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.   

5 Years, Baby!!!

Paul and I celebrated 5 years of marriage last week!  We both feel like it's been much much longer and yet...how has it already been 5 years??  

Paul and I have been fortunate enough to go on a nice vacation for each of our anniversaries...it's something we always look forward to.  But then, as most of you know, our baby was born only two days after our anniversary (awesome timing, I know).  So last year I was large with child and awaiting to 'pop' and this year, well, his first birthday trumped a vacation (and we feel he's a little too young to be dumped onto somebody for several days right now).  I mostly busied myself with his 1 Year pictures and his birthday party.  However, Paul and I did get away for the night.  Dropped the little guy off at my mom's, grabbed some Indian takeout and Culver's frozen custard and headed on up to the mountains for some peace and quiet and we enjoyed a night of just each other by the fire.  :)

Father's Day

Paul's first official Father's Day!!  

Well it was Father's Weekend, actually, because my family started it off on Saturday with some fishing at The Cove at Herriman Springs.  It was a great day for it and the area was beautiful.  

We started off with a little BBQ - dogs, pasta, lots and lots of veggies.  We were going to play some V-Ball and Spike Ball but we got carried away with the fishing...as evidenced below.

My dad with Asher:

Bronsynn hoping to lucky with the ducky: 

My mom - so willing to laugh at herself and never takes herself too seriously.  I love her!: 

Me and my baby boy - love him: 

The three of us getting ready for our fishing adventure: 

Grandma and Asher: 

I didn't get any fishing in between having fun shooting everyone and then trying to get my stubborn baby to sleep (he doesn't fall asleep easily unless at home and I didn't feel like subjecting all those innocent fishers to my baby's crying that surely wouldn't have stopped in such a scenario).  But I still had a great time even if I didn't catch one of those fugly catfish.   Yuck!!

Bronsynn has a few modeling bones in her.  She just sat on a rock and did her thing and I just shot away.  So fun!!

I have tonz more but this one was one of my favoritest because we had just heard another fisher cuss from across the pond:

The fish and the ducks were really fun to 'catch' ...ha ha ha:

These boys asked me to take their pictures after I took a really sick shot of a fish one of them caught.  I had so much fun and the boy in the red was super serious and was a great little 'subject'.  I have more on facebook, too.

I seriously have an amazing father.  My whole life he has worked hard, sacrificing so much for his family, always doing whatever it took to provide for us especially during the hard times during lay-offs.  I admire everything about him and have so many cherished memories, many of them from my 4-H and rodeo days where he spent all weekend towing me around to race.  He's an amazing man who does everything for his wife and kids!  Love him!":

And now I have another Father to celebrate on this day... my wonderful husband.  It has been such an amazing journey these past 8.5 years and most especially the last 10 months where we have watched our son and reveled in being his parents.  He is such a fun dad - Asher lights up when he comes home from work and loves to chase after him.  Watching Paul be a father is special to me and I love my boys more than I have words to express!

Father's Day morning, I made Paul a Spinach Quiche and laid out Asher's little project.  Paul has been working non-stop since the beginning of April (and that's not counting tax season since the beginning of January) and he has run himself into the ground.  He is such a hard-working man, too and I am so lucky to have him and I know our boy will come to know the same thing.  So we gave him a gift certificate for some R&R at Massage Envy.  

After church, Paul's family came over and we spent the night having another BBQ, watching Asher play in his pool, catching the NBA Finals, relaxing on the patio and enjoying rootbeer floats!  Such a wonderful day - I'm so glad to have been surrounded by family all weekend!

Mmmmmm....Fonduuuuuuuue

It's that time of year again!!! Every February, Paul and I stuff our faces at The Melting Pot - our #1 favorite place to blow our money. We celebrate both of our birthdays and Valentines. We used to love to go all out for each other on Valentines...when we were dating. But now we see Valentines day for the retail-driven, retarded 'holiday' that it is and we don't like to spend money on stupid little gifts, especially with our birthdays so close. Besides, we can, and do, do cute romantic things for each other all year long and feel that that's the way it supposed to be :) Anyhooselbees, we go out to dinner AFTER the Valentine feeding frenzy is over!

This year we invited B.J. and Hilary to join us:

We enjoyed the Big Night Out flavors of France! However, we had to substitute a very tasty looking French cheese fondue for the Wisconsin (which is still AMAZING!) because Beej is cheese picky - Beej and Paul have some weird food ticks...jus' sayin'. Our entree meat were fab and our White Chocolate Creme Brulee was freaking awe.some.

The waiter brought out our dessert tray with a candle in our cheesecake, again!! I love it :) I love our tradition and I love that Paul and I are exactly 3 weeks apart. It's so fun AND 3 is my lucky number! We were simply meant to be....

PS - did anybody catch that I said do-do up at the top? ha ha ha.