Look at banner Gwen

We made this cute little banner for her.

We also found this cute little dress that had a tulle skirt and a cupcake on the front of it.

Gwen is ONE! I can't believe that it's been a year since we had her. She is such a blessing and joy to have in our lives. Every week I get an email update from Babycenter.com titled "My Baby This Week." Well today's email was "My TODDLER This Week"!!!! WHAT? My little baby is now a toddler?!

To celebrate we had a little party for her. We invited our family and had a great time! I just wish we had a bigger house so everyone could sit and talk and enjoy themselves more comfortably. Maybe for her next birthday.... maybe.

Brett and I were up late the night before preparing for it and started early the morning of the party. It was a lot of work but it was a lot fun and totally worth all the work!

She is so grown up. Things she likes to do at age 1 are:

Walking! She has taken a few steps for the last few weeks, but just today she started walking around like it was no big deal. She still seems to like crawling better, but I'm guessing that will change while I'm in Europe for the next few weeks.

Talking. She loves to jibber jabber. Nothing makes any sense yet, but it sure is fun to listen to.

Scream, squeal and laugh. She is always laughing and smiling and making everyone happy.

Crawling up AND down the stairs. As I dropped her off at the babysitter's house this morning, she climbed up the stairs, no big deal. Well then she turned over to her tummy and slid DOWN the stairs!! As I'm freaking out about my genius baby, my friend was wondering why, because she has been doing that for a while now. Well she wasn't sliding down the stairs at home! So it was sooo exciting to see her do that.

Growing teeth. Number 5, her first tooth on the top, came in the other day!

She didn't really dig into her cake, she mostly patted the outside of it and got some of the frosting on her face and a little in her mouth.

She was SO excited about this baby doll!

Thanks everyone for all of the gifts! We had a great time and were so happy you could all make it.

**** If anyone can tell me why we titled this post what we did, you get a special gold star! ****

Firsts

Gwen took her first, unassisted steps tonight! Side steps, but still, STEPS! She's growing up so fast, it's so fun.

In other news, my first half marathon. I was training to run my first half in Carlsbad, CA on the 24 of this month. But then I injured my foot, my trainer was worried it was plantar fasciitis. So I took 3 weeks off (the most crucial 3 weeks) and iced it and took lots of ibuprofen, and the pain went away! So back to running I go.

However, last week I was offered the opportunity to go to Germany for a trade show at just about the same time as the race. So... I'm off to Germany! And training for the SLC half in April instead. Since opportunities for a free trip to Europe don't come around that often, we decided to splurge and pay for Brett to come with me! So he'll meet me there around the end of the trade show and then we are off to the Czech Republic... where he served his mission. We're so excited! G-dub will be staying with my friend, that is also her daily babysitter. I'm terribly nervous, since I have to travel to Germany all by myself, but I think it will be a great experience, and I'll only be alone for a few days before Brett gets there.

And lastly, Gwen's FIRST birthday is just around the corner! We're so excited to celebrate, we've just got to get on the ball and organize the celebration.

Year in Review

I've been a bit behind with my year in review post, but it's better late than never. So here we go...

Jan. 27, the morning we went into the hospital. I'm as big as a house.

15 hours later our baby was born

Gwenyth Lynn Shirley
8 lbs 20.5" long

Me and my perfect little one.

Ready to go home after 5 days in the hospital.

February: Oma came to help out.

Baby and Daddy... melts my heart.

Gwen's first Valentine's Day. Flowers from her Daddy.

March: First meeting with her cousin Addie.

April: One of their favorite places to sleep, in the bathroom while I showered.

Lots of time was spent with Daddy in the Snugli.

April 19, we blessed Gwen and had a party with all of our friends and family.

May: I had to go back to work. I get to look at this girl's face everyday.

My sweet Aunt Kay took care of Gwen during my first month back to work.

We started the garden.

Gwen was introduced to Big Judd's

and rice ceral.... didn't love either.

June: First time swimming.

July: We went to Rexburg for the worst parade in history. Our nephew Rafe didn't even like the cheerleaders! The content is awful, but it's still fun to watch the mess.

My brother Steve and his family moved away.

I had a trade show in Florida that I had to go to and Brett and G were able to come with me. They spent a lot of time exploring, while I had to work.

The 3 of us in Florida.

August: The first haul from our garden.

September: First visit to CA and the beach.

First tooth!


Brett turned 30!!!!

last haul from our garden.

October: Gwen started crawling.

I went to Portland and Seattle for work and had a blast.

The Gnome Family. I won funniest costume at work. And we were the ONLY FREAKING ADULTS dressed up at the ward Halloween party. Lame.


November: I turned 30, THIRTY!!

Annual day after Thanksgiving Christmas Tree Extravaganza with Brett's family in Idaho.

December: Brett and I celebrated our 4th anniversary.

And our first Christmas together with Baby Gwen.

We had a great year, with a ton of firsts! We can't wait for what this year has in store for us. It's starting out with a bang, hello Europe! More updates and pictures to come.

Ho Ho Ho

We decided to stay home this year and just celebrate with the 3 of us, since we'll be going to San Diego for my half marathon in January. We had a great time! On Christmas Eve I made a huge dinner with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, yams, and my mom's famous rolls. Everything you could ever want. We had our lovely neighbor friends over and ate until we got sick.




Christmas morning came and we opened presents and enjoyed the rest of our day together. Brett was shocked by the totally rad gifts I got him, a Gocco, and some new Chucks. And I was thrilled with the SL Running Co gift card, diamond for my ring and ipod shuffle he got me. Our parents spoiled us with tons of other gifts to open so our present opening lasted for a while. Gwen didn't quite get how to open the gifts, but it was fun to see her try. We got her a Walk n' Ride toy. It's like a walker for babies. It's hilarious and she loves it! We think it makes her feel free, since she can finally walk on her own.

Gwen's thoughts on Christmas

She LOVED it!!!

Holy crap she's cute

So much has happened in the last few months that I haven't blogged about, and I'm too lazy to try and make up for it now. So I thought I would post cute picture of Gwen instead. Enjoy!

And forever just keeps getting better

*photo disclaimer* I realize these are the same photos I posted for our anniversary 2 years ago, but in order to get other photos up, I would have to scan them in and I'm just too lazy to do that. And these ones are pretty anyways.

4 years ago I married the coolest guy in the world... and he just keeps getting cooler. It's hard to believe that it's been that long but pretty much every moment has been amazing with Brett. He's the best father and husband anyone could ever ask for. I'm so grateful he chose me and that we get to spend eternity together.

To celebrate, Brett and I went to dinner while our neighbors watched Gwen. We had a great time, it was weird being without the little G, but so delightful all at the same time.





P.S. Computer problems have been solved!!!! Blogging as usual can continue. Don't worry Anna, I have had my old Mac for about 8 years and I have never had a problem with it. I think this issue was just a fluke with our laptop. Macs are and will always be better than PC's, no matter what any PC nerd tries to tell you. HAHAHAHA!!