Celebrations

Last weekend we were able to go up to Fresno to celebrate little man's 1st birthday! We had one party on Saturday at one of my best friends house. It was a little crazy having 4 three year olds running through the house with babies/people everywhere! But, it was so great for Jason and I to see a bunch of our friends. Ryan wasn't so into his party at first, but he did get his first cupcake (and real sugar), and after that, he seemed to enjoy himself. :) Here are a few pics to remember the fun party:

We felt so blessed to have so many family and friends come and celebrate Ryan's first year. With the transition to San Diego, it was so refreshing to be around so many of our loved ones and familiar faces. Thank you so much for celebrating with us. :)

Then on Sunday we had a family party with Jason's side of the family. There are so many that it was so hard to try to have one party, especially inside. So, two it was, and it was great. Heidi made the cutest cake... I'm pretty sure that she's hired as cake decorator for Ryan's life. :) We loved seeing family and being able to catch up and share our little love with those who don't get to see him as often. We received so many great gifts, it was a miracle that we were able to pack them in, but we did. Here are some pics to show the day: 

We praise God for our little blessing. We have loved the first year and looking forward to many more celebrations. :) 

Adventures..

This week I have off....one of the perks of teaching online. We have to meet 4 times a year on Saturdays to have testing, and because of that, the school combines the president day holidays and furlough days to give us 10 days off in a row....loving it! So, my original plan for this week was to be adventurous and go and do the fun things around San Diego that we usually can't find the time for. So, on Saturday, Jason had to work, so Ryan and I went park hunting. I used my GPS and checked out some of the parks by my house...we finally found one that seemed 'baby' friendly. Ryan was able to swing a little bit, which he loved, and then explored the grass. It was a sweet time of just enjoying the sunshine together.

Then on Sunday, Ryan only took a short nap in the afternoon, and since Jason was home and we had just gotten our San Diego Zoo passes, we went!! I am so excited about being able to go to such a cool place whenever we want. Ryan loved it! He loved looking at all the plants and was all squeals when he was watching the monkeys. It was a great day for us to be out as a family. My camera died after the first few pictures, but I did get a few good ones. 

Now, my poor little guy has some sort of cold thing. Not sure what it is, but now we are home, waiting to go to the dr...just playing, reading books and trying to get him well. We were going to go to Balboa Park today because they have free museums on Tuesdays, but oh well....this is the adventure of mommyhood! :) 

For my Valentine.....

This blog post is dedicated to my forever Valentine: my sweet, talented, amazing husband. I have been meaning to brag about him for a while, so I decided today would be a great day, and it's my blog, so I can do what I want. :)

There really isn't a day that goes by that I don't think that I am so incredibly lucky to be married to such an amazing man. There are so many reasons why he is incredible. Here are just a few:

- The night we were married he said that he would do two things every night of our lives together, which are: pray with me, and give me a back massage....and we have been together for 3.5 years so far, and he hasn't missed a night!
- He is passionate: about peace, about God, about justice, and loving others no matter what.
- He is continually striving to be the best man that he can be and is such a hard worker.
- He is humble: something that I truly treasure about him. He always will say sorry if he's done something to hurt me (never intentional), knows that he isn't perfect and admits when he is wrong. 
- He is a servant. Jason is always looking for opportunities to serve me and will jump at the opportunity to serve others. Some practical examples is that he does the dishes for me every night, and is always willing to help out around the house when things are busy.
- He loves life: Jason is joyful, and rarely (if ever) has a downer day. He rejoices in the Lord and life and is so fun to be around. He is constantly dreaming about fun things to do and adventures to go on.
- He loves to learn: the reason why he is in law school, and he is good at it. He is constantly telling me about random news and facts, and usually has an answer for most questions that I have. And if he doesn't he looks it up and wants to know.
- He is one AMAZING daddy: I absolutely love watching Jason and Ryan interact. Jason is so great with just playing with Ryan and loving on him the way a Dad should. Ryan is one lucky boy to have such an amazing role model to look up to.

This Valentines Day I am praising God for the partner that He has blessed me with. It is true that I am falling more in love with him as time passes, and I love the life that we have together. I am thankful that he puts up with me on a daily basis and shows me unconditional love through the good and bad times. I am excited about all that God has for us as a family, and the adventure of life is shared with you. I love you my sweet Valentine! :)

Ryan's 1st Birthday Party

How fun to celebrate one year of life! We had a great day celebrating our little blessing. Here are some highlights:


He opened his very first gift from my sweet Aunt Patrice in Arizona. She didn't tape the paper, so it was easy for him to open, he LOVES books right now, so he was very excited to get a new book. :)

During his afternoon nap, I finished frosting and decorating the his cake. I made a non-sugar carrot cake. I wasn't sure about it, but I knew that I since he hasn't had any sugar, I didn't want to overload him right before bed time. :) I found the recipe on wholesomebabyfood.com, a blog that I have loved and used a lot when I was introducing Ryan to new pureed foods. It was great, a little heavy, and it was more like a carrot bread rather than cake, but he seemed to enjoy it. :) The cream cheese frosting did have a little bit of powdered sugar in it, so he got a little taste :)

I also had fun with a bit of decorating:

 

Since it was a Wednesday night, we invited some of our sweet San Diego friends to come and have dinner and celebrate with us. Having people over was such a blessing to me because the transition from Fresno to San Diego has been hard, but these past few months we have seen that we are forming friendships here, and God is faithful. He does know the desires of our hearts and desires to give us community. We treasure our new friendships. The people who joined us were; the Hiltons:  Jason grew up as a missionary kid with Ann, and when we moved down here, Ann and her husband Michael have been amazing at inviting us over for dinner, to Bible Study and to do things together. They have a sweet little two year old and new baby boy. We are thankful for the times we have with them. We get along with them very well and know that with three little ones, it's always an adventure! :) We also had Derrick and Laurel Miller over. They are our one friends that we knew from Fresno. Laurel has been one of my closest friends since college and she is a treasure in my life, someone who I know I will always be close with. :) Derrick is the Pastor (and our friend from college) of Mosaic, where we are really connecting and loving. Our other new friends are Trevor, Carolyn and their 10 month old daughter Shylah. We are the only ones with babies at Mosaic, so we had an instant connection. We are really enjoying getting to know our new friends and have a great time when we are together.
 

We had a great time and are thankful that we were able to celebrate with friends. Here are a few more pictures of the night: 

The night ended with a fun bath with Ryan's girl: Shylah!

Happy Birthday to our sweet boy! Looking forward to watching you grow into the man that God has created you to be! We love you more than the world!