Bryson's Birthday Weekend!

Well, I did better than I expected. I survived (emotionally) Bryson's first birthday. I think the stress of throwing a party helped keep my mind off of it a little, but I also kept telling myself, the adventure is far from over. There are going to be so many more milestones to keep us occupied. We can't wait!

Bryson's Birthday:

For his actual birthday we went to one of his favorite parks to have a picnic and play around. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being outside with our big one year old!

So I decided to start a new bday ritual in the Parker household. Its the hidden cupcake one... on your birthday you have to find the hidden cupcake to start off your birthday celebrations. Inside the cupcake every year will be a special surprise of some sort. Bryson found it right away this year- I'll have to hide it better next year :)

What's inside? Something he automatically stuck his fingers in of course!



Its a birthday cupcake just his size... YUMMY!

Another tradition his crazy mommy wants to keep... since he was born around Easter we had his picture taken with bunny ears. Well, I decided to go ahead and take a picture every year with them on his birthday... yes even when he's a rebellious teenager, I will make Ryan tackle him to the ground and take a pic with these ears. :)

Playing ball in the big field


He loves his daddy :)

My favorite guys :)

Quick smile before he ran off

Zana's Birthday party:

Zana was born the day before Bryson and they were hospital buddies. (AJ, which is Zana's dad, and Ryan are best friends) Zana had her party at the park and Bryson had a blast playing around at his first birthday party to attend.

Bryson taking a swing at the pinata.

Bryson knocks it down!

Not really, but we did enjoy all the candy!

Bryson and the birthday girl

(I don't think he was used to all the pink!)

Zana with mommy and daddy getting ready for some delicious cake!

Happy Birthday Zana!!!



Bryson's Birthday Party:

We had Bryson's party at our house and we had so much fun with friends and family. It was such a great 1st birthday party and a lot of thanks goes out to my parents for making the delicious fajitas/food and Ryan's parents/Aunt Barbara/Mamaw for helping with the amazing cake! Its amazing how much love and support a little boy can bring!

Bryson with Nana, the creator of this AMAZING cake! I told her my vision and she ran with it. Not only was it beautiful but each cake was a different DELICIOUS flavor! Thank you Nana!

The cake with the other yummy desserts... we obviously had an alphabet theme :)
We had chocolate covered pretzels with alphabet cereal stuck on them, chocolate dipped oreos with letters on them and the letter sugar cookie cutouts as well. I wanted to be sure everyone knew their ABC's!

And of course homemade Big Red ice cream- no alphabet purpose, just yummy! :)

Everyone enjoying the delish food:

CAKE TIME!

Happy Birthday to me! Loving all the attention :)

Digging right in!

I can't believe he almost ate all that... and no tummy ache either!

Bryson approved- what a cute mess!

Spoiled much?

Ryan helping Bryson open all his gifts... the kids kept creeping closer and closer toward Ryan, it was so cute. Especially little miss Ava right behind Ryan... so cute!

Here's Bryson, Ava (born 3 months after Bryson) and Zana (born the day before Bryson): The party animals! :)

A true sign that it was an excellent birthday.

Thank you to everyone who made this weekend a truly special one for Bryson!

Especially everyone who had to travel far just to be here! We love you all!

Happy Birthday my precious baby boy! We love you so much!

Happy Easter!

We just had a fun filled Easter weekend and wanted to share all the pics. We celebrated with family and friends Sat. and Sun. down at the "farm." With everything in bloom and great weather, it made for a beautiful time. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend to celebrate Easter!

Bryson and Jaxson taking a ride in the wagon

Bryson and Papo picking up eggs... Of course Bryson is throwing them back out (See the turqoise one in mid-air)

Chasing bubbles

Confetti eggs!



He loved that he could destroy these eggs :)

He didn't care that the bluebonnets were so pretty!

So we got some shots instead (Ryan and I with my cousin Lindsay and her soon-to-be husband Travis)

He loves flying in the air

More pretty flowers

Ready for church!

And back out at the farm

Mom, get these bunny ears off of me!

So I bribed him with a wagon ride

And more egg hunting/throwing

Here Natalee, have my egg

Checking out the goods at the Easter nest

And my cousins on the other side of the fam... Ryan and I, Travis, Ben, Devin, Kayla, and my sister April

So happy being outside and playing with his ball.

Happy Easter!

Bryson had a blast this weekend (and we've loved the worn out baby when we get home)

We are so blessed with such great family, great life, and of course a great God!

March Madness

I can't believe its April! My little baby has turned into a little boy in the blink of an eye. Here are some of the pics from our March:

Bryson and his crazy hair!


We had an Easter Egg Hunt with my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group last weekend. Bryson had a lot of fun hunting the eggs :)




Here's the only problem: Once he found the eggs, we wanted to throw them all back out of his basket:
Quarterback or pitcher?

Bryson's Great grandparents, Granny and PawPaw Gene came down for a visit. We love seeing them!


Bryson showed off his dunking skills

We had a picnic at one of the local parks... it was such a beautiful day!

Taking a walk along the river

We decided to test the water with our toes...

Which led to Bryson getting soaking wet of course. But he loved it!

Some of Bryson's favorite things to do:

Put his toys in the dishwasher

Eat goldfish and cheeto puffs

Read Books. Even though this is a Halloween book, he absolutely loves it. He picks this one out as one of the books we read to him every night.

Play peek-a-boo with the scarf

And of course, throwing one of his many balls around.

This is Zana. She is one day older than Bryson. They were hospital buddies :)

Watching/Feeding squirrels with Nana

We went to one of Tristen's basketball games. Bryson loves his big cousin!

Finally gets to dunk on the big goal!

We had an exhausting but VERY fun March. We are so blessed and amazed with each day God gives us with Bryson. He is such a joy! Now, on to prepare myself for having a one year old in April!