Brecken's First Birthday

I can't believe my baby just turned one. How the time flies. What a wonderful first year of life we celebrated. Brecken is such a sweet, sweet child. He has a gentle, lovable personality. He always has a smile for everyone and is just an all-around happy little guy. We love you Brecken!!

We celebrated Brecken's 1st birthday today. It was SUCH a wonderful day and a FUN party. I've been busy making applesauce with friends, Christmas presents and subbing at the local sports club the past two weeks but somehow, managed to pull together this fun little party for Brecken. My friends, Carley and Kendall helped make it a special day as well. Kendall made the beautiful party hat and tie onsie for Brecken. I LOVE them!! Carley, made the hanging poofs and lent me many items to help with the food service and signs. Thank you friends! I am so blessed! We had such a wonderful time with everyone who came. The children (all 10 of them!) did a great job playing together and I enjoyed fellow shipping with all of the adults.

I'll put all the party details at the bottom of the post if you're interested.

I was having issues with the photos so they're in no particular order and some that I wanted to include didn't get included. Here they are!

Some of our sweet friends.

Ellie

Kalli (She had just removed her hat)

Brooke

Evie

McKenna

Luke & Michelle

Jessica and Elaina

Brecken wearing his CUTE, cute shirt made with love by Kendall

Kendall, Jonahthan and Jared

Kalli

Our beautiful little family of four

I love the look on Brecken's face here.

Little McKenna

Our veggies and dip

Apples, two types of Pirate Booty, you can also see the crackers with cream cheese and pepper jelly on the right

Birthday banner I made using free printables

The four layer, very rich, white chocolate cake (with a layer of dark chocolate on top)

The buffet table

Grabbing the cupcake

He made short work of the cupcake and then got to eat some cake as well

Our blue/green party

Blue/Green Glass Jello

We had a beautiful snowfall during the whole party

Carley and little Lucy (a.k.a. Brecken's girlfriend)

Singing "Happy Birthday"

The drink corner

Food:
Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches for the kids
Chicken & Cheese Pesto Paninis for the adults
Berry Grape Punch
Bottled Water
Cream Cheese and Pepper Jelly with Crackers
Animal Crackers
Apples
Veggies & Dip (Celery, carrots, tomato and ranch)
Veggie and White Cheddar Pirate Booty
Glass Jello
Chocolate Cupcakes
White Chocolate Cake
Sugar cookies for party favors


Decorations:
I mostly used what I had laying around the house and purchased a couple items at the thrift store.
Free birthday printables
Christmas lights
Helium balloons
Three green lanterns
Iron rocking horse
Wooden stars painted blue by Taeya
Milk vase with branches (I wanted to paint them silver but ran out of time)
Magnetic board with Brecken's birth announcement, our Christmas photo from last year and a photo of him about 6 months
Baby photo book
Matted photo of Brecken
Shaving mug with "B" filled with blue, green and brown M&M's
Blue and green streamers
Brecken's baby book
Blue, green and clear silverware
Green cellaphane bags for kids sandwiches with blue/green paper umbrellas

Favors:
Handmade beanbags made from re-purposed material (each child received 3) and we used these for games
Small toys and tattoos I found at the thrift store
Sugar cookie
Helium balloons

A Little of This and That...

Wow…I haven’t posted since March?! Life’s been busy here in Durango!  Since it’s been awhile, I’ll just share a summary of what’s been happening in our little world.

We’re definitely all moved in and settled here. We are loving our little town. There are so many things to do outdoors and around town. I’m SO VERY THANKFUL that we moved in late Spring so we can enjoy these beautiful sunny, CO summer days. They’re pretty awesome! I started sewing and have been making tons of little girl dresses. My favorite dresses are made using a repurposed men’s dress shirt. Every time Taeya wears hers, she gets compliments while we’re out. I’m definitely not an expert sewer but I’m having fun learning how to sew and reading crafty/sewing blogs.

Brecken is getting oh so big! He’s over 20 lbs now. He was 20 point something mid-June so I can only guess what he is now!! He eats nearly two times as much as Taeya most meals. Guess he’s in a growth spurt! He now has 6 sweet {and sometimes not so sweet} pearly whites. He cut two his bottom two at the end of April? And his front 4 top teeth he cut in a 6 day span in early July.

We celebrated Phil’s 28^th birthday. He’s not a huge cake fan so we made him pudding with chocolate chips in it. Of course we added birthday candles that Taeya was allowed to help blow out. This past Saturday we went up to Silverton and had a wonderful family day together exploring the town and some back-country roads. It’s certainly majestic country! God’s handiwork is breathtaking. Phil and I have been trying to go out to dinner on a date for his birthday but don’t really have babysitters at this point. While in Silverton, we went to a nice restaurant called Handlebars (as in moustache). We had the kiddos with us but thankfully, both were well behaved. I made sure they brought Phil a birthday dessert and sang to him. Instead of candles, they stuck in a sparkler, which was fun. My camera battery died earlier in the day so I didn’t get any good pictures.

The kids and I took a trip to CA in early June for almost 2 weeks. It was wonderful going back to see many friends and family. I haven’t been back for 2 ½ years so it was a real treat. Phil’s mom, dad and brother came to visit us here in CO near the end of June. We had a wonderful time with them as well. I’ll have to post some pictures of our adventures.

Last but not least, I just was hired as a swim instructor at a pool close by. I’m teaching M-F five mornings a week for about 3 hours. It’s fun to do but I’m definitely grateful it’s only for four weeks. It’s hard being a working mom…even for such a short time!! I enjoy working with the kids and being in the pool again but definitely notice the time away from MY kids as well as the missed hours at home (my house is a mess!!).

Guess that about catches me up. I have tons and tons of pictures of course over the past few months. I’ll post a few of my favorites.

A Beautiful Spring Day

We enjoyed a gorgeous Spring day today. We headed to the river where we walked and jogged. We ate a picnic lunch. The kids swung on the swing and then we headed to the Discovery Museum to have fun and learn a little. What a treasure it is to be able to spend quality time with my children, especially enjoying God's beautiful creation!

An Evening With Friends

Taeya asked to hold Brecken and wanted me to take their photo

 The other week, we had dinner at our friend's, Eddie & Denise's house. Eddie took some adorable photos of the kids that I just had to share. Taeya loved playing tug-of-war with their dog, Cosette. Thank you for having us over for dinner and thank you for the adorable photos of my kids!

Bubbles, bubbles. Brecken LOVES blowing bubbles.

My favorite of Taeya. She's such a sweetie!

Good friends. :)

Did Taeya win?

Taeya's a great dresser huh? Her outfits make me laugh!

It was pretty even but I think Cosette was a bit stronger than Taeya.