Sam's First Birthday Party

Sam's 1st birthday party was such a happy time.  

Happy, happy, happy.

We had a wonderful amount of family that flew in to be with us for the celebration...the Franklin side (Grandpa Mark, Grandi, and Aunt Mallory), and the Brandsted side (Papa, Pamma, Uncle Jeff, and Miss Laura) both had great representation.  That in itself meant SO much, because it is not cheap to fly here, and it was a very quick and busy weekend.  We were so grateful.  Sam did have a pretty awful double ear infection with fever that started March 7th....I can tell in all of the pictures that he doesn't feel well....but the presence of so much family seemed to help him forget.

We were able to have a nice amount of family time.  We went out to eat one night, stayed in with carry-out Olive Garden another, and opened presents non-stop.  All of the attention was on our little guy, and it just made my heart smile to have so many people in our house that were there to love on our kiddo.

We had also planned a party so that our Air Force family could help us celebrate, too.   So many of the active duty members and their spouses treat Sam like their own child, so there were plenty of people excited about his one year milestone.   I knew long ago that I wanted to do a chevron print party....so I had lots of fun in the months leading up to this weekend.  Here is one big picture drop that captured the weekend.  They're a little out of order, but you get the idea.  :)