Birthday Party - part 2 & 3

Even though we know that A-man won't remember his first birthday we still wanted to do something special to celebrate his first birthday. So we combined it with our Easter dinner (it was only a few days before his birthday) and had some friends over for dinner and then a party. A-man LOVED having some of his friends over to play - although they were older than him he was in heaven following them around and playing.





Then it was the big moment - the cake. I was so excited to see how he would react to have a cake all to himself. I made a small cake and then put a cupcake on top of it so it looks like a tiered cake. Then I made some cute chocolate sea-creatures and put them on top of that. The guests all got cupcakes with their own chocolate sea-creatures. It was fun - although don't look too closely at his cake - I couldn't find the smoother for the frosting so it isn't the smoothest.







When it came time to sing Happy Birthday and give A-man his cake he was a little confused to be at the center of attention. But he was very anxious to get a hold of the red chocolate 1 that was on the cake.






When it came time to dig in - he wasn't very interested. Jason had to help him out a little and then he finally got into it. His favorite part was the chocolate one and the chocolate shark. I think he was too distracted by all the people around having a party for him.










For birthday presents we gave him some of them at his party and then saved the rest for his actual birthday. He got lots of cars, a fun ramp for the cars to go down, a train, sprinkler, clothes, and of course - BOOKS! On his actual birthday we went out to dinner to celebrate the day. he got special cupcakes in honor of his birthday and mom made him wear a birthday crown ( I loved it but unfortunately he only would wear it for a few minutes. Over all it was a wonderful day to celebrate a wonderful boy! We love him so much and are so thankful that he is with us to share his 1st birthday.
Happy Birthday Little Man!!

Birthday party - part 1 - the DQ party with his birth family

So since we were in Utah shortly before A-man's first birthday we wanted to celebrate with his birth family as well. A couple of days after the blessing we met up with his birth mom and her family for a pre-birthday party at Dairy Queen. They had brought presents for him and wanted to have a little more time with him before they went home. It was also nice to visit with them without all the crowds that were there at the blessing. I was a little sad that A-man was a little grouchy that day - I wanted them to be able to see him when he was super happy but him on a grouchy day is still amazingly cute! Here's the party crew...




His birth family spoiled him and gave him so many gifts - actually I don't know if you can spoil a baby. They need all the love they can get and they don't understand spoiling so I had no problem with all the love they were sharing with him! They gave him so many awesome presents. We had a blast opening them all up - A-man still doesn't understand opening up presents so we helped him out a little.

Opening - or not opening - his gifts

Here is a run down of all the great gifts they gave him...(hopefully I can remember them all). He got tons of adorable clothes and they were all the perfect size for him to grow into it.


A-man with his birthmom, Stormie, and a shirt she gave him.


Trying out his cool hat & awesome bibs

He got some great videos that he has already started to watch... and a fun Easter book and a Hop coloring book (we are still working on coloring not eating the crayons).




Then he got some sweet stuffed animals - a stuffed pengiun that makes noise and a snoopy puppet. Both of which he loves!


And now for his favorite toy (for this month) - they gave him stackable trucks that make noise. He loves cars, trains, trucks, and buses - if it has wheels then he thinks it is the best thing ever. He is pushing these trucks/buses everywhere around the house - you can even see in the pictures how he is eyeing those wheels.





His birth family was super sweet to me - they gave me the sweetest gift - some lotion, bath stuff and then a beautiful Willow Tree Statue. I already have it set up in my room and always remember the sacrifice Stormie made to help us become a forever family.


Happy Pre-Birthday Aiden!

The greatest blessing!

So after the temple sealing we were able to give A-man his name and blessing. It's a religious ceremony in which the father (or another priesthood holder) gives the baby a special blessing. It is a special experience and one that we have been waiting for. I had made the cute little all white outfit that A-man wore for the special day - both the temple and the blessing. It's hard to see the outfit but he had a matching little vest, tie, and belt. We did buy his white shirt but I made the matching white pants for him. We were definitely a happy family.



This was another especially special day because not only both of our families would be there at the church but A-man's birth mother and her family were coming also. It would be the first time we saw her since the placement. She had come all the way from Oregon to be there on this day and she was just as excited to see A-man as we were to see her. Her mother and grandmother also came with her from Oregon to see A-man. It was great to see all 4 generations together. In addition her Aunt Robyn was also there - we had met her at the placement and could tell that all 4 of them really loved our favorite little guy.







A-man's birth mother's father (so his birth grandfather) passed away last year but his parent's were able to come to the temple sealing and share the day with us. They also came to the baby blessing and A-man's great-grandfather stood in the priesthood circle. Another super neat experience - tieing our families together - both birth family and adoptive family.





It was amazing to see how many people came to share this special day with us. We orginally were going to do his blessing in the Relief Society room, but had too many people so we switched to a larger room, we again had too many people and they moved us into the chapel! I couldn't believe it but we filled up the chapel too. It was so wonderful to know how loved we are and especially how loved A-man is.

