Trevor turns 1!

I know, I know. I'm over a month late posting about Trevor's birthday. But it's a pretty hectic time of year anyway. When you throw in a cross-country move as well, let's face it. There's just no time to blog. Anyway, more on that later.

Trevor turned the big 1 on December 25th! I'd always felt like we had to celebrate his birthday on his actual birthday, even though it would be hard to figure out how to work it with Christmas being on the same day. By the time the big day rolled around though, we were all so pooped Trevor didn't mind in the least his birthday party being postponed until the next day. In fact, I think he appreciated it. We pretty much took it easy all day (jammies all day, played with Christmas presents, took birthday naps, etc.). We celebrated with a delicious birthday supper of spaghetti, followed by a bear cake and presents. It was awesome. Here's the proof.

I really cannot believe my baby is a whole year old! He is so funny, and so smart, and has so much personality. He recently reached a couple of big milestones, taking his first steps at the beginning of December, and saying a few words on his own (please, book, bottle, ball, uh-oh, duck...and some other ones I can't think of right now). He gets bigger and smarter and cuter everyday. He has blessed our lives more than we ever thought possible. Sure love you, Trev!

Christmas 2012

Even though this was technically our third Christmas together, we count this as our family's first real Christmas. Our first year we joined in with my family's Christmas celebration in Georgia, and last year Christmas was spent in the hospital getting the best gift we ever could have imagined (that's Trevor, in case you forgot), so this year was the first Christmas where it was just our little family celebrating together. And it was awesome.

Christmas Eve is probably my favorite day of the year. I love everything about it. This year we feasted with Libby, Paul and Vincent for Christmas Eve dinner. It was really nice to be able to spend some time with them and the food was absolutely delicious.

We went home and had a short reading of the Christmas Story in Luke and we each got to open one present from each other. I have been wanting some Christmas decorations, and Ben got me the most adorable Christmas count down thing ever. I love it!

When Ben and I were dating we messaged each other on facebook all the time. It's a thread of messages that kind of act like a journal for us that we still add on to every once in a while. I made a book out of them and gave it to Ben for Christmas.

 When I was like 12, Mom and Granma tried to teach me to crochet. I got the very basics down and made a scarf one time, but that was about the extent of my crocheting skills. A couple days before Christmas I started feeling ambitious and decided I wanted to crochet Trevor some slippers. After a night of finding patterns online and getting super frustrated because I couldn't understand a thing any of them were saying, I stumbled upon a youtube video of a woman crocheting some baby slippers. It was awesome and very clear and I could watch to learn how she did the fancy things. Incredible. Anyway, I switched the pattern up just a little to make it a bit bigger for Trev, and then I was able to make these babies in under 24 hours, just in time for Christmas. And I am quite happy with how they turned out!

 That night we watched The Polar Express, went to bed, and woke up to this beauty!

This is a pretty good representation of how Trevor opens presents. One square inch at a time. This was the longest Christmas morning I can ever remember having. And I loved it!

 He would get really excited every time he opened something. Even things along the lines of the 1586558 articles of clothing he got, or his new plastic plates. Super fun to watch.

Mingledorff Christmas Party!

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Roy to spend the weekend with Michelle & co., Megan & co., and Brianna. We had a blast! We spent most of the time chatting and laughing and eating. We ate a lot. There was also plenty of piano playing and singing and puzzling.

One night we headed over to the Roy Fire Station to see Christmas lights and play in the snow. Ben tried to snow board on a cookie sheet down a giant hill and made it about 8 inches before the cookie sheet slid out from under him and he landed straight on his behind, breaking (and losing) his watch. We got a good laugh out of it. Ben and Sam went back later that night and miraculously were able to find his watch. Tithing blessing if there ever was one.

There was a scary part involving a phone call informing us that some drunk guy with a gun was in the neighborhood and we needed to lock up and turn off all the lights. That was slightly terrifying. But thankfully everything worked out in the end.

