Party #1

I have a confession. I am not a Pinterest Mom. And I probably never will be. And I've decided that there are worse things in the world. I had pictures in my mind of what Grant's birthday party this year would look like and, in my mind, it looked just like pictures I've seen on Pinterest. But alas, in real life, it didn't. And I think we all managed to have a good time anyway.

On the 10th we had a combined party for Josh, Grant, and my niece Audrey. There was also supposed to be sledding involved, but for the first time in the history of the world, there wasn't enough snow in Utah in January to sled, so we made due without.

 My parents put together this racing game, and everyone got to keep their cars at the end.

 We had plenty of little hands to help Grant open his presents.

 And even some to help Josh.

 The theme was technically supposed to be "balls," and while I told my family that I wanted the house to "throw up balls" on them, no one could even guess what the theme. 

Part of the problem was that I ran out of time to do a couple of the last minute touches that I wanted to. Another problem was that my first time ever trying to make cake pops was an. epic. fail.

 Grant may be a pyromaniac in the making. 

 He helped blow out his candles, but he definitely wouldn't have been able to do without a little help.

 A piece just the right size that he could pick the whole thing up.

 My mom got a balloon for each of the kids, and they were obviously a hit.

 I loved watching all the kids mesmerized-looking up at their balloons in amazement.

One party down. Two more to go.

1 Year, 12 Months, 52 Weeks, 365 Days, 8,760 Hours, 525,600 Minutes, 31,536,000 Seconds

Against all odds, our little boy made it through 12 months. To be honest, there was probably never really a question whether or not he would survive. My sanity on the other hand? 

No comment. The jury is still out on that one.

It's a strange phenomenon when the hours in a day seem so long, but somehow the year went by really fast. And I can't really remember what life was like without our very sweet toddler. But at the same time, it's seems like he was just barely this...

This year has been anything but smooth sailing. We have absolutely had our ups and downs, but I'm feeling really good about where we are right now, and this is the year that I've been waiting for. One of my very favorite stages with kids is when they learn to walk and talk, and you start to see more of their little personalities.

I tried to take some one year pictures of Grant. Honestly, they are not great, and I may try again soon. But I still love every single one of them because they remind me so much of this little boy that stole my heart.

Grant is getting seriously fun. He's not walking but if he has a destination in mind, he can take 6-8 steps, and he's getting to where he really wants to be walking, so he always takes a couple steps before falling back down and crawling. He's close.

My favorite trick of his right now, is that he tries to blow out the lights. I mentioned that he helped us blow out our Christmas candle in December, then he had his birthday, so now, every time he sees a light he tries to blow it out. And my humoring him is probably not helping. I just stand by the light switch and let him blow the light off... and on... and off... and on...
And I would be totally fine with this phase lasting till like kindergarten. Let his teacher explain the truth to him.

He's had a hiccup in sleeping. I think it started when he was sick. Before that, he would sleep through the night most of the time, but occasionally wake up. We'd give him a bottle and he'd go right back to sleep. Around the time that he was sick, he started waking up during the night probably about 3 times a week. Now I feel like we're back to square one in a lot of ways. The last week or so, he's gotten up at least 2 times a night, and there's been a few times that we can't get him back to sleep. Ugh... I am not cool when I'm sleep deprived. Someday this will all be a faint memory. Anyone remember potty training?

He also is in a mommy phase right now (for about the last 6 months or so) which I would be fine with skipping as well. If I had nothing else to do all day, I would love to just sit and play with him, and he would probably love it too. Sadly, I have to make dinner, and clean my house, and work, and entertain and 4 year old and...

But, like I said, all the cuteness makes up for it... most of the time.

As far as growth:
He's 24 pounds which is the 71st percentile. (Our poor little boy is wasting away!)
But he is still 32 inches, which is the 97th percentile.

New Year

For New Year's Eve, we didn't have any huge plans but Josh and, brother Nick and his family, and my parents had a party. Since the kids have to go to bed before the New Year actually strikes, I didn't want them to miss out completely. So we had party hats, necklaces, party poppers, and noise makers. Then we used a video that was on Netflix to fake your kids out that it was the New Year. After the kids went to bed, we got to stay up and play games.

I think this year will be a good one!