Austin's Birthday Party

December 18th marked an awesome event - the 1st birthday of Austin, our friends' (Shelly and Ramsey) wonder baby.  Why wonder baby, you might ask?  Well, it was one year ago that the little guy was born way prematurely, and he's trudged through this past year like a champ!  Shelly and Ramsey had a little party for him on the 19th, and we were lucky enough to attend.  Nicky had a great time helping Austin open his presents...

Not to mention playing with the new toys...

...I guess since Nicky didn't really have many toys to play with when he was a little tyke at the orphanage (much less super-cool ones that light up and make noise), he's super-interested in toys geared towards the little ones now.  Hey, as long as he's entertained and happy, we're happy - he can play with a one-year-old's toy until he's blue in the face!  Speaking of - the intent he showed while trying to figure out each toy was quite impressive.  He furrowed his brow and got lost in his own thoughts and barely paid attention to the commotion going on around him.

Here's Nicky's new "fake smile"...

Daddy was calling his name and he thought it was because we wanted to take yet another picture of him (apparently we take quite a few?).  What Daddy really wanted, was for Nicky to back up a bit, as he was getting all up in Austin and Shelly's grill while they were trying to open the presents. 

We all sang 'happy birthday' to Austin, then he half-heartedly dug into some yummy jello-jigglers with whip cream on top. 

After sharing some ice cream with Daddy, we decided we better take Nicky home - it was past his nap-time and he was starting to peter out a bit (that's kinda fun to say..."peter out"!). 

Thank you for sharing your birthday with us, Austin, and cheers to many more!!!