Everly's First Birthday Party

Everly's first birthday party was a success. However, it was very exhausting. Justin and I (mostly Justin) did a lot of preparing and decorating to get ready. I mean A LOT of decorating. Lots of streamers were hung and paper chains were made. I also made tissue pom poms and we hung banners and pictures and it just seemed never ending. Thursday night I kind of had a melt down because I realized I got myself into a lot more than I could handle. What's new...Justin picked up the slack and did all of the baking! I passed out with everly at like 1130 and he was up until 1 AM. That is late for us! We had professional pictures taken of Everly and Cameron Friday morning and I will share those as soon as we get them! The rest of Friday was spent cleaning and running last minute errands and finishing up decorating. We were actually ready once everyone started showing up Friday night. We had way too much food, of course, and desserts as well. We had asked everyone to donate to Sharing Down Syndrome in lieu of bringing gifts for Everly. We are so grateful to everyone who donated, however, Everly still got a ton of gifts! Justin had made her a play-kitchen and we had gotten her some food and a shopping cart for it, but she is spoiled and still got a lot of other gifts (and tons of cute clothes)! We are so glad that so many people were able to show up. It was a lot of fun! Here are a few pics from the day:

 

Running last minute errands

 

Water for the party- The labels matched the invites and other paper goods from the party designed by  Monkey Doodle Parties on Etsy.

Smash Cake!

Rainbow Candy Buffet and Rainbow Twizzler Favors

So many more desserts were added later!

The garage

Dinner!

We had a little photo area with some props for people to take pics!

 





Everly fell asleep before cake time, and when she woke up she was not all that interested :(

Her presents- she loves her car!

Playing with the kitchen Justin made her the next morning!

 

12 month Update

Yesterday was Everly's first birthday. I feel like we had been planning for this day since she was born! I will be posting lots of birthday pictures later and we had some professional pictures taken today too. I didn’t really think it would happen but Everly took her first steps this month. She hasn’t done much since, but we now know she can do it and it is only a matter of time before something motivates her to do it more often! Everly now weighs 22.8 lbs and is comfortable in size 4 diapers. She is wearing anywhere from 12 months to 2t clothes depending on the fit. She is also wearing shoes more regularly and fits in a 3. She is still giving lots of hugs and kisses. She has also really enjoyed being chased in the last month! I posted a video below. She thinks it is so funny! In the past month, she has really been pointing at everything. It cracks me up. She still likes to fall asleep in her high chair and has been doing better at sleeping through the night in her crib. She even played in her crib the other day once she realized that the mattress was bouncy! She is making lots of sounds, but nothing too close to a definite word yet. Although, when she is making noises, it sure sounds like she is having a full on conversation, just in a language we don’t speak!

Everly loves eating meat! She loves chicken more than anything and will eat that off of her plate before anything else. She also loves to suck down her applesauce pouches…and doesn’t even make a mess! She is now drinking all whole milk! Yay for no more formula and a cheaper bill at Costco! Everly has discovered how to feed the dogs from her highchair. She just loves sharing her cheerios with them and they sure aren’t complaining. She sure is one happy little 1 year old! 

Here is the video of Everly being chased:

Sharing Down Syndrome Walk



A week and a half ago we participated in the Sharing Down Syndrome walk in support of my nephew Cameron. This was our second year participating. Last year Cameron was only a few months old and I was still pregnant. We raised around $500 last year, but this year we had more time to plan for everything and it was a huge success. Cameron's Crew raised $1,830.00 and was the 10th highest in donations raised. We all had matching shirts and provided them to people who came out to the walk. I designed them and my future-brother-in-law got them donated and organized it all. Everyone reached out for donations and we were so grateful for everyones generosity. It was still pretty warm out and Everly fell asleep on my shoulder towards the end of the walk, but it was a great day and a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures of the day!

 

The star of the day! Cameron Douglas Rohr <3

dancing Evie

Everly with her Aunt Katy

Cameron a.k.a. the ultimate kiss giver

Evie with her Uncle Kory

Evie, Me, Justin, and Justin's sister Christi

me and my nugget!

Our family: Kory, Grandma, Katy, Kim, Doug, Cameron, Krystyn, Tony, Me, Justin, and Everly

Everyone that came out for the walk! Thanks!

Playing with papa!

Everly is fascinated with other kids...Little Avery is only a couple weeks younger!

Cameron wanted nothing to do with this shot! Haha!

The walk!

 



 



The wagon riders! (lasted about 2 seconds before Cam reached for Everly's head)





Exhausted!

 

Thoughts on Motherhood

Now that I have been a mother for almost one year I wanted to reflect a little and share what I have learned and loved about being a mom. First, very quickly I realized that being a mother is very hard. It tests you at your weakest moments. I want to be honest, my first few months with Everly were very hard. To me, she seemed a little fussier than I would expect was normal. It is still tough for me to say this now, but sometimes, I feel guilty because I don’t feel like I enjoyed those first few months enough. I am pretty sure I had some form of PPD that I probably should have seen someone about. Luckily, I have the most amazing husband and family. Just as quickly as I realized how hard being a mother was, I also realized how important having an amazing family is. All you single mother’s out there are angels. I knew you were tough already, but now I can truly respect you. My husband stepped up when I couldn’t. My family always offered to help in any way that they could. I truly know the meaning of the saying, “It takes a village to raise a baby.”

