Happy Halloween-Love, Giraffe!

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All the Way!

It's that time of year again! Yep it's the holiday card season so you better get your picture ready so you don't miss sending out those lovely cards. I've always liked using Tiny Prints because they have an awesome selection of designs. I've used their services many times to order baby shower invites, bachelorette party invites, bridal shower invites, and of course Christmas cards! I've always found them easy to use.

I love receiving Christmas cards, and I put them all over my house--from the mantle to the fridge. 

 

This year they have some amazing designs. Here's a few of my faves:

 

 

And after that, you should really look at their must-have address labels. I've ordered these before, and I always think they make my mail easier (yes I'm lazy and don't like to write out my return address) and *cuter* if that is at all possible.

 

So head on over to Tiny Prints to make your best Christmas card yet!  I know you won't be disappointed with their designs, selection, or their service.

 

They are also having an awesome Talent Search Contest for photos in the following categories:

·        Cutest Baby (From ages of 0-24 months)

·        Cutest Kid (From ages of 25 months - 10 years old)

·        Cutest Family

·        Cutest Couple

·        Cutest Pet & Owner

 

So what are you waiting for?  Enter those pics!

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane...

That's what I'm doing over at When in Doubt, Add More Salt taking a road trip down memory lane.  I'm filling in for her as she is taking a trip to visit family and friends.

So head on over and read my guest post and if you haven't checked out Cajun Cowgirl's blog give it a whirl.  I know you will like her!

Happy Thursday!

The Birthday Madness

Well here it is, four days after Nolan's party.  I really can't believe he's one or that the party is over.  All that baking and decorating and now I'm left just with clean up duty.  I'm definitely relieved the party is over, yet now I am thinking what will I do with my free time?  Oh I know...maybe clean up my house...because let's be honest it looks like a disaster area.

Nolan's party was great, and I was really happy with how everything turned out.  I happened to be googling birthday themes when I came across the "Anchors Aweigh" theme.  I thought it was super cute but at the time didn't realize how difficult it would be finding some items.

These were the decorations on the mantle.  I took three old wooden frames that I have owned since college and spray painted them with the same blue spray paint that I had left over from a table we painted for Nolan's room.  Then I ordered three 8 x 10's in black and white to put in them. 

I found the metal tins at Hobby Lobby.  I just put tissue paper at the bottom of the tin to look like water, and then placed some wooden boats I found at Hobby Lobby and some actual toy boats Nolan already owned.  The pennant banner I made with card stock and ribbon from Hobby Lobby as well.  If you would like the tutorial I used online to make this just write a comment or send me an email.  Even I a left-handed, can't cut or draw a straight line kind of girl actual made this look decent!  So I know you can do it!

For the "Happy 1st Birthday Banner Nolan," I decided to wrap a painting that I already had hanging in blue paper to cover it up and to give the banner a background.  I actually got this idea from where I used to work...they used to do this at Christmas time to cover up the ugly paintings to make the office look more festive.  I ordered the "Happy 1st Birthday Banner", "I Am One" high chair banner, cupcake toppers, and the confetti from an awesome Etsy shop called 10 Candles. I found her to be easy to work with, great designs, and reasonably priced.  A lot of places on Etsy had some $30-$35 banners which was totally out of the question.  I used a hole punch to put holes in the confetti so I could string it with a blue ribbon that I tied around the drinking glasses (which are blue glasses I already owned.)

I also ordered this printable birthday invitation design on Etsy from the shop Sweet Talk Designs.  Again, she was very easy to work with and emailed the invitation to be in a PDF format which had two invitations on an 8x11 sheet.  This worked out perfectly because all I had to do was print it on some white card stock and then cut it in half.  So no sizing adjustments or anything!  I also had extra 5x7 envelopes from Christmas cards last year so I just used those to send them out.

I made all the Poms you see hanging from the chandelier and the ones on the mantle.  I just used the Martha Stewart guide for this...which I've seen everyone pin on Pinterest.  I actually was pretty impressed on how the turned out as well because when you start with tissue paper you have your doubts. 

My mother-in-law made the table cloth on the main table with some fabric she bought at JoAnn's.  It matched the theme perfectly!  The cupcakes were a ginger apple cake flavor recipe that I made from Southern Living.  They are perfect for fall and are so good.  Again, let me know if you want the recipe, and I can email it to you. 

Nolan's Jon Jon was from the Etsy shop FunStyle.  I was really impressed with quality of the outfit.  I just picked out one from her site and asked if she could add an anchor to the outfit, and she said no problem.  She didn't even charge extra for it.

I made the cake from scratch with a simple white cake and icing recipe I found online.  He seemed to enjoy it immensely!

