Wednesday 30 April 2014

One Fantastic Year.


Yep, our boy is one.

That is so hard to comprehend, we have a toddler.



I know I usually give a monthly update, but the reason I waited so long to write this, other than the fact that I have been extremely busy, is nothing really changed during his 12th month at all. No growth spurts, no milestones, no teeth, nothing.



Except...

- He has been giving us this look over the past couple months and I finally caught it on camera. It consists of him tiilting his head forward but still keeps his gaze on you. And if you are really lucky and he does it when he is eating, he will grip his highchair  with both hands, arch his back slightly and then give the "look." It cracks us up!




-He has started biting me and everything else. He must have teeth or something because it has been constant biting and it scares me sometimes when I am around him. 


Scares me enough to retreat to higher ground...


But he is good at waiting me out.


- He has been doing great at waving "bye-bye" when you wave at him.



- He is a full on stomach sleeper



Here are a couple more random pictures from the month:















To celebrate Grant's first birthday we had a nautical party for him which you can read about HERE.

He also had some other visitors come and wish him a happy birthday who couldn't make it to the party.  Eric and Katie came by on Sunday and Neil, Michelle and the kids stopped by Monday evening and we had Family Home Evening with them. We even had the boat still set up from the party so we got some pictures of Grant with Porter and Rigby. Rigby was using the buoy as a steering wheel, which was hilarious.


The night before his birthday he was being so cute so I had to take some pictures. And then he fell asleep in daddy's arms.




On his actual birthday, we had a pretty low key day. We woke up, played in bed and then had pancakes and Grant got to try syrup for the first time! 





Then he had a bubble bath!




We gave him his presents from us, dad left for school and Grant played all day while I packed. 




His bday presents from us! (minus the book of colors from Neil, Michelle and kids)

When Garth got home for school we headed to Calgary, as we were leaving on a flight to Utah the next morning!

We feel so overwhelmed when we think about how blessed we are to have Grant in our family. He is the cutest, funniest, most perfect little boy with the biggest personality. Everyone who knows him has commented on how much personality he has had from Day 1, how aware he was as a newborn and how he commands every room he is in.  I agree with them. I will never forget his first night in the world, how he kept his wide-eyes glued to me all night. That look he gave me when I first met him changed me forever.






I love my Grant, I love documenting everything, watching him grow and I love watching him explore this world. Hopefully I can take a lesson from him and explore it the same way he does, with a big grin on my face.



-A.


PS- Garth and I put together a video of Grant's 1st year, enjoy!





Monday 7 April 2014

BOATS, BOATS, BOATS!

If you know me, you know I LOVE birthdays. So naturally I was very excited to celebrate our little man's very first birthday! It is quite possible I started planning Grant's party over a month in advance... 



I had brainstormed a couple different party themes, but I just kept going back to the "nautical" theme because it is so stinking cute! 


We had the party in the middle of the afternoon so we kept it simple with cake, icecream, cupcakes, mini-cupcakes, chips, lemonade and of course goldfish crackers for the kiddies.





I found these cute free printables online but they were blue and red which didn't really go with our theme, so Garth changed the red to yellow using photoshop.





I used my asian origami skills for the sailboat cake topper, and bought all the paper supplies at Michaels.











Not only did Garth change the color to yellow on this banner, he also customized with a cute "G"for Grant.







For the main area, I printed off some Instagram pictures from Grants first year and hung them with clothespins and string.



I was trying to think of a fun activity for the party other than just cake and presents. I knew there would be lots of kids there so I thought a little photo booth with some props would be super cute. Garth found some boxes and built this sailboat! I painted and decorated it, adding a sail, buoy, anchor and a #1. And just like any other boat we had to give it a name so I decided on "The Dark Wing".  It's kind of an inside joke because Grant's first initials are D.W. just like "Darkwing Duck" from that 90's TV show.






We all had lots of fun with the photobooth, especially the growups haha. Grant really impressed me because he stayed in there forever with person after person and never stopped smiling for the camera.


Mom, Rachel and Grant


Grant with Aunt Jaymee


Grant and Rachel



"uhh Jocelyn, that's mine..."


"Thank YOU!"
Mom, Grant, Aunt Jessica, Carissa and Mikayla


Cousins Kathryn, Tansley, Kymberly and Ella (James was somewhere hiding...)


Cousins Lizzy, Hayden, Zoe and Mary



Grandma and Grandpa Peterson

Aunt Vicky



Aunt Mandy and Ella





After some fun in the photo booth Grant got to open some birthday presents!






He was so SPOILED! And it wasn't even his birthday yet. Everyone was so sweet and thoughtful. He got some nice things to keep him busy in church, some toys, puppets, adorable clothes, hat, a guitar, lots of books, bath toys, a pirate tent, and Aunt Mandy made superhero capes for Grant and Daddy, equiped with superhero masks and cuffs :) I almost died of happiness when saw them!


Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?


Grant loves wearing the cape, but the mask not so much. He'll warm up to it though haha!




After presents it was time for cake! 


He did not like the sparkler.



This was Grant's first time ever eating any sort of chocolate or cake so I was interested in how he would approach it. 


He didn't miss a beat, he knew exactly what to do with it.










It was such an amazing day and fun party, celebrating with family and friends. Grant is so blessed to have such amazing people in his life who love him.






Happy Birthday Grant! We love you!

-A.