Casey's first birthday

It was Casey's first birthday today, so we had a little "monkey" barbecue with family and friends to celebrate. Jacob, after looking at all of the decorations, asked me how I knew that Casey wanted a monkey party... because he is a baby and can't talk. So I told him Casey said "Oo oo ah ah" one day and I just knew! He looked at me for a minute with a smile and I could tell he knew I was kidding.

I was actually surprised Casey would let me put his party hat on, because he usually takes off any hat I try to put on within seconds. I guess he was distracted by the fun balloon. ;)

Grammy has been teaching Casey to blow everyone kisses. It's the cutest...

It was a perfect day for a barbecue

Since we have a pond nearby, all of the kids were trying to catch frogs
Then we came inside to open presents
I found a monkey cake pan online, but since I am not super artistic or much of a baker... my friend Wendi offered to make it for him. She did an AMAZING job. I felt a little bad amputating his head and letting Casey smash into all of her hard work. ;)


Thanks girl... you're the BEST.

We got Casey a little monkey pull-string pinata and each little friend got to try to find that magic string. ;)

Cousin Evan found it!
The cutest thing was when I went to put Casey down for a nap later that afternoon, I found four little candies spread out in his crib. I had a feeling that his cousin Travis wanted to make sure Casey got some candy from the pinata. I was right. When my sister asked Travis if he did it, his eyes got big and he said, "Am I in trouble?" Then when we told him how sweet it was, he had a huge proud smile on his face.

The best surprise was that my good friend was able to come to Casey's party with her baby. He was born with CDH, Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, and just came home from being at Children's Hospital since his birth. He is such a little miracle and it truly was a gift from God to be able to have him there.

Happy first birthday Casey! It has been such an honor to watch you smile, laugh, roll over, sit up, crawl, stand, and grow so BIG over this year. You fill our hearts everyday with your joyful nature and we love you more than you could ever imagine.