Caleb Shaun's 1st Birthday!

Because of sharing a birthday with both Cadence and Slang, we pretty much put off Caleb Shaun's celebration until the end of the week. We figured he didn't mind :)

This picture was taken on his actual birthday as he got up - bed head and all!

Opening a couple of presents from KayKay and yellow GiGi on the morning of his birthday (with help from Cadence of course)

On Friday, before his party, we started him out opening up another present from GiGi because we knew it had his birthday bib and crown for the party. He definitely was into the paper!

My sister, April, came up with the brilliant idea to have a Super Mario Bros. party. And although we didn't do everything we could have with a themed party, it was still pretty cute. Thankfully Christa, my cousin, lives up here now and so I asked her to make the cake. She's fabulous with cakes so it made lots of sense for her to tackle Mario instead of me attempting it.

See?

We headed to Bellingham Park for his party on Friday evening. We were a little concerned about the heat and rain with an outside party but thankfully, dark clouds blew in and kept on blowing and just cooled everything off to where it was actually a pretty pleasant evening for August.

The impromtu decorating crew taking care of things

The cake/food table all set up. Chris made the flags on the cupcakes. We were really happy with how all the Mario stuff turned out!

The Birthday Boy in his birthday bib and crown :)

Lighting his cupcake. We were a little concerned about the cake part of this party since we have a little boy who doesn't eat with his mouth. However, he loved the fire and singing, and being the center of attention so it still worked out pretty well. And since he does put food in his mouth and then spits it out, the end result looked much like other 1 year olds eating their birthday cake!

Singing Happy Birthday

Pretty Proud of his cupcake

talking to Uncle Evan about the whole experience

See? You'd never know by looking at him that he has an aversion to food in his mouth

The present table. We made the mistake of waiting until it was too late in the evening to open presents so it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences, but that's OK because he's loved playing with everything today even if opening it last night wasn't much fun.

Caleb Shaun in his new birthday ride!

As Chris and I debriefed the birthday week today, we were talking about how much of a miracle it is that this little boy has even made it thru his first year of life. 2 open heart surgeries, along with a couple of other surgeries on his stomach, a product of the foster care system, having no idea of who his biological father is, having a mom who chose to terminate her parental rights because of the amount of work he will be to raise long-term, feeding and physical therapy, and now waiting to become a permanent Andersen. What a year! Yeah, we're pretty much going to celebrate daily the fact that the Lord has given us this child to train up and have the honor to tell about the Gospel.

So, Caleb Shaun, along with praying for you for all your physical stuff and just normal growing up stuff, you can believe with everything in you that your Daddy and I are believing that you will absolutely live up to your name and choose at an early age, and for the rest of your life, to follow the Lord with your whole heart (or as much of a heart as the Lord has given you) and look forward to celebrating as many birthdays and everydays as the Lord chooses to give you.

Numbers 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. NRSV