Baby Cake Turns One!

Our baby Cake had her first birthday. There was honestly something so emotional about this birthday for me.  I was feeling really sad that my baby was turning one and growing up. I had a lot of emotions thinking back to that fateful night one year ago - being so sick, labor, the specialness of the new baby, etc. And I was so excited to celebrate her. I think because the kids were looking forward to it so much too. I decorated the house in birthday balloons and banners the night before and then I seriously laid awake in bed until about 2am and couldn't sleep. The only thing I can think of for my not sleeping was just being too excited!

I was so sentimental, I even took pictures of the sleeping baby one year from the night she was born. She didn't like the flash in her eyes so much.

We all came down in the morning for a birthday breakfast of pancakes.

This day was especially nice because it was just me and Kate in the morning (never happens) - Brie was at school, Ava at preschool and Zachary at a play date. We played on the floor with her toys together. It was so nice to be with just her on her special day. We didn't get her any presents for her birthday. I just brought up all the toys that were given for one year old birthdays to the other kids from the playroom. Ava's giraffe and Zachary's music table. Perfect. She loved them. 

She got to have a warm, birthday bubble bath all by herself. 

And then a birthday nap. I love that when I put her down to sleep she is so excited to cuddle up in her bed with her blanket and Care Bear. She really does let out a happy squeal and kicks her legs up when she is put in her crib and handed her Care Bear. 

This may seem like cruel and unusual punishment for her, and for me, but on Kate's birthday I took her to have her one year old pictures taken after her nap. She just looked so pretty and I wanted to capture her on that day. All went surprisingly well. She smiled and was happy like she actually enjoyed it.

(These are actually pics on my phone of her and Zach playing in the rocking chairs while we waited.)

 

Birthday dinner was quite a feast. All of Kate's favorites. We invited Evan and Tawna to join us. These are Tawna's favorite foods as well, so that worked out. We had a big pot of Kraft Mac n' Cheese, hot dogs, sliced and peeled pears and a good spinach salad (for the "grown ups").

 After dinner was time for cake! Kate got her very own pink cake to attack. We all had heart shaped red velvet cupcakes. Kate loved digging into her cake. She ate a lot of frosting and left the rest. (I would recommend having Evan around to be a photographer at all upcoming events. He took a picture of every second of this child eating her cake.)

We moved on to the one present of the night. A cute new toy from Grandma and Grandpa Allred. A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Buchanan and Grandma Great for remembering her on her birthday also.

And then our little one year old went off to bed. I can't believe she's grown up so much. We loved her from the moment we met her, but that love has grown immensely in the past year. She makes us so happy. We all adore our "Baby Cakers".

February Fun

So, I sit writing this in the hospital waiting room while Scott is having surgery on his knee. All seems to be going very well.

Even with Scott's gimpy knee, the kids and I have had some good fun in February. It really has turned out to be a lot better than January. It's warmed up, the sun is shining and we are out having fun again.

Swimming

The day Scott hurt his knee in basketball, we had already invited our good friend Jeni and her kids to come down from Ogden to swim with us and do dinner at our house. We were trying to give them a fun, relaxing outing since Jeni's husband has been deployed for the last 6 months. The four hours in the pool were heavenly. The water was warm and the kids played and swam and had such a good time together.

 Ava's "George Washington hair".

 It was fun to swim together, but it turned out to not be so relaxing for poor Jeni. The day ended with her back at our house feeding, bathing and watching her kids AND ours while I took Scott to InstaCare. Thank you Jeni!!!

Children's Museum

Brielle had the day off of school, but none of the other school districts did. Sweet! Perfect day to go to the Children's Museum. And it really was the perfect day. The kids are old enough now that they ran and played together. I just helped Kate around, but the others played free and had the best time!!

 Checking out at the grocery store.

 Kate kept climbing into "the garden". Doesn't look like the easiest place to crawl, does it? 

 These guys played at the water area FOREVER. Loved it!

 Ava picking flowers.

 With a little bit of construction work on the side.

 Look at those drooping pants and his spidey undies. So cute.

 They put on a play of, well I can't remember, but something very dramatic where Brielle was a flying fairy and Zachary and Ava were scary monsters. Typical.

 I loved watching Kate at this piano. She was SO excited. She sat here for a long time and screamed and threw a fit when I took her away. She LOVED playing it and had her little legs kicking in excitement the whole time. 

