Party Time!

Last night, we had a wonderful evening celebrating Grant's fist birthday with our family! 

The invitation....



(For some reason I can't find the final version of the invite, so this rough draft will have to do...)



The menu... 

*Bacon wrapped water chestnuts and spinach dip for appetizers

*Chicken Corn Chowder or Chicken Noodle soup in a Panera bread bowl and a chicken/strawberry salad  on the side for our main course

*Aunt N's pound cake cupcakes with butter cream frosting for dessert! 

The decorations...

(if you click on the picture, you can get a close up view of the banner...)

The favors....

Grant's Gator Food....Trail mix for the adults and candy and fruit snacks for the kids.

The cake...

Old Swampy from the Hello Cupcake book!

The presents.....

He is one spoiled but extremely happy little boy!

Thank you to everyone who sent cards, gifts and birthday wishes.  It truly was a magical day for our family! 

I couldn't resist including this pic of Jasper trying to get in on the birthday fun!

12 Months

Grant Weston,

A year ago today, my dreams came true when the nurse placed a beautiful, healthy, baby boy in my arms.  As I held you tight, my heart was overflowing with love for you. You had the most beautiful blue eyes and you were so alert.  You just stared up at me and from that moment, I knew that my life was changed forever.   I knew that God had given us the best gift ever- He had not only given us a son, He had given us YOU! 

 

It is hard to believe that the first year of your life is over.  It seems like just yesterday that we saw your first smile, heard your first laughter and watched you roll over for the first time.  We laughed as we watched you do the army crawl across the room and cheered as this month you took your first steps.  You went from an adorable, tiny 6 lb baby boy that would cuddle in my arms for hours to a 20 lb big boy that loves to talk, walk, clap and point.  You have an amazing curiosity for everything you see, hear and touch and you have already taught me so much about the simple things in life.  Today, we celebrate all the precious memories of your first year.  And as we lay you down to sleep tonight, we will look forward to all the journeys and adventures you will take us on in the coming year!

We love you~ mommy and daddy

This is what you have been up to this month....

*you are still wearing 9 month clothes.  You are currently in size 3 diapers, but could really be in size 4- I just need to finish the pack I have!

*you are walking!  You do still crawl a bit, but for the most part, you are all about walking.

*you finally started pointing this month!  I waited forever for you to reach this milestone and now I wonder why because it seems like all you do now is point! 

*you have made great improvements in your eating habits the last few weeks which makes mommy very happy!  You still love fruit cups of pears and will literally gobble those down in seconds.  You also like applesauce, yogurt and cheese and have thankfully started eating peas and carrots and some meats again as well.

*you are SO MUCH fun right now!  Your curiosity and excitement for everything around you is so fun to watch.  You want to climb everything you can and have mastered going up the stairs.  Going down is a very different story though!

*you love being outside. Your favorite activities are long walks in the stroller, playing with bubbles and swinging.

*you are starting to learn the word no and when I say it, you shake your head and say na, na which I am pretty sure is no, no!  You are definitely being naughty when you do it, but it is SO CUTE!

*you can sign all done and we are currently working on eat and more.

*you never sit still!  You need to experience everything around you and this made your 1 year photo shoot very difficult to say the least!

*you love hiding things.  I will often find random items in the funniest places.  One day I found my cupcake sprinkles in the seat of your Johnny Jump Up and a half eaten cracker in the bowl of my stand up mixer that was on the floor in the pantry.  You love to catch us when we forget to close the bathroom door because your favorite thing to do is throw the balls from your ball popper toy into the toilet and watch them float around!

What an amazing 12 months it has been~

Happy First Birthday Grant Weston!

A year ago today I woke up thinking it was just another day.  It was the busiest day of the week at work and I was tired and not really looking forward to the day ahead.  My feet were bloating up like balloons and it was hard to put shoes on so I slipped on my flips and headed out to work.  As the day progressed, I started feeling a tightness and swelling in my legs.  I figured it was just the joys of the last few weeks of pregnancy.   Luckily, I had a dr appt that evening so I planned on asking about the swelling just to make sure.

As the nurse checked my urine and took my blood pressure in silence, I knew something was up.  She asked me if I had ever had protein in my urine or high blood pressure before.... my heart started beating really fast as I quickly told her no.  This time around, I made myself fully aware of anything that could happen, so I knew that those two results signaled preeclampsia.  After what seemed like 30 minutes, my dr came into my room and told me to go home, grab my husband and my bags and go to the hospital for a 24 hour urine test.  I just stood there in complete shock.  I looked at her and made her repeat what she said 2 seconds before. My hands started shaking and my mind immediately went to the worst case scenario.  I was only 37 weeks pregnant and I was scared out of my mind.  I suddenly didn't even want to go home, I wanted to be admitted to the hosptial immediately!  Luckily, I live within a mile of my dr office and the hospital so I drove home, told J what was going on, made him snap this pic and then we were on our way within minutes!  We had no idea what was ahead for us, but we were scared and excited that we may finally meet our son!

As I look back on that night, I see a definite God moment.  I remember my 36 week dr appt.  I was trying to make an appt for the next week and my dr was really full.  I always made appts on Fridays because at that point in the year, I had them off.  She was booked, so I had to go on a Tuesday.  Unfortunately, the only appt she had open was an evening one.  I was not thrilled about it because Tuesday's were a tough day for me and I usually went home and took a nice long nap.  But when I think back to that day, that appt was so meant to be.  After 24 hours of testing, my levels were extremely high.  My dr woke me up Thursday morning and told me the results were not good.  The next words out of her mouth were....you are going to have a baby today!

