Matthew turns 1!!

It is so hard to believe, but 1 year ago on January 12th, Matthew surprised us by coming 5 days before his scheduled c section day! On my fourth child, I experienced labor for the first time. He has been a complete joy in our lives. His siblings adore him and want to play with him as soon as they get home from school. And he lights up when he sees them too. It is an added element of love and excitement to see how excited the kids are when Matthew does something new or does something super cute. He has completed our family and we are all so blessed and grateful! So, we had a small party to celebrate his first birthday on the day before his birthday.  We got some decorations.

Made the traditional birthday hat cake (that I made for each of the other kids on their first birthdays).

Unfortunately, Matthew was a bit under the weather, so he spent much of the day resting up for the party.

He seemed to be in better spirits after a nap.

Then it was party time!  And we had a special visitor...Mike was in town from Singapore and stopped by to wish Matthew a happy birthday!

Another special attendant...Godfather Andrew was still home from ND on his Christmas break so he came too!

Then it was time for the big moment.

Unfortunately, Matthew was not a fan of his hat and got quite upset about it...

And then he cried throughout the whole birthday song :(

He wanted no part of it at all - he was done with the party at this point and ready for bed.

We calmed him down a little and tried to give him his smash part of the cake.

But he just wasn't interested.

Poor baby.

All he wanted at this point was milk and bed.

So we took him up to bed.  I was so disappointed.  I have such great pictures of the other kids on their first birthdays really loving the singing and the cake.  But Matthew was just not feeling it.  It wasn't until this party failure that I got really emotional about my baby turning 1.  It was a sad night for me after the party ended.

The next day was Matthew's actual birthday.  He seemed in a much better mood and enjoyed sitting in his new chair.

Trying to pose him with his birthday balloons.

Ben playing with Matthew by pushing him around on his lion toy.

We had spaghetti for dinner because he likes it and then we decided to try the cake again.  He is eagerly looking to see what we are doing over there...

At least he sat in his chair and didn't cry while we sang this time!

And he ate some cake.

But was still mostly just tired.

Then we opened up some of his presents.  Luckily, he has some great helpers!

 But really, who needs presents when his favorite thing to do is pull out plastic bags!

 Little stinker!

Matthew is such a happy baby.  He loves his siblings, loves the dog, and loves to be tickled, which always gets a huge laugh out of him.  He is pretty go with the flow, which works well for us as he is usually being carted around to his siblings' activities.  He eats well and loves his milk.  He is pure joy.  

At his 12 month appointment, he weighed in at 23 lbs, 8 oz and was 29 1/4 inches tall.  Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!

On winter days, what is better than pretending it's warm out by heading to the indoor pool to have some fun!  Matthew really enjoyed his first time at the indoor pool.

 Having fun splashing with Daddy!

 What a big boy!

 Our indoor pool has a great play area for kids - Matthew really enjoyed playing at the splash structure.

 Ben helping him out.

 What a great set of brothers!

 What a great set of sisters!

 Everyone enjoyed playing with Matthew in the pool.

 What a happy baby!

 It was a very fun afternoon.  The kids love the pool!

Early January Winter Fun

Matthew really likes food - all food! He especially likes spaghetti, as you can see...

He's SOOOO BIG!!!  Luckily, it was easy enough to take him straight to the bath after dinner!

In early January we got our first big snow fall and the kids had a lot of fun playing in it!  Matthew and I watched from inside, which Matthew really enjoyed.  He got a huge kick out of seeing everyone outside and banging on the window to say hello!

Dad using the snow blower!

Abbey says hello to Matthew.

Juliette enjoying the snow!

Hi guys!!!  I am right here inside watching you!!

After a bit, I decided to put Matthew in a snow suit and go outside with him.  Unfortunately, his snow suit was size 0-3 months!  But I stuffed him in it anyway (which he was not happy about).  It reminded me of A Christmas Story because he couldn't move his arms or legs!!  You can tell he isn't thrilled about this, but went along for the picture anyway.

Now he's a little happier at least.

And then he was all done and wanting to get out of that snow suit!