He really racked up in the present department...I think I'll ban Christmas or I might have to buy a bigger house!  He received this cute rocker giraffe from my brother and sister-in-law.

Nolan had a great time, and I would have to say the party was a success.  Now I better go clean the remnants of the birthday party that are still lingering throughout the house!

(Oh and after the party Nolan and Ethan thought it was more fun to trade snack catchers...because we all know the goldfish are way cooler when it is someone else's!)

Birthday Party Sneak Peek-Anchors Aweigh!

In a Land Far, Far, Away...

In a land far, far, away AKA Malaysia is where you will find me. I'm honored to be guest posting over at Germaine's blog Kiddothings.  She's a wonderful bloggy friend and a great mom to her two kids.  So after you read my tips on cloth diapering stay around and check out the rest of her blog!  I know you will love her too.

I'm still in party prep, so I'll catch up on blogs next week my friends!

P.S.---Thanks for all the sweet birthday wishes for my little one.  It means a lot :)

Happy Birthday Nolan!

So the day is here...my baby is officially a one year old.  I'm excited about what this new year will bring but also sad to say goodbye to my little baby.  Because now he is a toddler.  It all goes by so fast...like when did he know who our dogs were by name, or a ball, or a light, or the fact he knows socks and shoes go on his feet?  Little things that I didn't even know he was learning without my help.  It just shows how quickly they become little sponges and take everything in.

Well I better get back to working on the party...but just wanted to say Happy Birthday Nolan!  Mommy and Daddy love you more than you could ever know.

A Year Ago...

A year ago today I went to work after a rough weekend of not feeling well due to being at the end of my pregnancy.  On Monday, I felt so bad I thought this baby is coming today.  However he did not, so I went to work on Tuesday actually feeling rested and even dressed nice for work.  So here is a repost of Nolan's birth story that I posted back in March right when I started blogging. Tomorrow is Nolan's actual birthday, but since this time last year I spent the night in the hospital in labor I thought it was a perfect time to reshare his story. 

After after such a great day with my cuddly boy, I thought it would be a great day to share Nolan's birth story. I had a pretty smooth pregnancy besides the fact that I literally walked with a limp the whole last month of my pregnancy due to lower back/butt pain. Supposedly, your muscles relax for the whole birthing experience, so your muscles around your joints can loosen in preparation for the big day. Let's just say I looked really ridiculous trying to get around. Not only was I gimping everywhere, but I looked like I could topple over at any moment because this little boy was all belly and forcing my balance to go frontwards. D-day was expected to be on October 21st, 2010. I figured that he would be after this date since most first time moms go past their predicted due dates. I had a 2:30 appointment with my doctor on Tuesday, October 19th. My husband decided to go with me since it was just two days before my due date. I was really hoping for some progress at this checkup because I was scared of not progressing and having to get a c-section. I was also going into the whole process with the intention of doing it completely natural with no drugs. I know you are saying...WHAT?!! You are CRAZY! Basically, my birth plan was to go in with an open mind and see what happened. I had never had any type of surgeries or any type of severe pain besides breaking my arm, so I really didn't know what to expect or how much pain I could withstand. I figured women have been popping out babies for ages that I had to at least give it a shot.

Anyhow, I had to wait FOREVER to see my doctor. Here I was a few days from being 40 weeks pregnant having to sit on the patient chair for about an hour half-naked waiting for my doctor. I sat there on the thin tissue paper thinking I really have to pee, but it is such an ordeal to get off this seat and put my work pants/shoes back on. However, it kept getting later and later so I decided to take the plunge and get dressed to waddle my way to the bathroom. As I was washing my hands after I finished, I thought I was feeling a twinge of a menstrual like pain. I walk back to my room and as I open the door to wear my husband was waiting I felt a gush of liquid. I thought crap...I really thought I was done going to the bathroom! Right about then my doctor walks in to do my check, and I tell her about this "gush" and not sure what that was all about. After about a second, she said, "I am pretty sure your water just broke." I'm like are you serious? She said yep pretty sure it did. Next thing I know they tell me my chariot has arrived aka a wheel chair to take me to my hospital room. I asked if we could go home first to get our stuff and my car...you know the actual one with the car seat installed. My husband had met me at my work, and I had ridden with him to the hospital. So here we are without any of these items, and of course my doctor says I have to stay. I'm like this was not part of the plan! I don't want to be at the hospital this early in labor! My husband then runs home to get everything and to call his parents, and I call mine as well. The nurse asks me if I am feeling any contractions, and I say no...and then she informs me I am having them about 1-3 minutes apart. I knew to keep this labor party going that I needed to walk around. I knew from all my research that if you wanted natural child birth you needed to walk around to get gravity on your side. I quickly learned that hospitals are not all about you walking around or really about natural child birth for that matter. They want to tie you to that bed pumped with drugs until that baby pops out. They strap the heart and contraction monitor to my already very uncomfortable belly which by the way is proven not to be needed in labor. You can actually ask for them to just spot check instead of having to wear stupid contraption the whole time. However, when it is your first child you just don't know this type of stuff and the nurses act like the hand of God has told them that this is how it is done no matter what.

