Land of Lenz

Happy Birthday Ashton

Well it happened. My boy turned 1! I can't believe it! This past year I have learned so much. I learned and seen what unconditional love looks like in the flesh. God has grown my patience and heart by ten fold! I have prayed for these moments and got to experience them to the fullest. I can't be thankful enough for this. So we had to celebrate and in a BIG way!! I wanted those closest to us to be there and it turned out to be a hit. It was so wonderful to see how many love Ashton as much as Luke and I do. He is a lucky little guy.

For Starters my dear sweet sister in christ, Jess made Ashton a cute little crown and shirt. So we had to start our night out with a little photo shoot. Which Jess so graciously took pictures through out the night.

I had such a hard time picking a "theme" I wanted the perfect party and I started to look on pinterest. Pinterest can be the DEVIL! Don't get me wrong I love it but it leaves this expectation on my heart that comes from a wrong place, if you catch my drift. I decided to keep it personal and simple. We have always called Ashton our monkey.

1. Ashton has this cow lick/ crazy hair. His hair has always been crazy from birth and early on he only had it on the back/top of his head. And he looked like a baby chimp with it.

2. Ashton has monkey feet. From an early age around 4-6 months he would grab things with his feet and bring it up to his mouth. (he made it very difficult to change diapers this way, some days)

So it was settled MONKEY theme! Done. I can do that! So I get back on Pinterest. BAD IDEA! I had instant stress with trying to make the perfect monkey party. So I shut my computer and went to the party store. (thankfully I was in Billings at the time) SO YES I bought my decorations. But did make my cake and cupcakes. HA! Take that pinterest!

Ashton early on discovered his love for meat and loves pulled pork. So I made pulled pork! It was a hit thanks to my Dad for the recepie and some slight rescuing in the end. It was tradtional with the sauce and topped with coleslaw. Since most kiddos don't like meat/pork I made peanut butter and jelly. We kept it simple and fresh with veggies,dip,fruit and bananas cut rolled in peanut butter and rice krispies.

Well the food was a hit and I think the rest of the party as well. Jess captured some great moments and shots.

This is my other Sister in Christ!! What a blessing she has been to Luke, Ashton and I. Meet Jenn and Hannah one of her many bugs/children.

The Birthday club. These gals and their buggins, are dear to me because we all had our kiddos within a couple weeks together. So we have been celebrating birhtdays the past couple of weeks together. Thankful I had them to go through the first year with.

Meet Jess the one behind the camera, t-shirt and crown. That's Mason her littlest bug.

Just some of my favorite pictures of the night. We have my dad "papa" and Jael and then Grandma with the birthday boy and Colton and his balloon. And did you see all those cute babies sittin on the table.

Now some cake pictures......