Before I had Everly, I had made the commitment to breastfeed. I had set a goal for 6 months, and I accomplished that goal. It was hard in the beginning but we made it. I think that I will make it longer if I have another child, but with Everly and me, 6 months was right.

We have had a very busy year. As new parents, we made a very conscious effort to expose her to as much as possible. She has been to the zoo several times, the desert botanical gardens, numerous soccer games (including a U.S. Women’s game!), a MLB game, the Children’s Museum of Phoenix, and the Musical Instrument Museum. She has been on an airplane, and been to the beach and even visited the snow (a big deal for us Arizonans). She went to swim classes for about 6 months and after that had lots of pool days. Seeing Everly enjoy new things has been one of my most favorite parts of being a mom. Everly loves new environments and places. She loves going on walks and wagon rides.

It may have been tough in the beginning but she really is a very happy little girl. I can remember my first real “proud” mom feeling very clearly. Everly rolled from her back to her belly while on our ottoman in the living room. I remember seeing her trying to do it and then being successful and I yelled to my husband that she did it because I was so proud. I relived those proud feelings again just last week when she took her first steps and I look forward to so many more proud mom moments. Currently, I am so in love with how sweet Everly is. I just love it when she rests her head on my shoulder or gives me little hugs and kisses. It NEVER gets old. It is super cute to see her hug her little stuffed animals, too. I cannot wait to see how sweet she is with her new little cousin!

Speaking of new littles, we have no plans of adding any to our family any time soon. I am working very hard on getting healthy and we are really enjoying giving Everly all of our attention. We are not ready to share that with anyone else…yet. I am so thankful and feel so blessed to be Everly's mom.

Everly's first steps!

I already posted this on FB and shared it with my family but I also wanted there to be a record on here of Everly's first steps. Almost exactly a week before her first birthday! Right on time! We are so proud and she is so stinkin' cute!

Happy 11 Months!

Everly is 11 months old today! Yay! We are one month away from her first birthday party and in full planning mode. Everly still wanted nothing to do with taking her monthly picture in her crib so we are on the changing table again. Everly is not walking yet, but she is using the wall and furniture to move around very quickly. She will often pull her self up on you and then let go for a second and stand on her own. I don't think she will be walking at exactly a year, but I definitely think it won't be long after! She has cut her first two top teeth this past month. It has actually just happened in the last week so it has been rough. Runny nose, super tired, and real fussy! Joy! But hey, she is going to need them to chow down on her cake next month! She has been doing really well with eating table foods. She loves her meat and will often pick up the meat on her highchair tray before anything else. We also discovered her love for raspberries this month. We have begun to ween her off of formula and started splitting her bottles with whole milk. She has always been easy going when it comes to her bottles so that is going well. Everly loves playing with her cousin's cozy coupe and especially getting in and out of it. She will do that for hours! She also has discovered how to "answer the phone." If we give her the phone and tell her to "say hello" she will put it up to her ear. It is really cute. She is becoming even more sweet with her hugs and kisses. Her cousin Cameron gets the most, but Oscar the cat is a close second and Roi the beagle is her third favorite! She also loves hugging and kissing her stuffed animals. Seriously the cutest thing ever. Everly is in anywhere from 12m-2T depending on the outfit. She is still in size 4 diapers! We have a hard time putting any shoes on her because her feet are chubby and she just takes them off. We are so lucky to have a happy, healthy and beautiful little girl! Hope to see you at her birthday party next month! 

Had to share one of her kissing Minnie! 

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day Weekend! It was so nice having the extra day off. We took full advantage and filled the weekend. On Saturday morning we went to the Zoo and on Monday we went to the Science Center. The babies loved it and since my sister has a zoo membership and I won free Science Center passes on the radio, it was a cheap weekend too! Here are some pics:

She has learned how to answer the phone and is trying to do that with the ball! 

Below is a video from the MathAlive Exhibit at the Science Center. The babies were kissing! 

Everly's Birthday Planning

I feel like we have been making plans for Everly's first birthday since she was born! Now it is actually getting into crunch time! I have an entire Pinterest board with ideas and appetizer recipes here. This past weekend we took pictures for the invitation we will be sending out. I don't want to ruin any surprise factor, but there was so many cute pictures we didn't end up going with so I just had to share them. If you are local, look out for an invite in the next week or so! Also, if you are not local and you get an invite, don't worry, we don't really expect you to come, we just wanted to share the invite with you!

Kitchen Mini-Makeover

We have wanted to do a few things to our kitchen and in August we finally started. One of the biggest things we wanted to do is add a backsplash. We found a great one at Costco and bought it. It did not go with our current red paint color so we had to change that up. We also bought hardware for our cabinets. So far, we have painted and put in the hardware (and when I say we, I mean Justin). I think it looks great so far, but we are both getting used to the hardware. I keep bumping my hips on them and have bruises all over. The next weekend Justin has off and doesn't go out of town we plan to tackle the backsplash with the help of family, of course! Here are some pics of before and the progress so far.

This is the backsplash we bought. Can't wait until it is all done!