Invitations: Since we invited family and a few friends that I see on a weekly basis I hand delivered the invitations in mason jar. The party details were printed on a green leaf and each invite had a caterpillar inside.

The more I use my Silhouette the more I love it! I used it to make the leaf invitations and the jar toppers.

We had a giant strawberry and caterpillar to welcome our party guests. I made it using a red poster board, green scrapbook paper, a paper mache 1 and scanned the book cover and cut out the caterpillar. I still have it up because I think it’s cute.

We had all kinds of different caterpillars!

I loved going back through all our pictures and picking out one of each month. It makes your realize just how much your baby grows in one year.

Caterpillar cupcake. I can only take credit for the fondant and platter embellishments.

Above the food table I hung paper lanterns to make a caterpillar and taped on cardstock eyes & nose.

We ate all the fruit…

and junk that the very hungry caterpillar ate.

Dana made the cutest {and most delicious} ice cream cone cookies.

I made Thomas a small smash cake – which we all know he barely touched.

There were lots of yummy cupcakes!

Ideas Found:

Highchair Caterpillar

Caterpillar Monthly Pictures

Caterpillar Lantern

Front Door & Food Labels

Invitations

The task must have exhausted them…..

…. because they had to take a nap…..

…. and I have no idea what exhausted PepperAnn!

Thomas stayed busy playing with the balloons.

We had a room full for the party!

Thomas and his great-grandfather, George Thomas

When I called that it was time to open presents – these 3 came running like a herd of elephants

And Thomas had lots of help opening his presents.

Momma’s boy decided he would rather sit in my lap to open presents.

Thomas was not into his “smash” cake at all. He only got his fingers dirty because I pushed them in the cake! He kind of poked at it with a spoon.

We put him in the floor to see if he would be more interested – but he wasn’t.

Thomas did thoroughly enjoy the brownies!

I am horrible about getting pictures of everybody at parties & holidays so I decided to take everyone’s picture with Thomas as they left!

Aubrey, Greyson & Will

Pam

Honey & Papa

Amber, Will & Bill

Karen

PawPaw & Nonny

Daddy Bill & Grandmama

Mandy

Mimi & PawPaw

Tori, Zachary, Susie & Bob

Dana & Jonathan

Amy & Brittany

And this is what the boys have been doing ever since the party! Taking turns {mostly} riding and Will is an excellent driver for Thomas

]]> http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/31/the-party-thomas-1st-birthday/feed/ 0 http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/29/happy-birthday-thomas-2/ http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/29/happy-birthday-thomas-2/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:45:59 +0000 Amber http://www.dixondialogue.com/?p=4760 Everyone says it – but I can’t believe that Thomas turned 1 year old today! We celebrated at our house this afternoon with some family and friends. Thomas is a fun, relaxed, and sweet boy. His favorite things are his Mommy, snacks and the dog. He also loves to crawl up to the play room and get into all of his brothers trains, trucks and blocks.

We just took it easy this morning but Thomas kept checking to see if the party people were coming!

When he woke up from his afternoon nap he just chilled in his chair. He was so funny!

This is how he was laying – being a big ham!

Party Time!

Lots of party pictures & details to come this week!

When we got there Will had a gift from Papa’s cousin waiting for him – a HUGE Hot Wheels racetrack.

Thomas got right to eating lunch! The rest of us waited until Mimi & PawPaw got there to dig in.

After lunch, we headed downstairs to open presents. Will was so excited when he saw his big gift sitting out.

Papa helping Will use his backhoe.

But, I think Honey was the most surprised with her new bicycle.

Thomas was excited about his busy ball popper.

Will was really excited about a frog loofah. Although now he won’t let me wash him with it because it’s currently the bed for his rubber duck.

Thomas started to play the drum before we could get it out of the box.

Hands down this “cooker” outfit is the afternoon’s winner. He wears it every. single. day. And he cooks Ichiban food at this kitchen – if you come and visit he will even do an egg trick for you.

After playing Will, Honey & Dana rode their bicycles.

We ended the afternoon by singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eating cake.

Jonathan & Dana

]]> http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/07/merry-christmas-christmas-afternoon-edition/feed/ 2 http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/06/merry-christmas-dixon-family-edition/ http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/06/merry-christmas-dixon-family-edition/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:00:23 +0000 Amber http://www.dixondialogue.com/?p=4694 The day after Christmas we got together with the Dixon family to celebrate. This year we went to Bob & Susie’s house.

Thomas & Tori playing before lunch.

After lunch the great grandkids helped Tori pass out the gifts. Then everyone opened their stockings.

Opening the duck that Uncle Bob made for Will and Greyson. Will loves the duck but sometimes it’s a bad duck and it bites people and tonight we had to “learn” the duck its ABC’s before bed.

We gave Grandmama and Daddy Bill a frame with the 4 great-grandkids handprints – I think it was a hit.

Karen gave the boys these bouncy bulls – Thomas will have to grow into his.

Will is obsessed with his pink bull! He literally bounced around on that thing for hours saying, “Hoppy, hoppy all day long!”

And that wraps up this week long series on how we celebrated Christmas!

]]> http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/06/merry-christmas-dixon-family-edition/feed/ 0 http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/05/merry-christmas-christmas-morning-edition/ http://www.dixondialogue.com/2012/01/05/merry-christmas-christmas-morning-edition/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:00:31 +0000 Amber http://www.dixondialogue.com/?p=4661 This was the first year in my 27 years of life that I didn’t wake up at my parents house on Christmas morning. It would have been sad if I didn’t have my own family wake up to! It was different but it was definitely nice to be at home on Christmas morning. Will & Thomas woke up at about the same time (I wonder, if Will woke him up?) and we headed downstairs to open presents.

