I’ve been behind on the blog lately (okay, so honestly when am I NOT behind on the blog. . .) and this time personal projects are the reason why.

I forgot how much energy and time it took to celebrate a first birthday! Photographically speaking, of course!

There’s the outfit. And the cake. And the cake smash. (Or not, in this case!). The photos with family. The party pics.

The list goes on and on and on!

And then there’s the emotional output of your itty bitty little baby newborn sweet cuddly darling baby child turning into a TODDLER (heave, help me! he’s EVERYWHERE!). Overnight (literally), he went from a content little crawler to a hell on wheels kamikaze walker! But still my sweet little cuddle bug when he wants to be!

It’s amazing how quickly a year has passed! And I was happy to have taken a picture of him every day to document the changes. Did I really get one picture EVERY SINGLE DAY? Sadly, no. Sometimes I would forget and do two on the next day. February was a really, really bad month (I missed, like, three days in a row–I think I was busy mopping muddy dog tracks out of my house that entire time).  And how on Earth am I going to display these 365 photos of my sweet boy? They will go into his custom-designed scrapbook, of course. Here’s a sample from his first month with the days and milestones:

I only have 11 more months of this to complete (just kidding. I’ve already done June. So just ten more. And all the pages in between. Sigh)

I know the goal of a true 365 project is to take one gorgeous, stunning, beautiful image every day. As you can see, I was just trying to get “a picture” every day with little regard for all the technical details.  Meh. I’m deciding not to beat myself up about that. Either way, I’m still documenting every day of the first year! I am actually missing the project already! Maybe I will be ready for a real 365 when Jan 1 comes around!

By the way, can you believe my blondie started off with all that dark hair???

And here are some of the one-year images:

The outfit. Custom-designed by the lovely and talented Erika Cain Designs.

The cake smash that wasn’t. Apparently he is his father’s child and does not like icing. Whatever! Zane and I ate it up after K was done!

(Daddy had to smear the cake on his face. He wanted nothing to do with it!)

The treasured first birthday hat my BFF made for Zane three years ago!

Look at all that chunk! My jaw dropped when the pediatrician told me he was only in the 50th percentile for weight.  Seriously??? 50% of kids are BIGGER than my hunka chunka? I was surprised!

And now on to family pics from the day of his party. I had this great idea for a photo booth with lots of fun props, etc. but I had overcommitted myself that day and just dropped the ball. Oh, and K was pretty much done with pictures after the first few. So even though I didn’t accomplish ALL of my first birthday photography goals, I at least got an image of everyone who came to his party with him.

A few samples:

Yes! That’s me! And, see, in the last one–he’s about ready to be DONE!

And here’s my favorite of all time:

Too much “pass the baby” got this super sad face! Love how Uncle K rolled with it!  And my two darling boys, Z with his dirty socks he wouldn’t take off.

It was a great party! We were thankful to all the family who was able to come! Happy Birthday, Keane!