Porcupine’s First Birthday Party

As we’re coming up on his second birthday party, I thought I’d finally get around to posting a few pictures from Porcupine’s first birthday party. We had a blast and everything turned out just the way I wanted it to! (Except all the snow on the ground, but what can you do when you have a baby in February in Indiana!)

The theme was kind-of Alphabet-y. Everything I do is Alphabet-y (I still have to post baby shower alphabet things! Another thing to add to the to-do list!) I found inspiration for an Alphabet-y invitation from this blog.

 (Fonts are Century Schoolbook and LaurenScript. I used the “Pencil Sketch” feature on Picasa to make Porcupine’s picture seem schoolbook-y. Then I printed them on cardstock – 2 to a page.)

I’d been pinning all kinds of cute desserts forever, so I just made a bunch! Cupcakes with rainbows, goldfish, teddies, “balloons”, and of course As, Bs, and Cs!

My mother-in-law made Porcupine a giant cupcake to smash in to!

I ordered the “one” plates from BirthdayExpress.com, along with some other things. I couldn’t believe that I couldn’t just find blue “one” plates locally! Oh well…I love internet shopping!

I knew I wanted some kind of cool “backdrop” (again, I owe you a baby shower post, because there, we did balloons, kind of like this.) made of balloons or streamers or something. Then, on the same blog where I found the invitation inspiration, I found a cool “Happy Birthday” sign inspiration.

 I cut the letters out on my Cricut using the font from the “A Child’s Year” cartridge.

Our house was full of family and fun, and I couldn’t have asked for a better party.

I think Porcupine had a great time, too…and he loved his cake!

Hopefully, I’ll post pictures from his second birthday in a more timely manner! And I’ll get to work on a baby shower post, pronto!

Happy Mother’s Day!

My first Mother’s Day was a pretty happy occasion. :)

We had lots of fun with family.

I thought it’d be fun to take a picture of the grandmas that was similar to some we took when we told them we were having a boy, so we did.

One of the best parts of being this boy’s mom is knowing he’s loved by so many people. :)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Christmastime Updates

Between pregnancy and bathroom, I haven’t (updated this blog) really put up any Christmas decorations…but we’ve still got tons of holiday spirit!

So here are a random bunch of life updates, which hopefully I will be able to better organize as “real” blog posts later :) but hey, for now, I’m no pro, so this is what you get :)

Here’s a belly shot! I blame pregnancy for everything and it’s great :) No blog posts: pregnancy. Can’t lift heavy things: pregnancy. Get tired easily: pregnancy. No Christmas tree: pregnancy. Eating lots of delicious things: pregnancy. It’s fantastic.

I don’t know what the rest of pregnancy will be like, but this part is pretty great. I’m not too big that I’m too uncomfortable and can’t move around, eating is pretty normal and fun and “necessary”, and my tummy is supposed to be hanging out, which makes eating and getting dressed way better than before. :)  Also, I can feel this little guy having a dance party in my belly all the time, and can see it a lot from the outside, too – which is all wildly entertaining to me.  This part I am definitely loving.

Our bathroom (which is on a bit of a holiday hiatus) is nearly done! We’re kind of down to some finishing touches…well, and finishing the shower…all of which will hopefully become in-progress posts at some time…but just to skip ahead to some almost done pictures:

The floor, vanities, and toilet are installed. The shower is tiled (but not cleaned or caulked).  So we have to finish the shower and trim work – and then it’s a fully functioning bathroom! I will still be making/buying some cabinetry (in between the vanities for a more seamless look and under one of the windows for storage) but it’s nothing that will stop us from moving into and using this bathroom so we can start working on my little main floor laundry nook and baby’s room!

And we’ve started celebrating Christmas. I’ve done mostly online shopping, so this definitely happened in our kitchen for a minute:

And we started the first of many family celebrations:

All the little kids know that there’s a baby in my belly which is super cute :)

My cousins are getting married January 4th, so we used family get-together as an opportunity to try on the flower girls dresses I’ve been making.

I’m so excited about how cute the dresses are! They’re a little big, but nothing moving a few buttons won’t fix. I’m so excited to continue celebrating with our family even when Christmas is over!

So whew! That’s an overview of what’s been going on since Thanksgiving…and coming up in the new year is this family wedding, more work on the house, a baby shower…and a baby! Whew indeed!

Has your December seemed as insane as mine? Isn’t time flying? What are your holiday plans?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! :)

They Tell Us It’s a Boy!

This is slightly old news, but I thought I’d share the fun of finding out that our baby’s going to be a boy!

Brian and I went in for the ultrasound on a Monday morning. Since there was no way the clinic was going to let our whole family into the ultrasound room to find out with us, we wanted to do something special to let them in on the surprise…you know, especially for the moms/future grandmas, :) so we invited them over for dinner that night.

When the ultrasound tech told us that our little baby is a boy, we kept our traps shut as I rushed home to bake a blue cake.  It’s not a new concept, but I figured our moms could cut into the cake to see what kind of kid their new grandbaby would be. :)

So here’s the play-by-play :)  I thought this was cute: future grandmas.

A family “before” picture.

I made them cut the cake together like it was their wedding cake.

And…the excitement begins! I wish we had this part on video. There was a lot of screaming and laughing and not knowing whether to cry or keep laughing :)

So funny, right? :) I love these ladies.

Here’s the blue cake:

And it was delicious!

We had more family over than just our moms, but I forgot to make them all take a group photo. What a bad memory-maker I am!

And finally, Brian and me with our boy-cake. :)

Now we’re in the process of getting prepared for this little guy with trucks and worms and other things boys are supposed to like. :)  It’s all pretty exciting! I can’t wait to start the nursery – and share it all with you!

(PS – while I really have no doubt that the baby is a boy and the ultrasound pictures are correct, I’ll really be convinced this little baby’s a boy when it comes out and I can see it myself!) :)

What fun surprises have you had lately?

Happy Mother’s Day!

I know it was yesterday, but I thought I’d share a few pictures from our little Mother’s Day get-together.

I attempted cake decorating :)

My mom and me:

My mom-in-law and her kids:

And then my life was pretty much complete when this happened:

Happy Mother’s Day to mothers near and far! :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I just want to send a little birthday shout-out to my mom!

She’s a very good lady to put up with me all the time!

Have a happy happy day, Mom! :)

Cole’s Birthday Party!

I want to share a few pictures from Cole’s birthday party!

There was a LOT going on – and a LOT of friends and family over to celebrate, so I didn’t get as many pictures of the little guy in his various outfits as I would have liked. I’m sure his parents got plenty, and I’ll get some from them sometime. :) But here are a few good ones:

Cole got a new Radio Flyer wagon that he rode in with his cousins:

And he posed for me during his little meal after most people left:

What a cutie. He looks so good in his sock monkey bib. :)

His mom, Cassie, had some great decorating details. The house was full of paper lanterns and balloons.

She painted some letters in coordinating colors to spell out his name.

And my “happy birthday” bunting/banner was much larger than expected! But it hung across a big wall in their living room nicely.

Here’s another angle, because I know you were dying for it.

There you have it!

Happy 1st Birthay, Cole!

(If I get any more pictures of him in his shirts, I will share them!) :)

Thankful

Of course I am thankful for lots of things, but as cheesy as it sounds, I’m thankful for my family.

This is not nearly all of them, but they put up with my picture taking and stick out their tongues when I tell them to.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!