We survived our first holiday season with a little one. We spent Thanksgiving in Heber and managed to see all of the family, which is actually quite an accomplishment. I went shopping with Jerry's mom and sister for Black Friday. We started Thursday night when we left Heber around 10 and got home Friday morning around 8. It was fun but definately tiring!
I was excited for Christmas for two reasons: first, it was Ayden's first Christmas and second, I just love Christmas. We put up our crappy Walmart fake tree when we got back from Thanksgiving in Heber. We paid like $15 dollars for it so you get what you pay for. Ayden loved the tree. He especially liked playing with the ornaments. He eventually got pretty good at not playing with them. I was kind of surprised he didn't bother the presents!
I usually bake a lot of goodies for Christmas, but with work and having a little one that likes to get into everything that didn't happen. In all honesty, it was probably better we didn't have a bunch of treats laying around the house!
Christmas Eve we drove around town and looked at the lights, which is a tradition from Jerry's family. When we got home we got Ayden bathed and in bed so "Santa" could come. I baked some cookies to leave for Santa so he would have some cookies and milk. Santa's favorite part was the milk:) We actually made it to bed pretty early. We left the Christmas tree lights on, which is a tradition from my family. It was the only time we got to leave them on all night.
We unfortunately did not get to sleep in Christmas morning. Ayden is an early riser and was up by about 7. We came downstairs to see what Santa had brought. It was just another morning for Ayden. In my family all of the presents were wrapped unless it was something big, but in Jerry's family none of the Santa presents were wrapped. We compromised and
wrapped some and left some unwrapped. One of the unwrapped Santa presents was a puppy dog pull toy. Ayden saw that and the rest was history. He wasn't in to opening stuff so Jerry got to open the baby's presents and his own. Jerrys mom, dad, and brother and my mom came out. We had all sorts of food and everyone left before I could have them take leftovers! I had to work Christmas night which is why we stayed home. It was kind of a bummer but double time and a half made up for it!
I have learned that when you have little ones your social life is not very exciting. For New Year's we went to a restaurant in Vernal called the Red Onion. Jerry wanted to go because they had all you eat prime rib. It was pretty good for only paying $15 a person. After, we stopped off at Walmart (my favorite store, not!) and Jerry got Despicable Me. I got to watch about 30 minutes of the movie and then it was bed time for the little one. After the baby was asleep, we watched Benchwarmers, which is one of my favortie movies! This year was the
first time since we have been married that Jerry and I stayed up until midnight. Lame, I know.
As soon as Christmas was done, I had to start planning Ayden's birthday. I know the first birthday is more for the parents, mostly the mom. I tapped into my creative side and actually made Ayden's invitations. They turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. I got even more creative when I decided to do his cake myself. I had to work 6 of 7 days the week of the party so I was stressing a little bit about having only 1 day to get everything ready and take Ayden to his 12 month check up. His head is in the 95th percentile and his heigh and weight are in the 10th and 15th percentiles! Jerry was really sweet and cleaned most of the house for me. I decided to do a race car theme for the cake. I have a mold for a giant cupcake so I did that for the baby, cupcakes for the kids, and then just a regular side cake for everyone else. On the baby's cupcake I frosted it green and then used chocolate frosting to make a
track and stuck a car on it. I did basically the same thing for the regular sized cake, and then the cupcakes I frosted green and used a mini snicker bar and 4 M&M's to make a little car. We fit a lot of people into our tiny little apartment. I was stressing about not having enough room for everyone, but, as usual, I over thought it. It was cozy, but worked out well. We had sandwiches, salads, chips, dip, ice cream, and cake. Both sets of grandparents, all the aunts and uncles, a family from our ward, a cousin, and a great-aunt were there! It was quite the party! I can't how fast this last year went by! He is a little boy now, not a baby anymore!
I took Ayden with me visiting teaching last week and he found the dog food at one of the sister's house and tried to eat it. Luckily I was able to fish it out of his mouth before he swallowed it! Ayden has his first cold and hasn't been feeling the greatest. Jerry has come down with it too so I have to sick babies to take care of.
I am catching this up at work and it is 3:45 in the morning so bear with me if somethings don't quite make sense!
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