A Very Merry Un-Birthday Broncos Un-Party!

Our favorite baby nephew is turning 1! OK, so he's our only baby nephew. It still counts.

I didn't want my brother-in-law or sister-in-law to think we'd forgotten about his birthday in the midst of all the wedding stuff, so I asked Andrew to check with his brother to see if they wanted to celebrate while they were in town. They said no, as they had their own thing planned. I totally get how that goes because there's nothing worse than planning a little celebration only to be upstaged to your own kids.

Only there ended up being a big misunderstanding, and Colleen came to me later to tell me they did want cupcakes after all. So, Andrew went out Sunday afternoon to pick up some cake mix last minute, and I told Oliver he'd get to bake cupcakes for his cousin's birthday! He got excited, and even Jo started to sing, "Happy Birthday." It was right about the time we turned on the mixer that I found out about the mis-communication. Sawyer's birthday party was next weekend, and they planned their first baby's first birthday party. I felt so awful because I know what that feels like... I am the last person who would do something like that and take away a parent's fun and celebration with their own child. Thankfully, they were really understanding of what happened, but I felt awful. Plus, there were my kids, mixing up cake mix...

SO WE HAD BRONCOS VICTORY CUPCAKES INSTEAD! I told Oliver there would be no singing, and he was totally cool with that. At that point, the kids just wanted to eat cupcakes. So, I totally let them pig out.

Anyway, it was a good thing it ended up being a Broncos party instead of a birthday party because the little guy didn't make it to the end of the game. 

Here's the newest Broncos fan:

The un-birthday Broncos party:

(Happy early Birthday, Sawyer!)

Oliver's Back!

We were all supposed to go on a road trip to Utah to visit my brother-in-law's family. We were supposed to leave last Saturday, the 29th. At the last minute, plans fell through. My mother-in-law, Colleen, ended up flying into Utah. Oliver had been looking forward to vacation and had his bag packed, so Colleen volunteered to take him with. We agreed, and Andrew, Joanna, and I stayed behind.

Having one child in the house felt like a vacation in some ways. When Jo napped, I got to lounge. Oliver tends to leave a continuous trail of mess where he plays, and so I had nearly a week in which I didn't have to bend over and pick up toys nonstop.

After the second day, I started to miss my little man. By day 5, I was going bonkers. We could talk over Facetime, which helped, but I just wanted him home! It started to get to me that he was hundreds of miles away. Of course, he had a great time with his grandma, cousins, aunt, and uncle. They went sledding and even went on sleigh ride. They all watched the Broncos game together, and Oliver thoroughly enjoyed playing with the baby and mixing his bottles (he keeps talking about the baby, even now that he's home).

He finally came home yesterday in the early afternoon. I feel a lot better having my family home, together! I think even Jo is happy to have her brother home. Oliver is happy to be with us and also happy to have his toy appliances.

Here he is with his cousins: