Happy Birthday Kinnick!

Kinnick's actual birthday was a hard day for me... For Sadie's 1st two birthdays, I was able to be off work for the day and we celebrated as a family by doing something fun. I wasn't able to take off Kinnick's birthday... this was really hard for me and my day started with a lot of tears. (I'm sure that being exhausted and pregnant contributed to my emotions.) As it turned out--we had a pretty great day.

We have a tradition of waking the kids up by singing "Happy Birthday" to them. Sadie was super excited for this! She climbed in the crib with her excited brother.

Kinnick dressed in his "Birthday Boy" shirt

I made football cupcakes for Kinnick to take to his sitter's. The kids hadn't been to the sitter's all week, so they were excited to see their friends and have a party for Kinnick.

Kinnick's Birthday Party

So... I'm a little behind on posting! Kinnick's birthday party was 3 weeks ago. I can't believe how BIG he is getting! We had so much fun planning a Hawkeye party for him. (We bought all of his plates, napkins, balloons, etc. during one of our IA visits.) We had one big party at our church and invited friends and family. Here are some pictures from the fun day:

The birthday boy--all decked out in his black and gold.

This was Kinnick's little cake that I made. (After cutting out all of the pieces for his invitations, I was able to free hand the tigerhawk logo fairly successfully!)

I decided to get help with the big cake this year... (I'm glad I did, because this week turned out to be a pretty stressful and exhausting one!)

Grandpa Chuck, Aunt NeeNee and Jaren (The "CO Gorschs" got here just in time for the party--we were so excited that their visit coordinated with Kinnick's birthday!)

Getting ready for cake--Kinnick immediately started grabbing at his cake (and his candle) as soon as we put it in front of him.

Big sister helped him blow out his candle.

Kinnick knew just what to do!

I'm pretty sure he would have eaten the whole cake--I finally took it away.

Kinnick with his friends and cousins

We sat on the floor to open presents and it got a little crazy--all of the kids wanted to help open presents.

Kinnick did like to walk around his presents and check them out.

He also liked looking at his new toys--he really liked this John Deer tractor that his dad picked out! After about half of his presents, he was done sitting on my lap and I ended up (along with the group of CRAZY kids) opening the rest by myself!

My little man's first birthday party...

Daddy and his little hawkeye...

After the party, we invited the grandparents back to our house to have pizza. Kinnick was so exhausted, he just sat in his highchair and looked around. This is very unusual because he LOVES pizza!

Unexpected Visit

Several weeks ago, Trista decided (at the last minute) to come for a visit with Jadyn & Jaren. They hadn't been to our house since last December, so it was a lot of fun! Sadie always loves seeing her cousins. It was a SUPER nice weekend so we tried to spend a lot of time outside...

Jadyn & Kinnick snuggling in the morning

Sadie & Jaren after bathtime

Our picnic at the park

Enjoying a bike ride

This is probably the best picture of these four cousins that we have to date... It's always interesting trying to have a photo shoot! (Jadyn-7, Sadie & Jaren-almost 3, Kinnick-almost 1)