It's A Muppet Birthday Party

For Roan's First Birthday we threw him a Muppet themed birthday. I had a Muppet Baby Shower so naturally he got a Muppet 1st Birthday. It turned out amazing, more amazing than I ever dreamed. Special thanks to Lars, my Mom, sister, & friends Marly & Aaron for helping making it possible. And for Lars's family for assisting in the clean up. 

Here is what went down. Everything had to do with The Muppets and I started planning this in October. Each week I did something birthday party related so I wouldn't get stressed out the day off. I scaled back a number of times in the process but it was still so amazing. I got a lot of the ideas from various websites and just pulled a little of this and that together from each one to mash it together into this...

Decorations: 

I used some decorations from my baby shower, a banner and signage that Marly made. The color skeme was centered around this. I also printed a ton of Muppet pictures and had them spread throughout the venue. 

I had a cool welcome sign, that we didn't take a pic of. And then as people left I had this sign on the door. It had quotes from these characters about how the show stinks, LOL. 

Food:

All the food had signage right next to eat to tie it in with The Muppets. 

Plus we had really yummy cupcakes that my Mom made with her super delicious special frosting. 

Cake balls that my sister and mom helped me make and decorate. I was given a babycakes cake pop maker for Christmas and that sped things up. These were really really really yummy. I had like 10 of them. 

Activities: 

My fabulous sister in law had a booth for face painting and she created Muppet/Sesame Street characters. They were awesome. 

I also had a color station where kids could color Muppet pages and faces to put on sticks for a puppet show. There was also a fold your own Muppet that I got off the Disney website. 

Then I had a Fozzy Bears joke shop photo booth. I did not get a picture of the table but I had various props; rubber chicken, Muppet glasses that I made, large bow, green wig, giant flower, mustaches, whoopie cushion that my sweet nephew begged to take home (his parents must love me, hey I am a cool Aunt, what I can say), a large hat,  just a bunch of goofy stuff. I had a backdrop set up that I made out of Muppet pictures and balloons. Each guest will be sent a picture from the booth as a thank you card. (Still working on getting these out). 

Here are just a few fun pics from the photo booth

Epic fail to get all the kids in one shot

 Kermit so made an appearance

 Anaheim Ladies yo

 Cake Balls Rock!!

Everything was a hit and worked out better than ever. My niece and nephew were the first to arrive and they totally picked up on what I was trying to do. My nephew played with the rubber chicken in the puppet theatre and was having a ball. Success!!! Kids are awesome!!

I made a 3-tiered cake for Roan to dig into. He was taken back by all the singing and would only dig into the cake if he was on my lap. He was so sweet and gave me his first bite from his cake. Eventually he got comfy and made a mess. We cleaned him off in the sink and he loved it. 

On the invitation I suggested in lieu of gifts to consider donating to Roan's mission/college fund. I was nervous about this at first but it went over pretty well and thanks to everyone's generosity we have a great start on his fund. 

We had a wonderful time and appreciate all who came out and all the well wishes from those who couldn't make it. I was so happy during his party and totally crashed afterwards. I think his next few birthday will be super low key until he is like 5 and then we can really go crazy with sleep overs and stuff. 

Here are more fun pics from the party:

Having a dance off 

 Smiling painted faces

 FaFa Madesen 

Look at all that snow. I need to note that Aaron helped shovel snow around the clubhouse which was the second time in his life he has ever shoveled snow. 

Roan reading a card out loud

The birthday cake

Sharing his first bite

 The Mess

 

The clean up. This kid loves water faucets so much. 

12 Months

Roan is 1 Year Old!!!!!!

This will be my final monthly update. After this I will give Roan updates as needed or when he does something really cute. I will be sure to post at least a 6 month update.

Weight: 23 lbs

Height: 32 inches

Just before his birthday he had another massive growth spurt. After each growth spurt he is wobbly as he gets used to his new body. It took him a day to get used to his height. He was walking fast towards a table that he used to easily walk under and totally clothed lined the top of it when his head ran into it. He fell down and didn't cry just shook his head and composed himself and got back up.

He is so cute when he walks and falls he gets back up by sticking his butt in the air on all fours and walks his way up with his hands. He is an excellent walker. It is his preferred method of travel. He still crawls but only out of convenience. When he started to walk he walked like Frankenstein and had his shoulders up to his neck and he arms out in front of him. Now he tries to get some speed. 

His reach is even father. He can now grab stuff off the counter as I am cooking which gave us a few scares. He loves to pick up larger awkward items and carry them around. His favorite items have been a tennis racket and a box.

