Christian's First Birthday - Part 1

For Christian's 1st Birthday we decided to just keep it low-key and have a family birthday party. Since our family is HUGE and we didn't know what to expect with the weather, Jared and I decided to break up the parties. A small party with just my immediate family, and then a second party up at Jared's mom's house a week later (when my sister in law Jen and four of her kids were in town). It was a little hectic and so I am not sure that we will do it this way again, but we really did have such a wonderful time!

Dad and Aunt Bethany with the Birthday Boy waiting for his special dinner. We made delicious spaghetti, my parents made a fresh salad and Beth brought DELICIOUS cheesy-garlic bread.

Here's CJ playing with his ball

My parents got Elaine a gift to open too so that she wouldn't freak out when Christian was opening his. It worked like a charm!

This is a little turtle that makes noise and teaches kids their numbers and letters. It was an instant hit!

He got tons of great books from my parents and Brooke and Beth.

Aunt Brooke got him a nice green frog shirt which is hiding in the bottom corner of the picture. I have no idea what I am doing in this picture, but please ignore the cleavage ;)

This has to be the best gift of the night. Aunt Bethy got him his very own TV REMOTE! He loves playing with, and losing, ours, so I am so happy he has his own that we can distract him with.

Here's another winner from the night....the BOX that the slide was in :)

And here's a picture of our little family!

I cannot believe that I had NO pictures of Christian with his first birthday cake! I know we took video, so maybe I will have to load part of that. The short story is that although he liked the cake, he liked being FED the cake more. He got really cranky when we put him on the table to play with it, but if Jared was giving him bites...oh man, he could not get enough! I am so grateful for my family and their generosity and willingness to celebrate such a great day for my little boy.

He Can Walk!

Well, here is the proof...He Can Walk! Thanks to my friend Makana for posting the site to make your pictures move - totally awesome :) Any way, he has been walking since the middle of February and is zooming all of the place. His balance is getting better everyday and he is working on being able to stand up on his own. Right now, if he does fall, he has to crawl over to a chair, couch, leg, etc...to help pull himself up! These pictures are from the very beginning, when he was still a little wobbly. Now he walks about 99% of the time, and he is giving me a run for my money. He is BUSY and determined, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's another picture, just because I couldn't resist :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know that Valentine's Day is a thing of the past, but please forgive my need to go over it anyway. This Valentine's Day, Jared and I decided to do something that we have never done before...plan something AND buy each other gifts! Crazy, right? I started off the night before Valentine's Day with something fun. I made a sign that said "Will You Be My Valentine?" (in the style of Scrabble letters of course!) and then I tied string through it and around Christian's waist. I may or may not have gotten the idea from someone who did it to their pet...don't judge! Any way, so I tied it around his waist and I had him crawl out to Jared. It was really cute and super funny. Luckily, Jared said yes!

Afterward, I went on a walk with my friend Emily, and when I came home, there was a single red rose on the bed and a gift card! On the note it said, "Since you started early, I thought I would to". It was really cute! Needless to say, I thought that was the end of the gift-giving from Jared. Boy was I wrong! When I got to work the next morning, there were two more roses on my keyboard and ANOTHER gift card! He had asked a co-worker of mine to bring it in before I got there so it would be waiting! How sweet is that? All in all I ended up with two gift cards, 6 roses and a beautiful card. I got Jared a spa package for a 90 minute couples massage - which he LOVED.

For our date we actually coordinated with two other couples in our ward to do a Progressive Dinner. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, basically you have appetizers at one person's house, hop in the car and have dinner at another person's house and then do the same thing for dessert! Elena and Cameron were in charge of appetizers and it was delicious! There were pizza rolls, spinach artichoke dip, buffalo wings and jalapeno poppers....all homemade and all absolutely delicious! We then went to Emily and Soni's house where we had a pork roast and salad which was to die for. At my house, we came back and had homemade p'zookies! All in all, it was an absolutely delicious meal and a fun night with some of the people that I love the most. Oh, and a shout-out to my parents who watched Christian so we could enjoy our night - they are the best!

11 Months

So...I know that it is just a few days before Christian turns 1, and I want to get this post in before the 11 month milestones are lost forever!

The fact of the matter is...my baby is growing up! He doesn't even look like a baby anymore. :( During the past month he not only became a super fast and proficient crawler, he also learned to walk and he is zooming all over the place...and he's FAST. He is still pretty wobbly sometimes (usually when he is tired) and I may or may not refer to him as a drunk baby when he walks sometimes, but the fact is that he is walking pretty much all the time. I am excited and so proud of him, buuuuuuut I was not looking forward to the walking stage and I was right to be worried. He is everywhere and into everything. His new favorite activities are:
-Pulling every single DVD we own off the shelf
-Unfolding all of the laundry as mom is folding it
-Pulling all the Tupperware out of the cabinets
-Throwing all of his cheerios, goldfish, string cheese, all over the floor and screaming
-Stomping his feet and screaming when we don't give him something that we are eating
-Chasing the cat

-Sitting on my niece Elaine
-Laughing at himself in the mirror as he is hitting it with a toy...you get the picture

Does he sound like a toddler? Because sometimes I swear he thinks he's going to be 2, not 1. Okay so that is all of the crazy stuff he's doing that drives me nuts! He also is still the sweet, smiley, laughing, babbling boy you all remember. He cuddles with me and says over and over "mamamamamamamamama". He is starting to say "dada" and he loves to say "bubba", which is what we call him the majority of the time. He is super happy in the mornings and will usually bounce in his crib and make funny noises. He also likes to screech and then laugh at himself. He will eat anything we put in front of him, which definitely makes life easier. Basically he is just a happy, easy going boy who is looking for new adventures all the time. When I am home I spend basically every minute we are together absolutely smothering the poor boy! I am so blessed to have such a sweet little boy and I am so excited to celebrate his first birthday this week!