Blake's First Birthday

On June 15th Blake turned one year old. I, (or rather we), cannot believe he is already 1! Seriously. Where did this past year go?

It was such a fun day couple of days. Since his birthday started showed up on fathers day this year we celebrated the day before with my side of the family. I had originally wanted to have a swim party but couldn't get ahold of the lady whose pool we were hoping to use. And so I just bagged that idea and decided we would just have a water party at Grammie Woods' house. And if the weather was bad we would just hang out. Being June 15th you would think the weather would be nice and warm. WRONG! Hello Heidi, we live in UTAH. It turned out to be too cold for water but not too cold for a cake smash outside. There definitely was a chill in the air. So it worked out that I couldn't get the pool scheduled.

We just hung out at my moms with my side of the family. And honestly I wouldn't go back and change it. I am glad I didn't have to stress about keeping everyone entertained. It was so laid back. Blake played with his cousins and had a blast. Win Win. Later afternoon came and we finally did his cake smash. He didn't really get into the cake. I was shocked. But it was still fun to have his own two layered cake. We then opened a few presents from Mom and Dad and Grammie and played some more. 

On his actual birthday…we slept in and ate breakfast then got ready for church. Since it was Fathers Day, it made it quite convenient for Micah's family. Two celebrations in one. It made it kind of interesting though. I won't lie. I didn't want to take over the party to celebrate Blake's birthday, and I didn't want to not celebrate fathers day. What do you do? So we first gave Gary his presents and then we celebrated Blake's birthday. And he got to smash another cake. I shouldn't say smash though because I think he got more into it the day before then on his actual birthday. But thats ok. It was still fun. And I would do it all over again. Although now, He would totally devour that cake. He has since discovered sugar and how great it is. He got some more toys from us and Grandpa and Nana and even Uncle Eric and Aunt Annamarie and their boys!

Blake I cannot believe you are really one year old. I won't sugar coat it, This first year was a hard one. Over all it was really easy. But it was hard for me for the first four months when you took 45 minutes to nurse. I thought it would never end. I didn't like being cooped up in the bedroom all alone waiting for you to eat. Falling asleep, trying to wake you back up. Repeating this every two hours. Eventually you cut your time in more than half. In fact down to ten minutes. There were times when you would scream for 30 minutes and wouldn't calm down. Eventually we figured it out together and you turned out just fine. You nursed every two hours until you turned one. Even when you were eating solids. You hardly every slept through the night. And still don't here and there. You always end up in bed with us come 6:30 or 7 am. I hated nursing at the time but now that its done I'm kinda missing it. Your personality grew SO MUCH. I can't believe it. I am lucky enough to be able to be married to your father, who like me, sees it important to have me stay home with you all day everyday. I am so glad I was able to see your first rolling over, sitting up, crawling, standing on your own, step, etc. To be able to teach you things. I am so lucky. We may not be living in the most ideal place, (G and G Moellers apartment.) but I wouldn't change it. We know it won't be permanent but just till Daddy finishes school. Sure, you may still be in our bedroom. But at least our needs are met.

You make us so happy Blake and we love you with all our hearts. I am amazed at how strong your immune system is. In one year of life you only got sick with a cold twice. And one of those times you got sick because I had a cold. I gave it to you. I hope this shows that you will always have the strength you need not only physically but mentally, to get through this life Heavenly Father has blessed you with. I hope you always stay close to the spirit as you have this past year since you enter your mortal life. Its not and easy thing these days and you have to be careful in your choices. I hope you understand how important it is to put the Lord first before others at all times. Even when you may want to choose your friends first instead. YOU will be much happier and better off if you always choose the right. DON'T every forget that. We love you Blake with all our hearts.

Dare Devil

One Day I looked up and this kid was out of his high chair and on to the kitchen table. And yes I took time to take a picture before I pulled him down. Go ahead. Call CPS. Just Kidding. But sometimes this kid is a dare devil and other times he is such a scaredy cat. You never know what will freak him out and what will not.

Those Cookies

And this kids love for sugar.

I'm telling ya. He really is a spoiled rotten little boy. Especially since he knows hot to already work the system. 

