1, 16, and 60!

Sweet baby turned one!!!! Where did the year go? Rephrase, where did the yearS go?? My oldest nephew, Conner, turned 16, Shep turned one, and my uncle Conner turned 60! We had a birthday celebration at our house, and it was crazy! So crazy that I didn't manage to get a picture of all the birthday boys together. :(

Janie and Ardie came early, so I at least got a picture of them with one of the honorees. :)

So, this child is not mine. He did NOT like his smash cake. He ate a bite, maybe two, and that was it. He didn't want any part of it.

Ardie brought Mary Ellis over to play before the party, too, which was soooooo nice. Adding another child to the mix changes up the dynamic enough to entertain everyone (and keep them out from under my feet)! She felt oh-so-big toting Charlie around on the four wheeler. They had so much fun, even though it was a hundred and eighty degrees outside with a hundred percent humidity.

The smash cake that barely got touched...

The week before Shep's birthday, William came up with the idea to make a pinata for Shep. I know, Shep is too little for this kind of thing, but I thought it was too sweet for Bubba to want to do it, so I agreed. It was a good activity for him to have, too, while little brothers were sleeping. We googled how to make one at home. It was really easy, just a little time consuming. Not gonna be selling these things or winning any awards, but it sure had lots of love in it! :) And, of course, it ended up raining about the time everyone got here for the party, so we didn't even get to bust it!

The day after the party was Shep's real birthday. Of course, Shep is too little to care about presents....he likes the bows on them.....but his big brothers were sure excited about them. :)

The week of his birthday, he started taking some steps on his own...

Considering it is soooooo hard for me to take all 3 boys to the pool by myself, we got Shep a blow up pool for the yard. I totally had William and Charlie (and my sanity) in mind when I picked this out. :) They LOVE it! Hours of entertainment.

Charlie is pretty difficult at the swimming pool. He wants in, he wants out, he wants his floaties off, but he doesn't want you to help, yet he's totally helpless in the water. This pool lets him do cannonballs like Bubba, and ooooooooh, does Charlie ever feel big! That kid can catch some serious air, too, my little frog.

Shep enjoys exploring too much to last more than a minute or two in the pool. He eats lots of things, too. Funny how you don't care as much when it's your third child. Instead of scrambling to get whatever that is out of his mouth, I'm running to get the camera. My motto is "as long as he isn't choking..."

MiMi and Grandad didn't get to come for the birthday party, which turned out great, cause then we just got to have a third celebration! They brought our niece, Emily, with them. We never get to spend one on one time with her, so we really loved having her with us. It was a pretty day, so it was the perfect time to bust out the pinata, pun intended. :)

Emily and MiMi with the birthday boy.

Swing, batta batta, swing!

Love the facial expressions, Charlie.

Emily, William, and Charlie all took turns, and Bubba finally busted it.

We've been on a homemade ice cream kick, and we've created an ice cream monster in Shep. He knows when it's around, and he's gonna cry until it's in his mouth. (He's become much more opinionated of late). Since he didn't care for the cake, we made him Mint Oreo ice cream instead. It was a hit!

Totally on another note, I found this turtle in our driveway one morning. I thought we'd keep it a few days, but here we are a few weeks later feeding and watering it every single day. It is the cutest little thing. We hate holding it captive, but we love watching it gobble up worms, too. It's pretty aggressive for such a little thing! William named it Holly Shiftwell (from the Cars 2 movie, original, huh?).

We have also recently added a Betta fish, who is yet to have a name stick. It's had a few names so far, but none decidedly. As if our two monster dogs aren't enough, now a turtle, a fish, and I wonder what's next?

Shep's one year check up stats:

21 lbs. 3 oz (25%)

28 inches (5%)

Only has bottom two teeth, starting to walk. Drinking milk exclusively. Refuses baby food for the most part, and will only eat solids. Takes one afternoon nap a day and is a total snuggle bug! Loves being outside, being in Mommy and Daddy's arms, playing in the kitchen cabinets, and unrolling rolls of toilet paper!