We had a short program, my friend Anne generously played the piano so we could sing "Families Can Be Together" and then we had an opening prayer. Jason gave A-man his blessing and I think it scared him a little to be in front of all those people. After the blessing I had the opportunity to share my testimony. We ended with my father giving the closing prayer. All together it was a super special day and one that I will never forget.

April fools day!

So this is a short post but I couldn't resist sharing the fun time we had for April's Fool day. So a friend found this super cute idea and I couldn't help but share it with her. We made a cake for dinner - not for desert but it was a reverse dinner - desert first - so the cake was the main meal. It was a cute cake - but there was an even bigger surprise about to happen...



The cake is actually meatloaf with mashed potatoes as the frosting. I colored some of it green and did the piping on it. Jason showed up as I was frosting the "cake". He thought it was a crazy idea to have cake for dinner but decided to humor me. But he wasn't so excited when A-man was hungry and dinner wasn't quite ready. I gave A-man some "frosting" on his tray and let him start munching on that. Jason kept telling me that frosting was not a good dinner for A-man and that I needed to give him some real food. Even A-man played up this game - he usually HATES mashed potatoes but this time he was downing them. So Jason was truly fooled. Finally I calmed him down and told him the truth - actually I let him try some of the frosting. That's when he realized that it was actually mashed potatoes and not frosting. Then he wanted to know what was under the frosting. We told he would have to try it and see...he likes meatloaf so I wasn't too worried.

I thought it was a fun April's fool trick and definitely want to try this one again. Even A-man loved his dinner - especially since he got to have ketchup on his meatloaf cake. Although he got a little carried away with the ketchup. Happy April fools everyone!

A family sealed together with love!

April was an incredible special time for our family - A-man's adoption was finalized and we were able to go to the Salt Lake Temple and be sealed together as a forever family! It was the neatest experience for all of us. One thing was especially special for Jason and I was the fact that we were also married in the Salt Lake Temple almost 10 years earlier. We had the exact same sealer who performed our marriage ceremony perform the sealing of A-man to us. It kind of felt like we were getting married all of over again but even more special because now we were adding our son to our famly.


We all got ready that morning - even A-man got a special haircut for the occasion.




Then mom, dad, and A-man drove down to Salt Lake to go to the temple together. When we got there we went all over the temple and then we took A-man to the nursery. They were so sweet there and he was excited to play. Then mom and dad went to get ready and they would meet up with A-man again when it was time to be sealed together. It was such a neat day - our immediate family were almost all there (we missed a few people but one day we will have them there). In addition A-man's birth great-grandparents were able to be there with us to share this special day. It was wonderful to meet them and have them be a part of this special occasion. A-man was very talkative (which isn't new) and kept everyone laughing at how entertaining he was. Immediately after the sealing Aiden looked up at Jason and leapt into his arms and gave him a huge smile and laugh. It was super special.

After the sealing we took a couple of pictures outside the temple as a family. We didn't take a ton of pictures because it was raining and we didn't want to keep A-man out in the rain for very long. But we took a few special pictures of such a special day!

Easter Time!

A-man celebrated Easter in a special way - we combined it with his birthday! But I'll do a seperate post about that. We started Easter weekend with a huge Easter Egg hunt on Saturday. We went with some friends to the village Easter Egg hunt. Since A-man isn't walking yet we decided not to let him loose with all the other kids -which there was a lot. But the Easter bunny came up to him and gave him a little whirly thing that he loved. He had no idea he wasn't getting any eggs so he didn't notice anything.





Another great thing about the village Easter party was the petting zoo - they had a great petting zoo for kids. We could have taken A-man into the fenced area but again since he's only crawling I really didn't want him crawling in mud and animal poo. Does that make me a mean mom? Instead we stood on the outside of the fence and let him pet the animals there instead. He had fun doing that!



After the morning fun (and of course a nap) we went to Cantigny Part in the afternoon and had a blast walking around the gardens. I will do a seperate post about all the fun we had there but here are a couple of pictures from the visitor center. They do amazing displays there as well as incredible gardens and grounds.






We started another new family tradtion this Easter season - Peep Art. Diana's uncle who lives in Washington does this with his family every year and this year Diana's family & of course us - decided to join in. You take peeps and make a scene out of them. We did movie scenes - Diana did the Wizard of Oz or as we called it the Peeps of OZ or the Wizard of Peeps. Jason did a scene from Monty Python - or Monty Peepthon. We had a ton of fun and A-man loved trying out some peeps - I think he likes sugar - but who wouldn't. I can't wait until he can join in and make his own Peep Art since we will definitely be adding this to our family traditions.


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On Sunday - Easter morning we had a special cinnamon roll breakfast - A-man is loving eating "big people food"! We dressed him in his super cute Easter outfit and had a wonderful day at church. We are going to try to celebrate Easter like this in the future - Saturday is all the fun stuff and Sunday will be the more spiritual side of Easter. But since we weren't doing all that much this first Easter since he is so young we gave him his cute little Easter basket with a few toys. He certainly enjoyed that - although he was a little baffled by the basket but he thought it was funny!