Ezra invited some of his closest friends over for the official 1 year birthday celebration on Sunday afternoon. The event was held at his grandparents house in Castle Rock, and the weather held out just fine for the whole party (even though there were 5 tornados that hit the ground in the Denver metro area, including one that prevented someone from coming to the party when it hit his building and the one next to his). Partygoers enjoyed beer, veggie burgers, and cake while Ezra enjoyed the partygoers. Thanks everyone for coming, and thanks everyone for all of your well wishes, thoughts, gifts, and calls.

It’s strange how everything that we will do now is for the second time with Ezra. This past year has been one full of the highest of highs, and sprinkled with the lowest of lows. Personally, I am surprised at the emotion that has come with looking and thinking back at the last year…I suppose that’s nostalgia – even if for the short period of time. Ahna and I have done our very best to make sure that we are cherishing every moment, every cry, every smile, every new step; but it all still seems to be flying by. Ezra has become an amazing boy – so much fun to have around…we can’t wait to see what the next 12 months hold!

I am not actually awake at the time that this post goes live, but I set it to hit the blog at 3:13am – to mark the exact moment that Ezra was born last June. There are so many emotions tied to this moment that I don’t think either of us expected to feel, and we will probably try to address some of them during a later post; but for now…the picture with Ahna is the first picture of Ezra ever taken, and the one with me is just a few minutes later.

As we made the switch to the new phones, I pulled off some photos from the old phone that were trapped in the digi-camera-phone world.

Ezra had the opportunity to celebrate his birthday with the Family Dinner crowd on Thursday night. It was our turn to host, so we decided to have a little private celebration with Tori, Mary, Jennifer, and Charlotte (Hafner wasn’t able to make it due to work, but plans are in the works for something this upcoming week with her). Ezra was serenaded to Happy Birthday, while the lit cupcake was brought out…and he had this priceless look of confusion and awe on his face (see big picture below). He enjoyed some of the frosting – which we promptly took away since it was bedtime, and then opened up some great gifts. Books, a cd, and some finger puppets….lots of fun to be had.

Yes, it appears that Ezra is taking after his Mom Dad in his never ending hunt to live in front of a computer. It’s hard to believe that when we grew up, it was the Apple 2E+, then eventually a mouse was added, then eventually….well, you know. Now, at 11 months, Ezra already knows to go to the computer, grab the mouse, and look for the little thing moving on the screen. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before he takes over the blog.