Yee haw! Covey is one, y'all!

On August 12, we were able to celebrate our littlest guy's first birthday, yay!  His actual birthday was on a Tuesday.  We had a great day eating donuts for breakfast (he thoroughly enjoyed that!) reading together,  playing at the park, visiting the clinic for his check up, playing with balloons, looking back on his first year.  That night, we had a dinner with our family and Dave's co - worker, Dave, who is an interim CFO and about ready to head out here.  We invited him over because he misses his grand babies and we wanted to have him over anyways.  We had cajun chicken pasta (one of our family favorites),  breadsticks, salad, and had a fresh strawberry cake (poor boy got a pink cake but didn't seem to mind, hehe!).  He was fascinated by the glowing candles but wasn't sure  about blowing them out.  Covey puffed a little air after the other kids showed him how but ultimately, they helped him do it.  Happy birthday, little guy!  You are loved and bring so much joy to us all!

We had a birthday celebration with the rest of the family the weekend after his actual birthday, so all of the extended family could make it.  We had a cowboy themed birthday for him, since we’re gringo cowboys now, living in Wyoming and all.  :)  We had a great time!   We held it at Island View Park, near the Ryerse grandparent’s home.  We had some fun western style decorations in blue, red, and white.  We had some rootin’ tootin’ games, like good lil’ dawgy and two-legged races.  We had some good grub, eating tin foil dinners, rolls, and watermelon.  It was a good time.  Covey was intrigued by the wrapping paper.  He had fun scrunching it up and making noises and looking at the bright colors.  The best reaction he had to any of his presents was with a jean jacket the Ryerse grandparents gave him.  He pulled it out of the grocery bag (in true Ryerse wrapping style) and went “oooooh!” and his face just brightened up and his eyebrows raised up.  It was super cute!  He was also excited about everything else (as were his cousins and siblings who couldn’t wait to play with the toys).  Then we did his cake.  Grandma Di made it with a little help from Aunt Mayela.  It turned out so cute!  I was sad I wouldn’t have time to make one, since we were busy all that weekend, so it was nice my mom volunteered.  I couldn’t ever compete with her amazing cakes.  I’m an amateur and she’s a professional. He was digging it, literally!  He had that blue frosting all over his face and now I know why they call it a cake smash.  He smashed it all over the place.  So happy to be able to spend this time with our great family!  Then we gave all the cousins some cowboy goody bags with fun things in them which they all enjoyed.  Thank you for celebrating with us, family!   Coverton loves you all and is so lucky to be surrounded by amazing people who love him!

"Yeehaw!  Saddle up, and join the fun!  Our cowboy, Coverton, is turning one!"  This is the picture we used for the invitation.  What a cute little cowboy!

Cov at one 

Height: Weight:  We thought he'd be our first kid to hit twenty pounds by his first birthday,  and he was sure close, but didn't quite do it.

Still not walking, but should be any day.  He takes 2 to 4 steps, but then gets down, deciding crawling is much faster.  I give him a few weeks though.

Says ""mama", "dada", "more", "uh uh"(for no) and we swear he has said "Emma" a few times.

Eats everything in his path.  There haven't really been any foods he hasn't liked, and he eats a lot, too.  If I don't sweep the floor very soon after a meal, he's under the table looking for the crumbs.

Loves to dance to music, he will swing his arms or bounce around when he hears good music.

Enjoys going to the park.  He is fearless and gets himself down the slides.  He could swing all day and loves exploring the tubes, and eating the rocks and sand.

Has the sweetest big blue eyes we could stare at all day and a sweet toothy grin that makes us all smile.

Covey has been taking teething pretty hard, its bee rough for him.

A pretty happy dude most of the time.

Loved nursing, but is weaned now.  He drinks cows milk like a champ but gets upset by this fact that I'm not feding him anymore.   He tries to pull down my shirt and sucks on my arms and chest, giving me hickies.

Started pointing at everything with his index finger.

Coverton is actually sleeping in his bed more lately and sleeping through the night (knock on headboard). 

Cov loves his siblings, especially Cal and Emma.  Every once in a while, he’ll let out a “war cry” letting Lucy know to back off so she won’t push him around.  

It was also Grammie’s 80^th birthday that same day!  Covey is lucky to share a birthday with this woman!  J  Happy birthday to one of the most incredible women in the world!  And I mean that.  They had a nice birthday open house for her, but we were unable to make it, as it was the weekend before and we had some stuff going on at home.  We put together a can for her and put 80 things in it that represented memories, things she’s taught us, characteristics we admire in her, etc.  We wrote “80 reasons we love you” on it.  We sent it to her and she really liked it.  It was so fun thinking back on all of the great memories, all of the lessons she’s taught me, and her great “Midgeisms” (“And we’re off like a dirty shirt”, “Hey, Toots!” & “Nice to meet you hungry, I’m Grammie” are a few of my favorites).  I could go on and on and about her.  She’s gone through so many trials, and she’s as tough as nails, yet soft as a teddy bear.  She is a great example of service and always giving what she has to everyone else and genuinely cares about all.  Grammie is just fun to be around.  She has the best sense of humor and is so fun to talk to.  She is a sure example of how to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  She is always eager to increase her gospel learning, and share that with others.  She knows what is truly important – her family and the Savior Jesus Christ – and she lives for that.  She is genuinely happy, even during hard moments.  “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” & “getting old isn’t for wimps”.  She is an inspiration to me, one of my heroes, one I so want to be like someday!  Thank you Grammie, for being you!  I don’t know what this world would do without you.  Happy 80^th!