Memorial Day

     This year was the first year since Paul and I have been married that we have been up in the Salt Lake Valley for Memorial day. It was very different, but also really fun to get to spend this holiday with family rather than friends, or just ourselves. My family usually doesn't do a whole lot because most of our deceased relatives are buried in other states. They just have a BBQ and hang out for the most part. Paul's family does have relatives buried somewhat close, and they make a day out of it. This year we spent memorial day with the Burnett family, and it went a little like this:

     We drove out to Ogden in the morning to visit some grave stones. We stopped at one cemetery, paid our respects, then went to another one. Usually great aunts and uncles, cousins and other relatives come meet up at the cemetery, they visit, then have a picnic lunch at a specific park. But this year it was threatening rain, and the park that they normally used to go to was no longer a park, but an elementary school in the process of being built. Paul was slightly bummed that he wasn't going to get to play tennis. So instead of having lunch with all of my father-in-law's extended family, we all went out to a place that sounded good, got our food to go, and met at Zaxby's to eat our food.
     After we ate, the weather cleared up enough to almost be enjoyable. While our food was digesting, we found another little park, and played for a little while. Sage and Milo played on the playground with lots of other kids. Paul, Jonathan, Eric, and I tossed a frisbee around for a little bit. It was somewhat challenging with Jace, but good practice. When frisbee got old, we pulled out the bocce ball. We played a quick round of it, then headed over to the original Farr's Ice Cream shop. It was crazy as I will get out! We waited our turn, got our ice cream, and ate it out side in the heat of the sun. By that time everyone was tired and ready to be home, except, none of us were really going home, most of us were headed to a family party.

Photo credit on the pictures below goes to the amazing Jessica Burnett. I have a feeling her awesome work will be featured on the blog quite a bit in the future. She is just so great at taking pictures, and I just always forget. Thanks Jess for sharing your pictures!! 

Here we are at the cemetery. Jace is just chillin with his daddy while we figure out what we are going to do for lunch. 

This is how you play frisbee when you have a baby. Its quite a challenge, but you get really good at catching and throwing with only one hand! I tried so hard to put Jace down so I could really get into it, but he was too distraught to let me play. 

Julie, Amanda and Little Miss Ember enjoying the sun

Here we are just waiting the the boys to finish with the frisbee so we can play bocce ball together

Ember rather enjoyed playing with the little bocce ball. She is such a good baby most of the time! Jace needs to take some lessons on how to chill from her!

Aunt Shawnee sitting with Ember, while Em shows her how to use a frisbee ;)

You can't really tell, but we are all intently playing a game of bocce ball in this picture. But aside from that, the scenery is beautiful! 

    I am grateful I have such a great husband, when I am exhausted and can't even keep my eyes open in the car, he is just so awesome at driving!! Yeah so basically Jace and I both slept from Ogden all the way until we got to our destination in South Jordan. It was nice, and just want both of us needed I am pretty sure.
     When we got to Aunt Jan's they were all ready to eat. We, however, weren't. We had a late lunch and stuffed our faces with ice cream, so food was the last thing on my mind! But while they all ate their yummy burgers I chatted and caught up with all the fam. The weather was so good to us today. It was predicted to be rainy basically the whole day, but we had a window of amazingness where it was sunny and warm enough to enjoy the pool! Jace had been going through a bout of diarrhea, and today was the first day he wasn't leaking, so we were excited to see his reaction to swimming. He enjoyed it when he was little, but he is a bit bigger now and hasn't been in a pool since he was 4 or 6 months old. I am happy to report though, that Jace rather enjoyed himself. He was a little hesitant at first, but he liked the floaty we put him in and eventually trusted us that he was going to be okay. We floated around in the pool for a good 30 minutes dodging Paul and the little cousins cannon balls and belly flops. Then Jace was starting to get a little anxious. So I took him over to the hot tub, which is usually only heated to be a warm tub for the littlies. We played in the warm tub with the little little kids and all the fun toys until we were both getting too hot to play in there any more. When we got out of the pool, Jace headed right to one of those Little Tykes Coupe cars that you can move with your feet. He climbed himself inside and was happy as a clam with the steering wheel in his hands. I think, if he wasn't wet, he could have played in that car for ever. I just pushed him around the yard, (because his cute little legs didn't quite reach the ground).
     After all of our fun adventures outside, I decided I was finally hungry. I had myself some dinner, and waited for the rest of the "pooligans" to finish swimming so we could play some other games. We all visited for a bit, then got a huge game of bocce ball going. It was really cool to see people playing that don't normally play games with us. When we had finished two rounds, the older peeps were getting ready for their beds, so they all headed out. Us younger folk stuck around and played a few games before heading home.
    Our day was packed, from beginning to end, but it was really fun to be the fun kind of busy rather than the stressful kind of busy.

