What a day, she's 1!!!!

Macy Megan Gustafson's 1st Birthday Party!!!!!!!!!

After 5 days straight of being gone from one party to another, and Gabe having been working non-stop, we talked and decided the best way for us to get everything done that we needed to before the party tonight, and for Macy to still have a fun day was to call up our favorite babysitter Anna Banana and give ourselves a few hours to get everything ready!

By the time 4:30 rolled around, we were all dressed, the house was clean, dinner was done, closets were even organized!!!!

Macy is so loved. Besides our little family, we had Great Grandpa Boyd, Great Grandma VK, Grandpa, Grammy, Auntie Kate, Uncle Bryce, Cousin Heidi, Luke, Annie, Abbie, Ellie Gale, Auntie Mimi Sharon, & Uncle Craig. 16 bodies in our house is a little crowded, but fun!

We had dinner and then opened presents. Poor Macy either ate too much at Anna's house, hit overload, was exhausted, was bothered by the noise... who knows? She threw up twice at dinner and then wanted to be pretty much left alone. Hard to do with irresistible triplet cousins around!

Abbie, Bryce and Annie.

I got these balloons for the party and Macy liked them for a little bit! :)


Macy's "Cake!" I love this idea! It's going to be tradition. I don't use this awesome cupcake tree enough (wedding present from the Myhre family) and Mom gave me a cookbook full of ideas on how to decorate cupcakes. I want to make that a yearly event.
We love you Macy Megan! We are so glad God blessed us with YOU!

Singing happy birthday. Love this one, it looks like Ellie's hair is fireworks!

What a haul! I had no idea the double duty having a birthday so close to Christmas does for a person!!!!! Macy got darling clothes, books, toys, $, a bath bubble machine, bowls for her high chair, even a picture frame! My wonderful cousin Heidi made a movie of Macy's first year of life which was the highlight of the party for me. Gabe and I talked later tonight and he said it made him cry. I couldn't agree more. Can't wait to show everyone I know who will sit through it, what a special, amazing gift. Thank you so much Heidi!


Auntie Kate went Gymboree crazy again. :) Just wait for the decked out photos to come when we put the whole she-bang on our little darling. Luke saw this and goes, "It's a costume!" :)
This was Macy's gift from Gabe and I. We got her cups. I know it sounds lame, but she is obsessed with the half set at my mom's from 1983 and I wanted some for our house for those days she spends time in the pack and play while I'm cooking!
Mom went crazy on Macy and got her the most darling clothes! This will be her Easter dress.

After presents, we watched the video Heidi made and Macy spent the whole time in her wagon from her Great Grandma!!!! Grandma kept laughing and shaking her head at the chaos that happens when all those kids are together.




This is the toy we got Macy for Christmas and the Gale Gang tried it out for us. It was a hit!
Thank you everyone for making Macy's first birthday party such a fun memory. Gabe and I are touched with your overwhelming love for us and our daughter. We love you all very much and are so thankful you were here to share this special day with us! Can't wait to see you all next year!

Macy's 5th Christmas!

The Van Kooten side of my family is really fun. They are tall, Dutch eating machines. :) We used to get together the first Sunday of every month and call it "Van Kooten Sunday" and let me tell you we have perfected the food!

For Christmas this year, we had a ham dinner with the works and it was delicious! We played a bunch of fun games and got caught up with each other. A very fun bonus to VK get together's for Katie and I is that we get to see Travis, our cousin, who we love very much. This is the guy that used to take Katie and I to the movies when we were nerdy 10 and 12 year olds and he was in high school! He would ask our mom and she would say, "Of course the girls can go!" We could never believe this cool guy would want to hang out with us! He is one of my favorite people and we don't see him enough. Trav married a wonderful girl, who I really like named Kelly and they have THREE kids now: Alli, Luke and Jace, who is only 6 months older than Macy. Those three kids are marvelous. Super polite, helpful, well-behaved and funny! The best combination!

Here is Allison, Trav and Kelly's oldest.
Luke, with his Grandpa Jerry.
Alli was so good with Macy! They were fast friends.



This game is tradition. You roll dice and when you get doubles, you jump up, put on the hat and gloves and try opening the present, which is wrapped a 100 times. (It seems like at least!) This is Jessie giving it a try.
Bryce...

Alli...
My Uncle Craig...
My cousin Morgan.

My Dad's family is a little funny in that, Grandpa Dale and Grandma had 3 boys, my Dad was the youngest. When my Dad was 13, Grandma found out she was pregnant! Craig was born when Dad was 14 and he was raised kind of like an only child. His memories of my Dad are when he was visiting home from college! My Mom babysat for Craig and he would stay with Mom and Dad when Grandma and Grandpa went on vacation! So funny! Craig remembers when all of us were born and funny stories about my mom parenting HIM! I told him Macy has to eat what's in front of her on her plate and he was like, "That sounds JUST like your mom, shoving beets down my throat till I almost threw up!" :) Hahaha. He is super funny.

Anyway, Craig's daughter Morgan is 14 now and we were talking about how weird that would be if he and Jolene had another baby. He wasn't into the idea, I, on the other hand thought it sounded like a good plan. :)

My cousin Jessie brought his girlfriend Kayla. This is her second Christmas with the whole family! Kayla is fun and spunky and a good match for Jessie.

Mom is reading Macy a book called, "God Made My Body." It was a Christmas morning joke at our house. If you say it really slow, it's hilarious! Mom kept saying, "What?"

After VK Christmas, we headed over to the Hougan's to see Heidi, Andy, Luke and the triplets for GAME NIGHT!

I was changing Annie into her jammies and she pulled Macy's fancy shoes out of her diaper bag and said, "Shoe. Baby shoe." So I jokingly went to put them on, and THEY FIT! Annie has the smallest feet and hands known to man. She is tiny! She did a dance in these shoes and didn't want to take them off!

Macy's 4th Christmas...sort of

December 25 was almost a day off this year! We all knew another party was coming the next day so we started off this one frosting some more cookies, having breakfast together, dusting off the piano for some duets and playing with Macy.


It was a super fun day and Grandma VK and Grandpa Boyd came over again for a visit and Grandma stayed for dinner, which was again, wonderful and we played games all evening.