one whole year

How do you plan for a one-year-old’s birthday? He’s not going to remember it, but we certainly would as parents. We’re definitely NOT the type of people to do some big shindig with clowns or a restaurant or anything like that. To further complicate matters, his birthday would be on a Tuesday and the party not until Saturday.  Two celebrations? Most of all, I just wanted to keep it simple.

His favorite spot. Age one!

 I decided that his actual day would be full of his favorite things. If he could pick a favorite dinner, I would have let him, but he loves pretty much any and all food so that didn’t matter (although he is a big fan of Sizzler).  I was just glad that he hit that magical mark so he could eat things from the allergenic foods list: eggs, honey, nuts, seafood, etc. So I cooked some scrambled eggs that morning with a bit of cheese and we shared. He likes eggs! His dad left him a cute note under his door for him to wake up to. Then, Brian was able to come home early from work and we all went out to the beach for another one of Joseph’s favorite things, playing in the sand. He loves it! He also tries to eat the sand, which I don’t understand at all. Maybe he likes the salty flavor. Brian took him down to play in the water and he loved that. 

His hat is too small and he looks tired here, but I promise, he loved it!

 We stopped on the way home and bought him a jelly doughnut as his cake. I was planning on making him a cake for the party and figured that would be enough to max out my baking skills! We sang and Brian helped him blow out the candle. It was a good day. 

Family picture!

Saturday was the big party day! A banner, balloons, cake, presents, and lots of family to celebrate this awesome little man. He got great gifts from everyone. I am always overwhelmed at people’s generosity. I wanted to have some sort of activity for all the adults there, so I came up with the following activity that I was pretty proud of. It fit the bill exactly. About a week ahead, I went through Joseph’s pictures and picked one from each month to print out. I made sure they were of just him and relatively close up. At the party, I handed a picture to all the adults and they had to get together and put them in the correct order. It wasn’t easy! Brian tried it on his own and got only half right on his first try. I used a cheat sheet to help everyone move the ones that were out of place. Now I have those pictures in Joseph’s baby book. Then we had carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (my first time making it from scratch, and it turned out deeee-licious! Thank you, Betty Crocker.) and ice cream. Last was opening presents! Joseph was ready for a nap by then but the adults all stuck around and talked for a while.

Not too sure about this flame, this huge piece of cake, or the plate.

Alllll figured out.

A wagon! With big blocks I can chew on and wheels to turn!

Opening presents

What's in here?

Momma will help.

Going for a ride. Thanks Dad!

Look at me! I'm the birthday boy!

I think my favorite thing about Joseph’s first birthday was sitting down with Brian and writing out Joseph’s birthday letter. We want to do this every birthday, and we’ve been doing it for each other since we met.  It’s the best present I get, every year. I hope that someday Joseph can look at his collection of letters and know how incredibly loved he is on every day, not just his birthday.

Summmmmer

You have to say that word above all long and drawn-out, nice and slow, because that is the feeling of this summer. It feels even better than most summers do, which is saying a lot. I mostly just wanted to post some of the things we've been up to, and some of the adorable-ness that is my little boy. Can't do too much work, not even on the blog. It is summer, after all. :)

 We went up to the beach house for a night, to visit Mom and Dad over Memorial Day weekend. Nice weather!

 

Joseph loves playing in the sand.

 He's off down the beach!

 Eating out with cousins. That's Lily, four months older than Joseph, and Rhett, one week older.

 Joseph hangs out with me in the bathroom quite a bit. Here, he's lounging in the sink with our favorite turtle.

 Hello!

 Time with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Kerr, two of the best people ever.

 Not quite the whole family, but look how big we're getting!

 The view from the top of the hill behind Tsasdi, the summit of Brian's hike that he does every year.

 There's that beautiful masochistic hiking man.

 Forty people and one boat is an equation that just doesn't work well. Joseph never got to go for a ride, what with naps and eating schedules and all that...but we did go jump off the back while we were at the dock. Next year, Joseph, we'll feel the wind in our hair!

