Gordon B. Hinckley Tribute

A woman I visit teach sent me this and I was extremely touched by it. It makes me cry and I am so grateful to have been led by such an incredible man.

Blue-Eyed Birthday Babies

I have been fortunate enough to keep in contact with 4 of the girls I met while in the ward up in the Galleria. We have all since moved from that ward and we all don't live quite as close anymore. We do our best and usually get together about once a month for a play group. Our group is ever expanding with babies babies babies. On Monday, Marci had us all over to her house. In our group there are 3 babies turning 1 within this month. So we decided to have a joint party for all of them. Marci also invited a cute friend from her ward that had a son turning 1 too. All of the sweet babies have very blue eyes. Hence the title of this post. Sorry about all the pictures, they are all just priceless and had to be shared. When we first arrived, all the kids and babies played with toys while us girls talked. Jace is pretending to share with Addie, Marci's baby, in this picture. Doesn't she look so cute. I love her skirt.

Here is Jace, Addie, and Ashley (Stephanie's baby) all playing together. They are so fun.
Marci made them all their own little cake. Two hearts for the girls and two stars for the boys. The bubbles were for the older kids so they didn't feel left out.
We found as many portable high chairs as we could and lined them up on chairs. Mckell and Sheree were so cute to bring little gifts for all the babies.
Before we celebrated with cake, we stripped the babies down to their diapers for quick...or so we though...cleanup. We tried putting birthday hats on them and none of the babies cooperated quite like Addie. Jace was very bothered.
Jace stared at Addie the entire time. I am sure they were all confused about what was happening.

I love this picture of them staring at the candle's.
When we first put the cakes on their trays, Jace looked at it and began eating immediately. Addie gently began touching her sprinkles and very cleanly licked her fingers. William figured everything out pretty quick too. Ashely wasn't so sure about the whole thing until we got her a fork. Then she thought the experience was tasty. So two messy boys and two careful girls.
Being me, I had to try once more to put the party hat on Jace. I thought maybe if he was focused on eating he wouldn't care like he did at his party. Not so much. He started crying and tried grabbing it off his head with a hand covered in frosting.
It didn't take long for Jace to eat his cake. He was shoveling it in by the handfuls while the others were taking there time.

Here is Addie trying to pull off her sprinkles.
Big handul of cake. Notice he is getting messier by the second.

Classic frosting handprint on the head. Yes, his cake is already gone or demolished.
Jace entertaining himself while waiting for the other babies to finish.
I am sure he would have gladly helped Addie finish hers if she had offered it. Instead they both continued their staring match. Check out Marci's blog about her description of this picture. It's perfect!

All done! The older kids like Andrew and Ella (Sheree's and Marci's) kept coming up to me and telling me how messing Jace was. I don't think they could make sense of why he looked like that and the others didn't.

Time to wash it down.
Happy chocolate covered Jace. He enjoyed this experience, particularly without the hat on.

There was no other option but to put the babies in the bathtub afterwards. It was now almost 1 o'clock and Jace had yet to have a nap. He was exhausted and confused about why he was in the tub with 3 babies. I love all their frosting beards.

"A Sweet Treat" for us Both

I love when Jace will cuddle with me. It happens so infrequently that when he does I relish in the moment as long as it lasts. Lately he wants to be held more which I am loving. Here I was relaxing eating some Wheat Thins and he heard crunching which immediately meant someone was eating without him. When he found his way to me, I picked him up and he sat with me for quite a while watching tv and snacking on cracker bits. He loved the new treat, but not as much as I loved holding him.

Best Friends

Annie and Jace have become the best of friends. Anything Jace is doing, Annie wants to do. Here is he showing her outside and telling her how he wishes they could go out more.
Lately Jace will see Annie laying there and go over to lay by her. He puts his head on her tummy or in her face and lays down. "Aaee" always tries to bring Jace toys and he loves to take them and throw them (usually straight down) and gets mad if she doesn't give them back.

Happy 1st Birthday Jace!

Today is Jace's 1st Birthday. His first birthday party was yesterday. He invited some close friends to come watch him eat cake and play with toys. While they were all playing, Jace realized there were presents in the corner and made his way over there quietly and began opening them. His friends were very generous and gave him lots of books and a cute car toy. He loves all of them.

This is the setup on the table before we began. The cake in the middle was an attempt by me to be creative. I am grateful for my friend Becky's help. The next cake is Jace's own cake. Perfect size!

He didn't know what to think at first after blowing out his candle. We all patiently waiting for him to figure out the tasty delight sitting in front of him.

The first few bites were slow and contemplative.

However he quickly figured it out and dove in. There was no stopping him now!

J kept telling me that maybe we should stop him because he was eating so much. I kept putting it off and was busy cutting the other cake when I looked back to find the entire cake either eaten or demolished in some way.

By the way, every one was worried he would be sick because of all the sugar he ate. Not this baby! He was a good boy the rest the day just with a little extra kick to his personality.

Walking

It is official, Jace is walking. Last Friday he started letting go and walking to something if he saw something he wanted. But Saturday he began walking everywhere. He still prefers having his walking toy to push around by if it is nowhere to be found he'll venture out onto his own. At church Sunday he walked the halls over and over again. When he came home, he slept for over 3 hours! If that is what walking does, bring more of it my way. This first movie is Saturday night at our friends the Fitzgibbons. He circled their kitchen island forever and every time he came around the corner he would give a huge grin. He is so proud of himself, and rightly so.

This next video was today, it is hard to get a video when he is walking to you because he gets so excited about reaching you he goes to fast. I love how when he starts walking, he has to make sure someone is watching before he goes too far. I loves encouragement from momma and daddy.

Tonight he is frustrated because he can't figure out how to stand up without holding on to anything. He gets a knee up and then grunts to stand up with no avail.

First Scribble

At church Sunday, I was trying to keep Jace entertained. I found a crayon and gave him the Sacrament Meeting Program to see what he would do. I showed him how to draw and he took it from there. This brown scribble is all his own doing! It was funny to watch him concentrate on his work of art.

Avacado

Jace had some avacado for dinner last night. Some days he loves it like last night and other days he doesn't. He was covered in green in his hair, in his ears, in his nose, etc. He was eating and I turned around to find him grabbing his pacifier off the table and stuck it in his mouth. He looks so cute.

Ee i ee i o

I know every mother thinks their child is a genius....and well...I am no different. For Christmas this year, Nana B bought Jace this shapes puzzle. When he first opened it he didn't seem too interested so I thought maybe it was still way over his head. I didn't try to get him to pay attention to it again until we got home, and almost immediately he put the entire puzzle together. I say, "Jace where does this triangle go?" And he puts it in its place. Amazing kiddo!

As if that weren't amazing enough, his vocalizations have exploded the past few days. Every time he sees our dog Annie he tries to say, "Aaee" or "Daee" for doggy. And just today while we were getting ready for church I was singing Old McDonald Had a Farm Ee I ee I o. He started copying me saying, "Ee Oo way o Ee". He has done it all day now! Sorry if I am bragging, I am just such a proud momma.

Humor at the Expense of a Baby

The past month has been so fun. Jace has grown and developed in so many ways. He loves to copy us, he is trying his best to walk everywhere, and he absolutely loves the bath. Our new thing is to throw the washcloth at him and he always cracks up into the cutest giggle. This picture in particular was taken when I heard JJ laughing at him from the other room. I ran in to find him throwing the washcloth on his face. He would act stunned and then frantically try to pull it off and laugh. I love that you can see his smile underneath. We did it over and over again just to laugh at him.