 Kate taking the farm hands for a ride.

Ice Skating

Brielle and Ava have been wanting to try ice skating. I decided to take them to the rec center ice rink on a Saturday afternoon. We strapped on our skates, walked confidently out on to the ice and immediately clamored onto the wall holding on for dear life. I thought for sure we would never let go of our death grip to the side, but I took Brielle around the rink once holding on to me and then Ava. After that, they both got a little bit braver until they were skating all on their own. Ava still wanted to hold on to my hand tight, but really, she was good. She was really fast. Brielle took off going around and around. She kept saying, "Look Mom, when we got here it was so slippery and now I'm a pro!" We had a blast together.

 After skating we went for hot chocolate and some birthday shopping for Kate. 

Snow Day

Our friend's play group has started up again. Hallelujah! Jen hosted a snow day for the playgroup kids. I don't usually think of going to play at the park when it's snowy, but she taught me different. It was such a good day. We went with our sleds, snow clothes, hot chocolate, cookies and just let the kids play. They loved it!!! 

They went sledding on a little hill (that they could walk up themselves) and then painted the snow with spray bottles. 

Jen even prepared a treasure hunt for them to go find "jewels"  buried in the snow around the park. Here they are studying the map before they take off on in search of the treasure.

It was kind of windy, so we even got out Ava and Zachary's kites. 

Even with all the friends and fun, you won't be a bit surprised to hear that all Zachary cared about were the cookies on the table. He didn't sled, he just stood close by the snack table, eyeing those cookies and then begging for them. The kid is completely obsessed! At this very moment he is laying on the floor in front of me crying and whining for a treat.

The treats definitely kept baby Cakers happy! She was double fisting two suckers!

Surprise from Aunt Jessica
Jessica heard Zachary and Ava fighting while we were on the phone together. She also heard that they often fight when I go try to take a shower and then end up waking up Kate. This usually leads to everyone crying and mad. It's a good time around here. So, one day a package came from Amazon. It was these fantastic mosaic art kits. One for Zachary and one for Ava. To keep them busy while I shower. Thank you to a genius aunt! They worked on these for over an hour - happy and quiet.

Downhill

So you know how I was so optimistic about a new month? That February was going to be so much better than January? Well folks, we made it to the morning of February 2.

February 1 was a glorious day. It was warmish (above freezing). The sky was clear, blue and sunny. The mountains were breath taking. Brielle had a friend over for a fun play date of making Shrinky Dinks.

And our friends called that afternoon to invite us and other friends to join them in a suite they got for the night at the Jazz game. Sweet! 

Then that fateful Saturday morning came. Everyone had their list of Saturday morning jobs to do and were working hard with the "cleaning CD" music blasting. Scott came to me and told me he thought he should go play church basketball with the Elders Quorum. He said it was the last game of the season (he hadn't played any other game), the guys had been texting him to come all morning and he felt like he should support them. So off he went.

And he came home with a very hurt knee. He got "tangled up with some other guy" and they both went down. We weren't sure how bad it was so he continued helping with Saturday morning chores (limping around). But later, he was getting into the van, put some pressure on it and completely collapsed in the seat. He was in intense, excruciating pain. It was so scary. Neither of us knew what had just happened and what to do about it. We went to Instacare which was a big mistake! They said, take some ibuprofen and go see an Orthopedist.

So, on Monday morning we visited the Orthopedist and then an MRI and discovered that Scott had torn his MCL in his knee. He also completely blew out his ACL. He will have surgery February 20 to have a donor ACL replace his. He'll have to do some pretty intense physical therapy and the recovery will take about 9 months.

For now he has a huge brace on his knee and kind of hobbles around the house until his leg hurts too bad or gets swollen and then he has to be down again. I was upset at first about how much this was going to cost (we switched to a high deductible plan last month). Then I was sooooooooooooooo sad that we couldn't go cross country skiing or snow shoeing or hiking for a long time. Now I am realizing that this injury means so much more. It's hard for him to sit all day at work so he feels uncomfortable, sore, in pain, swollen and frustrated all day. It's hard to walk around or go up and down the stairs so he just can't help with the kids and house as much. It's just a bummer all around.

At least he has his Princess pillow. It's the only pillow to elevate him properly. And it's cute and soft.

I feel so bad for him. Poor Scott. It just hurts so bad and he can't do anything. We keep saying though - at least it can be fixed. It will be okay, eventually.