Party planning and outcome for our sweet ONE year old!

I figured I would make this a combo post of the before and after.  This post is more of a review of the great people and places we used to make everything come together!

~This post starts on December 6th and wraps up on January 10th~

 Those of you who know me well know this is NOT my strong suit (the creative side of it anyway).  I am super stoked to have quite a bit of help from my very dear friends.  

Planning the date for O's 1st birthday was a tad tricky.  You see, it is playoffs weekend and you know we are Broncos fans!  We didn't know until just a couple days ago if the playoff game would be Saturday or Sunday of his birthday weekend nor did we know what the time would be.  As long as the Broncos play well and may be in the final games, we will run into this each year.  This year though I think we got off pretty easy since his actual birthday falls on a Friday.  Done and done!  

The invites were step two.  Things went fairly smoothly on this end.  The shipping side ended up taking longer than expected so I didn't get them out at what I thought was the "ideal" time (this was a learning experience though, I know having a babe with a bday around the holidays equals more forward planning next year).  However, no sweat- it all worked out.  I ended up getting the invites through Etsy (check out sangelastro's page).  She was easy to work with and prompt to respond.  They turned out really cute!!  As far as additional stationary goes his thank yous will be purchased through Scribbles.  Check them out, fun store and great owners!

We also booked O's favorite local band- St. Lumen.  The lead singer is so talented (the rest of the band is great as well).  We met Lindsay (the lead singer) at the coffee shop in our building, Drip.  O loves flirting with her big time.  The first time he saw her singing at a benefit, he melted.  ;)

We also booked our friend and photographer,  Jeff to take pictures.  Check out his work.  Once he is done editing I will post the link to O's bday pics! 

Thanks to my friends we have successfully tasted cake and placed all necessary orders for said cakes (yes cakes), cookies and cake balls (you only turn 1 once, right??  haha).  We have also successfully eaten way too many nachos.  I know....weird, this doesn't exactly go with party planning- but we needed fuel.  And last but not least, almost all of the decorations have been purchased.  

Last step will be to finalize the menu from Attivo (where we are hosting O's party)!

Phew, what a furry of crazy and fun!  Here is the outcome:  I say SUCCESS!  I would highly recommend everyone in this post.  They helped all the fun details become a reality.

Everything came together as planned with one HUGE surprise from one of my friends.  Can you believe this incredible banner??  So freaking awesome!!

The cakes, cake pops and cookies turned out perfect (and tasted great).  If you are in need of anything Michelle at Gateaux was a breeze to work with- so talented too!!

We are so incredibly thankful for this sweet boy who is loved by so many people.  Thank you again EVERYONE!

After waking up to a living room filled with orange and blue balloons, pancakes and eggs for breakfast, followed by a day, night and weekend full of fun, friends and family.  I love this sweet boy more than I could ever explain!

What does a chunky Ninja eat you ask?

This is a picture preview of a weeks worth of food.  

I have to mention - when he is feeling well (he is finally in the serious teething stages- no es bueno), it is typically MORE than this.  I just keep hoping that he will always be a good eater and like all the healthy options we are providing.  So many articles and people mention their kiddos hitting a point where they become picky. Like I said, until then I keep my fingers crossed ;)

 

Clearly we have become Whole Foods' best customer since we started feeding O real food.  Granted, we have always shopped there, but never in this capacity.  I also have to give a shout out to Tony's Market they have the best customer service and fish department (O loves his fresh fish- right now his most fav is the Chilean Sea Bass)!!

We keep the following daily chart of what he eats and does throughout the day.  I believe it is so important to SEE and know how much they are eating- this is the same for the sleep schedule too.

Here is an example of what he ate today:

Breakfast:  1 egg & 1 egg white with whole milk, 4 banana slices & 4 avocado slices (no rhyme or reason in the number of slices - this is the number he chose to eat.  I think I sliced 8 & 8-  perk to what he doesn't eat, we eat).
Lunch:  left over Cod from last nights dinner, Thailand Organic Plum Pouch, 2 slices of avocado, 2 apple slices, mango & sweet potato puffs and quite a few sweet potato snacks (these are organic sweet potatoes that I slice and dice with olive oil, very little sea salt & ground pepper) and throw in the oven- such a fun treat and snack, he loves them).
Mid-day snack:  Apple, Banana, Mango & Cinnamon packet, orange slices (didn't count- it turned into a long day) and one Ella's teething cookies.
Dinner:  Steamed Wild Grouper with sweet potato snacks.

His total formula/whole milk mix was 22 ounces for the day.

