My sweet baby boy turned one (yes, 6 weeks ago, but that’s beside the point), and we were so excited to celebrate him!! Although this post is quite late, I wanted to get it up anyway :).
Due to the fact that the majority of our resources–time, energy, and money–for Elliott’s birthday were dedicated to his House Build, I committed to keeping the party itself SIMPLE. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have some fun :).
We had Elliott’s Birthday Banner up the whole week preceding his birthday. Melisa and I designed and made this banner several months ago for Elliott out of the same material that my friend Amy made his quilt and wall hangings out of. We’ll add a new photo each year!
The Birthday Banner!
Let’s get this party started!
We went with a construction theme (of course). And with a few sheets of yellow cardstock, a Sharpie, our printer, some balloons, and some Spanish “Caution” tape, we had our decor.
THE DECOR
Construction signs everywhere!Some of our guests relaxing before lunch (American tacos, of course) is served.The party game…putting Elliott's photos in order from 1-11 months old!Brian designed the cupcake construction signs himself!Cupcakes galore
THE FIRST BITE OF BIRTHDAY CUPCAKE!
Lighting Elliott's cupcake…me and the baby bump 🙂Everyone's singing "Happy Birthday," and Elliott is LOVING it!!Trying to explain that he has to blow out the candle…"Mom, that's the silliest thing I've EVER heard!!""Seriously, Mom? No way! I'm feeling a bit candle shy today…""Helping him" blow it out before he grabs onto the flame…"Now what do I do? ""Oooh…I've never felt anything like THIS before…""Ehh…let me touch it with my right hand, too."When, after a few minutes of poking and prodding this strange sugar phenomenon, it was clear that Elliott had deemed this object inedible, Brian helped him out."Whoa. Now that was different.""Let me try that again. Is everyone still watching? Good.""Wow. That is REALLY something.""I'd better try one more bite."
Now, when Elliott really likes something that we’ve given him to eat, he either does one of two things: he smiles so big and waves at us, or, he wants to kiss us over and over again. As you may or may not know, Elliott’s kisses are VERY open-mouthed. So after about three bites, apparently he decided he liked it, and leaned in to give me kiss…
*Melt my heart*We BOTH had a chocolate mustache after that smooch!!
He kissed me two or three times in a row, and every time he did, all of the party guests (of course) went, “Awww….” I think he really liked that, so after every kiss, he broke out into joyous applause for himself. It was awesome.
So pleased with himself for kissing Mommy. 🙂My goodness, I love him!!!
Brian and I tried to take advantage of his smoozing with the camera to sneak in a family pic. Little did we know that Elliott had very much moved on already.
"Alright, alright…enough kissing and clapping. Lemme have another bite of that awesome goodness!"Finally got a family birthday picture in there :)."Mmmm. Now THAT was good. Talk about about satisfaction!"
THE GUESTS!
FamilyMost of our DTS familyMark, Korrin, and two of their boys–Noah (who apparently is camera shy) and Declan. Elliott looks up to these boys so much! We are grateful for these new friends who are on staff here for the next 2 years!Louie, Taylor, Micah, Declan, Hailey, Elliott, Noah (Hunter had already gone home to take a nap)Grandma & Grandpa Moberg with all the grandkids
You know, it wasn’t easy thinking about the fact that Elliott’s first birthday would be far, far away from the people whom we love most dearly and from the people who love our sweet baby boy so much. But I am so grateful for how the Lord came through and made Elliott’s birthday lacking nothing. Don’t get me wrong–I missed my family tremendously and all of my dear friends spread across the globe. But Elliott’s birthday was rich. Rich with friendship, with love, with giving to a family in need. We are so grateful that Brian’s family could come down for the weekend, and that our DTS class adores Elliott and were all so excited to celebrate him. We are so grateful that Elliott has new friends here–Noah, Declan, Louie, Hunter and Parker–and most of them could make it to his party! We are grateful.
Happy 1st Birthday, Elliott Brian!!! What a joy it is to celebrate your life!!!
DISCLAIMER! I wrote this post the day after Christmas, and then was without internet to upload the photos! So, it’s late…but better late than never :). Enjoy!