Windows

This kid LOVES windows. OR maybe its him dreaming of being outside. Either way he flocks to them. even the big glass doors at church in the foyer. Sometimes I really think he might be a bad little boy just so he can go look out them. 

One Day

I thought I would let Blake "cry it out" at nap time. I decided I would get in the shower and get ready. I even gave Grandma Moeller a haircut during this time. It was a hour total and this is what he gave back to me. The contents of his crib thrown out and in a pile. At least it was a nice pile and not chucked across the room. Which at his young 11 month old age, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. That kid has some serious muscles and a good arm. And I'm not just saying he has muscles. I am dead serious. I could hold him at his ankles and he could fully support himself on his arms. his strength has always been amazing to me. 

He eventually won and I went in when I peaked in and saw him standing with his arms resting on the side of the crib and him randomly crying out for 10 seconds at a time and eyes slowly shutting. I layer him down on the bed and within 3 minutes he was out like a light. And I laid him in his crib and he took a two hour nap.

Swimming

This kid is lucky and go a little kiddie pool. He HATED it at first but warmed up just fine. And eventually braved the ice cool water. 

 He would have to swim with his binki in. 

Cute little nugget.

Never A Dull Moment

When your married to this guy. Blake and I went out and watched Micah mow back and forth one morning and Micah whipped out these poses a couple times. 

At the end Micah took Blake for a little ride on Micah's way back to put the mower back in the garage. I have to say I was shocked Blake wanted to go to Micah. I thought for sure Blake would freak out but he loved it.

Forget Me Nots

In our yard, we have a ton of this cute little flowers in the spring. They cover our flower beds from front to back. I took this photo and was quite proud of it. It reminds me of President Uchtdorfs talk.

Cousins

When you have a cousin that would rather push a "walk" then ride in it, you take full advantage. We went fishing one night and "R" wouldn't ride in the stroller so I put Blake in for "R" to push. Well he was fine with that for a minute.

 And then this face resulted. And we sent him back to Grammie.

And then Blake did this when "D" started pushing him. And then he got his way and was held the rest of the way back to Grammie.

Spoiled rotten little punk

Mean Mom

A little while back I bought some fudge stripes cookies. I should have known better. I chose to eat one in front of a little someone. That was a bad idea. Because this was the result. 

He did his usual hand out, with his palm up, and his little "uh uh uh uh uh" until you give him a bite or drink of whatever he wants. Well I said "nope, sorry. I'm not sharing." 

And that face was the result. Big alligator tears streaming down those cheeks and all. 

And I never gave in. Until the next time I ate a cookie. Then he got his very own. And I never said no again. And I became the favorite mom again. ;)

Fishing Family

We are a fishing family. Micah grew up fishing. I grew up fishing. We both LOVE it. I love that Micah has picked up fly fishing so he can fish with my brothers. I love to fish but don't actually fish much anymore but rather go and sit by the river. Its relaxing and I enjoy it. One night we decided to go to Wasatch State Park Pond to fish. Its like literally 2 or 3 minutes from our home. We loaded up Micah's fishing bin, the stroller, fishing poles, yes one for me and one for Micah, crackers and of course Blake. Well we put the poles in the back seat with Blake and he found them. He started waving them around like crazy and whatnot. It was hilarious to watch. He even fell asleep with a death grip on one. Micah said he is just practicing his casting. I couldn't agree more. 

Two Months Too Long

Yup two months since I last posted. I will officially say that I give up on trying to stay on top of posting. If it happens it happens. If not I will get to it when I get to it. I"m not going to stress over getting to it and then never do it. And keep on nagging at myself to get it done. But I have been behind in getting it done lately because I got a new phone and I have not gotten around to putting the photos on the computer from my old phone and whatnot. Blake fell asleep early tonight so I am taking full advantage of the quiet time to at least blog about him turning 1 year old! SO here come the posts.

11 Months

I can't believe Blake will be 1 year old next month. This has been the fastest year of my life. This kid is so much fun. He currently is--

-Standing without support

-getting into things when he knows he isn't supposed to. And if you call out his name he will jump and drop whatever is in his hands and look completely innocent. 

