The big ONE!

Drew turned one on November 20th!

Cousin Luke helped out with the festivities, as usual. :)

 Drew really could have cared less about the gifts, but he enjoyed the paper. 

His friends at school made him the poster in the background. :)

He didn't know what to think about his cake...

 And as a true Mortenson, he hated getting dirty!

 Sage got spruced up for family photos. 

 But don't let the pigtails fool you. She can wrestle like a Franklin.

Ben really didn't know what to think...

Freedom!

Drew is helmet-free! We went for a routine appointment on Monday and decided that the helmet had done it's job. It was starting to really put a lot of pressure on his cheek bones and in order to prevent facial asymmetry from occurring, we decided to remove Drew's helmet for good. We are very happy with the progress that it has made. Over the next couple of months Drew's head will continue to round out on it's own. I find myself trying to snuggle with him at every opportunity possible now that there's not a plastic shield in between. I've already appreciated the lack of head-butts.

Drew is quite reckless and got used to being able to roll around and slam down on the floor head-first because his helmet always broke his landing. He's had to figure it out the hard way that he can't always dive to the ground head-first these days. :) He is also harder to find at pick up from daycare because we were so used to spotting his helmet! Now we can just look for his red hair! :) Hard to believe that he will turn one next week...

Just the Two of Us

Thank you, Grandma, for coming to stay with our kids, so that Ross and I could take a much-needed  vacation--just the two of us. We extended Ross' business trip to San Diego and spent the weekend hiking, shopping, reading, relaxing, and sleeping. It was simply wonderful!!

These pictures were taken over the course of a few days, but Ross and I didn't pack warm enough clothing for the 60 degree weather so we ended up wearing pretty much the same clothes for the duration of our trip--we were those people! :) We had so. much. fun!

Oh yeah, and Ross jumped off a cliff... :)