And here are the long awaited birthday pictures...

Here's the birthday layout - kind of a unisex theme. Teddy Bears.

Luke had a difficult time with all the family around and he just couldn't calm down, honestly, he was hysterical... until he got his hands on the "magic water" aka soda. (And no, I do not give them soda regularly, only special occasions.)

Although she was a little worried about Luke's hysteria, Ella seemed to enjoy herself. Neither one of them really ate the cake, they just mashed it around, and smeared it on themselves - enough so that they both needed outfit changes.

We're not big scrapbookers around here, so in leiu of that, Jenn made a photo book on the computer of the kids' first year. We ordered one for each of them. The grandparents seemed to enjoy it more though.

After a while, both kids loosened up and had a great time with all their family.

Per 1st Birthday protocol, they even showed off and practiced taking a few steps.

A few days later on their real birthday, we had another birthday party via video chat with my family in Arizona. This time Luke really got into his cake. All-in-all, I'd say the one-year-olds couldn't have been happier with the birthday celebrations. They had a wonderful time!