My 1 year old

I am nearly speechless, I still can't believe our baby boy is 1. It's been a year since we checked into the hospital, giddy & anxious to meet our little kicker. One year since I became a mom and Ty a dad. One year of growth, milestones and love.

We celebrated Van's birthday the day before we left for California and the theme was balloons, and they were everywhere! The Stucki's came up, we opened presents and ate cake. It was very low key, but it was perfect. Van got to have his own cake that he gladly tore into & squished between his fingers. It was a good birthday, but the next one doesn't need to come quite so fast!

March Update

Another busy month for us: we put an offer in on a house that was accepted, so we'll be closing on it in the beginning of April, we went on a vacation to Southern California with the entire Stucki family, Van turned ONE YEAR OLD, and finally got his first real hair-cut.


In California, we went to Six-Flags where Tyler hung out with Van on the kiddie rides while I rode as many big coasters as I could. We spent a cold and windy day at the beach, where the elements could not hider Van's enjoyment. And we spent a few days at Sea World. We loved seeing the shows and the tide pools as well as all the other fun exhibits there.
I trimmed his bangs in the beginning of the month, but we ended up shaving his hair at the end of the month. I'll post some after pics another time.
You know our kid is always up to something crazy, so here's his latest: "riding" on the vacuum is his newest favorite activity. He slings the cord around and jumps on top of it like he is actually riding a horse.

Get set- GO!

Ok, I have been a major slacker on the whole blogging thing- blame it on Facebook. Actually, you can blame it on the fact that my kid has skipped learning how to walk and suddenly started running at full speed towards the beginning of Fevruary. These blury pictures are the best I have managed to capture. (these are with the camara on "sports" mode!)

This last pic, I was able to get him to stop for a treat for a split second. When I can get him to stay in one place, my favorite thing is still to get as many cuddles and kisses planted on him as possible before he takes off again. I spend most of the day just trying to keep up with him and clean up the mess he leaves in his trail, but I still I happen to think he is the cutest kid on the planet!

Aloha

Let me explain: My grandparents own a condo in Maui & when we had the business, we bought everything on an air-mileage credit card, so we had a lot of points that needed to be used. So we headed off on December 31st for a nearly free trip to Maui. Tyler & I have been there once before for our 1st anniversary & we celebrated our 3rd there this year. The best part of the whole trip was Vander, of course. To babies, the world is such an incredible place filled with the most amazing stuff that adults constantly take for granted. Like sand and water- Van spent hours every day plowing through the sand, sifting it though his fingers, tasting it, throwing it, filling things up with it & finding things in it. The only thing better than sand was water. He would splash and laugh, kick and smile the whole time- no matter how cold it was. (Only the pool & waterfalls were actually chilly.) We got to see tons of whales & their babies jumping and splashing. We spent almost every day at a different beach, we went scuba diving for the first time, boogie boarded, hiked through bamboo forests to hidden waterfalls, snorkled and had a blast! By the end of the trip we were excited to get home & get back into the "real world", but it was a wonderful trip.

Tha Magic of Christmas

There is nothing like an awestruck baby to bring back that incredible feeling of magic in the air at Christmastime. I have to admit that over the years Christmas has fallen on my list of favorite holidays to almost the bottom. In my defense, I feel like it has been too commercialized & my family has been so blessed that finding something we need or even want is often a huge challenge. There was even a guy in our ward who spent all winter looking for a Nativity to put in his yard. He finally found one in Utah, but he was really disappointing that nobody sells them. This year was different because Van was captivated by every sound and sight of the season. It reminded of why I used to love it so much & I nearly forgot all the reasons why I have less than wonderful feelings about Christmas. He didn't understand anything that was happening, but he didn't care either. He knew there was something magic about Christmas and I had the most wonderful holiday this year because of him!