Ernie's First Birthday!

We had a small birthday celebration for Ernie Boy a few weeks back.  It was a splash themed party.  So much fun!  These cute invites were designed by Auntie Britta with Snail Mail Designs.  Doesn't she do great work?  I highly recommend them for any occasion you may have :).   

I still am coming to grips with the reality that Earnest is one. It seems like just yesterday we were driving him carefully home from the hospital and welcoming him into our life.  What joy this child has brought his parents!

 This was Ernie helping with the decor before the festivities began :).  

 Auntie Britta also made this amazing watermelon shark.  It was awesome.

 Mom made these delicious blueberry cheesecake cupcakes and Auntie Teenie made all of the sails.  I love how they turned out!

 I hung month by month photos of Ernie to show how our boy has grown oh so much.

 Here's the Birthday Boy looking so sweet.

 His favorite place is on papa's shoulders.

 Meet Little Miss Lainey.  We may have to arrange a marriage in 25 years :).

 He didn't quite know what to think about opening gifts.  He was very interested in some of the packaging.

 This was another gift from Auntie Britta at Snail Mail Designs.  It is a beautiful print of Psalm 63, the Psalm that inspired Earnest's name.  We pray these words would be truth for him!

 Auntie Beth handmade this seasonal book!  There are so many fun activities for tiny hands...buttoning on flowers, putting velcro apples in a basket, dressing a felt boy for the winter weather, just to name a few.  What crafty people we have in our family!

 Time for cake.

 He dipped one little finger into his cupcake and licked it.  He then clapped to show his approval.  That trend continued on for awhile.  Our boy doesn't really like to get messy!

 So, daddy had to show him how it was done!

A special thank you to our family for making this day so special.  Thank you for all of the hands that prepared the delicious food, decorated with beautiful details, and made Earnest's first birthday a big splash!

*Thank you Auntie Teenie for taking the majority of these photos!

One For My Son

A guest blog entry by Joshua Jacobs

This weeks' end was marked by a wonderful day spent with my family celebrating the first birthday of my son. Looking at these pictures, it's hard for me to believe it has been one year since we placed Earnest in a brand new car seat carrier and brought him home from the hospital. He feels more like he's ours now, a year later, than he did leaving Abbot Northwestern that day. Sometimes I think about how much I love him and what a joy it is to bless him and look out for his best interest.  But I also have to remind myself that this little guy belongs to the LORD, and that this is a glorious thing.

His plans and love for him go much deeper and are more sure and steadfast than than mine...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."


(Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV)   I'm thankful for this reality because it makes me be a better father. I know my role is both temporary and delegated, so although there is much grace, the pressure is on to... "Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it."
  (Proverbs 22:6 ESV)

Every single day I'm blown away to see him grow both physically and as a unique personality, as a soul. He is making me laugh more and more lately with faces like these.

We have bonded a lot over the last few months and it's been increasingly hard to leave for work in the mornings with him clinging to my shoulders and looking at me with this big blue eyes as if to say, "don't go yet daddy, let's play or just hang out!" He is so fun that I find myself not doing a whole lot with my free time on the weekends besides being a dad.

He can say "Dada" and "Mama" well these days but his favorite word is "ball". Anything round, oval, or even remotely resembling a sphere is a - you guessed it - "BALL!" As a lover of all sports involving a ball myself, I can't deny that this rarely gets old. I'm proud of my boy.

Beyond a handful of words, Ernie has mastered a few sounds and has his own renditions of some too. Everything with wheels and that sounds like it may have an engine gets a lip jiggling "vroom" noise. Any animal resembling a dog, in real life or animated, including a bear gets a muffled and nasally "roof...roof." The funniest of all is his cat noise, which in his attempt to duplicate a "meow," just sounds like faint little whimper. For the longest time Jen and I just thought his teeth or something else was bothering him. Nope, just seeing cats. It's fun to watch him explore and interpret a brand new world.

How old is Ernie? That's right, we had a week to try and teach him this new hand signal and he nailed it today for a timely photo opp. I'm thankful for my wife who is constantly teaching him. When I get home from work each day, it's obvious that he is learning from the best. Yet another reason I'm even more in love with her now than when we first met. Thanks for being a great wife and mother and for the invitation to document Ernie's big day on your blog.

-Josh