LABOR DAY LOVE...

Last weekend was bitter sweet. Labor Day was created by Peter J. Maguire in 1882. He thought there should be a holiday for the American worker. With that being said, Derek's grandma, who I think of as my own grandma, was a very hard worker. She went through so many things in her life. It wasn't easy, life isn't easy for any of us. It takes work to accomplish a life well lived.

Labor Day weekend was most likely the last time to have an actual conversation with her before she passes away. She has left behind a wonderful legacy to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I'm so fortunate that I get to be a part of her family forever. She has taught her family to love unconditionally and accept others with open and warming arms.

We are fortunate to live close to family so we can have these last conversations, learn our last life lessons from these stalwart people, hear their stories about the grandeur of trouble they got in, and give them last hugs and kisses on their wrinkly cheeks. We are prepared for Grandma to go soon, but we are at peace knowing there is life after this and she told us many times last weekend, "I feel at peace" with what is going to come.

We are so grateful we got to spend this holiday with the Nielsen and Hayes family and that we saw Grandma. In the back of my mind, any activity we did from dutch oven cooking to watching my husband and sister-in-law ride their dirt bikes, I tried to do so in honor and celebration of Grandmas hard-working life!  The pictures below sum up all our festivities.  We took it pretty easy but we did manage to get outside and have fun!

Dexter and I started out the holiday weekend playing the piano while Daddy was at work.

We then walked quite a ways up the Bridal Veils Fall Pathway.  It is starting to feel like fall!

BBQ chicken and cheesy potatoes from the dutchoven in Ephraim!  YUM!

I went to go watch Derek ride his dirt bike!  I've never seen him ride until now!

Derek speeding up the hill!  It look dangerous, but fun!

This was posed, but it still looks cool!

Lastly, with today being September 11th and as Grandma is not doing very well, my heart aches for those who have experienced loss of loved ones. The emotions of loosing someone you love are hard, they are real, and they can be scary. As I have seen others deal with loss and coped with the loss of loved ones myself, I find comfort in my Savior. He died so that we can live in this life and in the next!

This picture was taken about a month ago, but it is one of my favorites of Grandma Hayes and Dexter.  I need to print it and frame it!

DEXTER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY...

Dexter turned one last Friday!  We started out the day with breakfast in the high chair, we will get to breakfast in bed one day.  I made him one of his favorites, French Toast!  We then had some McDonalds for lunch.  Processed food on his birthday, what more can a kid want?  Right?  We took it easy on his actual birthday because we were having his birthday party the next day and I had lots of the "day before prep" to do.

The theme of the party was DOGS.  There wasn't a lot of dog party ideas on pinterest so I had to get creative and come up with a couple things of my own.  For the balloons, Zurchers didn't have any dog/paw print balloons.  But, did you know that Zurchers will fill up balloons they don't sell in their store?  It still costs like a $1, but this was a life saver!  I ended up finding paw print balloons on Amazon and took them to Zurchers before the party to be filled up.

For the food, I designed cute little cards to label our menu of:  ShiskaDogs (I used the Chicken Apple Sausage from Costco-so yummy), PAWsta Salad, Fruit Kibble, Dog Bone Chips, and Puppy Chow for the party favor.  It was quite a bit of work with preparing the Shiska Dogs, but I assigned people to bring other food so it wasn't too much work.

Setting up the party was fun!  Sometimes I think I should have gone into interior design instead of advertising.  :)  I love decorating and putting things together.  A few days before the party, I took an empty oatmeal container, toilet paper rolls, and a paper bowl.  I glued them all together to look like a fire hydrant and then I painted it red!  I found the most adorable dog balloon to set up on the food table.

For games, I thought it would be fun to do a dog show type thing.  I was going to have some kind of obstacle course that people would have to accomplish in a timely manner to win a ribbon.  BUT, I decided not because Dex doesn't walk and wouldn't have been able to do it.  So, instead our game was a drawing contest.  I had everyone color/draw a dog.  We then let Dex pick the top 3 dogs!  The people who won, each got a cheesy ribbon of first, second, or third place.  I'm going to put the pictures of dogs in sheet protectors and a binder so Dex can look at them.  His love for dogs is real.  He could look at dogs all day long!

 The cake...oh man!  No words to describe.  I could never make a cake that looks this cute.  My mom made it and I didn't want to eat it.  It was darling!  Dex didn't take a nap in the morning so by the time we had cake, he started eating it and then he started falling asleep.  Finally he got some cake in his mouth and the sugar rush kicked in.  He was such a happy boy and went absolutely crazy!

The party was a hit!  But, next year I think we will opt for Costco cupcakes and whoever wants to come, swimming.  That sounds much easier for me, the mom and party planner.  :)