Declan's First Birthday!

Our baby boy is growing up so fast! He just turned one and we had so much fun celebrating his big day.

He started the day by opening presents! A card from Grandma and Grandpa Hatton, a truck and pajamas from Aunt Jessica and Uncle Matt, and a toy from Mom and Dad! 

Declan loved balloons....until they started to pop.

The afternoon was full of friends that came to eat giraffe cupcakes!

At night we celebrated with a pizza party and more presents.  A Spiderman toy and blanket from the Fishers and a book, swimsuit, and flip flops from the Johnson's.  The best part was having such good friends to share in the celebration! Everyone in Taylor's study group came by to wish him a happy birthday.

He finished the night with his smash cake, even though it took him a while to smash it...

Later in the week Declan also got a card from his Aunt Elisa, Uncle Paul, cousin Emily, and cousin Zach.  His Aunt Amber, Uncle Philip and cousins Peyton, Ryder, and Cohen set him a toy that he loves playing with during his bubble baths. We had one year pictures taken by Photo Affect Photography.  Declan didn't give us too many smiles, but we looking forward to having some cute pictures of this one year old boy!

Five Months of Updates

I really don't know what happened to November, December, January, OR February.  I didn't think it had been that long since I sat down to update our blog!  We had a fun Halloween and Declan made a very cute miniature version of a veterinary student.  We lost Grandma Tuckett and spent time with family.  We miss her very much! November went by quickly and we had fun celebrating Thanksgiving with friends.  We even took Declan on his first fishing trip that weekend!  The end of the semester is always a busy time for Taylor and we had hoped to have time to recover in December during the Winter Break.  Those plans were shattered by Taylor's need for an emergency appendectomy in the middle of finals week.  We had a quiet Christmas at home recuperating from that adventure.  Family came to visit the following week and Declan had fun playing with his cousins and seeing his Grandparents again.  We returned to the tri-cities as Grandpa Tuckett both also passed away during this time frame.  I'm glad Declan got to visit him and they got to spend a whole day playing together.  January also meant the start of semester for Taylor and end of grading term for me. February finally felt more settled and now that it is March we are back into a routine and looking forward to Spring Breaks!! 


Family Updates:

Taylor: With an exciting end to Fall semester, Taylor has been enjoying a semester with fewer credit hours (he only has 17!) and more time to spend at home.  He has also gotten back into his favorite hobby of getting 72 hour kits put together.  We are definitely going to be able to survive three days during a disaster - but any longer than that might be iffy.  He has sewn another stuff sack and is working on learning how to braid para-cord.  He is quite the crafty guy and it is a good thing his mom used to drag him to stores like Jo-Ann when he was little.  He may have cried about it then, but now he is the one asking me if we can go!

Elise: Every day seems to go by too fast for me! I keep busy working when Declan naps and sleeps.  It is a big blessing to be able to keep flexible teaching hours.  I get to still enjoy teaching science and working with my students, while Declan still gets to demand my attention when he is awake.  The only problem is that I haven't quite figured out when to fit in housework...

Declan: Loves being busy.  His favorite new hobby is going outside.  He loves walking around picking up rocks, scooping gravel on the playground, and going down the slide. It is fun to see how active he is!  I'll definitely need to work on keeping up my energy to chase him around.  He loves his toys and being pushed around on his little walker/car.  He often stops to pick up toys as I push him around the apartment.  Declan is doing great with solids!  His favorite foods are currently scrambled eggs and ham sandwiches.  He smacks his lips when he sees something he wants to eat and he loves watching me cook! Every morning he watches his Dad go to school, but he won't always wave good-bye.  He loves when Taylor gets home for dinner and is closer to saying "dad" than any other word.  He has grown up so fast and is such a cute little man!