We're Home AND Have Power!

When we arrived home yesterday we had power (and TV and Internet)! Our fridge/freezer has been cleaned (thanks to Chase) and pretty much restocked. It still looks a little bare, but I think that's mostly because we're used to leaving old leftovers in there and forgetting about them.

Here's a story from our Louisville park adventure that I didn't mention in my last post: Simon walked me over to these two little kids (a boy & girl both about two years old) and screamed until they acknowledged him. The little girl said, "Aww, a baby! I love you Baby!" and then tried to plant some dandelions. A little while later the girl was up on the jungle gym being a princess in need of rescue. The boy was her rescuer, I guess. When Simon climbed up towards her she screamed, "Ah! A monster!" and ran away. They both circled around and came up behind Simon again and she yelled, "Another monster!"

Waiting for Power

In case you haven't heard, the area where we live was hit by an "inland hurricane." We're fine, but we've been without power since just after noon Friday and there are many old and large trees that have been completely uprooted and many homes sustained much damage with one fatality.

We grilled the food we had in the fridge and freezer and invited our friends to come eat it before it went bad. Chase drove 30 miles to find ice for the coolers to keep what food we could salvage fresh and Simon's milk from spoiling. After hearing Sunday morning it could be up to a week before we'd get power back, we decided to pack up and visit some family in Louisville, KY for a few days.

According to reports we've read from our power company, we'll hopefully have power back tomorrow, so that's when we're heading back.

We've been keeping ourselves occupied with family, playing with Simon and shopping. Today my sister came down and we all took Simon to the park. Here are a few pictures from that little excursion...

Swinging with Mommy

Swinging with 2LT Aunt Manders, Daddy & Aunt Paige

I promise that's joy and not fear

Having fun with Daddy

Walking 2LT Aunt Manders

You can view more park pictures here.

Simon's First Birthday: The Party

Here's what you want to see, pictures from Simon's first birthday...

The "smash cake" I made just for Simon

The cake I made for everyone else to eat sans baby slobber (both chocolate with homemade buttercream frosting)

Si with his baby guests, his girl Nella and friend Marley

Not knowing what's going on
(photo by Keli B.)

Tasting and liking
(photo by Keli B.)

Digging in!
(photo by Keli B.)

Open mouth cakey kisses
(photo by Keli B.)

That's the gist of it. We hung out, had snacks, cake & ice cream and watched Simon open presents (and by "open presents" I mean that I opened them while he played with some paper and some of the presents as they were opened).

While Si didn't have a meltdown at his party, he did wake up about an hour after we'd put him to bed and was crying harder than we've heard him cry since he was itty bitty. It was so sad! I guess it's a right of passage to go through your first birthday, get overwhelmed and over tired, have sugar shock and then suffer sugar withdraw.

You can see a few more party pictures by clicking here.

Simon's First Birthday (Just a Taste)

Here's just a taste of Simon's first birthday...

photo by Keli B.

...More to come soon!