A Surprise Birthday

I have to preface this post with my camera situation. You see we are closing on our house on Thursday and have been heavily saving so our down payment will not be such a hit to our savings account. My sweet sister gave me her old camera when she upgraded. It it is a Kodak EasyShare Z812 IS.

See that nice piece of silver down the center? Yes that is what you think it is! Duct tape. The battery clip is broken. I have called several camera shops and they all have the same answer, "It would cost more just to have it sent off and they can't even promise is would be fixed." The duct tape doesn't really bother me unless I hask somebody else to take a picture. Then I start sweating and giving explanations for my ghetto camera.

Other things are starting to happen as well. It has developed a mind of its own and will randomly switch to video, or take me to the favorites folder, etc.... It is time for a new one, but strictly saving and buying the camera I want (Canon T3i-swoon) don't really go hand in hand. I have tried not to complain much until this weekend.

We had a surprise 60th birthday for my dad. So many worked so hard on the food and decorations. I took around 150 pictures and the camera deleted over half the pictures for some unknown reason. To say I was disappointed is a HUGE understatement. This kicked my "new camera desire" into high gear!

ALL that to say, that is why if the pictures seem to go from the very beginning then skip to the end it is my camera's fault. I lost everything inbetween. The pics I have are still memorable.

Without further adieu

I wanted a BIG decoration, so this is what I came up with.  I purchased rolls of plastic table cloths from Party City. It was much easier to work with and came with 100 ft for $16.99. Pretty economical. I bought 3 but we probably only needed 2.

Of  course we had to take many breaks to play with the balloons.

I also got to flex my Pinterest muscle this weekend. Everything on the menu list came from it and we did not have much in the way of leftovers. All of the pictures below can be found on my "Must Make Recipes" board.

We only had 6 hours from the moment they walked out the door until their return.. I was sooo thankful my sister and her in-laws came to my rescue. Sweating through my clothes seriously decreased after they arrived.  The men even had to help cook and I was more than impressed. We were all like a fine oiled machine.

 Dad walking in

   

We ended the night contemplating Yo Gabba Gabba, with balloons tied to our pants

I seriously could have layed on the floor and thrown a 2 yr old fit when I realized all the pictures were gone. I didn't, but it crossed my mind more than once

Dad,

You are an incredible man, father, and Poppers. I love getting to watch you with Crewe and am so grateful for this season in my families life. We will never forget it and I will make sure Crewe does not either. I love how you always try to see the good in everyone and if every situation.

Thank you for all you do for everyone else. We are so lucky to have you in our lives.

A Gathering of Hearts and Moments

Do you ever have times in your life where you just have so much fun you never want to forget the way you feel in the moment, the smell of the moment, and all the details of the moment? Well this weekend was one of those moments for me. Maybe it was the hotel or having a husband and baby to share it with or all of the above. Staying at hotels has made me giddy as long as I can remember!

I seriously think the length of this post could set some world records, but we had such a good time!

We went road trippin on Saturday to a Valentine's Party in Abilene. It was also Crewe's first experience in a hotel and minus the whole night of not sleeping it was a blast. So much love and care was taken in preparing the atmospere, meal, and who can forget the wine. There was cousin time, good food, drinks, wonderful company, babies, and who can forget all the love!

I will let the pictures tell the story, but I want to go back to Saturday so we can do it all over again.

For the trip down there we had great weather and a sleepy baby which made for a good drive.

The elevator was Momma's Crewe's favorite part of the hotel. We had to have the moral support of Scout and Mickey.

Cousins reunite over bed jumping

And of course coloring on the pillow case (oops). Crewe wasn't sure what to think about Cousin Wyatt getting in trouble.

I don't know about ya'll, but my sister and I always appreciate a hotel which offers free happy hour

There is so much I could say about this picture, from J.'s face to the placement of the water. It is definitely a framer.

Wyatt felt it was his responsibility to restock the fountain with change and he took that job VERY seriously.

We wrapped up happy hour and headed to the party. We were greeted by two pretty little ladies and a more than welcoming atmospere.

The company was pretty spectacular.

And is it just me or does having a kid make pictures of you and your honey non-existant??? I was looking through pictures the other night and pre-baby we have TONS of pictures together; post-baby? Maybe 2. All of our pictures are of one of us with Crewe or just Crewe; which don't get me wrong I LOVE all thos pictures, but I also want to Crewe to see how much we love each other too.