He is a good eater. I am getting tired of buying baby food to subsidize his regular meal so we are quitting that cold turkey. We are giving him more adult food and he is doing really well with eating. Still picky with some types of fruit but he likes everything else. He loves to play with his food too. He will pick up some items and pretend to drop it while chanting at it but then never let it go out of his hand. He still tosses food onto the floor to watch it fall. And he loves to slide his food around on his tray. He loves to share his food and hand you things too. 

I have commenced weening. He is already drinking milk and I am just working on weening him off the night feeding. He is sleeping better. Slowly but surely. A few nights he only wakes up once or not all but then we still have a bad night when he is awake for up to 2 hours or will only sleep in your arms or won't go back down without being swaddled. He was getting a good groove on and then just after his birthday he started teething again. He only gets up once to feed and then most of the time goes right back down. Any advice on how to skip this midnight snack? I don't mind it but I wonder if I just cuddle with him will he go back to sleep or does he have to drink something. 

Oh this milk is really good...what did you say was in it...nevermind.

He is smarter than people think he is. He totally understands us when we say certain things to him. I think I will get him an etch-a-sketch soon so he can practice playing with the pen. I was playing with one at a friends house and he totally was all over it. Plus he has a shape sorter toy and he loves to push the shapes in the box. Roan can also wave goodbye and he waves his hands around to music. He still grunts when you talk to him. I have a cool video of how he plays and laughs when people sneeze. 

He likes to play with his tongue, and yours still. I will catch him sticking it out and wiggling it and making weird shapes with his lips. Speaking of lips he still likes to kiss but he is learning to kiss on the lips. He still won't pucker his lips. So when he kisses us he just opens his mouth and gives you a wet opened mouth kiss. He is so funny. Whenever he sees Lars and I kiss he wants in on it.

He loves to gabber and we are learning what some of his gabber means. NANANANA means no. He has other squels and he is using his hands and eyes to express what he is trying to get across.

He knew exactly what to do with the toy phone

. He is also mimicking what we do. The other day after dinner I put my hands behind my head and then he did the exact same thing. If you cough he will cough too. Silly kid.

Being a new parent has been quite an experience. A lot of it is just learning to get over your nervous boundaries that you put on yourself. When I think back on certain things I laugh at how silly I was but at the time it seemed so life and death. It has really put me out of my zone at times but I have been better for it. The best part has been seeing all the simple wonders around me that as an adult I take for granted. I love being a Mom....no I love being ROAN's MOM. 

Loves bath time. 

Playing with his friend Dane at the Mall. 

Roan in a Year

Bluest eyes+Big feet+Long torso+5 hair cuts (lots of blonde hair)+8 teeth+best friend Dane+sweetest laugh+walking dude+most precious smile+so much more=Roan Year One

Newborn

 

 1 Month

 2 Month

3 Month

 4 Month

 5 Month

 6 Month

7 Month

 8 Month

9 Month

 10 Month

11 Month

12 Month

Am I Out of This Rain Yet?

This is another one of those honest emotional posts of mine. I wish I could tell you I am at the tail end of all this but I am not really sure. So bear with me or move on.

The first few weeks of the year have been so tough on me emotionally. I am not really even sure why. I have all sorts of reasons to be normal and happy but these hormones of mine keep raging and I have been trying to get to the bottom of it. As I have been thinking it over I have tried to understand my depression I have figured out the process my emotions take me on.

First, something sets me off inside. It can something big, like a heated argument with someone that leaves me unsettled. Or something small, like getting cut off while driving. Then I am sent into a whirlwind of thoughts about how dumb I was to get cut off in the first place and I am worthless blah blah. Stupid right. Lately it has been coming out of nowhere. Then, I go into what I call zombie mode and I am completely numb to everything around me yet I live and act like things are fine and go through the motions. When I think about it I am pretty surprised that I even get out of bed in the morning when in this mode. That tells me that there is still something strong inside of me. I just need to unveil it. Zombie mode last a few days and as I slowly wake up from it I feel normal and can't believe that that was even me at all. Life goes on I feel pretty good and then something sets me off again. Now that I recognize this process, or re-recognize as I am pretty sure I figured this out months ago but it creeped up on me again in a new form, I have been trying to redirect my thoughts or attitude when "that" incident happens to set me off into the zombie mode. I don't care for who I am in zombie mode. I want to be alive and partake of the relationships, moments, and beauty around me.

