Birthday Fun

Last Friday, I celebrated my Birthday. It turned out to be a wonderful day. Lance gets to work half days on fridays so he can help watch Jace, so I switched my schedule around to work only a half day as well so that I could spend the afternoon with my little family. It was a lot of fun. Lance bought flowers for me and delivered them to me at work. I work with my mom, so she put together a little gift as well. And my desk was all decorated by my coworkers. My coworkers were going to buy lunch for me and a couple other people since I'm not the only one with my Birthday that day, but since it was my half day, that didn't work out.

After I got off work, Lance and I went and picked up Jace and headed to the Utah State Fair. It's something I enjoy doing every year. Lance doesn't enjoy it quite as much as me, but he was a sport and went along anyways. We took Jace to look at all the animals. He would just look and point at them, but that was about it. He tried sticking his fingers through the gates at times. Lance bought a back support and then he bought me a few tanktops as a Birthday gift. Lance was most looking forward to the fatty fair food. Jace enjoyed it as well. We got a funnel cake to try out and it was very good! They had some white tigers there and Jace really enjoyed looking at those as well. Altogether, it was a lot of fun, but very tiring since my foot is still trying to heal and get used to walking again.

That night, we planned on dinner with just my parents at Famous Dave's. When we got there, I was surprised because my brothers were there and my older brother brought his family. I was very happy to get to see my nieces and nephew. I don't see them as much as I used to. We had a nice dinner together. My dad, brother, Lance, and I shared one of the great big garbage can lids full of food. It sure was hard to share! Lucky me got to bring home all the leftovers. My 4-year-old nephew was the sweetest kid at the restaurant. He kept telling me that I looked nice and he liked my hair and stuff like that. He's going to be a real lady's man I can tell if he keeps acting like that.

Saturday, I got up early and went and spent the morning with my mom and sister. We went up to Park City and hit some of the sales up there. My sister got me some new shirts and my mom got me a couple things as well. I felt so spoiled. Then, we met up with my sister-in-law and the kids again and went to Leatherby's. It was Lance's first full day alone with Jace. He was a little nervous about me leaving all day. By the end of the night, I received a call from Lance saying he didn't know what to do. Jace was fussy and into everything. I told Lance to give him a bath and he said he didn't know how to do it alone. By the time I got home, Jace was so exhausted that he was sleeping on Lance's shoulder. He's not used to his mommy being gone for so long at one time.
On Sunday after region conference, we headed out to Lance's parents where we had a barbecue. If you haven't noticed, I love barbecues and barbecue food! The only negative about it was there were bees all over our food when we tried eating outside, so we all ended up eating inside. After dinner, we played a game of rodeo golf (the new horshoe). It was very enjoyable sitting outside taking turns playing each other. Me and Tara (Lance's sister) matched up pretty well considering both of us were pretty bad at the game.

Jace reaching in to pet the goats

Mommy and Jace looking at the cows

Looking at the White Tigers

Jace was pretty tired by the end of the fair

The family after the bbq watching Rodeo Golf. Jace doesn't participate very well when it comes to getting his picture taken.

Tara, Derek, and Lauren playing a round of Rodeo Golf

Lovebirds Derek and Lauren were very competitive

Grandma Rowley's dog, Scooter, posed for a picture

Jace was so happy outside

Jace climbs all over everything! He loved climbing over Unca D-Rock outside.

It turned out to be a wonderful weekend spending it with family. I can't believe that another year passed so fast. It seems like I just had a child and now he's 11 months old! It's crazy. He doesn't walk yet, but he sure is all over the place constantly. Last week, he learned to do 3 things seriously at one time. He was standing next to the couch and he hates when he gets in that position because he won't walk holding on to the couch and he can't figure out how to sit back down. All of a sudden, he started taking teeny tiny steps to where he could reach Grandma Rowley's hand. She said patty cake and suddenly, Jace let go of the couch and started clapping! Then, he got a little closer and we told him to give her a 5 and he reached out and hit her hand. It's crazy how things are suddenly clicking to him. I've been trying for months to get him to learn these things and it's like they finally got to his head and he understands. He's climbing up to everything now. He just has to learn the walking. We were at my mom's yesterday and he was standing up at the baby gate keeping him from the kitchen. I looked away and when I turned around again, he was walking along the wall. He's never done anything like that before. Hopefully in the next month or so, he'll get walking a little better and start walking more.

Today, I took him to a play group in our ward. I used to be out in Salt Lake everyday, but I had a chance to change my schedule to be home 2 days a week and just be a mom and we were able to go to the play group. It was funny because there were kids all over running and Jace was the only one that wasn't. I'm hoping that soon he'll be running around with those kids. I know other moms think I'm crazy for saying that and I'm sure I'll regret saying it later. It is one of those things I look forward to though.

Anways...I meant to keep this short, but it ended up being long as usual. Now that I'm home more, maybe I'll blog a little more as well.