After longing for a baby forever, God blessed us with a pregnancy.  He walked those difficult nine months with us and He guided us to the appt that would change our lives forever!  I love when I can look back and see moments where God has reached down and touched our lives!  Has he done that for any of you lately?

Artprize

This weekend we headed downtown to ArtPrize.  For those of you unaware of ArtPrize, it is an art competition where thousands of artists from around the world descend upon our little town.  Their unique artwork is displayed for 2 weeks and the public votes on their favorite piece.  Last year, we were unable to go because I was in this state....

and lacked the energy it took to walk the city!

This year, I was so excited to go check out all of the awesome artwork that included paintings, sculptures, blown glass exhibits, mixed media artwork, and a really big pig!  Although, there were some amazing pieces of art, none of them compared to this special one!!!

Peace in Pieces is a beautiful puzzle created by a friend of mine as a fundraiser for the Ella Bullis Foundation.  It features stories from moms and dads that have endured life in the NICU.  Some of them have happy endings that make you smile and some of them bring tears to your eyes.  One special story featured in this piece is the story of Brooke Janae and Alexcyn Grace.  My friend A did such an amzing job making something beautiful out of our story.  Oftentimes, I feel like my girls are forgotten.  We have Grant now and people just assume that he fills the hole in our hearts left from the girls.  (All of you that have lost babies know how untrue that is!)  To be able to see my girls pictures and names displayed in a piece of art hanging on a wall in an art competition with thousands of people glancing at it just brought tears to my eyes!  They are not forgotten.  The story of their short lives has now been shared with the world and that makes this mommy so proud of her beautiful little girls! 



 Here are a few pics from our amazing day! 



The story I wrote and shared with you in July!  If you look close, the flowers are made out of the blankets the girls were wrapped in when they were born.



our dear Alexcyn....

Brooke...

one of the only pics we took- there were obviously too many people around to take great pics!

Man, that is one big pig!

and....we're walking!!!

Grant took two steps on his 11 month birthday and then 4 steps a couple days later.  He was still wobbly and leaning forward and would always end a walking attempt by jumping into our arms.  I was pretty sure the only reason he would take steps in the first place was so he could jump when he was done (I have to admit it was pretty cute!)  But, to our surprise the other night he straightened himself up and started walking around the room! 

It is so cute that I just had to share it with you! If you listen closely, you can even hear the purring noise that he makes- he is definitely going to be great at rolling his R's in Spanish class someday!

What time is it????

Game time!

This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending the Notre Dame- Michigan game! It was a cold and rainy day and unfortunately our sitter was not feeling well so we layered Grant up and gave him his first tailgating experience. He enjoyed a stroll around the Notre Dame campus with mom mom and pop pop and  got completely spoiled by Uncle J who gave him one too many cupcakes!  All while J and I enjoyed the festivities inside the stadium. It was an exciting game and we were thrilled that Michigan pulled out a last minute win!

road trip

This last weekend we loaded up the car and took off for a road trip to my cousin's wedding in PA. We had been anxious about this trip all summer due to the fact that G does not like to ride in his car seat and this adventure would require him to be in his seat for 14 hours each way!

We planned to drive at night as much as possible in hopes that G would sleep most of the way. And, we planned a lot of stops along the way. As you can tell, he was not a happy camper when we first took off!

Luckily, he calmed down quickly and slept the whole 5 hours of that journey. We were blessed to spend some time with my aunt C and uncle E where Grant learned to play the piano. He was a natural and I am pretty sure whatever he does in life, music will definitely play a part!

For the second leg of our trip, Grant rode in a front facing seat. We were lucky enough to borrow one from a friend (thanks C!) at the last minute and when I say last minute, I mean the hour before we drove away! Grant did SO good in this seat. He loved being able to see us and watch Baby Einstein and look out the window- this seat was a true lifesaver!

Once we got to the hotel, Grant was on the move. The door was propped open so J could get ice and Grant crawled over to it, opened it and was on his way down the long hallway. He actually went back and forth a couple times- I was exhausted just watching him go...

The next day we were blessed to be a part of two beautiful weddings. Yes, I said two weddings! My cousin's fiance is Hindu so the first wedding was a morning ceremony followed by a brunch with lots of yummy Indian cuisine. I loved the beauty and tradition of this ceremony.

The second wedding was a Quaker ceremony held in a Quaker Meetinghouse. Although this wedding was also deep in tradition, it was the total opposite of the Hindu wedding. The Quaker religion is based on silence so this wedding ceremony was mainly composed of a lot of moments of silent reflection. I loved the beauty and the peace I found in the silence of this ceremony. Grant spent most of the time outside since he does not quite understand the meaning of silence yet!

That evening we enjoyed a delicious dinner at a local winery while celebrating the new couple! Grant did so well considering this was such a long day for him. He napped in his stroller and crawled around in the grass and never even cried once!

We loved introducing our baby boy to all the family that he had not met yet!

We headed home on Monday and although it was a really quick trip, it was so worth it to experience these amazing weddings! Congrats to you E and K- may you be blessed with many happy years together!