HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY ARCHER!!

Well can you believe it, Archer is 1, and Joel and I have made it through the first year ad parents. This last year has been so fun and tiring. We have had many new adventures and lots of new memories to add to the record books. Archer has grown into an ADORABLE little boy and is no longer my sweet little baby that would sleep in my arms all day. As much as I miss that, I am TOTALLY LOVING HOW FUN AND ACTIVE HE HAS BECOME!

As many of you know Archer loves Curious George, So naturally that was the theme for his party. My wonderful parents made the trip up and we had a fantastic weekend with them. Our friends couldn't come celebrate until later in the evening so we spent the day taking naps and playing with balloons. Joel and Archer thought it was loads of fun to throw balloons at Archer and he would just laugh and laugh.

I kept trying to get Archer to smile, while playing with the balloons, and well this is what I got. It is so sad looking but for some reason I just love this picture. He really was having fun he just didn't want to show it.

See there is a smile.

We couldn't wait to open some presents, so we opened the ones from GMA and GPA Jones.

It took Archer a few tries to figure out the whole, "I can rip this paper and you're not going to get mad at me thing," after that he had fun opening presents.

He was so excited to get a Curious George book from his Uncle Kevin and Aunt Becca, We have had fun reading new stories to him at bed time.

So, you know how I said my parents were wonderful, that was until they gave Archer a singing monkey. The song goes something like this, "I love you more than bananas, I want to be your best friend." Yeah try having that stuck in your head all day. Thanks Mom and Dad. Love you!!

THE SINGING MONKEY!!!!

Aside from trying to eat most the wrapping paper Archer did really well opening presents.

The best one was when he was opening our present to him. He poked a whole in the paper and found that there was a toy inside that made noise and from then on it was a bit of a challenge to get him to finish unwrapping the box.

We ended up flipping the box over and he finally ripped a huge chunk off. I have to say Kudos to Joel for picking out his gift. It is and Alphabet Train that he can walk behind and put blocks and such into. As we all said watching him play with it, "BEST 40 Bucks EVER!" Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea sending the big kid into Toys r Us to shop for the little kid. Good Job Joel.

Ok, So call me a bad mother but Joel begged me to let him share a Mountain Dew with Archer on his birthday. I caved and said yes.

Archer wasn't too sure about it, but it was pretty cute to watch his little face scrunch up from the carbonation.

So I was so happy when I found a monkey cake pan for the party. Although, I think I might have gotten carpletunnel by the time I was done decorating, but it sure was cute. I even let Archer pick out the flavors. He is quite good and picking things out. I stood in the baking isle at WinCo and held up the German chocolate cake mix and the devils food, Archer laughed and pointed to the German Chocolate, I then held up fudge frosting or milk chocolate and again he laughed and reached for the milk chocolate. The other people near by thought that was pretty cute.

Archer made out pretty good, he got some new clothes, books and some way cool new toys. Not too shabby for a 1st Birthday.

Here is the fam, and Trevor and Allison, who we consider to be like family too.

  We kept the party pretty low key and it was a BLAST!! We had some close friends over and had cake and ice cream and watched Archer open presents and play with balloons. The other awesome people in the picture are our friends Sam and Kaylee. They are super fun and they just love playing with Archer, Thanks for helping make Archer's day so special!

Alrighty, Cake Eating Time! I was a little disappointed with how careful Archer was at eating his cake. One little finger full and a time.

He eventually managed to make a bit of a mess, but it was certainly not near as bad as I was expecting.

"Oh Yeah Grandma, that is some GOOD CAKE!!"

Archer took to his train right away and was up cruising around in no time.

"What, I'm not getting into your glass Grandpa?" Archer and his grandparents has a fantastic weekend Poor Archer was totally worn out and after everyone left Archer took a super long nap. I guess all the excitement was just too much for the little guy.

Oh and did I mention that he can now climb up and off the couches all my him self and his new favorite place to sit is on my trunk. So that became the Birthday seat for the day. I almost forgot, Archer's 1 year stats.
He 30 inches tall, 12.9 lbs, and he is still his father's son with a head at 18 1/4 inches round.

We ended the day with bed time stories with Grandpa Jones, while Mom and Dad cleaned up the mess.
 I hope that Archer had as much fun as we did on his Birthday and one day he can look back and see how crazy his mother really is. Thank You to everyone that helped to make his day so special and I can't wait to watch him open his Christmas presents in a few weeks. Love to ALL!!

Z

Here are few videos from the party. The first one is of the Singing Monkey and the second is of Archer playing with the balloons.

For more videos you will have to check them out on my facebook page, they are too long to put on the blog.

 

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone! Halloween was so much fun this year! We, Well, I made Joel carve pumpkins with some friends and Archer even had his own pumpkin that a sweet friend from our ward gave to him. We didn't carve his because I am going to use it to make homemade pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

Joel stuck with the Mario theme and made Bowser and I did a tree and bats. Somehow I always end up doing a tree of some sort. Unarry!

I think both of our pumpkins turned out Great!!

All ready for Trick or Treaters!

Okay and Now to the main event! Archer as Baby Mario!!

As far as we could tell Archer was the only Mario at the mall Trick or Treating, and he kept flirting with all the Princesses. GO figure!
 

After the mall we walked down to Winco so we could show off Archer to all of Joel's coworkers. He was a HIT!

We ended the night with a ward Trunk and Treat at the church and a few stops to see some friends and then it was home to check out the big haul!

Best Halloween EVER!!

As a kid Halloween was all about who could get the most candy, but now it was so much more fun dressing Archer up and taking him around. I am so excited for Halloween next year when he can walk and run around.
 

For a little guy he made out pretty good. His pumpkin bucket , which he picked out, was nearly full by the end of the night. He had so much fun reaching in a grabbing out a piece of candy and putting it in his mouth and then dropping it and reaching in again. Archer was testing the quality of the wrappers while Joel and I helped test the candy.

At one point he found a long tootsie roll and after a while part of the tootsie roll and the wrapper was in his mouth and that put an end to that one.

This was the Best Halloween and as Joel put it, "Halloween as a Dad is so much better than as a kid," and I have to agree.

The Great Haul!!

I think my favorite part of the night was watching Archer go through his bucket and pick out his favorites. He was just so DARN CUTE!!

We even caught him trying to save a caramel for later. When we were changing him into his pumpkin PJ's a caramel fell out of his overalls. Sneaky Sneaky!

After Baby Mario was put to bed Joel and I watched Hocus Pocus with our Friends Trevor and Allison. This was the most fun I have ever had on Halloween and I couldn't have shared it with anyone better than Joel and Archer my two Favorite Boys!