone for making Callen's first birthday so special!!

Look at Him Go!

We have a walker! Well sort of. Callen has been crawling since February and it is the most incredible sight to see. He has gotten so fast and he is so proud of himself (and so are we!). He also enjoys pulling himself up. Callen first started pulling up on the fireplace. We think it was an easier place to start because the ledge is lower and easier to grab. But now he pulls himself up using the ottoman, couch, side table, kitchen chairs, doors, basically anything he can grip. And in typical Callen fashion, the moment he's up, he's dancing, grunting, and looking for new toys with which to play. Josh and I assume any day now he will be walking. With that being said, we know we will need to get serious about baby proofing. Another major milestone for Callen is that he can also climb up the stairs!

Yikes! We love this boy so much and it is so exciting for us all to watch him become so capable!!

Nine Months Already?!?

I know it sounds cliche, but truly where does the time go? It seems like just moments ago, Callen was a sleepy newborn and now he is a semi big kid. He has grown and changed so much. He is developing his own personality and it couldn't be more fun to watch him blossom.

For being a premie, Callen is now a giant. Everyone is shocked when they hear how old he is, and their first response is always, "wow he is a BIG baby!" His stats are:

Weight: 73 percentile
Height: 76 percentile
Head circumference: 82 percentile

So I guess in all fairness, he is a big baby. He is just the perfect chubster who has rolls over rolls.

Milestones:

Movement:

Callen is developing so quickly that it feels difficult to keep track of everything new that is going on in his life! Around 7 months he really started sitting well on his own, which means we no longer had to put a pillow behind him every time we walked away. Now Callen is getting ready to move! He is going from sitting to the crawling position and rolling. Most of this he started working on in his crib, I think he wanted to perfect it before he debuted his new skills to us (little did he know that we can see him on the video monitor!).

Eating:

Callen is becoming a foodie! We started him at 6 months on purees. He loved squash, raspberries, bananas, sweet potatoes, and peas. He absolutely hated avocado, despite my attempts to trick him into eating it. Now, at 9 months, Callen is over the purees (he literally just stopped opening his month for them) and has decided he wanted to move on to something better. He now loves: veggie hot dogs, chicken, cheese, chick peas, zucchini, red peppers, blueberries, bread of any kind, and puffs.

Talking:

My little love bug is babbling up a storm, almost to the point that I feel like we are having a conversation of sorts. He has also discovered his voice and loves to hear it, he will just screech at the top of his lungs and then burst into laugher. More recently our chunkster loves to mimic. He will make a sound, I will mimic, and we just go round and round until one of us gets distracted, usually he gets distracted first :).

Playing:

Callen is such a sweet and social baby. He loves loves loves to laugh and be tickled. His favorite spots are his thighs, neck, and arm pits. Our love bug enjoys playing peek-a-boo and Where's Callen? He also likes reading books and hearing my different voices for characters.

Josh and I couldn't be more in love with our gorgeous guy and feel lucky to get to be his momma and dada!

It's Christmas It's Christmas It's Christmas!

Okay I may have taken a break from blogging, and am extremely late with this post, but the enthusiasm remains the same!! We loved spending Christmas in Colorado and having so much time with family.

For our own Thompson family Christmas we spent the day at the beach in Santa Cruz. Callen loved feeling his hands and feet in the sand and would squeal every time he dug deeper.

I think next years present will be a sandbox!

Our little Christmas baby!

This was Callen's first Christmas and Josh and I couldn't have been more excited to share our love bug. Christmas Eve was spent with the Weslings. As my nieces get older, they get more and more into the holiday spirit and into presents!! We started our day celebrating Julie's birthday, made Gingerbread men, and then continued opening stocking stuffers. Next was the main event - the presents under the Christmas tree!!! It was so fun to watch the girls tear into their gifts and then want to play with everything. Having all the kids around, really brings magical spirit back into Christmas!

Warning: there were lots of photo shoots since Josh got me a new lens for Christmas. I am hoping by next year I will have this photography thing down!

My bro and Julie were good sports!

The girls decorated Gingerbread men

Callen loved the attention from his cousins and boy do they sure love him!

The next day was spent the day with the Thompsons. We started the morning at Josh's mom's for a delicious breakfast, continued on to the Springs to Josh's aunts for an amazing lunch, and came back down to Castle Rock to see Josh's dad's side of the family and had dinner. We were so happy to get to see everyone and very glad we got to see Josh's Uncle Tom one last time. He was an incredible man who will be sorely missed.

Callen loved opening his presents!

Callen snuggling his Uncle Zach

We also made it to the WOW museum. It is so fun to watch Callen start to inquire about his world and play with toys.

Lastly, I couldn't conclude without including a picture of Tucker, our adopted dog during Christmas. Our friends Jason and Julie allowed us to stay at their house while they were away. Not only did we get a great house to stay in, but we had an amazing furry companion to keep us company.

It's the most wonderful time of the year …

I love Fall and everything this season includes; the weather getting cooler, leaves changing, flavored coffees, and Halloween! My favorite holiday was made even better by celebrating with our favorite monster. Callen was the cutest little Franken-baby, pumpkin, and farmer.

We started the season by visiting the pumpkin patch with our neighbors and then again with friends. Right now everything seems like it is more for my entertainment then Callens.  At Spina Farms we rode the rickety train through the sun flower fields, climbed on the tractor, and of course picked our pumpkins. I chose a giant white pumpkin and Josh took home a traditional orange one. And of course we couldn't leave without buying some delicious pumpkin bread. Overall Callen liked holding the straw, but I am sure could have done without posing with the pumpkins.

We also had a Halloween party at our house and LOVED seeing all the babies dressed in their costumes. Josh and I feel very lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives.

Future Halloween enthusiast!

Quinn! My favorite toddler!

Christina and Mila

The cutest vampire family!

Keith and Sadie

Ben, our favorite little neighbor :)

Hunter is Callen's almost birthday buddy and they will be great future friends!

Matt and Stella!

My main men!

I also am apart of a South Bay moms group. The organizer hosted an amazing Halloween party for all of the families. I just can't get enough of babies in costumes!!

Josh and I went as Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride of Frankenstein. Callen was our little creature!

Pretty incredible way to display meat!!

It was just a sea of adorable children trying to play despite their costumes. I am so impressed with what kids will put up with to make their parents happy :)

Photo booth with grandpa and grandma Georgia