 Swimming in the lake. It was colder than the pool. He's not a big fan.

 The newcomers to Shasta, and their daddies.

 And their mommies!

 Back at home, we're on our favorite hike, along the cliffs above the ocean. 

 Brian picked up a hitchhiker, in the form of an inchworm.

 And my flowers bloomed! I got these for Mother's Day last year but never saw flowers until this year. I love them. Dianthus, I think.

 And the poor, sad rose bush did get out a flower! I think I even see a few more buds!

 The hydrangeas do incredibly. These are my favorite colors that we have, a really deep pink.

 The last of the rhody flowers.

 More hydrangea. This is the big bush that tries to take over the driveway every year. They start off a soft green, then turn a muted yellow, then cream, then bright white, then are light blue just before they die. I love these ones.

 Brian's brother and his family came to visit, and we went down to the tide pools one morning. It was a beautiful day, weather-wise. Joseph's hat was too small, but his cousin Ava's was too big, so they switched! Joseph still looks good in a girl's hat. :)

 There's Mason looking as his dad Kyle shows a treasure from the tide pool, with Jolene (holding Ava) and Diane.

 Cool rock with a fern imprint on it!

 Joseph got tired of the carrier and wanted to get at that sand!

 He loves playing in it. He also decided it was time to eat it...bad decision!

 We went to the game park, where Joseph got to meet and pet lots of animals, including ferrets, a baby raccoon, a possum, a skunk, this donkey...

 ...the Bengal tiger cub...

 (showing off his two-handed waving technique)

 ...this beautiful big old guy...

 ...lots of deer with fuzzy antlers...

 and a white Siberian tiger.

 We had a family barbecue and the kids went swimming...and got naked! Ha!

 Just please, don't make a mess in the pool! (He didn't. He had fun. It was good all around.)

 Aunt Teresa lent him some socks to keep his tootsies warm.

The kids got rides and the men got to talkin'...

Joseph also wanted to help me sort the laundry. What a man. :)

best slow cooker recipe ever

Every other Tuesday is grocery shopping day. Brian gets home from work and takes a shower, then we load Joseph, the big bags, and the coupons into the car and off we go. We get home an hour later and I feed Joseph while Brian puts away all the food. After all that, who wants to actually have to come up with an idea for dinner and then make it? So a few months ago, I got the idea that I'd start doing slow cooker recipes on shopping days.

It was a brilliant idea.

It's SO much easier to come home and just eat. And I've been trying different recipes, but I absolutely HAVE to share this one. It was so simple, so easy, so delicious-smelling and so delicious-tasting, that I can't wait to make it again.

Courtesy of the 101 Slow Cooker Recipes cookbook.

Italian pork chops:

Place pork chops into cooker. (I used two frozen pork steaks. They were cheaper.)

Pour a bottle of Italian dressing over pork chops. (For some reason, we had three different bottles of Italian dressing, all opened, in our fridge. Desperately needed to use some up. That's why I picked this recipe.)

Cook on low for about six hours. (Okay, so the recipe said for 8-10 hours, but I think they would have been mush by then, and I even used frozen ones. Plus, I didn't remember to start it until around 1:00, so I put it on high for a couple hours and then turned it down.)

That's it. Really! That's it! We had it over rice and scooped the juices over it, plus a little asparagus steamed in the microwave for three minutes. Yum, yum, yum. When I think of pork chops, they always seem to be a little chewy or tough, but these were fall-apart tender. I went to turn one over while they were cooking and it fell into two pieces, it was so soft.

Ah, deliciousness. I love the slow cooker.

say cheese!

