Nolan: 12 Months and his First Birthday Party!!!

While we were in Pella, Nolan turned 1!!  It is hard to believe that we now have a ONE year old!  The year seemed to go really quickly and with a baby there is constant change so it has been fun to see Nolan grow and develop his little personality! 

At 12 months old, Nolan weighs 20.5 pounds and is 31 inches long. He is sleeping through the night from about 7ish to 7ish and still takes two decently long naps during the day!  He still nurses twice a day and we are trying to wean him slowly :).  He is now able to walk everywhere and loves this new found freedom and of course can keep up with Cayden a little bit more now :)!  Nolan communicates with a few signs such as "up", "please", and "more" and has been trying to say more words but mostly "daddy" and "mama". Another one of his new skills is clapping, he thinks he is pretty cool when he claps :). Nolan is such a joy to have around and we enjoy watching him grow and learn new things, I love this stage! 

So while we were in Iowa, we had his first birthday party! It was nice to be able to celebrate Nolan's birthday with the family in Iowa! We had a safari animal themed birthday party for him and it turned out great!  

A picture of Nolan's smashing cake :)

The decorations :)

Of course of family picture :)

Our little 1 year old :)

Nolan showing off his walking skills :)

We love this little boy-what a blessing he is in our lives, he has some personality too :)

One with Opa and Oma

Matthew and I with Nolan :)

Some of the party guests :)

Time to sing Happy Birthday!

Nolan was loving the attention and the singing :)

Cake time!

I think Cayden helped blow it out before I got a chance to get a picture :)

I had to help Nolan put his hands in it because I don't think he knew what was going on :)

Ok finally getting the hang out it!

Not so sure about it

Then he just really wanted to be cleaned up :)

Then we had some presents :)

Cayden of course thought he should help out :)

Present from Bella and Grace :)

Party guests :)

Present from Oma and Opa :)

Thank you everyone for helping us celebrate Nolan's birthday and for the wonderful gifts! What a blessing it is for Nolan to have such a great family who loves him! We are excited to see what God has in store for Nolan as he continues to grow and develop! We pray that he will know the love of God and that he will in turn love God with all his heart!