Graydon's 1 Year old Photo Shoot

Graydon's 1st Birthday!

Graydon's cute birthday cake! Thanks, Nothing Bundt Cakes!


Presents!



Since Graydon's our 3rd child, there's just not a lot to buy for him, that we don't already have from the older two kids. So I finally settled in on this swing, which will make our swingset more functional this summer with the kids.



On his birthday, I was feeling bad that all we were getting was the swing, so I thought I'd just go buy him a stuffed animal, cause each kid needs their own stuffed animal right? And then Nora Jane would have something to give him. He's been really intrigued by Daniel's basketball, so I thought I'd grab him one of those, and let Tucker give that to him. It made for a stressful day, running around to more stores than I was planning to get these extra toys.







Well I should have stuck with my first thought because Grandma and Grandpa Olson came through with the most darling "Tempurpedic" puppy. And Grandma and Grandpa Pace supplied him with balls of all sizes and colors.

Feel blessed that my kids have both sets of grandparents who love my kids dearly!















Sweet Tucker came up with the idea for this gift all on his own! He called Uncle Stu to help execute the plan....and Uncle Stu came through!







Graydon's own mini-bundt.
















Just love this sweet boy, Graydon. He is so mellow, and calm and patient! (with Nora Jane as an older sibling, he doesn't have much choice but to be patient and mellow.) He smiles when you lay him down to sleep! He has cried once or twice, but it hasn't lasted more than a few minutes. He snuggles like crazy! I sometimes just walk all around the house snuggling him after he wakes up, and avoid sitting down cause I know he'll then want to get down and play. He's turned into quite the speedy crawler lately, and pulls himself up to standing a lot. He loves drawers...and loves to shut his fingers in drawers even more. :) We all love you so much Graydon! Just stay my sweet baby forever!

Bridals

 Michelle had her 3 nieces, and flower girls come to her bridals, in their dresses.  She had them done at the Utah State Capital, the same place I did mine 10 years ago!  While we were there, I thought it would be fun to take a picture of Nora Jane sitting on the same stairs, where I did.

I love Weddings!

Wedding planning has long been a hobby of mine.  So when Daniel's sister Michelle got engaged around Thanksgiving...I was excited!!  I was even more excited when she called the next week and needed help finding shoes to go with her dress.

I immediately went to Nordstrom.com, and to their wedding shoes section.  As I was scrolling through, found these beauties!

I texted it to Michelle, who was super excited about them.  Michelle has never been a very "dressy" kind of girl..so I knew these were the perfect compromise between heels and tennis shoes she would want to wear.  

From here the idea of having all her bridesmaids and flower girls in "toms" and making it a theme in her wedding began.

Unfortunately the dress had already been purchased, and was not long enough for her to wear heals with.  So...I quickly bought these:

Then we got these for the bridesmaids:

And we were going to do little black glitter toms for the flower girls, with purple dresses.  But we ended up going with cream dresses for the girls, so I found these, and said I would embellish them.

Here they are with the embellishments:

Then my cute neighbor gave me the idea of "wands" for the little flower girls.  Michelle wasn't to sold on the idea, cause she's not much of a "princess" type.  But was a good sport and let me make a sample one, she could veto.  Also, I saw some cute glass tile necklaces on pinterest, and thought they'd be cute with the girls' initials.  Here's how it all turned out:

And here are the flower girls, minus Jeff's niece who lives in Texas.

I love weddings!!!

VALENTINE'S DAY

Awesome Valentine's this year! In keeping with the tradition...we spent valentine's day with the Goddard's! First it was dinner at Flemings (which can be hit and miss...but tonight was a definite hit!) and then off to Lady Antebellum!! This was mine and Daniels first BIG concert together..and we loved it. Thompson Square opened. They are married and just dang cute. He got her flowers for Valentine's. Then we got to enjoy some Darius Rucker...who after seeing live I love even more! I love his dancing moves! Then it was Lady A! Loved every minute of it! Thanks Goddards for another great memory!








View from our seats



Thompson Square



Darius Rucker



All of them together!

Graydon at 10 Months

The Nutcracker!

I am so excited to start up "The Nutcracker" tradition in my family this Christmas.  We've decided to make it a girls only tradition!  Nora Jane and I had so much fun.  Grandma Pace joined us this year, and we got all dressed up in our fancy clothes, went to lunch and then down to the Capitol Theater.  Ballet West did not disappoint...and neither did my 3 year old!!

I didn't realize how much I have missed not going to The Nutcracker every Christmas for the last 15 or so years.  I'm so grateful to my Mom for instilling a love of ballet and the Nutcracker in me, and for taking me every Christmas.

Love you sweet Nora Jane and excited to share lots more Christmases at the Nutcracker with you!