1st Birthday Celebration!

Posting a buttload about my kid today, but can you blame me?  Not only is he super cute, he just turned 1!

My party throwing mode went into effect a few weeks ago and I had been spending my time plotting!  I had to hold myself back quite a bit!  Originally I had planned on doing a bunch of summer fun healthy treats, like this one:

all fruit Popsicle made with peaches, strawberries, kiwi, blueberries and watermelon puree 

 ...and a few salads and stuff.  But I asked Paul his opinion and that's probably where I went wrong. ha ha.  Only kidding.  He really wanted to grill and so I just made my popsicles and water and Asher's smash cake. Go me!!

Asher was seriously spoiled.  I wasn't expecting so many presents - it threw me for a loop!  He's just so loved and we appreciate all who came and contributed to my now cramped-for-space living room ;) 

I think we can all agree that my little guy is extremely handsome and cool in his fedora :) 

We opened the mountain of presents, and of course, he didn't really understand what was going on but there were a few things that caught his eye :) 

He had so much help opening presents which I actually thought was great :)  My nephews Aiden and Dallin, along with Quinn and Jensen helped Asher figure out what to do! 

My mom was on a search high and low for a Red Flyer wagon because we had one as little kids and kids super love wagons.  We ended up only being able to find either huge, plastic monsters of wagons or a cute little teeny plastic red wagon.  But!  she found the old school wagon she wanted only it was a John Deere which I happen to love even more.  And even better, Asher loves it.  He immediately tried climbing up in it and his Uncle Gav took him for a ride.  Two days later he still climbs up in it and waits for me to take him 'round and 'round.   

After presents we stripped him down and I grabbed his other smash cake, this one another vegan carrot cake, but slightly different AND covered in raw chocolate icing - yes really did taste yummy! :)   

He liked licking the spatula when I was making it but decided he wasn't digging it once he had free access to it.  His cousins and I helped him get a little dirtier for camera's sake :) 

And then I fed everyone the super sugary delicious not-healthy cake - ha ha ha ha suckers!!!  I lucked out and found this How To Train Your Dragon cake at Macys - how perfect my little guy??  My mom cut up the cake while I hosed Ash Man down and we had homemade strawberry  and cookies n' cream ice cream :) 

Lots of relaxation and mingling, good food, and crazy fun - at least it was for me :)   Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating with us - we are so lucky and blessed! 

I couldn't resist.  I had to slip this one in.   

My Birthday Baby!

Asher's big birthday bash was planned for that Sunday but Paul and I still wanted to do a little something as a family to celebrate with each other our baby's 1st birthday.

Paul suggested we do a picnic.  I knew just the place...I don't go to many parks but my nephew shared this place with me when I was babysitting him earlier this year. It's the nicest park I've been to so it's #1 on my list.  Daybreak would be the name. 

We stopped by Leger's at Jordan Landing (our new favorite place for sandwiches) and then we were off.

Picnicking on the grass:

Asher gets a kick on the swing - a beautiful view behind him: 

Asher and Paul on the slide: 

He played a bit in the sand: 

Hung out in the 'globe': 

And Dad helped him hang like a monkey!: 

After the playground we decided to walk down to the beachy area of the lake.

My two handsome hunks: 

Me and my baby boy:

Asher loves water so once we entered the water he really loved marching in the water to splash around: 

He kept trying to sit down and play so we stripped him and Paul took him into the slightly deeper water.  Asher felt like he still had to pick his feet up above the water when he walked so it looked really funny ;) 

It was such a beautiful night - perfect temp, perfect weather.  It did start raining at the end but it was a warm rain and made it fun.    Asher was tired by that time so we wrapped him up and dried him off and he was asleep before we even reached Bangeter :)

What A Cutie!!

As I mentioned previously, I was busy planning baby's 1 Year Pictures! (Why all the planning, you say?  Well I already knew what he was going to wear...I bought it several months ago and decided to save it for this.  But I had to find something for me and that is waaaaay more difficult than I would like to admit.  And Paul had something in mind and it took a few tries to find his shirt he wanted.  Oh....and let's not forget the cake I researched for forever and debated on and then trial and errored and...phew was I glad when it all just decided to come together for me!)

These are few of my favorites...I sure do love the smile on this guy!

