We have a one year old! The range of emotions we’ve experienced in the past week is crazy! It really does fly by as fast as everyone says it does, and from what I hear, it doesn’t slow down from here at all! We celebrated our sweet boy over the weekend with friends and family, and our hearts were so full to be surrounded by so many people that love us and love William.

We try to not spam our social media with too many photos of William, but we couldn’t resist for his first birthday! You’re not going to want to miss the outtakes at the end! Haha. Because with babies, for every PERFECT shot, there’s a hilarious (aka RIDICULOUS) outtake.

We took these photos about a week ago, and I had a hard time narrowing it down! This is the first session we’ve had of him since he was 6 months where we got some BIG, heartfelt smiles. He seems to get really shy and serious around the camera when we’ve done sessions with other photogs, and so it meant so much to finally get some big happy smiles from him. He has a TON of new teeth, five to be exact, so it genuinely felt like I was photographing a different baby. Even in the last three months he’s changed so so much! He’s pulling up now and is so curious about everything. He loves exploring just about every inch of our house, and the most adorable and simple things amuse him. Banjo is still his number one BFF, but unfortunately sometimes Banjo doesn’t want to play as much as William does. He’s recently fallen in love with bath time when he realized that splashing was totally allowed, haha! But my favorite part of bath time has been wrapping him up in his shark towel. He gets suuuuper cuddly and lays his head on my shoulder. This is the ONLY time he ever does this anymore, so you better believe I’m soaking up those snuggles!

William is such a happy baby, and we seriously are in awe of the joy that he has brought into our lives. Often times I sing him “You Are My Sunshine” because that’s exactly how I’ll always remember him as a baby. I found out I was pregnant with him less than two months after losing my mom, and he really has been my little sunshine through the last 18 months. I wish Mom could be here to witness what a treasure he is.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above.” – James 1:17

If you’re new to our blog, you can catch up on William’s birth story, and his other posts here!

The theme for his party was “Oh how time flies” because 1) I hate planning super complicated things, and 2) it felt so appropriate for how the last year has been.

William had the funniest blank stare on his face while we sang to him. Pardon my over excited mom face here.

But afterwards, he had NO problem helping himself to his cake. This kid did not hesitate for one second!

And when things seemed too “tame” after we took the cake away, Pops (Tyler’s dad) handed him a cupcake…and THIS happened! I’m pretty sure he would have just kept going if we hadn’t stopped him.

It was such a sweet afternoon celebrating our favorite little boy! :)

William has been super into pointing at things, and it’s so cute.

And because no session with babies is ever perfect…haha!

Hahaha, yes, he fell over while standing next to the chair and it looked like a Goldilocks moment. Haha

Babies don’t last long for photos. After about 20 minutes, he wanted a break and wanted everyone to know!

Even his pout is so sweet.

Happy first birthday, William! We love you so much!