Fresh Organic Beef Stew is on the menu for tomorrow.  Phew!  I have never chopped so much in my life (ISABEL, HALP)!  haha  Really though, it is so worth it.

Here is a big cheers to this little almost one year old eating it up even more once he has teeth (yes, he eats all of this and has no teeth).  By the way - this teething thing is no joke.  Awful!  TBC on that one.

YUM!!! 

Merry Christmas Eve!

Last week we took O to meet Santa for the first time.  The 2 mile journey to Cherry Creek Mall started out rather rocky.  On our way there I rear ended a car.  Oops.  We were all fine, I was maybe going 1 mile per hour, but I started to think it was the start to the recipe for disaster.  Luckily, the lady I ran into was super nice (a nurse ;)), we exchanged info and we were back on our way.  

Once we got to the Santa line we were told Santa needed to go on break in a "couple minutes" for a total of 30 minutes.  Oh lawdy.  Joe asked the young lady (probably 16) who was working the Santa line if there was any way they could squeeze us in....  long story short, no dice.  We had to wait to let Santa go on his cookie break.  O was ready to see Santa.  Out of her stroller and roaring to go!  Lucky for us, there is a Land of Nod Christmas store in the mall for the Holidays.  Off we went to do some Christmas shopping and fun.  

As you can see there were no Santa melt downs for this Ninja.  He was a tad confused, but ok.  Now, here is what I am wondering as a parent....  why is Santa's couch purple??  Who decided purple would be the Christmas Santa couch color?  Oh, and as a parent I should have made sure my child's jeans didn't look like high waters.  HA!  Le sigh.  

I spent my Christmas Eve day teaching classes.  I am incredibly grateful for students and friends who leave me sweet notes and bring sweet treats!!  THANK YOU!

Tonight we celebrated Christmas Eve at our favorite restaurant, Sushi Sasa.  As per usual, it was delish! Owen enjoyed himself and ate all the fish we ordered him.  He did decide tonight he isn't much of a chicken guy (following in Mom's footsteps maybe?).  Miso soup, veggies and Salmon were on the menu - oh, and puffs for dessert of course!  ;)

Wave your hands like you just don't care!!  Sushi Sasa time!

Eating from chopsticks for the first time

Whatever you may be doing tonight, celebrating or not celebrating I hope you are able to find time to relax, enjoy and be thankful.    

Happy Happy Holidays!!  

PS- Thank you Sushi Sasa for my amazeballs surprise!!

Nothing wrong with being scheduled....

....says ME.  There are plenty of people out there that have incredibly strong opinions when it comes to scheduling.

What am I talking about you ask?  Putting your child on a set schedule.

We most certainly did not do this alone.  We had an idea from a book (yes, Baby Wise) and happened to have 2 great friends (who are doctors) that shared their experiences as well.  Now, keep in mind as you continue to read, we DID NOT follow the Baby Wise method.  We came up with a method that worked that made the most sense.     

Lets back up.  Until Owen was 3 months old he was on his own schedule.  On his demand I will call it.  Not going to lie, this worked out great for the first couple months.  He would wake up when he wanted, we would feed him, he would be up and then go back to sleep.  Granted we were totally sleep deprived, it worked and when he slept, he slept well.  

We got into week one of 3 months and shit hit the fan.  The pattern we had grown accustom to changed.  He was hardly sleeping.  This lead to me sleeping even less (scary).  To put icing on it Joe had just gone back to work.  I was a mess when he would get home.  It was awful.  Something had to be done.  

Before we reacted out of emotion we took a look at the schedule O had US on.  Trying to site any patterns anything that we may have messed up on, etc.  And mess up we did.  The screaming factor was Owen all the sudden wasn't sleeping hardly at all.  It was alarming at best.  We felt like horrible parents (I will say in our defense this had only gone on for a week).  Anyhoo-  babes are supposed to sleep 12-15 hours per day (sleep is one of the driving factors in healthy brain development) and our sweet dude had moved into only getting 8- in a 24 hour period.  Awful!  No wonder he was a mess (we were too)!!  

Off we went to read Baby Wise- after researching it seemed like it may be the closest fit we were seeking.  I gotta tell ya- the book seemed very Nazi to us at first, but if you really take a look at it there are also some really great points.  

SIDE NOTE:  Yes, I know some of you out there literally hate any method that is derived from Baby Wise, but guess what?  I don't care.  I respect your opinions as you should also respect mine.  End rant.  

