HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE! | First Birthday Party Pictures | lindsaydavenportphotography.com/blog

December 14, 2017

No.

How?

I just don’t get it.

Happy first birthday Luke!!!

Our Lucas Brent is somehow 1 year old. He’s no longer a baby. But yes, he is. Okay, I know there are all you moms out there who are getting this right now, and if you’re not, you will someday!

One second I’m crying and sad and the next I’m giddy and excited. What is it about this first birthday?!

Because Luke’s birthday is so close to Christmas, we chose to celebrate it the weekend prior his actual birthday, so you can say we’ve had a good, long celebration of him this week. His actual birthday is today, December 14th (12-14-16, to be exact!). We had friends and family over for his Polar Express-themed party, and when it was a blast. Everything about it.

His party started out as a train-themed party until 1) I realized our house would have Christmas decor and 2) I realized how cute the movie Polar Express is. How perfect to merge trains + Christmas?! I thought so! I even got away with buying Christmas decor for the party that’s STAYING! Woo hoo! Win win 🙂

And just like everything in life (and our fixer upper), Jordan and I had fun tackling together. What that looks like (I tend to wish we’re like Chip & Jo) is I come up with the ideas (usually from Pinterest or Jo), and then Jordan executes. I’ve learned that this really is us. And it started before we got married, only to unfold beautifully in our home as we’ve renovated it.

And this past weekend, we did just that: I described a box train that I wanted Jordan to build (original idea from Pinterest), and….he did it! We have THE Polar Express train in our front yard, you guys! And it was a hit! But wait it gets better: I made tickets for the train with little bells on them for the kids, and one boy ran outside yelling, “I have a ticket to the train!!” It made me so happy 🙂 If they weren’t old enough to understand that concept, they loved playing with the bells on the train and going in and out! So fun! If only it wasn’t one of the more colder Saturdays we’ve had.

But it still gets better: not only were Jordan and my fingerprints all over the party, but my parents flew in to help shop, plan and set up, my in-laws brought food, sought out the perfect overalls for his conductor outfit (everyone else in PJs, of course!) and helped tremendously with setup, and our good friends Meg and Sam helped, as well. And what I personally love SO much about this is that the same fingerprints that helped make Luke’s first birthday so sweet and special are the SAME fingerprints that helped make our own WEDDING day so special. Both events were very much so DIY, and I personally am just feeling all the sweet and sappy feels over this as I realize it! Taking a second to soak in these blessings.

SO while we had our DIY train, admission tickets and Christmas decor, we also had pretzel stop lights, wheels and cheese, a toss the coal game, a train of pictures from each month of his first year and a few other fun details. Guys, I just had fun. Fun, fun, fun.

And so did he. It was fun for me to see him exploring the train, enjoying the little buddies who came and pulling tissue paper out of gifts. It’s honestly such a gift to me to see Luke having fun trying or seeing new things. Such a gift.

So this week has just been overwhelmingly beautiful.

God really blessed us when He trusted us with this cute, curious, cuddly baby boy. I can’t wait to watch his personality continue to unfold!

His cake smash was so precious! I wasn’t going to be surprised if he didn’t like being sung to, but he was fine with it! He even tolerated the cake afterward! 😉 He was slow-reacting at first. It was almost like he was waiting for us to say, “noooooo…”. BUT we didn’t! So once he felt us out, he was all about it, and actually went in face first! “No hands Ma!”

He definitely had a blue nostril the rest of the day until we could have a thorough cleaning! 🙂