Photo Cred for these awesome party pictures goes to the amazing Nicole Valdivia! She is so great to share her works of art with me so I can have memories when I am silly and don't bring a camera! Thanks Nicole! You Rock!!!

Jan's hot tub is usually only heated to a warm tub so the babies can have a shallow place to play. It is real nice to sit in a hot-but-not-so-hot tub and play with the little kiddos. Jace loved it!! He played in the big pool in his floaty for quite some time, but when he started to get a little cold we switched to the warmer pool. 

All the cousins hanging out together. Milo, Sage, Jace, and little Joshua

Paul and Aspen playing in the big pool. They think they are so cool. (but really the cool pool is the little kid pool for sure!!)

All the kids in the hot tub and Jonathan chillin too

Jace's obsession with cars continues. He just HAD to sit in this car. He loved it. The steering wheel was his favorite part. So I got to push him around in it, (because his feet don't quite touch the ground), for a long time. He was wet from the pool and didn't even seem cold at all!

Still driving his fun car

Ahh look at those teeth! 6 for sures with 2 molars coming in!

Paul teaching Sage how to swim

Jonathan and cute little Avery in the cool kids pool

Love this picture of Joshua! Nicole took a sweet picture! No photoshop or anything!!

Aspen showing off her diving skills

Jace just being oh so cute in his car

Lily is visiting from Arizona, and even though it was high 70's outside, it was too cold for her to swim. She just kept saying "too cold" 

We have a 1 year old!!

    It is hard to believe that Jace is one! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I do think that living with Paul rather than apart from him has contributed to the speed of time. A little update on Jace: He isn't walking independently yet. He loves to speed crawl all over the place and walk holding on to things, but the little stinker just doesn't care enough to try it on his own. He had a lip tie and tongue tie revised a few weeks ago and has been not quite as friendly with strangers as he was before the procedure. Hopefully he will over come this phase or we will have long days ahead of us. He loves to play with cars, and basically that was his first word. Kah! he says and points to his cars. He also loves to play with daddy's basketball and soccer ball. He hasn't tried to say ball yet, but he always points to them when they are out of reach, and attempts to dribble the basketball when it is in reach. We are in a picky eater phase. He used to gobble up nearly everything, now its a hit and a miss with what he likes, even if he liked it before, there is no guarantee he will like it today. He hates it when Daddy leaves for the day, and usually makes me take him up to the garage so he can watch Daddy leave. But he also loves it when Daddy comes home. When he hears the door close, his ears perk up and he usually makes a beeline for the stairs to go greet Dad. I can still get Jace to take 2 naps, but I think its mostly because he doesn't sleep as long as most kids during the night. He gets 10 hours of sleep and is up for the day. But I will admit I do like having those two times during the day where I am awake and can actually take advantage of the time he is sleeping. He weighs 20 lbs 14 oz. and I guess he is now in the 20th percentile for height, weight and head circumference. He hasn't even gained a full pound since his 9 month checkup, but I think thats mostly because he has slimmed out a ton from crawling all of the place and being so active. He has 6 great big chompers in his mouth, and the looks of a few more coming soon. He loves to give kisses and has started making an attachment to a blanket and a stuffed animal. Its super cute. Jace keeps us on our toes and we love him to death!!

      The week of Jace's birthday was quite fun. Paul took Thursday and Friday off to spend some time with us. On Thursday, we went to the aquarium for Jace's birthday. We went with Paul's brother Eric, and their family. It was a hoot to have the nephews with us. Jace is at the age where he actually looks at the fish, and animals around him, so it was fun to see his reaction. He wasn't particularly keen on putting his arm in the cold water to pet the stingray, but he did it anyway. It was so cute to see his eyes go back and forth as the fish and jelly fish swam back and forth in their tanks. I am excited to see what he thinks of the zoo again the next time we go.
    Sage and Milo were so cute also. Sage was SO excited about everything! He was running wild all over the place and we were having a hard time keeping up with him! Milo was just as curious about everything. They all especially loved seeing the sharks! Man, that shark tank is so cool! I love how it is a tunnel and you can walk underneath it, and see the animals swimming all over the place! Pretty sure we stayed in the shark tunnel for a good 30 minutes!
     After the aquarium we made a stop at home, I went and tutored, and then we went out to dinner. Paul's work told him that he could take me out to dinner on them because he did such a fabulous job with one of their bigger audits. So we got to take Jace out to a pretty nice birthday dinner. I am sure we enjoyed it far more than he did, but thats ok!

