Our Baby Turned One!

Grant turned 1 on Friday, April 5th. It really is crazy how quickly a year can pass.

Grant is all boy! He's physical, busy, loud, stubborn, curious, sweet and sensitive. On his birthday he was probably taking about 8-10 steps at once, but was still crawling to get around. He tries my patience and makes me laugh every day. He still loves to be around us, especially his big sis, but he is also doing better playing on his own and entertaining himself.

Grant Robert @ 12 Months

Measurements: At his appointment he weighed 20 pounds - 28% and measured 31.5 inches - 96%. I was really hoping he would be at least 20 lbs so we could put him in his forward facing car seat and he made it! He doesn't like the car so I am hoping facing forward will help. He had shoes on when he got measured so I have a feeling he isn't quite as tall as they reported, but he is still definitely a long skinny guy! He got two shots and an oral vaccine and he was so mad, poor guy. Doc says he looks great, is doing everything he should and isn't concerned about his weight as long as he stays over 25% so we will just keep loading him up with food!

• Wearing 12-18 month clothing, size 4 diapers and size 4 shoes
• In the last week has really gotten the hang of walking and only crawls a little
• Loves baths, showers, being outside, playing ball, playing with Payton
• Says mama, dada, dog, ball, uh oh, more, book, whoa, grandpa, papa, nana, no, bottle
• Signs more, all done, doesn't seem too interested in learning any more which is a bummer because he tends to scream until he gets what he wants
• Waves hi and bye
• Not sleeping well at night, cries and moans on and off every couple of hours, we don't have to go in, but it wakes us up. We are hoping it's teething and will pass soon.
• Still napping twice, but his morning nap seems to be getting shorter each day so maybe he will transition to one soon which is ok with me. 2 naps can be really hard to work around.
• Has 3 teeth in on the bottom and about 5 or so working their way in on the top
• LOVES to eat and will eat anything we put in front of him as long as it doesn't resemble baby food. He will still eat the pouches on the go though. Is not liking milk from a cup, but we keep giving it to him. Still getting a bottle of milk morning and night, but we are slowly decreasing the amount so I'm sure in the next couple weeks he will be done. I was hesitant to cut him off right at one since his weight was a little low.
• Still has his pacifier, but working on cutting that down to bed and car which he seems ok with, with his teeth all coming in at once it does calm him down
• He is big on imitating anything we do, likes to hide and be chased and still never stops moving!

 I heard someone say recently that when you have kids the days are long, but the years are short and that rings true for our family these days. With the kids having birthdays just a day apart I found myself reflecting over our life and events of the last three years and it just blows me away. I am so incredibly thankful to have two healthy, beautiful children who we love so much!

Kelsey's Baby Shower

On Saturday April 13th my mom and I threw Kelsey her baby shower. I really enjoyed planning all the little details that I hoped Kelsey would love. Little Liam's nursery is grey and a light bluish teal color so we ran with that as our theme for the shower. My goal was for it to be elegantly cute. I think we accomplished it. My dear friend Brittnie designed the invitations for us and in record time. So thankful for her talent and willingness to help on short notice!

We made oreo balls, a cheater version of cake pops, as I had heard cake pops are really hard and time consuming. They have 3 ingredients, oreos, cream cheese, and melted chocolate chips for the frosting. I was really happy with how easy they were to make. We did learn that melted white chocolate plus food dye equals instant play dough, Sarah and Kole and I had some laughs and Kole had to make a late night grocery store run for white icing!

Kelsey's friend Stephanie made the cutest diaper cake that made for great decoration!

We had onesie cookies made at a local bakery that turned out great and even tasted good

We planned it at my mom's house in hopes that the weather would cooperate so we could take advantage of her deck and gorgeous view. April weather, especially if I am throwing the party, is completely unpredictable, but we got lucky! It was dry and nice enough for us to be outside which I was so thankful for.

My mom was in charge of flowers and when she went to the florist to have them arranged it happened to be prom weekend and every florist was completely booked. She ended up having to arrange them herself, which was very stressful for her, but she did a beautiful job!

The shower started at 4 in the afternoon so we served light appetizers

Mom made a sparkling blue punch that was pregnancy friendly

Kels is not one for cheesy shower games so we just had little paper onesies for everyone to write her a little note and hung them on a clothes line for everyone to enjoy. We also had a little celebrity baby matching activity to fill out while she was opening her gifts. We had Starbucks gift cards for the 3 that got the most correct. Kelsey's friend Monica got all 14 correct, I was pretty shocked.

Kelsey (and Josh and Liam) got a lot of great things she needed and several gift cards to put towards everything else.

Our friend Sarah, who moved away to the East coast, came back to help celebrate. She came in a couple days before to visit and I put her to work, poor girl. I don't know what I would have done without her help. We had a great visit and I was able to get everything done. Oh how we miss she and her hubby Mike.

Kelsey and Josh have done so much for us since we have had our kids and are such a wonderful Aunt and Uncle that I couldn't wait to celebrate her having her first little one. It was so great to plan it with my mom and get to enjoy watching her reactions and getting to visit and be "showered" on by her closest friends. We missed friends and family that couldn't be there, but hope they enjoy the pictures.

To my beautiful little sister: I hope you felt the love we all have for you and your sweet family and I can't wait to journey through this crazy, wonderful phase of raising children together. Love you!

Birthday Party!

Happy Birthday to my sweet babes!

This post is picture overload so I'll keep it short. We celebrated the kids' birthdays together this year, a tradition that will be the case for many years to come around here. It happened to be on Saturday April 6th, on Payton's actual birthday and we lucked out with decent weather. It was a little cool and windy at times, but it was dry and warm enough to be outside which made my day! We rented a bounce castle again, had food, drinks and cake and invited our family and friends to come celebrate with us.

The party went great and we were extremely thankful to have Kole's parents, brother and Grandma in town to help us get ready and to be here to celebrate with us!

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Grant just wanted to play with the fire on top of his cake so we quickly blew it out and let him have a piece.

Enjoying a solo pajama jump session when the castle was first set up. They leave it all day which is a nice treat.

I wish I was more crafty and creative, but it's just not my strength. I do love making their parties colorful though.

Loves her Uncle Josh!

Grant really liked playing with the balloons

Dressed in their party best, but no way mom was going to get a picture of them both looking at the camera at the same time.

Getting as much special Aunt time in before she has to share with her new cousin

Nana took one for the team and crawled into the bounce castle so Grant could join in on the fun. He had no fear and had a ball

He loved the cake! We had to laugh because later in the afternoon when we put him down for a nap we could hear him bouncing in his bed and he managed to get the monitor off the night stand and proceeded to bang it repeatedly against his crib. I think it took him over an hour to wind down and fall asleep and then he only slept 30 minutes. We decided cake would not be part of Grant's daily diet, but it was fun to watch him enjoy it :)

Purple is Payton's favorite color at the moment so a purple cake it was

The kids may not always love that their birthdays are a day a part, but I have to say I love getting to celebrate them at the same time, it just makes for a really happy, sentimental couple of days at our house!

I'll do a separate individual post for the details on each kiddo

Happy 3rd and 1st birthdays to our sweet little ones, we love you so much!!