Will enjoyed pulling all of his little treats out of his stocking. It was mostly snacks

Thomas wasn’t really into opening presents this year. Notice he would just rather sit in his chair.

So, Will opened all of the presents.

Thomas got a couple of trains – and again just enjoyed sitting in the chair.

Will’s favorite gift of the morning by far was this dinosaur “outfit.” He put it on immediately and started chasing everyone all around the house.

Will also got his very own ice packs! He uses them on a daily basis.

We had cinnamon bites for breakfast and I gave one to Thomas to see if he would like it. I’d say he loved it!

Such a fun morning celebrating Christmas with our little family! And celebrating Thomas’ first Christmas!

When we got there they had a large cardboard house set up – Will thought it was so cool and couldn’t wait until Aubrey and Greyson got there so he could start coloring and decorating it.

Thomas thought it was pretty neat too.

Thomas couldn’t wait to open presents!

Aubrey

Thomas got some puffs and he couldn’t be happier!

Will got a pizza set.

Will also got a guitar and he has been serenading us with “ABC”, “Twinkle, Twinkle” & “Jesus Loves Me” every day.

Will & Aubrey playing on their new Sit n Spins.

Thomas was also a big fan of the Sit n Spin.

Greyson got a soccer goal and everybody had a good time playing with it.

Will & Nonny spent a good amount of time playing with Greyson’s new Lego set.

Each of the kids got a stuffed animal that talked/interacted with a book. Aubrey wanted Aunt Pam to read her book to them outside.

Thomas got a lot of lovin’ from his cousin Aubrey.

The boys got a chair from Nonny & PawPaw and Thomas absolutely loves it. I think it’s his favorite thing from Christmas!

Will wanted Bill & Honey to hide as everyone was arriving. Do you think anybody found them?

Will thought it was fun to eat his dinner with a toothpick. What could be better?

I took pictures of everybody eating but Joel is the only person who smiled- so his table gets put on the blog!

Thomas and Kenlie enjoyed playing a little pool.

The great-grandkids waiting patiently for the presents to be passed out.

Thomas and Uncle David. This was the first time for a lot of the family to meet Thomas

Will checking out his new toy! When we said that Santa was coming in – Will ran and hid under the chair again – Santa almost sat on him!

Santa & Will. Funny story: Immediately after this picture Will came up and said to me, “Mommy! Santa looks like Papa!”

Thomas was NOT a fan of Santa!

Funny story: We went out to eat tonight and a man with a big beard walked in and stood near us and Thomas was afraid of him too.

Dylan & Chase

Zoie & Kenlie

Sarah wasn’t a big fan either

Hmmm, I always thought Santa’s elves were short!

The day after Thanksgiving we broke out the Christmas decorations. And by we, I mean Bill. Will really enjoyed getting out and decoration the tree this year!

I’m not exactly sure what Will was doing here but I think making sure the tree branches were just right.

Putting on the ornaments. Will has enjoyed being able to touch the ornaments this year – as long as he’s gentle.

Thomas wasn’t sure what all this activity was all about! But he was definitely curious about the lights.

Will has played with the “tivity” every day this December. He prefers to set it up on stairs and then yell whenever anybody goes up or down “don’t step on my tivity!”

Thomas has surprisingly not gotten into to much trouble with the Christmas tree. Just once have I caught him playing with an ornament he took off the tree.

We didn’t get most of our Christmas decorations out this year but we did decorate the mantel.

Merry Christmas!

Since Will’s first Christmas we have gone back and forth on whether we would “do” Santa at our house or not. And 3 years later I think we’ve come to a solution that will work for our family. It really couldn’t wait much longer since Will is old enough to understand most things!

The short answer is: We don’t do Santa. But, it’s really not as simple as that (nothing ever is)! I hope I am able to describe how we feel in a clear and meaningful way.

Advent: During the Christmas season we strive to put as much emphasis on Christ as possible. For that reason, we celebrate Advent in our home each year. We read Scripture each night of Advent that tells the entire story of Christ from the beginning of the world to His return as Savior & King. We hope that Advent will become a treasured tradition for our boys and not simply a countdown to Christmas.

Gifts: We want to teach our children that we give gifts (to our family, friends & others) at Christmastime to celebrate the gifts that God has given us. We want them to be generous towards others and not just in December but year round and Christmastime has lots of opportunities to pick presents for other children, donate food, or send gifts around the world through Compassion, World Vision, etc.

If we stop to think about all the gifts that God has given us, I think we would describe those as lavish. God’s love for us is lavish – he held nothing back not even the life of his only Son. In that way, the gifts that we give our children may be lavish. Or if you prefer, we are probably going to spoil our kids at Christmas! This does not mean that we are going to buy things that we cannot afford.

Santa: If we don’t “do” Santa what does that mean exactly? We’re not 100% sure but this is what we think it will look like.

The gifts our kids receive at Christmas will be from us.

We won’t use Santa as a discipline technique – “You better be good or Santa won’t bring you any presents.”  One, we don’t want to give our authority as parents away to anything. Our kids should (or suffer the consequences) obey us because we’re they’re parents. Two, if we give gifts as a representative of God’s gifts to us – God does not withhold the ultimate gift of salvation because we aren’t good. Thank goodness, salvation is by grace alone and not because of anything we do or don’t do!

As our kids get older, we will explain why people celebrate Christmas with Santa by telling them about the real St. Nicholas and how generous and giving he was.

We’ll still get our kids picture made with Santa because it’s fun!. We are definitely not “bah-humbug” about Santa but feel like this is best for our family. So, what do you do at your house?