Juju's 5th birthday

our baby is FIVE!

he wanted a pirate birthday to go with his halloween costume

cutest pirate!!

ready for a treasure hunt

jude is so special

he is so smart, super funny and a little bit fiesty

jude is THREE!!

 my baby is three! i can hardly believe it

talk about bittersweet

 we decided on a cookie monster theme and i made this cake and cookies for it

 jude slept in so the other kids were gone

and we had the nicest morning together

i made him eggs and he had picked chocolate milk out at costco beforehand for his birthday

 we borrowed a bounce house from our friends and jude loved waking up to it

 love this boy

 we went to chick fil a for his birthday lunch

because it's his favorite and he asks to go all the time

 hazel had a district cross country meet so we grabbed mcdonalds on the way home

because every time i asked him what he wanted he said "burgers"

 we loved celebrating our boy

jude is sweet and funny

and calm and clever

and we love him so much

jude's first birthday!

can you believe this sweet little baby is a whole year old?!

 i won't sugar coat it, this has been a really hard year! i am so happy we have jude but having six kids has been harder than anticipated (especially henry!)

but it's been a year of growing, lowering expectations an trying to focus on the good

and while this year has been SO hard, some of my very best moments have been with jude

cuddling, nursing and playing with him

he is one sweet baby

  had to get a nursing pic on his birthday

who knows how much longer this will go on, and he's my last baby!

but if he doesn't stop biting...

i love the way he grabs his ears when he's sleepy

and just for the record he has been the BEST nurser 

and our year of nursing was the best of all the kids

 it was so fun celebrating jude

we went out to lunch with michael

and despite it being a crazy day with 4 kids' teacher conferences and ballet

we had a yellow party for our little sunshine baby

i don't think he's used to having so many eyes on him at once because he looked a little uncomfortable when we sang to him 

 eleanor volunteered to blow out his candle

at first he kept pushing his cake away

 the rest of us were having ice cream cake but everyone wanted a taste of his

 first birthday sink bath

 mommy loves you jude!

jude at a year old is sweet and cuddly and mild

he doesn't walk yet but he is a master crawler and occasionally stands unassisted

he cruises along the furniture all the time

loves all food, still nurses a lot, loves his mama and is adored by everyone

he waves and says bye, says "ma, ma" for more

happy birthday, baby