To those who don't know the events surrounding Ben's early birth, this picture pretty much sums it up!
Back at the end of 2012, when we found out I was expecting Ben, Jon started looking for a job so I could stay home with the baby. He found an associate pastor position in Kenai, Alaska. We went up to visit and candidate at the church during my spring break from school. We flew in Saturday, Jon preached Sunday, my water broke Monday, and Ben was born Tuesday, April 16! (One month before his due date!) Praise God, Ben was healthy and strong! He weighed 4 lbs 8 oz.
We flew back to Colorado when Ben was 9 days old.
Two months later, we moved to Alaska. The church we candidated at, Calvary Baptist Church, became family the week Ben was born. So many brothers and sisters in Christ came around us, supporting us. When Ben was born, I had Nothing for him! But everyone provided us with clothes, diapers, blankets, everything we needed for Ben! We were even blessed to have a couple from the church, Nathan & Monica, fly down to CO and drive our Uhaul up. (They are our now some of our best friends, our adopted family!)
Being the first year of Ben's life, he's already had so many adventures! One month living in CO and meeting all my wonderful students, trips to California to see relatives, and living in Alaska!
Since we are in California for two weeks, we decided to celebrate Ben's birthday early (cause he likes early!) and because we want to celebrate it with family. I got to throw a Mustache Bash for my Little Man!
Thank you to Mark & Jera for preparing burgers for lunch! We also had chips & dip, baked beans, and a yummy shrimp/spaghetti salad.
It was fun eating lunch with family and friends and hanging out. Then we sang Happy Birthday to Ben and gave him his birthday cake!
He loved stuffing his face with his chocolate Nutella mustache cake! For the frosting, I wanted something that wasn't too sweet, since this would be Ben's first BIG sugar splurge. I mixed cool whip and Nutella and placed blue sprinkles along the side for some color.
It was so funny when he tried to eat it because he just stuck his face in it and took bites! He got frosting ALL over his face! But he absolutely LOVED it!
After Ben gobbled down his cake, my mom washed him clean and changed his outfit while I opened up the dessert table.
I placed pictures of Ben from his first year, one for every month, along the picture frame. It was neat seeing how he's grown!
For the dessert table, I bought blueberry chocolate covered pretzels and blueberry jelly beans, made sugar cookies with chocolate mustaches, and chocolate Nutella mini cakes. (There's no such thing as too much chocolate!)
And of course, we had chocolate Nutella cupcakes topped with chocolate mustaches.
After dessert, the kids (and some adults) played Pin the Mustache on Ben!
The kids loved it so much, they played several times! I think, for some of them, their favorite part was getting spin around!
Ben had fun with his presents, especially the big yellow ball from the Shippy's that all the kids loved! Ben also received lots of new clothes, superhero plastic people, a rocking horse, toy cars, and lots of other toys!
Before everyone left, we took some family pictures! I want to print out and frame these pictures as late birthday gifts for My mom, Jon's mom, and Jon's grandma (all March bdays!).
And, finally, a few pictures from his birthday photo shoot! Happy Birthday Benny boy!!
...and a few cute pictures I just wanted to share, including a family photo!
