Celebrating Owen & Anson

Owen & Anson celebrated turning one year old in the Lone Star State which was quite fitting since we refer to them as the buckaroos! We enjoyed the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo just a couple days prior & were in cowboy mode as we baked, sewed & decorated for the big day. The day caught me by surprise emotionally & when I woke I was already tearful & continued to feel that way throughout the rest of the celebrating & snuggling our little baby boys. They were not tearful & had plenty of smiles coupled with happy clapping....precious. 

Even though it was a small family celebration, I still felt the need to do some crafty decorating & made a banner of pictures along with the ones above their seats. It was simple since my recent discovery of spray adhesive, seriously, where has that stuff been through all my crafting years??  Uncle Scott picked up some balloons for the birthday boys on his way over & they had a good time pulling on the strings & seeing them bounce around. 

The banner had a picture from each month of the first year & brought a big smile to my face as I reminisced about all we have enjoyed with them in their first year. 

The cakes were triple chocolate fudge with cream cheese frosting thanks to good ol' Betty Crocker! We added some chocolate sprinkles for a little Texas flair.  I read on Pinterest (of course) to microwave a container of frosting for 15 second blasts x 3 times then pour it over the cake to get a fondant like top.  As usual, it did not go quite a smoothly as Pinterest said it would ; ) I really could have cared less though & moved on quickly to the next task at hand. 

We used the same fabric banner from newborn & one year old pictures to hang on the fireplace over the gifts. Growing up, our birthday gifts were always placed on the fireplace....I like tradition.

Uncle Kyle & Uncle Scott joined us for the entire day which made O&A smiley...

Along with the balloons, Uncle Scott surprised us with this fun addition to the festivities....

 and the most hilarious one mainly because of her little arms sticking out the bottom...

Gift opening was fun. Good thing the boys have big sisters to help them ; ) Those sweet big sisters picked out a couple Green Toy brand bath toys which have really increased the excitement in the bath tub.  They got a yellow submarine & ferry boat with two cars which Owen quickly figured out how to push them along. Those are by far his favorite new thing to play with & works really hard to get them into the right place on the ferry boat. They also got a couple new outfits, a dump truck, super hero figurines, some swimwear for the summertime & a new wagon.  I'd say they made out pretty well for a first birthday!

Thanks to Gaga's fancy machine that does embroidery, I made the boys some snuggly blankies embroidered with their names & a cowboy hat.

Anson felt so snuggled that he immediately began sucking his thumb & leaning up against me.... adorable!

These next two faces are typical of the buckaroos.  Anson looking surprised & Owen cheesing for the camera. Haha! Also, on the first birthday, we have decided to stop calling Owen "Cowboy Small" since we don't want to him to feel inferior to his younger bigger bro. We did laugh until I cried last night when talking about doing all the switcharoos with car seats for our bunch. Charlotte is ready to move to a booster, Anson will get upgraded to her old seat, Eloise will stay the same but Owen, sweet little Owen, he will be able to fit in his infant carseat till he is seven with the amount of food he spits out & the speed in which he crawls laps around the house pulling up on everything along the way ; ) All that to say, he is no longer officially "Cowboy Small" but will always be unofficially that name in my book.... I mean really, he was THREE pounds at birth!

After some lunch we attempted to get a picture of both little guys with their cowboy hats on but it was a futile attempt. We nixed the hats, brought the cakes & sang "Happy Birthday" in four part harmony. Just kidding although that is not unheard of with my musical family ; ) 

The boys surprised us with their response to a cake being placed in front of them.  They were opposite of what I thought they would be. Anson was quite confused as he stock his hands in then flung it ALL OVER THE KITCHEN time after time until a sissy stuck a bite in his mouth...then he was hooked...

Owen who I thought would probably cry sat quietly & devoured at least half of his cake! He cried the saddest cry when we took it away to prevent a major tummy ache.

Anson got a bit messy when he started smearing it all in his hair...

Owen just kept right on shoveling it in!

It took some major cleaning to get the kitchen & babies back in order.  Here are Gaga & Paw Paw with the buckaroos post sugar coma.

This is what we always look like trying to get two babies to look at the camera at the same time ; )

One last picture of each of those precious boys we celebrated on their special day....

It was hard to believe they started SO tiny & are now healthy one year olds bringing much joy to those around them. There is MUCH to be celebrated as we look upon the life of Owen Marshall & Anson Ellis, our sweet little buckaroos. God has been good to us.