Jace being all cutesy and posing in the shark tunnel

Seeing the turtles up close was so fun! This turtle in particular has an air bubble in her shell so she has a weight pack on her back to help her butt sink. As you can tell it still likes to float up. 

When we visited the penguins, they weren't very active. They were all just napping!! But Jace thought it was fun to grab the beak of one of the penguin posters. 

It was really cute to see Paul take Jace across the rope bridge! I feel like a lot of the daily adventures Jace and I have are without Paul because he is at work. But it was really nice to have him with us this time!

Paul and Jace playing on the Orcas in the play area

Almost like Lion King.... but you know, with killer whales instead ;)

Jace has developed a LOVE for driving the car. Whenever we walk out to the garage he always points his cute little finger at the car and says kah! and keeps pointing until we take him over to the car. He loves both standing in the drivers seat, or playing in the passenger seat. As long has he can turn the steering wheel or reach the buttons, he is a happy camper!

     Paul took Friday off of work as well. We used that day to get everything all put together for Jace's party. We ran some errands, and we went out to lunch together as a family. And we spent the rest of the evening putting food together for Saturday's party.
    For some crazy reason I couldn't sleep Friday night. I think I was just too excited about Jace's party. Yeah, it was weird to be sleepless over my baby's birthday, nevertheless I was. I was definitely tired Saturday, but I made it through without being too grumpy or cranky.
    Lisa Walters and her fiance Matt met us at the temple early Saturday to do sealings. I had called 4 or so days before to make an appointment so we could get in and out with enough time to finish prepping for Jace's party. When we got to the temple, they told us that they didn't have an appointment for us and that they were crazy busy with weddings. I heard this and just got so stressed out. We were on a time constraint and they didn't even have us penciled in! One of the temple workers asked if we wanted to sit in the celestial room and after 10 or so minutes check back in with them. We decided to go and sit in the celestial room. Paul was just enjoying himself calmly taking everything in, and I was trying so hard to not be stressed about getting home in time. I finally started to relax and the temple worker came to get us and tell us that they were able to work something out. They ended up having a few workers that had a few extra minutes before they had a marriage. We didn't have lots of time with them in the sealing room, but that was just what we needed. The sealers had to be at a wedding at the same time we needed to leave to get home. The Lord was definitely watching over us, and made sure that we were able to go to the temple, but still make it to what we needed to with enough time.
     As soon as we got home we got right to work getting the rest of Jace's party all set up. Thankfully we had some family members that came over early to help so we could get everything all set up in time. We had lots of fun with all of our family members and friends that came to celebrate Jace's first birthday. Paul would say that I went overboard, and maybe I might have just a little, but his first birthday was everything that I hoped it would be, so I am happy and satisfied!

Photo Credit for most of these pictures goes to my amazing sister in law Jessica Burnett! I did take a few with my not so great phone, and my friend Meagan Heaton gets credit for the video!!

Jace loves his books so I thought it would be fun to do a story book themed birthday party. That way guests didn't feel like they had to buy him some crazy gift, they could get a book for him new or used if they wanted to. It worked out really well. It wasn't quite as extravagant as some of the parties you might find on Pintrest, but everything turned out super cute! This is the food spread, minus the pigs in a blanket and green eggs with no ham. :)

Here is the cute cake table with the birthday banner. And yes, those are weights used to hold the sheet up to create a back drop. We aren't professionals here, we had to work with what we had :)

This is Jace's fun smash cake. The frosting had a few issues, and Paul did a jolly job and scraping a chunk off the back, but you definitely can't tell from this angle. For my first try piping frosting, I think it turned out pretty ok thanks to all those Pintrest tutorials!

Jace about to open the very first present. He actually got in to the whole ripping the paper and opening the bags part of his gifts. It was super cute! I think Christmas this year will be a hoot!!

Jace just looking up from one of his birthday books! 

He was seriously so excited about his books. I bet he would have been just as excited with toys, but the teacher in me was so glad that he just loved the books he got. 

Putting those hands up to throw that wrapping paper on the floor!

Now he wasn't too thrilled that we took him away from his presents to eat cake. He cried the first little bit. 

Sadly, this is about as intense as it got for his cake. Jace didn't really get into it quite as much as some other kids do. But he did try, and that was cute I though. He sort of poked the cake with one finger rather than getting all of his hands dirty. Paul ended up smashing his little hands into the cake to see if he would get a little more into, which he didn't. But thats ok!  

Jace is showing us that his hands are dirty and he isn't too excited about it. 

This was the party that happened after the party! Both boys went down for naps, and I spent a few minutes picking up, then took a nap myself! It was a long day, but so worth it. We loved having all of our family and friends over to celebrate Jace's birthday.