And whatever this was...: 

One of my favoritests of the favorites: 

Said cake I worked on - vegan, sugar-free (still not exactly what I want in his mouth but he didn't want to eat it anyway and I figured that would be the case): 

Always a classic: 

The Best Day EVER!!

...because I was accompanied by these two handsome fellas...

...to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch!

Does this look like the most delicious drink to be had?:

Well it is.  It's their Raspberry Frozen Lemonade.  SOOOOOOO delish!   Paul was even jonesin' for some.  

I love LOVE their Pear Gorgonzola pizza...I can't bring myself to order anything else because I love it so much.  And lucky me!! They burnt our pizzas just a tiny bit (honestly I really liked the crisp - it was perfect!).  Normally they said they would just have thrown them out and started over but they saw we had a kid with us and didn't want to make us wait (SCORE!!) so they put new ones in so we each had double our pizza for the price of one!  Happy Birthday to me??? I think so!!!!

What else made me happy?  To see my kiddo suckin' away on this piece of arugula.  With any luck, he'll be a greenie like us ;) 

And that's not all...my sweet husband took the day off to be with me (surprise?? yes!!!) and let me get my run in baby-free, had scrumptious healthy breakfast waiting for me when I was done, took me out on a shopping spree and let me shop while he manned the babe.  I spent most of my time at H&M, then we stopped for lunch, browsed a couple more stores, went to Jordan Landing for a couple things, finally went home for a couple hours downtime and then we stopped into Culver's because every time I drive by I really want to see what their frozen custard is like and believe you me...IT'S FANTASTIC!!!

29 Years Young

On the 9th, my sweetie pie husband celebrated his 29th birthday!! 

Oh how I love this man.  He makes me smile, makes me laugh, reminds me everyday how lucky I am to have a husband as great as he.  Smart, intellectual, humorous, thoughtful and giving - he's the man I always wanted to marry - and looky! I did!!!

I spent Thursday at my parents house watching the nef and he helped me with a special project since I wouldn't have the time to do it after I got home and before Paul arrived.  We stopped by Walmart after picking him up from Preschool to grab a few necessary items and then we homeward bound where my little assistant Chef helped me do a trial chocolate sushi.  It went swimmingly and he was so excited that there would be a whole chocolate sushi roll for them to keep!  After the one was in the fridge I set to work to make one for Paul's birthday celebration.  

When I arrived home I set to work running about the house because there were many things I wanted to get done by the time he got home including most of the baking/cooking/cutting, decorations and spot cleaning.  I had to have a baby on my hip for most of that!   Since I was doing a night of sushi, I made a bunch of Birthday signs in Japanese, grabbed my paper lanterns, threw confetti all over the place and just had fun anticipating the night!

I placed signs on the exterior garage door, garage floor, my car, the interior garage door, the living room floor, and the kitchen table.  

And included a few priceless pics of my babies cute mug!:

When Paul walked through the door, Asher and I hid out of view until he walked to a certain point and then we (I) blew the noise maker and shouted 'Happy Birthday'!!!  He was pleasantly surprised - mission accomplished!!

Since there was no way I would be able to make all that sushi before Paul came home, part of the night was actually having him help me make his own birthday dinner - ha ha ....sucker!!  jk - I knew he would enjoy learning with me and so we had a fun night of it!   We made heart shaped, circle, triangle, and little square sushi rolls (all free of raw fish of course since we don't eat fish and certainly not raw fish!!)   We stuffed them with marinated chicken and vegetables.  I also had Asian sesame crackers, which Paul thought tasted like dirt (he wasn't far off) and several kinds of dips!

The chocolate sushi was my most favoritest thing! And the little square ones were the easiest to eat.  Now with a little bit of trial and error I will be able to do better with my sushi rice next time!

After that, Paul was presented with a piece of chocolate cheesecake - his favorite!!! 

And he opened up his present!! Which was a picture of the newest wedding ring that wasn't quiiiiiite done being made yet.  I swear if he loses this one, he's a dead man!!!  I bought him the ring that I was going to buy him in 2010, but was unsure if he would think it was as awesome as I did.  Good thing I didn't, although the other ring was still a very nice, awesome ring which someone probably is enjoying right now.  

And we enjoyed a night of hanging out and porking out and after the little one was asleep we enjoyed some time together: 

Love you, babe.