I remember last Christmas so vividly…not the presents, not the people, not the events…no, all of my thoughts were consumed with the idea that next Christmas we would have Elliott with us…not inside my womb, but here with us. He would be 9 months old and he would wear Christmas jammies and he would destroy the wrapping paper we used to cover up his very first Christmas gifts…he would smile at us and wave at us and snuggle with us. He would dance to jingle bells in our arms and he would follow along as we read, “That’s Not My Reindeer” to him. We would get to celebrate this beautiful time of the year with him instead of waiting for him…
And I can’t even count the amount of times that tears have flooded my eyes this Christmas season as I realize that he is, indeed, here with us this Christmas. For the first year ever, I couldn’t think of a SINGLE thing to put on MY Christmas list, but I had an entire document filled with things that I wanted to get Elliott…I have everything I want right here in my sweet, perfect, little family. At the end of the day, all I care about is snuggling in Christmas jammies with Elliott and his handsome daddy…
Last year, however, when I was picturing this year’s Christmas, I could have never envisioned that we would be in three different countries within the month of December. I could have never envisioned that we wouldn’t have a home, or a Christmas tree, or a place to hang our stockings, or that we would get take-out on Christmas Eve. I could have never envisioned that we would just wrap two small gifts for Elliott because that’s literally all we had time to do. And I’ll be honest–there have indeed been a few times when I’ve had the slightest moment of sadness that I haven’t had a home to decorate and Christmas music playing 24 hours a day throughout our home since November. I haven’t had the time or the opportunity to carefully select and beautifully wrap Christmas presents. It hasn’t been a neat, tidy, perfectly orchestrated Christmas season…but it has been PERFECT for US. It has been perfect for Elliott, and it has been perfect for our family. We got to spend the hours we would normally spend shopping, putting up Christmas lights, cutting down a tree, and decorating instead being entirely outward focused…serving, loving, and bringing the gospel to those in real need. We got to simplify this year…majorly simplify…so that it is just our wonderful little family, waking up on Christmas morning in the home of a dear friend who let us stay in her house, opening a few simple gifts, and simply enjoying being together.
So now that you’re probably feeling pretty darn guilty that you have been running around like a crazy person this Christmas season, cutting in line at Toys R Us, and making sure that your kid had the most popular toy of 2011 sitting under the tree, and SERVING someone in need has perhaps been far from your mind, let me just be honest. I probably wouldn’t choose to do my Christmas like this every year…I’m not quite THAT holy, you know :). This isn’t going to turn into a sermon about Jesus being the reason for the season (although he IS, you know). (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.) I am grateful that God gave us an opportunity to serve and travel this Christmas season, but you’d better believe I’m already picturing where our Christmas tree will go next year in our new rental house…and I’m already thinking about how I want to wrap Elliott’s presents…and I’m already thinking about the new Christmas CD I want to listen to next year… and I’m already thinking about the peppermint brickle that I’m going to bake…and the garland and the lights I will put up around our house…Ahh, only 364 more days to go!! But for now, I am simply and overwhelmingly GRATEFUL. Grateful for our family, grateful for each of our families, grateful for our friends, grateful for the adventure the Lord has us on, grateful that Grammy Karen got us some Peppermint Bark so we had a fun dessert after eating take-out on Christmas Eve.
Here are a few picture highlights from our Christmas 2011!
COLORADO CHRISTMAS!
We got to spend our Colorado Christmas with ALL of my family!
"Yeah, as cool as that new smart phone is, I really like this piece of wrapping paper…"Laughing SO hard with Grammy Karen!The Whole Crew!
Mauss Cousins
Andrew, Elliott, Gryffin, Rowan, Courtney, Fable, Jaxon and Finn
TACOMA CHRISTMAS!
Melisa gave me some Christmas paper so I could make ONE Christmas decoration that was my very own…REJOICE, indeed!
Christmas Eve
He just really cares more about small, choke-able objects than the gifts under the tree…Opening a present with his cousin Micah"I can play the drums on this present!"
Moberg Cousins
Elliott, Taylor, Hailey, and MicahI love this kid so much!Brian and I are wearing Bronco colors instead of Christmas colors…oops.Reading the Christmas story out of his new picture bible before going to bed. (Thank you, Grandpa & Nonna!)
Christmas Morning 2011
Going after the presents under the tree"Hmm…which one is for me?""Probably this one…it smells like a BOOK!""Cool! A mirror book! I LOVE mirrors!""Oooh! I like Daddy's new boots! Can I try them on?""Whoa! A megaphone for Mommy so she can preach on the streets? What an awesome gift you picked out, Daddy!"Our family on Christmas morning…Still in our pjs, of courseMerry 1st Christmas!
Our sweet nephew was born to Kevin and Tabitha on June 3, 2011. He and Elliott are so close in age; it’s going to be so fun watching them grow up together! I’ve been so excited to see what he looks like to see if these cousins would look anything alike! Although their stats so far are pretty darn similar, I don’t think they look very related at all…
Elliott’s stats when he was born: 8lbs 8oz, 21 1/4″ long
Micah’s stats when he was born: 8 lbs 5 oz, 21″ long
But look at how different they look! We’re hoping Micah will share some of his hair :).
How cute is this picture?!
Brothers and their boys
Micah is 4 days old in these pictures. Below is a picture of Elliott when he was 5 days old…still don’t look anything alike!
Elliott at 5 days old
Congratulations, Kevin, Tabitha, Taylor and Hailey!
We love the newest addition to the Moberg family!!
Here are a few pics from some of the family and friends that have had a chance to meet Elliott. We are so blessed that our baby boy is so loved!
He still needs to meet Brian’s extended family and virtually ALL of my immediate and extended family. He’s only met his grandparents on the Mauss side of things. We can’t wait to introduce him to everyone else!!
Grandpa!
Nonna!
Meeting Doug, Melanie and Fable via Skype!
Grandpa and Grandma Moberg!
Cousin Hailey
Cousin Taylor
Uncle Kevin
Aunt Tabitha
Aunt Angela
And here are some fun ones of Elliott’s “extended” 🙂 aunties and uncles:
