Our first family Easter!

 

The celebrating never ends!

Following Tristan's sugar coma nap, we had what felt like a 2nd party!

Eric's brother- who lives in Olympia with his wife and son (8 months older than Tristan) were in town and came over to see the Birthday boy and so did Dad and Connie! (and Kendra!)

It was an enjoyable but chaotic evening of BBQ and babies. Kendra and Hailey (our 2 flower girls) were reunited and very excited to play with each other, and all the kids were running around playing/fighting over all of the toys. It reminded me of what it must have felt like for Dad and Connie during Christmas when we were all younger. It was the 1st time ever, that we have had all of the cousins on Eric's side since Alaina's arrival in the same place at the same time. We tried to get a normal picture to send to Papa but I guess these are the best we got:

I was truly impressed with how well Tristan handled his guests. He was lovin' all the attention! I felt like I didn't even get to see my little birthday boy!

Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night!

We survived! But more importantly, so did Tristan

Welp. I have a 1 year old. 

His party went great! So glad we were able to share with so many friends and family. AND to top it off, it was the FIRST day of the year that got higher than 60!! The weather was AMAZING! I couldn't have been happier.

Little Man's Cookie Monster cupcakes!

Our Cookies & Milk table

AWESOME Gift! So excited to test this out this summer!

Opening up new presents!

First Candle!

And with no hesitation whatsoever...our little One year old dug into his very first cake.

He would have eaten the whole thing had we let him...


Towards the end, I thought he might actually throw up so we cut him off, immediately took him to the tub to be hosed off and put him down for his nap. Even with all those people in our house, he was ready!

It was a great day that I will never forget! Thank you to everyone who came and to everyone who has been apart of our lives this last year! We could not be more thankful for all of you :)

Helping the Easter bunny with his tasks!

On Tuesday, JayC and her kids came over for some Easter egg coloring fun.

While we hardboiled the eggs, we forced the older kids to play outside-- yes, we had to force them. Whenever it's nice outside, I make Hailey draw on my driveway with sidewalk chalk. I love the look of sidewalk chalk. It brightens my day. I just hate to touch chalk, so I make little kids do it for me :) So Hailey comes in and I ask her what she drew and she tells me ' I wrote I LOVE TRISTAN AND ERIC'-- so i say 'WHAT ABOUT ME?!' and she says 'Oh! I forgot!' LOL.

Tristan was down for a nap during all the festivities, but that's okay. I made one for him this year. Next year he can color his own eggs!

Hope you all enjoy your Easter! We are going to have such a busy weekend celebrating Tristan's Birthday and Easter, and also remembering his Grandma Harmony. I'm excited to see what the weekend holds and ready for some action! -- let's just skip Thursday and Friday and get to it! Okay fine, I just really want some good food :)

Mr. Tough Guy :)

One week away from being 1and he is already Mister Toughguy.

One minute he was laughing and the next- BAM! Darn coffee table, it ALWAYS gets in the way! He let me console him for approximately 20 seconds before he wanted to keep playing.

I can only imagine what our future holds...

Count your blessings!

It's a rare occasion that I feel thankful.
Sad, but true.
Lately, I've been feeling anything but, and it's been getting me down.
I have a laundry list of things that I'd like to improve...

Like, for example:

1. I'd really like Chloe to stop shedding so that I wouldn't have to vacuum every day.
2. I'd love it if my husband got a dayshift so we could pretend to be somewhat normal.
3. I'd like for all the pesky pregnancy symptoms to go away so I can be one of those "Glowing Pregnant" women.
4. I wish the dishes would just do themselves! There are only 3 people that use dishes in this house, how am I doing dishes twice a day??
5. It would be nice if someone would come furnish and decorate my home exactly the way I want, for free...

...the list goes on...

but there are two things in this world that I wouldn't change for all the money or pretty things in the world.

I am so thankful for these boys in my life!!

