caught on camera!

utterly thrilled

everton was so psyched and ecstatic for the swings.

1 year birthday and other nonsense

"i'm 24 years old, i'm 24 years old, i'm 24 years old."

"everton is 1 year old, everton is 1 year old, everton is 1 year old."

that's what i have to say to myself after this week.

it's bad enough i have to remind myself every year after my birthday that i am now a year older, but now i have to remind myself that my handsome and sweet baby boy everton is also a year older as well.  but it's gonna freak me out more every year as he gets older rather than how old i'm getting.

i turned 24 years old this week.

i'm still madly in love with my husband and my son everton.

i am still obsessed with THOR, wolverine, and anything MARVEL.  i'm SO FREAKIN pumped for the avengers film.  i'm also obsessed with nail polish and anything about the TITANIC.  and those are my stats.  i won't tell you how much i weigh.  sorryyyyy

as for this poophead's stats, according to his latest doc appointment he's caught up to his weight and height for his age!  he weighs 22.2 lbs and is 29 1/2 in long.  he's right in the 50th percentile.

-he's not walking yet!  but i'm seriously not in a rush for that to happen.  he has taken 2 steps though.  so close!

-he just grew in his bottom front molars

 since we already partied it up last week, our birthday weekend consisted of everton watching me shop with the birthday money i received, i'm an awesome mom i know.  (everyone, go to the city creek mall in slc!  it's amazing!  i think i've gone there every week this month.)  on the day of my birthday i requested to go to joe's crab shack to do some gorging on crab legs.  this is the only photographic evidence taken from my birthday day.

turns out when it's your birthday they make you dress up and yell something absurd as they sing happy birthday to you.  thanks dad for telling them it was my birthday.  thanks oh so much.

my life since giving birth has changed dramatically.  i can't believe it's been a year and how big my everton has gotten.  even though i'm a stay at home mom i have had to make a few sacrifices in becoming a parent.  but those sacrifices are so minor compared to the enormous joy and the love i feel for my baby.  i'm amazed at how much his personality has come through.  he has this beautiful look of concentration on his face as he examines a random object and pokes at every side of it.  he'll take one of our phones and try to place it on the side of his head where he thinks his ears are, when his ears are clearly a few inches farther down.  it's hilarious.  this kid and his faces and his face plants crack me up.  i still freak out everyday thinking how crazy it is that i have a baby and that a part of me is a part of him.  shoo i still freak out thinking how crazy it is that i'm married! life is just shooting by and it needs to slow the freak down.

my parents just left us on friday after being with us for a WHOLE month.  everton and i are a little depressed to see them go (brett not so much), yet it's nice to have the house back to ourselves.  and i've seriously gotten fat while my parents were here.  darn my mom and her huge portion meals 3 times a day.  now i can go back to not eating till 1 in the afternoon and brett and i playing the "idk what do you want for dinner" game when he gets home.  sighhhhhhh i miss my parents already.

good luck to my dad as he drives back east with 5 filipinos and a dog in one van. 

everton's most excellent first birthday

everton was born on the 27th but we celebrated his beautiful first year of life this past saturday.  the weather was in the 80s and it could not have been a more gorgeous day.

i made his banner.

my dad made these lethal diabetic coma inducing cake batter cinnamon rolls.

this was the dessert table.

these are the cake pops i poured my blood, sweat, and tears into, creating the decadent red velvet on the inside.

(thanks to my friend chelsea's blog for helping me to decipher exactly how to make the wretched things, which turned out AMAZING)

everton ate his first little cake with caution after we sang happy birthday to him with tears rolling down my face.  i couldn't believe i was singing happy birthday to my baby.

and he ate it one crumb at a time.

and he tried eating that sugary cake with a fork.

happy birthday week to my sweetheart.

many thanks to those who made the partay happen and to those who came!  especially to my parents who helped make all the freaking good food.

preparation

i am in the process of putting/planning together my baby boy's first birthday party.

i was in denial this whole month of everton turning one that i put off planning his party.  it was seriously only last week when i realized that we planned to have his party THIS SATURDAY.  a week before he actually turns one.  but still, i'm dragging my feet in disbelief.  

but yet, i'm so excited!  everton's been alive for a whole year and we're ready to celebrate.

everton get ready for the party of your sweet baby life.

 

11 months

i am horribly late on updating everton's month by month pics.  i've been so busy hangin with the fam and goin to and fro many different places that i haven't found time to go look for fabric for everton's 11 month background.  up until 7 months i had been using blankets for the backgrounds, and from then on he was getting too big for a lot of his baby blankets and i didn't have as many cute designs.  but i think for this 11 month pic i found the greatest fabric in the entire world.  a MARVEL AVENGERS design.  yup, i bought this fabric mainly for me.

but let's talk about the fact that everton is currently 11 months old.

i only have one more picture to add to the collection.

everton.  stop it.

-in the picture above you can see a bruise under his left eye.  he has a super hard head.

-i think everton is SO CLOSE to walking.  he can stand really well now, for a good few seconds. and he does stick a leg out as if to take a step, but then he face plants.

-he's definitely becoming a chatty charlie.  he can say dadadadadada and has said mamama on just a few occasions.  and he's been panting like a dog lately.  i think he's turning into one.

-he has really cute chubby feet.

he's slowly taking the train leaving baby boulevard to toddler town

he uses his eyes to seduce.

and he drinks his bottle inappropriately.

i meet nienie

while the menfolk (my dad and brett) went to the priesthood session in SLC, my mom, everton, and i wanted to check out the new and massive city creek mall on saturday night.

it took us 2 hours to just browse the bottom level.

when we got to the other side of the mall we ended up at deseret bookstore.

i started frantically looking in the windows to see if stephanie nielson from nieniedialogues was still inside.  i knew she was gonna be there signing her new book, "heaven is here" (which is not going to be released to all bookstores till april 3rd.)

if you don't know who she is, she's a popular stay at home mom blogger who's been blogging everyday since 2005. she went through a horrifying plane crash with her husband about 4 years ago, on our wedding day to be exact.  and since then she's been documenting her recovery and continuing about her life everyday on her blog.  she writes a lot about our LDS faith and how much it has helped her to survive.  she's such an inspiration to me.  she helps me to be a better mom and that if anything gets me down, i know i can pray to my Heavenly Father and He will help me.  she taught me that we all go through hard trials in our life but there is nothing that Heavenly Father gives us that we can't handle.  stephanie has been through hell as she recovers from her burns and her pain.  and yet she has this amazing strength to get her through her days.

my good friend rachel told me about her a long time ago and i remember getting chills hearing about her story.  i love her.

back to the story...i asked my mom to watch everton while i hurried inside and asked an employee if she's still there and if she's still signing books.  the lady said yes so i ran back to the stroller to grab my camera and my wallet.

i was one of the last ladies in line and as i got closer i started freaking out.  stephanie had such a sweet spirit about her.  i was about to meet a celebrity in the mormon blogging world!  when it was my turn i started to cry.  she sweetly said, "oh don't cry, you're ok."  she asked me if i'm married or if i have kids.  and i told her that i have an 11 month baby boy and that i'm so excited for her new baby.  it was amazing having a little conversation with her.  she later said, "have fun with your cute little boy."  i took a picture with her and her sweet daughters.  it was so crazy seeing them in real life!  she signed my book and i paid for it right after. then i saw mr. nielson come back from the priesthood session to get his sweet pregnant wife to go home.  they are an amazing family who loves each other unconditionally.