one and a half years

Today, Oliver James is 18 months old. A few days ago we headed down to a city park to capture some shots. This kid has really come into his personality over the past few months and it has been so much fun seeing the differences in little boys and little girls when we compare him and Charlotte. He climbs on everything and really wants to do everything that his big sister does now, which makes things interesting from time to time. He loves to play with the dogs and chase them around the house. We think we were able to capture some of his personality in the shots below. Hope you enjoy.

Brown Bear Birthday Party

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Last weekend Oliver James turned one year old!  To celebrate the occasion we had a Brown Bear, Brown Bear Birthday Bash!  The whole family got to celebrate with daddy Bear, mommy bear and sister bear shirts....and of course the birthday boy himself got a new shirt for the occasion.

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Jay made the shirts just by using iron on transfer.  They were great, quick, and easy no-sew shirts!

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This picture says it all!  Two proud parents who have survived another year of parenting, a happy birthday boy and a jealous sister who wishes to show you her belly!

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We had a yummy dinner with brown bear burgers and some colorful sides!

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No Hess Birthday Bash would be a party without story time with daddy bear and craft time with myself.  Jay read Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle to the birthday goers and then we all made animal masks and took pictures in the photo booth!

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You can not properly celebrate a birthday without cake for a baby boy and cake for his friends and family!

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Happy Birthday sweet Ollie James. We love you so and hope you enjoyed your big day!

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our boy turned one

This has been quite the year. Oliver was born...

We moved back to Ohio after living in Virginia for 8 years...

Melissa started her new job as a college professor...

We built a house...

We moved into our house...

Charlotte was potty trained...

And that's just a little bit of what took place.

This weekend we celebrated Oliver's birthday. More pictures to come on that, but first a photo shoot with our little man who isn't so little any more. We love this boy and can't wait to see him grow even more this next year. Enjoy!

decking the halls

We as a family have been getting into the Christmas spirit by decorating, creating and sewing!  Early last week we had my parents come over for dinner and some decorating of our tree.  Charlotte had a blast decorating, Oliver loved playing with the ornaments and all the adults loved watching the kids be kids at Christmas! See if you can find the mittens that were required for decorating the very spiky Christmas tree! IMG_8366IMG_8410IMG_8418IMG_8381IMG_8449

Between the constant snow and the giant tree in our house the kids have been having a great time!  They have really used the Christmas tree as the biggest toy.  We have let them take select ornaments off and put them on about three times a day, needless to say the tree looks like a toddler and a baby have decorated it!

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This is the perfect time of the year to get crafty!  One of my bestest of friends came in this past weekend and besides going to a craft show we also did a good bit of chatting and eating, we had a chicken pot pie with her name written all over it!

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Charlotte and I have also been busy sewing!  She has taken a pretty big interest by sitting on my lap and helps lock my stitches and directs the fabric through the machine.  This is what we have been working on the past couple of days... burlap monogrammed stockings for all four of us and two pillows with the left over fabric!

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We hope that you are able to get into the holiday spirit by decorating and redecorating, creating and sewing like we have!

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-melissa