ONE- the big day

He did it.. He turned 1. My baby. I seriously feel like life for the past year has been moving in fast forward and I haven't quite figured out how to slow it down, as much as I try. One minute I'm bouncing endlessly on an exercise ball trying to calm his never ending cries, the next minute I am staring at a little man bob up and down to music while holding a drum stick.

His big celebration was the day before his actual birthday. Of course I spent quite a bit of time planning a nautical party for our little man. Thank goodness for pinterest. I had a blast.

Thanks to all the help I got from Ben, my mom, and Ben's parents, I really wasn't stressed about getting things done, which is unusual for me and my perfection mode that I easily fall into. The most stressful thing about the day was that Colter is in mega teething mode right now and was super grumpy all day. I really wanted him to enjoy his party, so I was so thankful when he did awesome at the party and seemed to really have fun with all his buds.

It was mass chaos. 23 adults and 12 kiddos packed into our living room & kitchen. I love it SO much when our house is buzzing with activity. I had several moments during the party where I looked around and thanked God for the amazing people he has put in our lives that love our little man to death.

Party tip #1: Always have balloons.

After most everyone managed to eat some food, we got down to business with the cake. Colter made the cutest scrunched up face when we sang Happy Birthday to him. Here is a sequence of pics. melt. my. heart.

With all his enthusiasm over the candles, I thought for sure he would go crazy with the cake. Not so much. I guess he doesn't realize there wont be many occasions where I will be force feeding him sugar.

Apparently all kids are totally ready to leave right after cupcakes because getting a group picture of the kiddos was absolutely hilarious because it was so disastrous. Judging by their faces, you would have thought we served broccoli and had a scary clown in attendance.

So thankful for the family that was able to make it for his party!

We love you Colter man. You are a delight to parent. We thank God all the time for the HUGE blessing it is to be your mom and dad.

1 year old

Happy Valentines Day!

With the help of pinterest, I went a little crazy this Valentines day. There are so many creative, fun things out there in the internet world, I just couldn't stop. It helps when I have a super sweet man to love.

We celebrated partially on Saturday because we knew we wouldn't have a ton of time during the week. I made some delicious red velvet pancakes for breakfast that pretty much tasted like cupcakes. Ben made a fabulous dinner of steak with a peppercorn sauce with a side of greek style zucchini salad. Yes, I have a man that can seriously cook. For dessert, he made chocolate pots de creme that were OUT OF THIS WORLD. ok, wipe the drool off your keyboard. Moving on.

On actual valentines day morning, I gave him this cute craft from Colter,

and this personalized candy bar

During the day, I put up this on the garage door which was super fun

here are the pictures up close:

and put out some personalized Jones soda.

Ben came home with this incredible bouquet of flowers

and gave me a special homemade card (he found the idea off pinterest- i'm so proud of him!)

What would valentines day be without a berry monster??

After dinner we did an at home date using bananagrams letters to spell out different words that relate to our relationship (memories, places we've traveled, etc.) It was a ton of fun to see what we each came up with.

It was such a special day full of love!!

Just so I don't forget

This is such an incredible stage right now. I feel like everyday Colter does something new that I just don't want to forget. So here are a few from the last couple of days.

* Yesterday I took Colter to the park to swing. There was a group of boys playing football and they would occasionally all start laughing. Colter was totally memorized by the boys and when they would start laughing, he would lean forward in his swing and start laughing too, like he wanted to be a part of the group.

* Yesterday he started stacking blocks on top of each other. He's not very steady, and I usually have to hold the bottom block, but he gets so excited when he's able to get one to stay.

* Today I taught him how to "feed mama" and now he thinks it's the best thing ever. If he had his way, he would feed me everything on his tray.

* He is really into the train whistle right now. When he sees it, he makes his mouth into a little "o" and goes "hoo hoo" He also tries to make noises with it, but usually just blows really loud.

*He's really starting to point at things. If I say, "Colter, where are the birds?" He will point up to the trees. He also loves to point specific things out in books- usually balls and dogs.

I am SO in love with this little MAN!

Love Day

We love dad!

What have those Crowls been up to??

Lots actually. This is a super busy season for us right now, with Ben back leading a community group in our house, going through the Real Marriage study at church, and Ben taking a counseling in community class on Wednesday nights.

Here is a quick update:

A week or so ago we had an amazing stretch of sun that almost felt like summer. There were definitely a few occasions I drove with the windows down. We met up with some friends one Friday night to watch the sunset and eat dinner together down in Edmonds.

My sister finally had my sweet sweet niece, Harper Grace. You can hear about her birth story here. The only other thing I want to record is that when Mark called me to tell me that Jess was dilated to a 10 and was about to push, I pretty much freaked out, ran outside screaming "she's about to start pushing!" I jumped in my car and Ben said "Be careful driving!" I said of course and as I was backing out, I backed right into our trash can. James' eyes got as big as saucers, since he is mr. safety driver. It was hilarious.

We watched their kiddos while they were in the hospital and had a blast. We played outside and did the stomp rocket, went to "Old McDonalds" for some play time, made a few trips to the hospital, had some hard core dance parties, and played candy land. It made me really excited for more kids. I haven't seen Harper in 4 days and it's killing me!! Those cheeks!

We started up a weekly date night swap with our friends the Rikalos and it has been SO awesome to go out twice a month, even if it is just to the mall to walk around and eat ice cream!

It is a crazy baby explosion around these parts. I will have cooked 6 meals for different couples in a month. Everyone keeps asking if this has led to baby fever. Well.. lets just say I don't miss the random screaming outbursts, the 3 hours of fusiness in the evening, endless bouncing on the ball, but man.. it is pretty much the sweetest thing ever to sunggle those little loves. My neighbor Kellie had her baby two days ago and I was privileged to be the first visitor and snap a few pics when she was 9 hours old. Here's one of her sweet girl, Emily.

Here is another new baby in our community group, Lucy. I think this is the first baby I have seen that gives Colter some competition for his hair.

We got together with a couple from our birth class for dinner. Their daughter, Katie, is 1 day older than Colter. We saw them again this past weekend at a kids concert in Bellevue.

I am reading a book right now that I'm really enjoying called People of the Book.

With all this activity, it is easy to forget that my little baby boy is almost 1 year old. bahhh

Animal Love

There is one thing Colter is really serious about. Animals- both fake and real.