Family Visits for Ethan's 1st Birthday

September 3rd,my mom, sister, and nephew, Taylor, flew in from Maryland to help us celebrate Ethan's 1st birthday! Later that day we went across the street to our neighbors' house so they could give Ethan a gift. They were going out of town, so they wanted him to have it early. Here we are watching Madeline "help" Ethan open his gift:

I guess I never got a picture of what the gift actually was, but it was the Little People Airplane. Madeline has a pink one and now Ethan has a blue one:)

Madeline wanted Marmie to play out back with her. She asked Marmie to bring the golf set to the back of the yard. She was insistent that it be pulled up there, not just carried.

This has me hysterical...she had my mom drag this back all the way to the back. You would think they were then going to play some golf, but no:

Apparently she just wanted to watch Marmie pull the bag! too funny!

On her way back to the porch, Madeline found something for me:

Here's lil Taylor enjoying some snacks. We were so excited for him and Ethan to get to play together since Ethan's only a couple months older than Taylor:

Saturday morning we were to have a little party for Ethan. But we had a pleasant surprise first thing in the morning! A knock at the door and balloons delivered for Ethan from his Mom-Mom and Poppy in Maryland!! That was such a nice surprise!

Here we are after Ethan's attempt at the cake. He was really tired at this point so most of the icing got on his face just because he kept trying to rub his eyes:

Our lil one-year-old smurf:

All of Ethan's cards:

and the insides:

Feeling better after a bath and a nice nap, he's looking out the window at Marmie. I'm finally getting this post up on my blog three weeks later, and Ethan still carries the box around that some of his Thomas trains came in:

Now Taylor is looking for Marmie:

Did she really think she was going to be left alone for a few minutes??

The next day we went to church and then drove into Augusta for lunch and a walk on the Riverwalk.

I was setting up the timer when a couple said they'd take this picture for us:

Ethan wanted to stretch his legs a few times during the walk and here he is doing one of his favorite things, collecting leaves:

There's a really pretty waterfall of some-sort on the Riverwalk. Madeline loves to stare at it for long periods of time every time we go. Here she is enjoying sitting on the "rock":

In case you didn't know, the girl LOVES to sit on rocks!

Stopped at the playground for a little fun:

Daddy ALWAYS has to play rough!

She was laughing....honestly!

The next day, Labor Day, was Ethan's actual birthday. Here he is hanging out in the stroller at the mall:

Although is was Ethan's birthday, Madeline had quite a special day too! Her first Build A Bear!

She was AMAZED by everything used to make her bear (cat):

Ethan just watched:

Madeline had so much fun picking out everything for her cat:

She wheeled this cat around EVERYWHERE for days!!

Here's the little guy before bed on his birthday. Wow that was a fast year.