christmas eve & christmas 2014.

Welp, since it's April, I guess I'll post about Christmas last year, since that's where I left off.

Christmas Eve was spent with Zac's family. We had a Christmas Eve feast as well as a live nativity scene that all the grandkids performed. Franz was much too interested in the toys they had to be bothered by being a wise man. Later in the night, Franz and his cousins sat on the floor with Grandpa Lyle and watched the train go around the Christmas tree. Franz was in awe--and this was before his obsession with trains! 

We spent Christmas morning opening presents (which I have no pictures of, only video). Franz got a little red piano that's just his size, and it was a hit! Santa also got him a few necessities, like plates and utensils and a pair of moccasins that match his mama's that he wore that day. After we got ready for the day, we headed up to my parents' house and spent the day with family, eating food, opening more presents, and skyping Sara who's on her mission in Kansas. It's crazy to think that she's never met Franz!

Christmas was laid back this year, but so much fun!

merry christmas!

A few days late, but here's our Christmas card! Merry Christmas!

*Photo by the amazing Heather Bliss*

the lights at temple square.

A couple of weeks ago, we drove up to Salt Lake City and saw the Christmas lights at Temple Square. It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions, and having a son to share it with made it that much more special.

Franz was loving looking at all the lights, and kept biting his mitten, trying to pull it off. I don't know why, but I really like out of focus Christmas light pictures. Also, Zac and I don't like other people taking our picture with our camera, so we waiting until no one was passing us, and took a really awesome, close-up picture of one half of our faces and called it good.

I love Temple Square during Christmastime.

thanksgiving 2014 in a nutshell.

I am awesome and the only pictures I have of this day are Zac filling up our flat tire and a naked, blurry Franz running around in an Indian headband I made out of construction paper.

We started the day off by driving up for breakfast at IHOP with my family, where Franz was only interested in walking around the restaurant. He fell asleep on the drive home, and Zac and I sat in the car for a good, long while, waiting for him to wake up. While Franz was sleeping, we realized that our tire was completely flat, so we drove to the car wash near our apartment, passing a cop on the way there who was trying to tell us that our tire was flat, and filled it up. Franz woke up, and we went inside and spent a few hours together, just the three of us, trying to watch the Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but we were too late.

For dinner that night, we went to Zac's parents' house, but not before filling up our tire again. We ate some of the most delicious turkey I've ever eaten, and Franz played with his cousins who were here from out of town. Apparently he cried because they were too loud. I wouldn't know, I was too busy stuffing my face.

On the way home, we stopped at a gas station to fill up our tire yet again, but the air pump was broken, so we drove back to Zac's parents' house and filled it up with a manual pump (ha!), and then drove home.

The next day, Black Friday, instead of going shopping for fun things (like we were going to anyway... online shopping all the way), we went to Costco and bought ourselves a brand new set of tires! And I was so excited about them (I'm serious). My car has needed new tires for a while.

This was one of the most hilarious Thanksgivings yet. It was very memorable. :)

franz's first birthday & celebrating one year as parents.

On the day my baby turned one, November 13th, it snowed for the first time of the season. In the morning, we let him open his presents. We got him a few musical instruments, a book, and some toy cars, among other things.

In the afternoon, we got bundled up and headed out in the snow for a walk. We got to the edge of our complex before realizing that it was Franz's nap time. So we went back inside. But Franz was in awe of the snow!

After his nap, and after thinking and thinking of what we could do to celebrate his birthday and coming up with nothing, Zac and I decided to celebrate our first year as parents instead, and drove down to Provo and got some hot cocoa and walked around downtown and talked about that special boy of our who made us parents.

Before putting Franz to bed, we gave him a birthday cupcake and sang Happy Birthday to him. He didn't touch the cupcake (again), so we ate it for him (again).

Next year we'll definitely do something more fun and aimed toward him, but I actually really enjoyed celebrating our first year as parents together that day. It was like, Yes! We made it! We both helped each other, and it was hard a lot of the time, but we made it, and look at our beautiful boy! It was very nice.

franz's first birthday: the party.

The weekend before Franz turned one, we had family and a few friends up at my parents' house to celebrate his first year! I ran with the fall decor my mom already had in her house, and Franz's love for pumpkins, and decided on a fall pumpkin theme. Plus, it was the perfect excuse to make all the fall desserts I had been wanting to make without having to eat all of it. ;)

We also made a little video of the little video clips we recorded of him during his first year to show. It's my favorite, and everyone kept asking if I was pregnant, because we sneakily broke the news last year to our families with a slideshow. (No, I'm not pregnant.)

Franz was not interested in opening his presents or eating the cake, no matter how hard we tried. So we opened his presents and ate his cake for him. It was so nice having people who love him celebrate his life with us!

halloween 2014.

For Halloween this year (ya know, a month and a half ago), Franz was Max from Where the Wild Things Are. His costume turned out cuter than I had hoped (thanks, mom!), and he was adorable. He loved carrying around his scepter, and his love of hats worked in our favor.

We spent Halloween night at Zac's parents' house for some Halloween dinner and treats while trick-or-treaters knocked on the door, and then headed over to Zac's grandma's house to say hi. Franz got spoiled and got a couple of goodie bags from grandma Jill and great-grandma Gay. He is loved.

It was a low-key Halloween (and Franz's last first holiday!), but I think he liked it. :)