Long story short with the knowledge we gained from this book and speaking with our friends we made our own eat, play, sleep schedule with O.  Again, being honest here - the first week of being on the schedule had some really tough moments.  REALLY tough.  However, what we saw almost immediately was a little dude who was sleeping 12-15 hours, happier and more playful.  It worked!  It was amazing.  I couldn't believe we didn't think about doing this right away!  It is something that is still working out today and still something we modify as Owen lets us know that he is growing and changing.  Because of said schedule we have a healthier, happier and more readable baby.  

Now, I know schedules may not work as easily for your babes like it did for ours...  but I tell you what always does- consistency.  If you believe in how you have or do not have your child scheduled, be consistent.  

Thank  you so much to our 2 friends (and Doctors) who helped us work out this sweet boys schedule.  

If you have any questions about how we set his schedule I am always happy to talk it about, let me know!  At the end of the day I am truly passionate about scheduling and giving your child the GIFT of sleep.  We had to be consistent, we had to work with Owen and teach him.  These were first steps for us in teaching him something and it was so rewarding.  Not just to us, to HIM.

If you are angry and you think I am a Nazi, that is ok too.  We don't really need to talk about it.  :)

Such a good sleeper

Cuddles with Kona before bedtime (7:30p)

Morning play time!  

Peek A Boo!  

O v.1 and O v.2

I have been meaning to post this one for quite some time now.  

As mentioned in previous posts Owen's name came from another super miracle baby.

We refer to the boys as O v. 1 and O v. 2 (Owen version 1 and Owen version 2).  

O v. 1 is a miracle of 3. His brother is Caleb and beautiful sister is Dani.  Their parents are good friends of ours and Joe has watched this triple crew grow up (they are now 15 years old!!!).  Joe spent quite a bit of time with the boys when they were young helping coach them in football and baseball.  They all also spent many fun days skiing and snowboarding in Steamboat.  Obviously, all 3 of these kids are special to us. 

The name Owen just really resignated with us.  Clearly, we asked our friends how they would feel about this and upon an OK, Joe talked to both boys.   They were incredibly sweet about it....  So thank you O v. 1 for letting O v. 2 share your name!  And of course, thank you LT & BT!  We can't wait until O v. 2 is on his skis or snowboard in Steamboat with your 3.  They will be able to teach him so much!  

O v. 1 meets O v. 2 for the first time (O v. 2 was only 3 months old here)!

The O's & Dani!

Chatting about life....  

Oh hi blog!

Holy crap!  It is December (Happy 11 month Birthday my sweet Ninja---- photo cred to his awesome Nanny).

  How the f bombs did this happen?  Nonetheless, I am back and going to be much, much better about sharing life and thoughts from my perspective and experiences.  Brace yo-self!  :)

As for us and our Ninja, we are still crazy and happy as ever.  There truly is never a dull moment in our household or lives.  We have been having a ton of fun playing and traveling as of late (some with and some without our sweet dude)!

For now O is a pro at flying (I hear I may be eating my words on this one once he is walking).  He tries every day to walk and talk more.  While he does not have any teeth, he eats like he does.  If you could see the food menu each day you would probably fall over (I may post something about this)!  He loves to eat!  His laugh is the best sound I have ever heard!  He is a big dude, at his 9 month check up he weighed 22 pounds and was 30 inches long (not sure what the stats are now, but he is even bigger!!).  He loves music, dancing and eating out.  Wait.  This is starting to sound like some weird online profile....  haha!

Long story short, we are enjoying each day.....  Here are some updated pictures.  More to come soon!

This was my first cold.  Brutal!  

Go Broncos!  I love going to the games!

Happy Halloween 2013!

Reading before bed. 

Starbucks in Steamboat

Chop House at DIA

Eating eggies at Moe's in my cool hat and jammers!

And just like that!

Happy 5 Month Birthday to our sweet Ninja!

It is possible he will walk before he crawls.  A stander by nature.  ;)  However, tonight as we went to take his picture he decided to sit up on his own. Totally on his terms.  A Ninja, his Polar Bear and his little ninja.  So freaking cute.

By nature this child is also very happy.  He reminds us with his huge expressive eyes and smile that it really is the little things that matter.  I can't say enough how blessed we are to have him in our lives.  I know- I say it a lot, but it is true and quite frankly sometimes we all need to be reminded. 

Now, he does his fair share of screaming from time to time, he is a little babe after all- AND, he is teething.  Who could blame him though?  It sounds terrible and it is hard on all of us (even Kona).  haha 

He is getting much more interactive and opinionated.  Can you believe it?  Again, my sarcasm ringing though.  He is specific.  He is determined. 

What I keep repeating to him is the following- "keep it up my Ninja, you are destined to do great things". 

Happy 5 Month Birthday to the sweetest Kung Foo Fighter I know!  :)