I have lots of friends who can't get their partners to change a diaper, let alone feed the baby, and you can forget getting up in the middle of the night; I have been lucky enough to have a husband who does all of these things on top of working 60+hours each week and still finds time to play with Tristan, or change his wet sheets in the middle of the night, or make me a sandwich...and usually, without a word of complaint!

Even if I am having the worst day, just watching the two of them interact makes me less cranky, less tired, and a little more thankful. I love to watch them play. Tristan looks forward to his play time with Daddy each morning. Me too, since I can usually escape for a shower or brush my teeth in peace!

It has been dawning on me that my baby is quickly growing into a toddler, and will soon be a little boy. I realize that someday, I may not be cool and he may not want me to smother him with kisses...but until that day, I am taking full advantage!

There are some things I just love about him that I always want to remember:

He has been experimenting with some new facial expressions- my favorite is 'The Stink Face'. We promise, we have no idea where he got this. He squishes his nose and purses out his lips- hilarious. I will try to get it on video some day. He also has a very 'Serious' look, for times like trying to figure out what the heck this thing is- 'Oh a fork? Let's see if I can try to stab myself in the eye with it'. My all time favorite though is how funny he thinks things are, especially Eric. If Eric even looks at him funny, he busts out laughing (I, on the other hand...am not funny at all). He tries to run when Eric crawls after him, but he is usually laughing too hard to go very fast and then ends up running to the wall and trying to hide there ("Hopefully I can blend into the wall before Dad tickles me!") and then falls to the ground in hopes of army crawling away.

I am thankful that I have had such a happy go lucky baby and such a helpful husband. For the most part, the beginning of motherhood has been bliss. I realize that this will probably not always be the case and I vow to cherish these moments more.

Date Night!

This is what Date Night looks like when you're too poor for a babysitter:

1st Birthday Invitation Making for our One and Only!

It totally pays to be born first.

Eric tracing Cookie Monster's head while watching The Notebook.

(His idea...SERIOUSLY)

Eric with our final project!

This was the first one, and then we realized the Googly Eyes wouldn't stay on so we had to wait till morning to apply the rest of our little Cookie Monster's eyes.

Initially, Eric was getting frustrated with my antics about Tristan's invites. He really wanted to just buy them at the store.

So halfway through invitation making, he tells me "Hey this is actually pretty fun!"

I win! 

Blog envy

I do a lot of blog stalking in my time these days.

I mainly look at people I know and style blogs. I'm ADDICTED to all the blogs on style (mainly home decor and party planning, oh and a million photography blogs) which ironically enough are all written by super creative mommy bloggers. I started noticing that a majority of these women were Mormon and then I got really addicted. I have total blog envy, okay make that- LIFE envy over several different blogs. I don't even know these people and I've bookmarked their blogs for my daily dose of inspiration. I'm such a creeper!

So as usual (if you haven't noticed, most of my blogs tend to be written in the afternoon or really late at night--naptime or bedtime) I was creeping through these blogs today trying to occupy my lonely friday night (Oh if only the baby could stay awake past 10 without crying his eyes out!) and I stumbled upon this woman's blog that I loved so much that I read all the way back to January!

AND THEN!

I found this :

I'm not the only creeper out there!

And now I don't feel so bad.

General Conference, some cake, and a blood bath.

Okay I suppose I should update. I've been so lazy this week, I've been on here hunting for other people's updates but have just been too lazy for my own. Maybe everyone else is feeling the laziness too because the updates were scarce this week!

Anywho, our first General Conference weekend as a family came and went. I didn't dread it as much as I did when I was younger. In fact, I was actually welcoming a weekend glued to the TV. We decided to relax and catch up on laundry while we watched. Best idea ever. After the 1st two sessions, I passed out and woke up with an intense cake craving. So while Eric went to his priesthood session, I went to JayC's to make some cake. I was a little jealous that I didn't get a special session b/c Eric seemed to love it so much but it's okay. I have my cake.

