The Neverending First Birthday

Well, it's official, my little baby is 1 year old! I don't know whether to cry or be excited, so I guess I'm a little sad and happy at the same time-it's bittersweet to say the least. Today is her birthday, but I feel like the celebrations have lasted the whole month of August!

First of all, my mom, sister, and the rest of the Shawhan clan were able to come visit us the first week of the month. It was so much fun and even though they stayed in Park City, we were able to do something with them everyday. It also helped that I decided to quit my job the week before, so I had plenty of free time :). We had dinner, hung out in PC, hung out in Salt Lake, Meredith did my Moms, Gracie's, Taryn's, and Logan's hair so we ended up spending a good amount of time hanging out at Paul Mitchell. We also got a day to ride the alpine slide, coaster, and do the zip-line thanks to my Step-dad. It was so much fun! We were a little rushed to finish before the resort closed but I was DYING to take Mike up there since I've been more than a dozen times and he NEVER has. Surprisingly I was the one that wanted to go faster on the coaster :). We went on a Hike to Donut Falls which was right in between two very scary thunder/lightning storms and then went to Lonestar Taqueria for some dinner. Friday was the last day they were here as they were leaving Saturday morning so we visited the zoo on Friday and then my mom and Bob were kind enough to take Braelyn for the night so Mike and I could go have a much needed date night. We went to Market Street Grill and then saw Crazy, Stupid, Love (which is probably my favorite movie now). Since they wouldn't be here for Braelyn's actual birthday we had a little celebration of our own-cake and all. I'm glad my mom could somewhat be a part of Braelyn's first birthday, even though she missed the big party I threw. Saying goodbye to them Saturday morning was hard, but it was so much fun to see my family! I miss them and wish they were closer so Braelyn could get to know her Grandma Bina and Auntie GG more :(.Getting some yummy treats at Great Harvest with Grandma

On the Alpine Coaster
The ZOO!!!

Hiking up Donut Falls

Singing "Happy Birthday"

After they left, I spent the rest of my time planning Braelyn's party. I decided to do it a week early since Mike's parents would be in Hawaii on her actual birthday and school started for Mike and I the Monday before her birthday, so it just seemed easier to do it a week early. I actually wish I had spent more time planning the party because there was so much I didn't get to finish. I got some inspiration from a few places and decided to do a Bumble Bee themed party since Braelyn's nickname is "B" or sometimes "BB", plus I loved the idea of it :). I originally planned on having the party at Sugarhouse or another park, but all of the pavilions were already reserved at the parks I wanted so we were able to do it at Mike's parents' house instead, which worked out perfectly. Somehow I got this idea in my head that I could cook for 40 people "no biggie", ummmm actually it was a BIG deal. I wanted to make baked mac and cheese or "The Bee's Knees Mac & Cheese" and "Bee Bee Q" Chicken Sandwiches along with baked from scratch lemon cupcakes. When I thought about doing it all, I really didn't think it would be that hard. We ended up doing the cupcakes on Friday night and then I spent the ENTIRE morning on Saturday making the rest of the food. There were some mishaps with cooking the Mac and Cheese and halfway through the process I thought to myself "what the HELL was I thinking?!?!" and "this isn't going to turn out well" or "this is going to be horrible" and even "I think we should just order pizza". I think I was trying to be a little TOO ambitious! Anyway, I continued cooking leaving out one of the main ingredients in the mac and cheese because we forgot it and substituting it with more cheese. Much to my surprise everything turned out really well, I got really good reviews on the food and everyone was so impressed that I did it myself (with the help of Michele and Mike). I was impressed with myself, not going to lie. It was a fun day, we ate yummy food, watched Braelyn smash her banana bumble bee cake, ate some of the banana cake, and then watched her attempt to open presents (which I pretty much opened for her). It was so much fun, except I was so busy making sure everyone else was happy I ended up forgetting to take a majority of the pictures. I only got a few, sadly enough, but I saw lots of other people snapping pictures so I'm hoping I can steal some from them :).

I love a man who isn't afraid to help his wife bake :)

"Happy Bee Day, Honey"

Some of the many guests

Birthday Girl enjoying her mac and cheese
Braelyn's very own smash cake
The big cake

She LOVED the yummy banana cake
cousin Mikayla helping B stuff her face
Presents! She got SO spoiled!

Hopefully I can gather more photos from other people. I'm sad I didn't get pictures of the food untouched as well as all the stuff I made for decorations :( I guess I learned my lesson,
TAKE MORE PICTURES.

Well since we did all of the celebrating before her birthday, I felt we still had to do SOMETHING today :). Mike ended up getting up early to get some work done so I had the whole morning to spend with my little birthday girl :). It was fun, we played and got ready for the day. When Mike got home we ate some lunch and Grandpa stopped by for a surprise birthday visit! I love to see how many people love Braelyn, it's so amazing how loved she is! After his visit we started to get ready to go to Cowabunga Bay. I went yesterday with some friends and their babies and thought Mike would enjoy it more than I did (since he is just a big kid at heart). I needed to make a stop at Target before we went so we actually didn't end up getting there until a little before 5pm which was WAY later than I wanted, but it actually happened to work out perfectly. We got there and found front row parking then as we were getting everything out of the car, a stranger walked up to us and asked if we were going in. We said yes, and he handed us two brand new wristbands. He said he had a birthday group and still had two extra wristbands. "Try to see if you can use them" he told us, lol I was so excited! We were both just grinning ear to ear. When we walked up to the gate the ticket person asked us if we had the tickets they scan, I just shook my head not knowing what to say. "You don't have them?" he asked again. Then my BRILLIANT husband just said "no, we're just with a group" the cowabunga boy just looked at us questionably for a second and then said "oh, okay". Just like that lol I know it's not the most honest thing to do, but at least SOMEONE paid for the tickets, right? Plus it was Braelyn's birthday and 2 hours until they closed for the day, so really, who cares?! We had lots of fun playing with B in the little wading pool most of the time. I got some sun and Mike played with Braelyn lots and lots. We were there for about an hour and a half and decided we had enough, but it was something fun to do to celebrate-just the three of us :).

Talking to Daddy

She's so BIG

It has been such an eventful year, and I still manage to fall more and more in love with Braelyn everyday, and I think Mike does too. Sometimes at night after laying B down in her crib, me or Mike will say to the other " she is just so amazing" followed by an "I know" from the other person. Or we'll say "I just love her so much" or "she is seriously the cutest baby I've ever seen". She has created a bond between me and Mike that will never be broken. She brings us closer than I ever thought was possible, I just hope it doesn't change with the second one! She's been such a blessing to us, she inspires us both to be better and do better-everyday. I couldn't imagine life getting any better than it is right now! We are all so happy it's just unreal.