4th of July = Connor's First Birthday!

I have to start off with a disclaimer: This post has quite a few pictures. We were on vacation, it was the 4th of July AND it was Connor's first birthday. Therefore, a lot of things happening and a lot of picutures to remember it all by! I'll try and keep it short and sweet! :)

We started off the morning with West Jordan's 4th of July parade! (Mike walked in it with his family for Papa Murphy's - they own a bunch of them there in Utah.) Here is Brady, my Grandma and Grandpa Dayley and my brother Derek waiting for the parade to start.
Shawn and my sister - "Aunt Jenna" (who is only 2 years older than Shawn) - they figured out a way to keep the sun off them using the umbrella so they could do a little coloring before the parade started.

And the Birthday Boy himself! Connor chillin' out in the stroller waiting to see his very first parade! :)

Red, White and Blue!!! (Sorry mom and Derek - this isn't a very good picture of any of us, but the colors were fun!)

Me and the boys watching the parade. (I have no idea what I am doing with my mouth here - probably trying to tell the kiddos to smile!)

That afternoon while Connor was sleeping and we all were just hanging out at my mom's house, I decorated Connor's birthday cake! (The baby shoes curtousy of my mom who is much better at cake decorating than I am!) We just had to go with the red, white and blue theme of the day!

Brady sqeezing some of the extra yummy frosting onto a graham cracker.

Mike and my brothers playing a game of "lasso golf" in the backyard.

Cute Connor playing with toys on the floor (with his cute "born on the 4th of July" blanket!)

Our sweet little 1 year old!!!

Jenna, Shawn and Brady always play so good together - and they are so creative and imaginative! Here they had decided that Shawn was the King, Jenna the Queen and Brady the Knight. They each had capes and homemade crowns.

And taped to the back of each cape was a paper with their "duties" written down for all of us to read. So funny!

Another cute picture of the birthday boy!

Getting ready to open presents (he wasn't too happy about getting his picture taken and not being able to touch the cake!)

After the presents were open. (Again, not too into the picture thing!)

And then on to the funniest part of our day! My little brother Kevin (16) works at Wendy's. WELL --- he had to work a 19 hour shift that day (7 am to 2 am) and was so sad he wasn't going to get to hang out with us for the 4th or for Connor's b-day. SO --- we all decided that it would be funny to take the b-day cake to him! We were the only ones in the entire restaurant (besides 2 teenage girls that were eating and then left). So Kevin came out and we had ourselves some B-day cake and Frosty's. Yum! (The manager was even funny and turned off the lights for us when we sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candle.) Poor Connor is going to be scarred for life after this event! :) Here is everyone hanging out:

Passing out the Frosty's: (Kevin is the one in the black with his work headset on!)

Connor the b-day boy chillin' in the highchair waiting for some cake!

While we sang "Happy Birthday" he was all smiles with all the attention!

All naked (well, diaper-only) and ready to eat the famous "first cake"...

At first he thought it was just something to play in...

Then mom fed him some with a spoon so he knew it was edible...

After that there was no stoppin' him!

Almost cleared the plate! (Although - sorry Wendy's - I think a lot of it ended up on the floor!)

Cake = YUMMY!!!

After we got home and cleaned up it was time for some 4th of July fireworks! My dad and brother bought a box of about 75 fireworks (or something like that). It was a lot of fun! Here are the kids waiting for them to start!

The line-up of viewers accross my parent's sidewalk:

Connor watching very carefully!

Mom and Connor. (excuse Shawn's hand that got in the way!)

Connor watching his very first fireworks show! (He doesn't remember that we watched some out the hospital window the day he was born last year!)

Grandma Lesa with Connor and Brady.

Mike being the goofball that he is! :) (Sorry hon, I just had to put this one in the mix!)

And the lighters of our firework show: my brothers Joshua and Derek and my cousin Silke (whose birthday is also the 4th of July!)

Overall it was a very fun day full of a lot of fun events! Happy Birthday to our sweet little Connor! And Happy 4th of July to everyone else!!!