When the doctor had checked me at 4pm I was only 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. She wanted me to be rechecked at 10pm to see if I had made progress, and if not they would start me on pitocin. This scared the crap out of me because I had heard horror stories of pitocin making the contractions too fast and too severe to be able to continue with a natural child birth. My nurse that I had throughout the night was not the most positive or supportive. You could tell she was not real happy about the whole natural child birth or about me walking around. She actually had to get permission from the head nurse to see if I could walk around because once they start the pitocin they want to monitor you like a hawk. When I wasn't walking around, I also sat on the medicine ball to relieve the pressure. I finally decided to try to lay down at about midnight however I didn't sleep a wink. Not because of contractions but because the stupid nurse came in like every second to check on me! She rechecked me at about 4am, and she sadly informed me that I might be 3cm and 60% effaced. At this point, I was really discouraged about my progress. I knew that once your water breaks they put you on a time clock of when the baby is supposed to be out, therefore bringing back my fears of a c-section. My doctor came in to check me at around 8am with a new nurse as well. What a breath of fresh air this nurse was! I had actually progressed to 100% effaced and still at 3cm dilated. This nurse was very encouraging and said once you get to 4cm it goes very fast. At about noon, my contractions really picked up. At this check, I was at 5cm dilated. This is when the pain really kicked in. I had a breaking down point at around 1:30pm, and I told my husband I didn't know if I could do it. The contractions were coming very fast and strong. I basically just wanted to stop the whole process...I didn't want an epidural but I also didn't want to continue. I think I would have been happy to just going back to being pregnant without labor.

My husband was very supportive and kept telling me I had another check at 2:30pm and that I would be further along. He was a real sport (keep in mind he had just had knee surgery 6 weeks before) because he was helping me breathe through the contractions no matter if I was on the medicine ball or if I was standing and leaning against him. I had him grabbing and massaging my back every time a contraction was starting. We basically stood the whole time because sitting slowed my labor and also was unbearable. At 2:30pm, I had dilated to 7cm. That's when things started to go fast. At 4pm, I felt the need to push so they rechecked me, and I was dilated to 9cm! Luckily my friend, Beth is a labor & delivery nurse at this hospital so she came to help that afternoon. At 4:15pm, I said I can't take it anymore I need to push! She said alright let's check you again. I was now at 9.5 cm and very thin so they said that I could go ahead and start pushing. I couldn't believe it! The moment had arrived! I had made it with no drugs and almost to the finish line. Pushing was the best part of labor because you are actually giving into the contractions and not fighting them. After my first push, the doctor said she could already see his head and it was full of hair! Now one thing I learned is that the doctor and nurses will tell you when you start pushing that you are really close but in reality they know it is going to be a while. For example, my doctor was joking at one point that she almost put her second glove on. Now when you start seeing more nurses around and that the room is getting all prepped you know it is go time. Finally after 2 hours of pushing at 6:42pm on October 20th, 2010, my little biscuit entered the world at 7lbs, 11oz, and 21.25 inches long! When they were pulling him out after his head had crowned, I kept thinking how much is in there?!!! Yes ladies it did hurt when he came out...and that they do call it the ring of fire for a reason. However the actual pushing didn't hurt at all but very exhausting after 2 hours. I was so thrilled that he had finally arrived and that I was able to do it naturally. He was perfect in every way and so worth it! I am so glad I had him natural because I felt like having no drugs in my system allowed me to heal very quickly. I bounced back after a few days and also lost all my baby weight in no time. I also contribute the weight loss to breast feeding and the lack of time to eat! I'm so thankful for a safe delivery and a beautiful baby boy!

Pumpkin Chunkin'

This weekend was the perfect fall day to go pick pumpkins with little boy. The sun was out and the breeze was blowing. These are the days and moments I would like to just freeze so we could enjoy them to the fullest. Nolan was born on 10/20/10 so he was pretty little during this time last year and I was obviously super pregnant until that day. So this year we've been able to fully experience all of the seasons. Here's some pics from the weekend!

Despite this face he did have a good time!

Also I am in full party mode, so if I'm not commenting on your blog that's why!  I'll be back though, no worries :)