-started to finally sleep better at night and I really hope he keeps it up (knock on wood)

-looks older then he really is. I saw a baby this weekend that is a week older then Blake and the baby looks like a 6 month old still. 

-Still tall and thin.

- Still loves to self feed.

-Would eat a village if I let him.

-loves Ritz Crackers. I made the mistake of giving him these and He won't snack on much more now. 

-drinks out of a straw.

-I can tell his imagination is growing.

-Happiest in the mornings.

-loves to take the cap of the baby food jar and put it on and pull it off while being fed. And he even gets it on so well that all I would have to do is just twist it to close the jar. I wouldn't have to straighten the lid at all. 

-loves to hold things and study them and how they move. 

-still only has those two bottom teeth.

-started to scream to get your attention if he wants something i.e. more food, but doesn't have your attention already. 

-hates getting into his infant carseat but loves to get into his rear facing one. He even tries to turn around so he can see in front of him. 

-hates having shoes on his feet.

-shakes his head both yes or no at the correct times. Today he went to follow the cleaning lady around while she was here and I said "Blake no come back." and he looked back and me and shook his head yes and proceeded to crawl away. I also gave him a cracker and as he was eating I said "Does that taste good?" and he nodded and smiled at me like "oh yes!"

He is just so smart and I"m sure he will outsmart me soon. We love this little guy and can't imagine life without him. 

To infinity and Beyond

Whenever I hold Blake till he falls asleep and then go lay him down…he instantly lays in this position. While he is looks as though he is jumping on the moon. I didn't even think about the fact that he is in astronaut jammies in this picture. ha! I wonder what he was dreaming about.

This kid

Will put his mouth on anything. He has no concept of germs. And for being a germaphobe myself, you would think I would be worried about it. But I'm not. And I think this is why he has only had two small colds and thats all he has been sick. I let him drag his binky on the ground when he crawls. I didn't worry about families hands being clean when they held him when he was a newborn. (had he been born during RSV season it would have been different.) Sometimes little things just aren't worth stressing over. :)

Grandpa Moeller

About a week or two ago Grandma Moeller pulled out Grandpa Moeller's baby picture. You now know where Blake gets his smile from. I think Blake is a spitting image of Grandpa Moeller after seeing this picture. Others however think he looks like Grandpa Woods still. I guess its those German genes coming from both the Moeller and Woods side.

The river

I was raised in a fly fishing family. And I'm glad Micah loves to fish and picked up and enjoys fly fishing because there is nothing quite like going and sitting beside the river while he fly fishes along side my brothers.

Snowbird

Micah's parents bought a timeshare up at snowbird back when they first got married. They let the kids use it now. We were lucky enough to be able to go up the Friday after Micah got done with the semester and spend the night. And while these are the only photos I took…they were probably the only ones I needed. All though a video of Blake in the pool would have been fun. Before we headed up to the bird we stopped to get a floating device for Blake for the pool. As we were walking into Wal-Mart Blake had his feet crossed of course. He always has his feet like this when he is relaxed. It is so funny. And I never get a picture. So I snatched this one while he was still asleep in his carseat. 

We put Blakes swimming suit on him so we could head down to the pool. This just validates to me that he is in fact a skinny little bean. This swimming suit is size 12months. Long and thin is how we like them though. 

And the third picture is Blakes bed. Yes you read right. His bed. We opted out of taking the pack n' play figuring we could just put blake on the floor. He doesn't move much at night so we figured this would work great. And plus he would probably end up in bed with us half way through the night. Well I am happy to report he slept better that night then he had in a long time. We thought we were pretty genius to come up with this. So now you know. You never have to worry about a pack n' play at the bird. :)

Summer Time

I just think flip flops on a babies feet is just about the cutest thing ever. So I had to snatch some up for Mr. Blake when I saw them in his size.

Standing

A little while ago someone decided it would be fun to start standing without support.  He gets better all the time. But still seems to get scared after about a minute of it. The other day this little skunk decided it would be cool to try and stand up on his own without grabbing onto anything and using it to help balance himself. He didn't get very far though. Only about 3 inches off the ground before he decided he can wait longer. I agree.