Afton's First Birthday Party

Afton's First Birthday Party was perfect. Small, simple and all about Afton! We just did a small party with our family and a few close friends. I made some decor, because what is a party without decorations

 My first Happy Birthday banner...

 We kept it simple with cupcakes and I had so much fun making them!

 Instead of making Afton her own cake I just decided to write her name on a few cupcakes and give her the "A" cupcake to eat.

 The birthday girl. Happy to be the center of attention as usual!

 Cody, Ariana and Grandma Budge enjoying the festivities.

 Grammy and Papa Bringhurst and Noni and Papa Terry.

 Afton is one lucky girl to have three sets of grandparents that adore her. And Great Aunts to boot!

 Getting ready to consume some birthday sugar... Can you tell she's excited?

 She wasn't quite sure about the candle however. This face kills me! "Mom, what's going on?"

 But don't worry, once the candle was gone, she thoroughly enjoyed her cupcake.

 

And she did have fun opening presents, although not as enthusiastic as I expected.

 We were so lucky to have all our family around us for Afton's first birthday. She really is blessed to have so many people that love her!

Favorite Baby Sitter

It's terribly unnerving, leaving your child with a babysitter for the first time. Luckily, we had a great one. Katie, Chad's younger sister was pretty much our go to babysitter for the first year of Afton's life. In fact, until we moved to Santa Rosa, we never had to leave Afton with anyone but family and that was mostly thanks to Katie. 

Sometimes it felt as if Afton liked her better. I know, I know, that's crazy. But Katie could often get Afton down for naps much easier and with much less crying than I could. Just call her a regular Mary Poppins. I just hope she wasn't giving her spoon fulls of sugar to get her to sleep!

  

 

 I hate to say Afton has a favorite Aunt or Uncle, but simply due to the amount of time they spent together, Katie would win favorite.

 I honestly never had to worry about Afton being unhappy while Chad or I was away, when she was with Katie. I always had a peaceful feeling and just knew she was in good hands. Now that we don't live by our families anymore we definitely miss all our wonderful baby sitters, but most especially Katie.

So thanks Aunt Katie for being a wonderful Aunt and a wonderful sitter while we were away!

My Turkey Day

I am writing this particular post almost a year after Thanksgiving 2011 so to be honest it's grossing me out just a little. Why you ask? Well I've been eating more vegetarian lately and the pictures of the turkey are just making me want to gag a little. Not sure why. I am not writing off meat forever and it's not that turkey makes me sick but for some reason that picture is.

Anyways....This was my first year cooking a turkey and it turned out delicious if I don't say so myself (ignore the comments above.) What's not to love about turkey smothered in butter and herbs and roasted to perfection.

 We spent the day with my mom, step-dad, brother and sister and grandparents who drove in from Utah. 

And Oliver, can't forget Oliver. He spent pretty much the entire day huddled by the oven keeping warm and sneaking whiffs of the turkey. Silly dogs, Turkey is for humans.

Chad spent most of the day napping on the couch and cuddling a sweet baby named Afton. I also have fond memories of this day because it is one of the last pictures of Afton with her binky. Only days after this we went cold Turkey with the binky. Get it, cold Turkey, Thanksgiving?

 Some Wii was played, some silliness was witnessed, some sibling love was felt.

 Oliver, ticked we kicked him out of his spot by the oven.

 Grandpa Hill. This may have been the first year he didn't try and pull my toes to see how many boyfriends I have. Quite possibly could have been the first year he also didn't try to give me an oil check (poking a finger in the hollow of your throat). But believe me, we heard plenty of grandpa Hill jokes and stories to make up for it. :-)

 My wonderful parents!

 It's almost thanksgiving time again and I am aching to eat some more turkey and spend a day with the people I love and call my family. Oh and Oliver says he really wishes he could curl up by the oven right now.

A Birthday for Dad!

Afton and I talked. 

We realized we often take for granted the wonderful dad we have. 

Afton said she forgets how many times he rocks her to sleep or plays with her. 

I forget how loving, sensitive and hard working he is.

The bottom line is we are lucky to have such a great man in our life.

 So happy birthday to our wonderful dad and husband!

(Hopefully Afton won't mind me taking a little creative license here and typing what I THOUGHT she would say.)

Prison

I feel like the older Afton gets, the less I document the little things she does every day. The first week I wrote down and took pictures of everything and as time went on and Afton grew older, I slowly stopped. Not altogether mind you. We got her crawling and standing, you know, the important stuff.

But the little things have definitely been forgotten more often than not.
And I don't want that to happen. The little funny things she does everyday remind me how much I love her and how the last year has been the best of my life.