I think I have mostly been freaking out that this depression thing is returning but with a vengeance  I have no shame returning to a counselor or even considering drugs again. I am just mad because I thought I was getting past this and returning to the up and up. I have also been upset that I am not a stay at home Mom yet and it makes me mad to see other stay at home Moms working it. I don't hate them, it just gets me worked up that I am not there yet. This is the issue I need to get over, honestly. I figured we would move back to Utah and it would all work out within months. And it hasn't and that is nobody's fault but life and I need to frankly suck it up and get over it and enjoy my life now and when it is time for that it will happen and I know it will be the right time. That really, when I think about it, has been the story of my life. I want it now, but Heavenly Father knows the right timing and I just need to trust him. I am trying to deepen my testimony of the atonement for this and it is really hard. Often times I feel so alone in this process when I know I am not. This is seriously the hardest thing I have even gone through. This little boy makes me so happy and yet I am so miserable from all the roller coaster of the emotions.

With all that out in the open here is what I have concluded to do to try and weather this storm a little further. I have talked with a few close friends, Lars, and my Mom about this. And the feedback I am getting is that I more or less need to live in the moment now rather than worry about the future and what I don't have. If I continue to focus more on the future I will miss out on some fun stuff right in front of me.  I was referred to this blog post about drops of awesome and have reread it over and over. It has helped train my mindset to look at what I am doing right rather than what I am not doing.

I am making more of an effort to enjoy my job and make friends at work and at church. When I started working in Utah I had the attitude that it was only temporary so who cares, I checked out of the career Stephanie and just want my paycheck so I can go home. I stopped taking pride in my work and went through the motions. The last few weeks I have actually been trying to learn all the new stuff my job has to offer. It has been fun and I feel good about the work product I produce. Plus I am getting to know some of my coworkers and they ain't too bad. The other day I had a girl moment with one of then as we thanked each other for working hard that day and expressed the fun groove we had. Regarding making friends at church...I had low LOW expectations moving into this ward. I had been here before and the last experience wasn't the best. There are a few ladies my age but we are all on different levels within our lives. I didn't think I fit in. However, they all thought different and have been reaching out to me. I had a lot of ladies from the ward leave kind notes and cookies the week, yep entire week of my birthday. I am gonna try and let them in. If I don't I could be missing out on a possible friendship.

I am still being a kick-A Mom. Just because I am not at home to play games or teach him all that I could do during the day doesn't mean I can't at night. We still have fun and if we don't have time to do things I pass them on to his Grandma, our sitter, and she is kind enough to follow through on them and report back. She is amazing and he loves her so much. I take a lot of comfort know that he is in good hands while we are at work and am confident in her ability to love and take care of him. Both of our families are a huge support in helping with Roan while we both work.

Those are a few thinks I have been working on the last few weeks of the month and it has gotten better. Yeah, my situation hasn't changed because of it. I still have tough moments. But I am happier inside for trying and that is starting to show on the outside again. Which is what I want. People tell me I am so happy and spread the joy just by being in the room. Sometimes I don't think I am doing very well with that but slowly I am getting back to a more confident spontaneous Stephanie that I know and love.

I want to leave you with this song and a story about how I discovered this song. During one of my recent zombie days I decided to let the universe speak to me. I was feeling so alone and begging The Lord for some answers and help. I decided to turn off my music player and just let the radio tell me what was up. This actually is a fun game to do in Utah because they ONLY play Maroon 5, Kesha, Justin Beiber, and a few local bands on the radio. I am not joking. It is seriously just an annoying rotation of those songs. During my experiment I heard some different songs for a change, mostly Katie Perry's apart of me and some other stuff. to pump me up but I still wasn't feeling it. Then on the way home from work I tuned into a country station and heard this song. I was crying by the end of it. Heavenly Father does love us and though our trials seem never ending and are hard and we feel alone we are not alone and these trials will be a memory eventually. Through him we will be made free. In the mean time I hope I can do my best to weather the storm and not waste anymore time feeling miserable. I love you all. Thank you for the love and support.

Here is the video


Here are the lyrics:

                                                 "Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain)"

So you're standing in the middle of the thunder and lightning
I know you're feeling like you just can't win, but you're trying
It's hard to keep on keepin' on, when you're being pushed around
Don't even know which way is up, you just keep spinning down, 'round, down…

Every storm runs, runs out of rain
Just like every dark night turns into day
Every heartache will fade away
Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain

So hold your head up and tell yourself that there's something more
And walk out that door,
Go find a new rose, don't be afraid of the thorns
'Cause we all have thorns
Just put your feet up to the edge, put your face in the wind
And when you fall back down, keep on rememberin'

Every storm runs, runs out of rain
Just like every dark night turns into day
Every heartache will fade away
Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain

It's gonna run out of pain
It's gonna run out of sting
It's gonna leave you alone
It's gonna set you free
Set you free

Every storm runs, runs out of rain
Just like every dark night turns into day
Every heartache will fade away
Just like every storm runs, runs out of rain

It's gonna set you free,
It's gonna run out of pain,
It's gonna set you free