Austin is 1!!!! {Birthdays}

 Yes, it is that magical time of year where you remember when you were all like this:

Sometime around 4 am before heading to the hospital on Nov 6th

And, then after a while, you get to see this:

But then a year passes by rather quickly...

Crazy, huh? He is such big boy now!

This was right after he woke up, as you can see in the top left picture. Not fully awake, but ready to party!

That guy is one special little dude. His brothers may be stinkers at times, but they love their Baby Austin so much. Ahem. They love their Austin so much. I was informed by Alex that we cannot call him "Baby Austin" as he is no longer 0 years old. "He is 1, mama. And that mean a little boy. When he is 3, like me, or maybe 5 (like Andrew), then he is a big boy. But, he not a baby." Sigh... 

We had quite the party day for this guy! First, birthday breakfast and presents from his brothers. They picked out a bunch of those Little People Wheelies cars. He loved them, of course (and the bigger ones, too, apparently). While he played, the boys got a bit of some school in while I cleaned the kitchen and got ready for Austin's day of fun.

We had an impromptu mini birthday party at the ice cream shop (which, silly me...I didn't get pictures of that. oops #momfail). I did get a picture of the party-goers though!

I just love that photo! It totally shows all their little personalities. Adorable!! :)

Afterwards, we met up with some more friends at the zoo (which...no...this is NOT a picture from the same day. Same friends, different time. Yet another #momfail)

By this point everyone was sick of the party hats and had entirely too much energy. So, even if I had thought to take a darn picture, I'm sure not one of mine would have chilled out for 2 seconds. Yeah.... Still, the zoo was fun and they were most definitely worn out by the end of the day! Especially, since I took them to Toys R Us afterwards.

Yes, I know. Insane is the word you are looking for. But, it all worked out. The boys knew that 1) Austin was the one picking out a toy and 2) Christmas is coming. Of course, with fact #2, all I heard was, "OOO! Look at this!! We want this on the list!" or "Let's tell Santa!" and "Let's take a picture and send it to Grandma!" Oh, my.

Austin did pick out a toy after we wandered a few toddler aisles. And it was super cute, too! He saw a dump truck and said, "CA!!!" (for car, but basically everything with wheels). I asked his if that's what he would like and gave me the biggest grin. Then we turn the corner to walk to the register. And, wow. I thought he was going to actually jump out of the cart to grab the BIGGER dump truck (which also happened to be orange). He saw that one and threw the smaller one down and reached with his grabby hands for this truck. It was so cute! So, of course, he got that one. And while I was glad it was super expensive (tag said $27 something), I was even happier when I went to pay! It got that thing for $17. Score. Everyone wins.

Jason came home for just a bit to give him his present before having to head back out. But there were smiles all around. He just loves that truck!

"Thank you, Daddy!"

After dinner we did celebration #1 (we had cupcakes for the next few days since Jason missed out), and, oh my.... He's not a big fan of the birthday candle. But LOVES the cupcake!

 

Oh, Austin... You are such a funny, sweet, amazing little boy! You make all of us smile and your little laugh just warms our hearts. We love you so very much!!

Happy 1st birthday to our little super guy!!