Today is all about denial.

I am in denial that I will be 29 this year.  I am in denial that BB is so grown up lately.  I am in denial that my mom might be moving away, and that my baby brother is getting married.

I am in denial that my baby is 1 today.

I find it so ironic that our boys couldn’t be more opposite.  I always said this about Nate and his brothers, I just couldn’t understand how 4 boys who grew up in the SAME house with the SAME parents could be SO different!  Ben is the lawyer, the analyst.  Nate is the giver, the builder, the rock.  Dennis is the teacher, the philanthropist.  And Mike is the thinker and the quiet one.  All wonderful qualities, with the same set of values.

Nolan is laid back, LOUD, and carefree.  He does things on HIS time.  (I should have known that would be the case from the beginning!)  While Brayden is organized and structured, and always ahead of his time.  The best example is the train table.  They both love trains.  For 2 years, our train table has set in the toy room exactly how the picture shows it.  That is how Brayden likes his things, neat and organized - where it belongs.  Don’t move it to the left because he will know, and he will hate it.  Because he hates change.  Well, his baby brother is now mobile, and the train table will never be the same.  I am finding pieces of track upstairs, in his highchair, and in laundry baskets.  It makes BB a nervous wreck.  Big brother is just like his mama, and has a lot to learn about patience and not getting things his way all the time!  I see so much of Nate in Nolan and me in Brayden that it is exciting and scary!

Exactly 1 year ago today, I did the most empowering thing a woman could ever do.  I wanted to do the absolute best thing I could for my baby the second time around.  The baby I prayed for every day for 2 years.  Little did we know, God had a plan for Nolan.  A plan for our family.  And we are so blessed and grateful, no matter how difficult the road was to his arrival.

He has brought so much joy to our lives.  I love you Nolan Jude, and I am SO PROUD and blessed to be your mama.

Here are a series of photo collages from your first year!

And oh yea, Happy Birthday to Nate! Without you, my precious baby would obviously not be possible   And thank you for turning 29 before me!  In all seriousness, he jokes that he will never have a birthday ever again, but I say it just makes every one from now on a 1,000,000,000x more special.

Happy Birthday to my boys!