One of the blogs that I like to read had an entry the author called a Daybook, which used a series of questions to create an overview of the author's day and life in that moment. (Note: she blogs about homeschooling, knitting, kids, and Catholicism. This is her link: http://www.elizabethfoss.com/reallearning/)

I liked the idea a lot. It reminded me of a writing technique called a snapshot that I used with my students. I borrowed the idea from the book After THE END by Barry Lane and the idea is that you focus on details to create a mental snapshot of a moment in time (the crackling of the fire, the soft red fleece blanket, the smell of beef and vegetable soup simmering). It's great for using in memoirs and personal narratives, as well as fiction. I decided that I'd like to use the technique to record the small details of my life, for myself, mostly, and whoever else is interested. I love that you can learn so much about a person by narrowing your focus on just a few things. They say a lot but not even close to everything. I'll try to keep it manageable, but that might be a stretch, because I took her list and then had a million ideas of things I could add to it. Maybe I'll rotate through some of the questions to keep it interesting.

Outside my window: the sky is completely overcast and it's much cooler than yesterday, which was a balmy 60 degrees.

I am listening to: a dog barking outside, the dryer working on Joseph's clothes in the garage, and one ear is tipped to hear the first waking up cries from a morning nap.

I am wearing: the fuzzy pink slippers Brian gave me for Christmas in 2009. A pair of jeans that are technically maternity but really comfy so I still wear them. A yellow V-neck t-shirt from the Columbia outlet. Style is dead today.

I am grateful for: amazing writers. A sweet little boy who had a great doctor's check-up yesterday. A very loving extended family.

I am pondering: where the lines are dividing criticism, righteous judgment, gossip, and an honest awareness of other people's faults and our own expectations.

I am reading: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's one of those books that has been on my mental periphery for years and I finally just took it home from the library. It's incredible. I stayed up way too late reading it last night. I'm typing right now but I actually want to be reading it. It's going to be one of those I finish in less than 24 hours but stays in my consciousness for much, much longer. I'll try to capture my thoughts on it for a book review in the future.

I am thinking: on the abilities and thought processes of children, how war has defined so much of human existence, and what it means to be “gifted.”

I am creating: A garden! The peas are sending up their little green shoots and I got the twine strung up between the stakes. Now they'll have something to grab onto when they get tall enough.

My music: has been based around Joseph lately. He has a stuffed lion that sings a song when you press its hand. “Sunflower, good morning, you sure do make it like a sunny day...” It gets stuck in my head all the time. And I can't understand the middle verse. Grrr.

Towards a real education: The blogger originally included this to talk about her homeschooling plans with her kids, so I'll change it to what I read recently to Joseph, which is: Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth, Are You Ready to Play Outside by Mo Willems, Hands Can by Cheryl Willis Hudson, and Animals, a Baby Touch and Feel book. Joseph is finally reaching out on his own to stroke that little tuft of white bunny fur!

Living the gospel: Personal study right now includes reading old General Conference talks, remembering what I thought about when I first heard them, and evaluating if I made changes in myself and my life like I should have.

I have faith in: the validity of my actions now that will impact the future. So much of being a parent is based around faith. I have to have faith when I say good night to Joseph that I'll get to say good morning. I have to have faith that feeding him a varied diet now will help him have a good palate later. I have to have faith that we'll read books together now and he'll want to continue to read on his own in the future. I have to have faith that those little peas sprouting out in the yard will help nourish and fill our bodies this summer. My actions have to reflect that faith.

From the kitchen: For dinner tonight I'm planning a venison stir-fry that I saw a recipe for in one of my new cookbooks. It looks fairly simple: venison strips, a sweet and sour marinade, and bell pepper strips over rice. Yummm.

One of my favorite things: my hazelnut candles.

A few plans for this week: library trip which will be mostly returning items, though there is one item on hold that I can't wait for and will probably lead to more late nights, which is the newest in the Ranger's Apprentice series, The Emperor of Nihon-ja. We'll finish watching Gettysburg, all four+ hours of it! I have some calls to make for my calling. And hopefully Joseph and I will have a sunny day so we can explore further down the road by the slough.

We'll end with this last, a picture thought:

Kids love babies. I can't even count the number of times a child has said as they see Joseph, "Baby!" At church, the grocery store, and his cousins' house, Joseph gets to be the center of attention. Evolution at work to ensure the survival of the species? Maybe, but I think there's a strong pull to sweet innocence and the desire to gain the coveted baby smile. :)

That's it for time, but look for new topics in future snapshots.