It's weird how much things change when you become a parent. This was the first General Conference I have watched in years. I found myself actually craving the words before they were even spoken. I felt like I could use a little inspiration. What a way to gain some inspiration!

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted.... All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable." - Elder Paul V. Johnson

I sure hope this guy is right :)

PS. Tristan totally loved the Mormon Tabernacle choir! He didn't pay attention at all except when they performed!

Once Eric returned, we enjoyed some dinner and some cousin bath time and then at last, we got to enjoy the cake I had been so patiently awaiting. Tristan loves bath time, I literally have to drain the water for him to not panic when I take him out of the bath. It is so interesting to watch my child interact with other babies. He watches his cousin so curiously, and is a little shy at first, but soon they are running around causing mischief, Nate in charge, Tristan trying to keep up. Even if I didn't carry this kid for 9 months, I'd still be able to pick him out of a crowd. (I can be painfully shy in new situations, but I warm up quickly :] ) 

We were invited to another couple in our wards' home for the Sunday morning session and some breakfast. I was pretty excited! I love breakfast, and I love new friends :)  It was an enjoyable way to spend our Sunday. We came home to put Tristan down and to finish up General Conference, but I can't say that Eric and I both made it through the whole session. I fell asleep at some point throughout the 2nd session and woke up to Eric passed out as well. Ooops! We've agreed to re-watch it this weekend :)


THIS WEEK: 
Tristan and I experienced our first blood bath together.
Okay, I'm totally exaggerating. 
Tristan fell and hit his head on the coffee table and produced a little gash.
Nothing some neosporin and a band-aid couldn't fix! 
Super mom, here I come! ;) 
I realized right then and there that I'm totally not cut out to be the parent of a BOY! Why did God do this to me?! I'm going to embarrass my kid if/when he breaks his arm or gets tackled too hard in football because I'll be the one sobbing!

Hopefully God will instill some courage in me, before I reach those horrific moments. 

Rain, Rain, Go away!

Some things that have been going on in my household that I don't know how to handle...

1. Tristan is a little over 11 months old. How did this happen?!
2. He has mastered crawling, rolling, holding his own bottle, drinking from a sippy cup (although not an actual cup yet) and now walking, among other somewhat obnoxious behaviors ( like begging for food and turning the tv on and off, and dumping the dog bowls on the floor, taking silverware out of the dishwasher as I'm trying to load it...etc,etc).

3. He has developed what some may call "a temper tantrum". It's happening all too frequent for me to handle.
4. It appears that Tristan has grown bored with his toys.

Nothing seems to entertain him for longer than a few minutes and I don't really want to spend the money to buy him new toys, although I'm starting to think that might be the solution.. I have thought of things like art activities, although I have been hesitant because I know the paint and crayons will just end up in his mouth. I don't think we're to that stage yet... The weather has been pretty rainy and muddy so any outdoor activities are out as well.

Things we enjoy on a daily basis:

1. Barney. "We" love Barney. But we don't have DVR so we cycle through 4 episodes. So Barney is also limited. Plus I don't want a couch potato for a 1 year old.
2. Bath time. We stay in till we're pruney.
3. Snack times & meal times. Anything involving food.
4. Nap time. I wouldn't say Tristan necessarily enjoys this, but I sure do.

I'm very proud of my little man; he seems like a very alert and active little guy. Maybe a little too active and alert for me to handle at times. Thankfully, I have been taking less cat naps throughout the day and I'm starting to get my energy back, but mostly it still feels like my feet are dragging and I can't keep up.

Also, since we are a one car family and because of Eric's odd hours, since Tristan has been born (so as to establish some kind of sleep pattern for him) we have been confined to the house mostly. There are occasional days where I have the car to run errands or other necessary things, but mostly we stay at home.

These are all daily activities that we frequent. So, for the sake of my sanity and my poor bored child...any suggestions are greatly appreciated.