A penny saved...

Hank's "official" birthday party was this past weekend in the park on a beautiful fall day. He had a blast riding around in his new wagon with his buddy Logan, and of course had all of his grandparents standing by to spoil him with love. Our amazing photographer friend, Chris, came with his wife and took some 1 year shots of Hank and some family shots-see a few posted below.

Now that Halloween has come and gone, and we've turned our calendars over to November it appears that the Christmas crap cheer has already popped up on the shelves in the store. With that comes excessive items on my to-do list: shopping, decorating, baking, parties, cards-all items and activities that make Johnny cringe as the credit card statements tick up, up, up as Christmas Day draws near. Luckilly, he has a budget-minded wife who knows how to find a deal! This year Shutterfly is running a fantastic deal on all of your holiday card needs whether you send Christmas cards, Hanukkah cards, or New Years Cards-Shutterfly has you covered! For fellow bloggers all you have to do is do a blog post about Shutterfly and their products and presto, viola! 50 free cards from their 2010 Holiday collection-thats more than enough for my Christmas card list. Holy bargain batman! Even Johnny approves of this deal :)

So this or this could be your family holiday card for FREE! Way to make our holiday season a little brighter and cheaper Shutterfly! If you're interested … sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Hopefully my plug is good enough to ensure acquisition of my 50 free holiday cards-I'll let you know. Either way, enjoy the pictures of my big boy!

Hank's First Birthday

Hank's actual first birthday fell on a Tuesday this year (election day to be exact). Since I didn't want Hank to have a typical day at home with his nanny, and since I'm always looking for an excuse to take a day off of work; I took the day off to spend with Hank. Even better since I never work on Monday I got a 4 day weekend out of the deal! Halloween combined with birthday festivities made for quite an exciting weekend! Hank and I went to the zoo to ride the zoo train and check in on all the animals. Hank currently loves all things trains or Thomas the Train, so as expected he loved the ride on the train. Our resident panda bear was expecting her baby at any moment, and since it looked like Hank and the baby panda might share a birthday the nice lady at the zoo gift shop gave Hank a stuffed panda bear that has quickly become a favorite. Unfortunately, the baby panda didn't make an appearance until early the next morning so they miss sharing a birthday by about 5 hours.

After the zoo, Grandpa came and visited on his way home from work and dropped off a few presents for opening. Soon after Grandpa's visit, Hank's favorite time of day-Dada got home for a family party of opening presents and birthday cake. Hank's official party is this weekend over in the park with a few close friends and family. It looks like the weather will be beautiful!

He wasn't quite sure about the whole present opening thing yet...

Gift from Aunt Susie and Uncle Kevin

Hank's first Thomas the Train-a favorite gift for sure!
What a mess!
"I don't wear hats, mama!"

The kangaroos are favorites at the zoo
On the zoo train

365 days later....

It blows my mind how we got from here... To here...in just 12 short months.
Happy 1st birthday to my sweet, funny, loving little man. You certainly make your mama and dada very happy. And where in the world did you learn to make that cheesy smile whenever the camera pops in your face??

Don't worry loyal blog followers, there will be plenty of pictures and updates to follow with all the birthday festivities.....but for now it's time to celebrate the Hankster!