So to remind me of her disdain for baby gates, I give you: Afton and Oliver in prison.
Baby-gate prison that is.
Compared to her normal cries of anger and pouting this little reach through the bars is nothing. Usually I listen to at least 5-10 minutes of crying while I am prepping dinner.
And let's face it, Oliver is her partner in crime for everything nowadays. So it's only fitting he be in prison with her too right?
Oliver also gets mad when he gets stuck on the other side as well. But his anger is more because he can't get to his food and water and less because he wants me to hold him.
And when Afton does manage to escape "prison" she's a magnet for Oliver's dog food (the whole reason for the prison in the first place).
Ahhh free at last.
In this case jail is completely necessary. We can't have cheeks full of dog food all the time now can we? Hopefully she will forgive me one day?

We like to be comfortable

I have always been a sweat pants kind of girl. I LOVE to dress up and go out but the minute I hit my doorway I am out of the uncomfortable clothes and into the stretchy pants. That's what I call them :-) You know sweats, yoga pants, any kind of stretch material pants really.

Then when I got pregnant I practically lived in them. It was a good thing I had a job at the time that didn't require me to dress up because I am pretty sure stretchy pants are about as casual as you can get.
And post pregnancy it took me a good 6 months to feel good in regular clothes again.
And lets be honest, even now my favorite non-yoga pants are a pair of "stretchy" jeans. I think you get my drift.
So it's really only normal that my daughter be comfortable as well right?
And don't worry she is learning well I promise.
Most days she is wearing her stretchy jeggings from Target. I am already thinking I should go and but the next size up just in case they stop carrying them. Other days she can be found wearing a cute onesie with some even cuter leggings.
She can crawl around, flop on Oliver and then I can lay her down for a nap and know she's comfortable. I love baby jeans don't get me wrong. But I always feel like they are digging into her cute pudgy stomach or that she won't be comfortable in them when I put her down for a nap. And let's be honest I already do enough clothes changes for the both of us, I don't need to add in more wardrobe changes for my daughter.
Future offspring beware. If you want to wear skirts and/or jeans everyday that's great but just know that our house is a "stretchy" pants kind of house.

Perfection

No one is perfect.

We are human.
We can't do everything.

It seems that many days I have to keep repeating these statements to myself.
I love to get things done. Maybe I should say I like to accomplish things.
Now this doesn't mean that I always have the motivation to get things done or the time or energy or desire.
At the beginning of the week it seems like I have a huge to do list and I just KNOW that this week I will get EVERYTHING done.
It never happens.

Last week I decided to just start small and write out a few goals:
1) Be home for my visiting teacher to come (sometimes I forget...woops).
2) Make my visiting teaching appointments
3) Work out (Yoga and Pilates at home) 4 times this week
4) Cook dinner EVERY night

Only four things.
I only completed one thing completely and that was be home for my visiting teaching appointment. Ha.
Again, I was disappointed. I didn't feel like I got anything done that week.
I made one visiting teaching appointment for Saturday and then she canceled 1 hour before. Bummer.
I only worked out once, maybe twice can't remember.
And I only cooked about 1/2 the week.

But then I thought about it and I realized... it's ok.
I TRIED to make my visiting teaching appointments.
I worked out twice, that's better than not at all. And At least I am thinking about keeping my body healthy right?
And I cooked four nights out of seven. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people that eat out four nights a week and at least we don't do that. (hardly ever)
Also Chad was gone last week a lot because he was helping his dad tile their floors. So I was somewhat of a single parent last week.

There are always projects and fun things I want to do. I have had the material to make a new pencil skirt for about 2 months now. Still not done.
I want to scrapbook and read more. Those have both been lacking lately.
I try to clean my floors (hardwood) at least once a week. Sometimes it's a week and a half before they are clean again.
But you know what? That perfect woman is just not me. Sometimes I would rather lay on the couch and watch TV than clean my floors.
Sometimes I would rather bake some banana muffins than sew my new pencil skirt.
But most of the time, my excuse is that I am taking care of Afton. And what a good excuse it is.
I feed her 3 nutritious meals a day (even if mine aren't). I give her a bath and change her diapers. I clean up after her and I make sure she has toys to play with and that she isn't pulling Oliver's ears too often or climbing up the stairs.
I play with her and make her laugh. I put her down for naps and rock her before bed.
I nurse her and love her.
And somedays I would much rather watch her laugh at Oliver or play with a box of unopened safety pins and marvel at the sound they make than do anything else.
So I am completely OK with the fact that I am not perfect. I am going to start giving myself more credit for the great mom, wife and human being that I know I am. I will stop comparing myself to other women (or at least try) and feeling somehow not good enough when they get so much accomplished and I feel like I don't. And I will be happy with a blog that is all about Afton with a few occasional tidbits about me.

Because right now a Mom is who I am and I feel VERY happy and blessed by that fact.Someday I will be perfect, but not today.