 The older we get the more I think we look alike.

And just in case you are curious. Your hair can look just like her's for a mere $189 in the Dallas area! Are you kidding??, but it does look amazing!

The food was scrumption. Like make you drool scrumptious!

This little girl stole my little man's heart. He was smitten and I actually got to eat without setting my fork down 50 times. It was glorious!

We didn't leave until 11:30 and I seriously was so impressed by all the kiddos. They were angels the whole night. Crewe maybe had an hour nap that day and he was soooo good because little man knows how to partay!. Now after we got back to the hotel sleep was questionable, but I couldn't blame him, the lack of schedule was Momma's fault.

I think it was midnight when I took this picture!

Middle of the night

And the drive home???? Well they were predicting a dusting of snow which never means anything AT ALL, so we headed back and what should have taken 2.5 hours ended up taking 5.  Look at this:

And we were pulling this....

Which made momma almost sweat through her shirt. I seriously think I had multiple panic attacks in those 5 hours.

This little man did not cry once.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day from Crewe!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Warning: this is a looooong post!

Crewe had an amazing first birthday that was spent with close friends and family! Crewe has developed a great love for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! He really just likes the first and last song, but that boy can dance when those songs come on. That, along with pinterest, inspired most of his party.

It all started with the invitation; I knew it had to be Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed

We had a mini photo shoot.

I found a recipe for oreo cupcakes on pinterest. They were a hit and delicious. You can find the recipe here.

My honey cut and painted the cute sign for the front yard and I had every intention of taking his pictures next to it since we did not have professional 12 month pictures taken. What I did not intend for was the weather to be 35 and rainy.

Crewe was all about this mickey balloon.

This is another charm I found on Pinterest. I think it added so much to the table, was super simple, and taste delicious!

I made the party favors myself. I found the candy boxes at walmart for 0.47 (steal). I cut the mickey heads out of felt. I think the entire favor was maybe $2.00, including what was inside.

So this is what I invisioned for Crewe's first birthday cake, until my sweetie kindly asked me when the last time I made a cake with fondant was, to which I responded, "well never"!

So this is what we compromised on :)! The cake with the 1 candle on it. It looks like the cake above. Don't ya think???

His sweet Grandma made this shirt for him that turned out great! Crewe loved the way the minky felt and kept rubbing his belly when I first put it on.

He played with his buddy Nixon!

Opened presents

And drumroll please......................... THE CAKE! Ultimately Crewe enjoyed getting messy more than eating all the sugar. He spent the first 5 minutes trying to flick the icing off his hands.

He finally decided to take a bite.

John thought he looked like a little hobo with the icing goatee. I kind of agree.

I am so blessed for this past year and that God has trusted me to be your momma. You have taught me so much and all for the better. I am forever changed because of you. I love the time I right before you fall asleep in my arms and I lay you in your crib. Your Daddy and I joke that it sounds bad that we just want to squeeze you to death. We remind each other to not say that in front of others so they don't think we mean it literally. Both of us cannot get enough of you and even though it was hard to leave my job and there are days that I would gladly go back to work :) I feel so thankful I have not missed a single first in the last year. Most the time your Daddy doesn't miss them either because I am blowing his phone up with videos and pictures. You have lived in 3 different cities your first year and that must have made you well rounded because you have blossomed and become quite the social butterfly, which I love. You will give anyone a smile and most the time a high five if they ask. You are just like your Daddy in that regard. I think we will be having the "stranger danger" talk in the near future.

You are tall and skinny. At your 12 month well baby you weighed 21 lbs and were 31.5 inches long. Your weight is 40th percentile, length 90th, and head 85th. See you are already a genius. You can clap, kiss, wave bye-bye, shake your head no (which looks more like a full body jive), and you are definitely starting to get an opinion. Your are still taking it slow with sleeping through the night. I don't think you are in a rush to give up the middle of the night cuddles, but you are doing better. Diaper changing is still an olympic event. You scream with excitement and breathe like Darth Vador when somebody you recognize walks through the door (especially Daddy). We are still nursing, which I am sure you will like knowing when you are 20  ; )!

You are an absolute joy and I cannot wait for the next year. Please slow down how quickly you are growing!

Love,

Momma