We had a white elephant gift exchange that was a blast! It was really intense. I think everyone came away happy except for maybe Megan and Sam who left with both cans of sardines. Ha.

White Elephant

I think there was constantly someone playing the piano while we were there. So nice.

for the Ohio fam

At the  Roy Lights

Trevor had so much fun with Addison the whole trip. I loved watching them play together.

We really had such a fun time. It was so much fun to see everybody and to hang out together. We've really been blessed to have family so close to us here. We recently decided that we'll be moving to Ohio on January 10th to start in with the Griffioen family insurance agency. We are so excited to get out there and start this new part of our lives, but we are also really going to miss living so close to the family we have out here. It was so nice to be able to spend some of the holiday season with them. Love you guys!

First Haircut!

 Trevor got his first hair cut last week! Even as I write this it makes me a little sad, but let's face it, it was getting pretty out of hand:

This is what it looked like right before I started snipping. Such cute curls!

And here are the after pictures. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, being a first time hair cutter using scissors on a squirmy 11 month old and all. He looks much older - sweeping up all the little ringlets may or may not have brought a tear to my eye. He's a big boy now, there's no denying it!

Trevor - 11 months

 Trevor is getting so big! I can't believe he'll be one soon. He is such a happy, funny kid. I think the pictures can just about say it all this month. Enjoy!

Birthday Bash 2012 with GIFs!

So, I had my birthday!  Hooray!  How old, you ask?  Old enough that my car insurance premium went down.  And old enough that I can now rent a car!  That's right - I'm 25.

My birthday was October 30.  I'm a bit late posting, for which I apologize.  At the same time, blogging has never been a true strength for me, so I don't feel too badly.  But my birthday was pretty awesome so I feel like I need to write something down.

For starters, everyone was extremely sick.  Super bad colds, headaches galore, and used tissues overflowing from each garbage bin.  Even as sick as we all were, Becca was able to make my birthday a special day for me.

Usually we wake up around 7:40 or so, wishing that we could go back to bed for another five minutes.  Often Trevor is crying or talking to himself which prevents us from doing so.  On my birthday, I slept in till 9:00!  I know some of you may be thinking, "Psh, 9:00?  I sleep in until at least 11:00 each Saturday".  I used to do that once in a while too.  Then we had a baby.  And while Trevor is totally worth any minor sacrifices that we make, sleeping in is very very rare.  So waking up at 9:00 was not only refreshing, but I had almost forgotten what waking up after 8:00 was like.

But then when I woke up, it's not like I just woke up to an alarm or Trevor wanting to play with his daddy... No no no.. I woke up to breakfast in bed!  Who has the best wife in the world?  I'll give you a hint - it's my wife.  I hadn't even been up for more than 30 seconds and it was already a perfect day.

Let me show you a few things that don't add to a perfect day, and I avoided at all costs.

1 - Watching soccer.  Seriously.



2 - Golfing.  Especially with personal items as a tee.



3 - Asking karma to kick me in the pants.



4 - Attempt to exercise



So, crises averted.  The day was pretty epic from 9:00 on.  Becca skipped work to take care of me all day, and Trevor was an awesome little boy.  We just relaxed, watched TV, took a nap, played with T-dawg, and then we ate cake!  It was German chocolate cake (I've had cheesecake for as long as I can remember, and while my mom was in town she got me a cheesecake, so I thought German Chocolate might be good.  It was dee-lish), and after we devoured it, Becca gave me my presents, all of which were winners.

In the end, my b-day felt like a special day, because Becca made it special for me.  I'm so glad she married me and that I get to be with her forever and ever.  I love her more than anything, and without a doubt the best thing of the day was simply getting to be with her the entire day.  I could have gotten a pile of nothing for my presents, and it still would have been a successful birthday.  I'm 25, and happier than ever.  Happy birthday to me!

P.S.  A shout out to all my older siblings, and in-laws and such.  For as I grow older and feel it, I'm sure glad there will always be you guys to look up to and make me feel young again.  Thank you.  I'm sincerely grateful.