Dallin turned ONE

I know most every mother says this about each child, but this first year FLEW by! It was a very hard year, but it seriously feels like I just had a baby. Or maybe that's my excuse for still carrying the extra baby weight... "I just had a baby"....

Dallin is so wonderful and just what our family was missing. He is ADORED by his big sisters, I must have already kissed those cheeks 10 million times, and David is so thrilled to finally have a legitimate excuse to buy/play with Match Box cars. Dallin is so fun and cheerful and has the greatest little belly laugh. He loves to dance and hear music, especially the Princess and the Popstar song from a Barbie movie, which he has no doubt-ably heard a million times because of his big sisters! And the boy can eat like no other baby I've seen before. Maybe that's just the difference between girls and boys and it starts young! But he is seriously a bottomless pit.

 Every little boys first dump truck should come wrapped in flower wrapping paper right? I will be sure to be more prepared next year with the boy gift wrap.

 This was one of the only candid shots I got of him on his birthday - waiting at the bus stop for Carmen and Aliza to come home from school. 

Then I took some fun cake smash pictures of him. I had wanted to be a little more prepared for the photo shoot, but the weather had been so cold that I never felt like it was a good time to take his pictures. But his actual birthday was warmer and I quickly set everything up to snap some pictures. I think they turned out pretty cute, regardless of lack of preparation.

An after the cake smash bubble bath!

The day after his birthday I cut his hair. I do really miss those curls! 

 Singing happy birthday - Carmen had to hold his hands back so he wouldn't touch the candle.

My dad has been at our house the past month working on finishing our basement. Dallin has really grown accustomed to having Poppy around. He will sit at the top of the basement stairs whenever he knows Poppy is down there. 

One Year Stats: 23lbs. 7oz. (80th%)

28.9 in long (13th%)

50.25 cm head circumference (110%)

He's a short squat-y boy with lots of brains!

Dallin: I love you buddy! I still remember the feeling of numbness and total fear when the ultrasound tech told us we were having a boy. I didn't grow up with brothers and we already had three girls, I just wasn't sure how to handle a boy. And I'm still not sure what it's really going to be like raising a boy. But I do know that I love you. And it's been a wonderful joy, the kind that makes my heart feel like it's going to burst with love, to have you in our family. I simply adore snuggling with you and kissing your cheeks. One day, as I was folding laundry, I was overcome with such an immense feeling of gratitude seeing those little boy clothes mingled in with all those pink and purple ones! I hope I can learn to love cars and bugs and boy scouts. I can't wait to see the kind of man your grow to become.