Levi turns ONE!!

Summer of 2013 has been good to us.

We are having a lot of fun, and traveling just a little too much. Colten took his DAT at the end of May and scored a point lower than he was hoping. He was pretty stressed, and thinking about retaking it, but after a lot of discussion I think we are going to stick it out with the first one. In June he applied to 15 dental schools all over the country. And now we wait...and wait...and wait. If all goes well, hopefully he will get some invitations to go interview at the schools this fall and we will find out if we get in early next year.

I finished my 60-day challenge at about the same time Colten took his test. I lost almost 20 pounds over an 8-week period, and two inches everywhere. I have eased up a bit on what I have been eating, but for the most part I have been keeping up with what I was doing on the challenge. I have actually lost about 5 pounds past what my goal weight was, for a grand total of almost 35 pounds since March. Colten and I had a little deal that when I got to my goal weight I could get some new clothes. All my clothes that fit me were from high school and completely out of style. So I got to go on a fun little shopping spree on our trip up north for the Butler reunion. It was so much fun to try on clothes and actually leave excited and feeling good about the way they looked instead of leaving depressed and frustrated.

 Colten also got me a new little toy that I am a little obsessed with right now. A beautiful black Polar FT40. I am feeling great and am now focusing more on strength training, and toning. I am planning on doing the 4-week Bootcamp at Phazes next month. The only thing is I kind of hate burpees and running, and I hear they do a lot of both. Wish me luck! Ha.

On June 6th our Levi man turned ONE!! It was a bittersweet occasion. We are so happy to see him growing and learning, but at the same time we just want him to stay our little baby just a little while longer. Needless to say, I shed more than a few tears in the days leading up to his birthday. The year has flown by. It has been a challenging, but even more so a rewarding one. Our Levi is stubborn, strong willed, curious, independent, adventurous, full of energy, extremely silly, and incredibly smart. I can't tell you how happy and blessed we are to be his parents. Just a few days ago, Colten was saying how fun it is just to be able smile at him and know you will always get a smile back. He brings so much joy into our home. We are so grateful to Heavenly Father everyday for entrusting us to be his parents.

We had his one year pictures taken a couple weeks before his birthday by my friend Alyssa of Alyssa Ence Photography. She does beautiful pictures and we love the way they turned out. The only problem was he was more into playing in (and eating) the dirt and rocks than his cake. He is definitely already 100% boy. Anyway, we seriously have the most beautiful baby. How in the world did we get so blessed?

We spent his actual birthday at the splash pad and then at Judd's in Saint George. We had a lot of fun. So much fun we kind of forgot to take any pictures. Whoops! My sister Jenna and her kids went with us and she happened to get this little snapshot of Levi and I. It's definitely not the best picture I have ever had taken, and by how disheveled Levi looks you can tell that he was having a lot of fun at the splash pad, and a little more ice cream than he probably should have had. But, you only turn one once right?

We had a little man mustache bash to celebrate his birthday the following Saturday. Seriously, I put a LOT of time into this fun little party. Holy Moly! Wasn't life so much simpler before Pinterest? I found way too many cute ideas there and I wanted to do all of them. Even though I started planning and preparing a couple months in advance, I was pretty overwhelmed with all of these cute little things. Luckily, I have a great husband, awesome in-laws and family, and an amazing friend who seriously saved my butt. Maggie was my lifesaver. She spend all of friday helping me bake and frost the cupcakes, make the food, and work on decorations, and then came over Saturday morning as well to help me set everything up, and decorate for his bash. I could not have done it without her. The party turned out super cute and we had a lot of fun. We are so grateful for all the friends and family who came and celebrated this special birthday with us. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of the decorations before everyone arrived so there are some people in these pictures.

We did a little time capsule for Levi, and had everyone at the party leave him a note that we will put inside of it.

A timeline of monthly pictures of Levi's first year.

We did the cutest little ice cream bar with all the toppings in mason jars. I love the way it all turned out!

Levi's high chair banner. My wonderful mother-in-law helped me out a ton with all the banners and the timeline we did.

Levi's cake. My friend Alex made it and she did such a great job!

Levi was a total mess after his cake smash! You can't tell in this picture, but he was of course super grumpy the day of his party. Isn't that always how it goes?

Some photo props for people to take pictures with. I wish I would have gotten more of the pictures people took.

Gage rocking not one but two of the glasses photo props. He is so silly!

Levi and I pre-cake smash.

Maggie and I having some fun with the photo props. As I said earlier, I really couldn't have pulled it off without her. Thanks Mags!

  There is a lot more I could write about with all thats been going on in the past month, but thats gonna have to be for another for another post. It took me forever to get this blog looking half decent again, and I am so ready for bed. Night!