It's my party and I'll cry if I want to

Hayden turned 1 on June 11th. We had a little get together on my side of the family on his birthday and then on Father's day we had a party with Andrew's side. Hayden was pretty spoiled and I'd love to say that he enjoyed his parties and had so much fun with his cake and presents, but that was not the case. . .

 Having barrels of fun!

A few days before his birthday he was being really grumpy and so my first instinct now is to check his mouth. Sure enough, more teeth! After these ones come through he'll have a mouth full of 12. He has been teething since he was 6 months and it has been non stop. So for his party he wasn't too excited and didn't have that much fun because he didn't feel too well. But we had fun preparing and being there at least.

His 1st sucker. Gnawing those teeth through.



As I'm doing this post I'm really realizing that his party was really for Andrew and I. It stared with his cakes. Andrew requested that I make a cake related to hunting. So this is what I came up with.

Yeah, not very age appropriate at all! But anytime that Andrew would draw a deer for his nephew, Easton, this is what he would draw and so that is where my idea came from. I used edible sugar paper and traced the deer and then kinda winged the cross hairs. I dyed the coconut green for grass and then mixed up a hunter orange for the writing. I was pretty excited it turned out. Again, not for Hayden's benefit, but my own. We're horrible parents!

For Hayden's cake, that he was supposed to dig right into, I made a target. I was thinking of him and made it with rainbow chip cake and frosting. And tons of it! I'm thinking that was what made him mad.

Maybe the 2 year old birthday we'll try it again.



Andrew and I got this for him. While testing it out he got stuck. Things weren't going his way. . .



My dad was not feeling very good, but still came. After looking at all these pictures it looked like everyone was sickly! Ha! We're a lively group.

Em and Trent gave Hayden this gerble that is kinda freaky I'm not going to lie, but Hayden loves him and when we say "go get Gerald" he goes over picks him up and gives him a kiss. He's now our new family pet.



Hayden has been changing so much lately and learning new things. Here are a few things that he's been doing. Some of which make us laugh a lot:

*He does a fish face when we ask him to
*When we ask him to close his eyes he looks up and rolls then in the back of his head and then kinda blinks. It's hilarious and it kinda looks like he's having some type of mini seizure
*When we sing the song where the alligator snaps the monkeys out of the tree he'll "snap" his hands down before we do
*Blows kisses
*Knows where his ears and eyes are
*Does several different waves that are hilarious
*Isn't talking unless you wanna count "Oooh" and "Yeah". He usually points while saying them
*Is still being a big chicken with walking. Has taken steps but would rather crawl. It was my personal goal to have him walking by at least a year, and when that didn't happen I decided he'll do it when he wants. Everyone says that the later they walk the better coordinated they are, well my take on that is they tell parents that because they want to make them feel good cuz their kid isn't walking. We'll see. But he can throw a ball really good. So maybe he'll be a little jock :)
*Is STILL taking 2 naps a day 2hr at a time and sleeping 12 hours at night! When I scheduled his year checkup I set it for the morning because I though he'd not be taking a morning nap by then but nope he's still going strong and I'm not complaining!
*Always goes on tip toes to give me a kiss before I get him out of his crib. I love it.
*Doesn't take a bottle anymore. We weren't able to even finish all of his formula. After we gave him real milk (or should I say a milk shake! That stuff is so thick!) in a cup the formula was history. We're really thankful that he has never been attached to anything. A binkie, blanket, bottle, stuffed animal, nothing. However, he is getting more picky to who he goes to which is kinda annoying.
*His favorite thing to eat is definitely strawberries and grapes. I'm not kidding he could eat a whole flat if I let him
At his check up he had to get the dreaded 1 year old shots and that is never fun. He did good and didn't get any rashes or crazy things from them. His stats were:

Weight: 21 pounds (17%) ish
Height: 29.5 inch (40 %) ish  --  I can't read their graphs they measure in kg and cm and the graph is by these dots and it's just stupid. What happened to the american pound and inch???

He was eating toast the other morning and a little piece stayed on his chin. It looked like a little goatee. Love him!

Still a small little guy but the doctor says that he's growing normal and that's all we can ask for. We're so glad we have our little man. We don't know what we did without him!

Things that matter most. . .

As soon as Hayden was sitting in his high chair I was teaching him to fold his arms during the prayer. I knew he had no clue or concept of what he was doing at the time. That started when he was 4 months. There were times that I thought: Gosh, this is pointless to keep having him fold his arms at every meal when he doesnt know what's going on. But when he did this for the first time on his own at 11 months. . . it made me cry.

I know I will teach him a lot of valuable things to come, but this is the thing I am most proud of so far. I know that if he learns to pray to our Heavenly Father at this age how blessed he'll be to be able to rely on him his whole life.
I am so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. It is such a strength to be able to rely on it to teach my little family. I would be lost without it. I'm thankful that I can pray to a Heavenly Father that I know listens and hears me. I have such a testimony of prayer and the power of it. I hope I can always lead by example in showing my kids to pray.
I read this talk by Julie B. Beck and it's from the October 2007 General Conference. It's great but I love this part most. It was a great reminder to me, as a mother, of what really matters.

"Mothers who know are leaders. In equal partnership with their husbands, they lead a great and eternal organization. These mothers plan for the future of their organization. They plan for missions, temple marriages, and education. They plan for prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. Mothers who know build children into future leaders and are the primary examples of what leaders look like. They do not abandon their plan by succumbing to social pressure and worldly models of parenting. These wise mothers who know are selective about their own activities and involvement to conserve their limited strength in order to maximize their influence where it matters most.
Mothers who know are always teachers. Since they are not babysitters, they are never off duty. A well-taught friend told me that he did not learn anything at church that he had not already learned at home. His parents used family scripture study, prayer, family home evening, mealtimes, and other gatherings to teach. Think of the power of our future missionary force if mothers considered their homes as a pre–missionary training center. Then the doctrines of the gospel taught in the MTC would be a review and not a revelation. That is influence; that is power."  Julie B. Beck