My Baby Boy Is 1

My little man turned one today. How did this happen so quickly (and does every mom ask this question)?

Children truly are a gift from God! What a tremendous job it is to be a parent.  I'm so thankful for our little miracle, Noley Bear!

Hear's some pics from Nolan's first year:

Nolan, your Daddy and I are so proud of you. You've stolen our hearts in a way we didn't know possible. Love you, son!

Barb's Shower - Advice For The Mommy-To-Be

Going along with this week's posts on Barb's Shower, I thought I would share an idea I had!

At many weddings and showers everyone sign's their names on a mat or they write in a little book their advice for the person (couple if it's a wedding). Not that there's a thing wrong with this - Derek and I have a picture of us from our wedding with everyone's signature on the mat - I just thought it would be nice to do words of wisdom with a twist.

At the shower I had a pad of paper and I gave each lady a page from it with a marker. I asked them to write their words of wisdom in a very brief manner. Then I took a photo of each lady holding their page, as well as one showing just their hands holding the paper. Having them hold their words was keeping in theme with Barb holding the booties on the invites.

From the two pictures I took of each person, I used the flattering face pictures and then the hand pictures, in case the face picture wasn't flattering, and made a photo book on Shutterfly (love that site!) with other photos from the shower for Barb.

I thought doing the photos was a unique way to capture everyone's words. Below are photos from the guests:

"Keep your son away from my daughter!! LOL!!"

"Cover up or he will spray you."

This above and below pictures are from Granny and she was the only one allowed to write something that wasn't brief!

"Don't worry about the new parts. You'll be a pro in no time."

"No snakes or frogs in the house!"

"Cherish every moment."

"Prepare for dirt, mud and destruction."

"Just remember: you rock and you can do it all"

"Little boys are fun!"

(Love this photo of Carol and Sam!)

Anyway, they displayed nicely in the photo book. Should have taken pictures of it before I gave it to Barb, but I guess I can't remember to do everything I ought to.

Barb's Baby Shower Door Sign & Food Table

When people come to visit they rarely come to our front door. Most often they come to the door through our carport that leads to the kitchen. Not that this is necessarily bad, but I wish people used the front door - otherwise, why do we have it. So I decided I was determined to have Barb's shower guests come through the front door. I also decided I need to spruce up our entrance and put a sign for the shower.

When it came to the sign I knew that I didn't want a piece of paper up there and so I walked around JoAnn's till I came to the perfect thing! They had a chalkboard that was light and the perfect size to go on the door, plus it came with double sided tape! I also bought some bistro markers and regular chalk. (As a side note, bistro markers are what coffee shops use to make their nice signs - I'm sure you've noticed that there isn't chalk dust on those chalkboards.)

Went home with my finds (don't you just love your craft stores?!) and began thinking what I wanted to display on the sign. I wanted to replicate some of the core design features of the invite....so I drew the baby booties, then wrote Baby Shower and finished it by writing "oh boy oh boy" in regular chalk. And those bistro markers are awesome!!!! You really would never want to go back to using regular chalk again!

So here's a close up of the finished sign....the only con was that to remove it from the door, I had to bread the board into several pieces. The double sided tape wouldn't come off without destroying the board - so sad! To my relief the tape didn't damage our door. Note to self: next time, don't use the double sided tape.

 I added ferns to flank my door and a floor mat. So much nicer looking! 

I found some lovely striped fabric and made up a table runner for my dining table. Once you make your first table runner and you realize how easy it is, you'll end up with a slew of them! Maybe one for every day of the week!

The booties were added to the table that I used for the invites, quizzes, etc. I also bought some glass cake stands at Home Goods (Oh, I how I love thee!) on the cheap. I think I spent $15 for both and they are so pretty! I've always wanted cake stands and now I have them!

Since I'm not the world's best pastry chef, I chose to make mini cupcakes, chocolate or white cake, with two buttercream frostings (I feel my sweet tooth acting up on me). I heard someone at the shower say they don't like cupcakes, but at least they came out cute. If I made a cake for this, it wouldn't of been cute. It would have been a mess.  Sometimes a whole cupcake is too much when you have other goodies. Besides, who tells the shower host that they don't like mini cupcakes? I worked hard on those and they were yummy! 

I wanted to create a backdrop for the food table and just give the room more of a party atmosphere rather than, "this is my dining room with food on my table."  Please understand nothing is wrong with just putting food on the table in a room, but being me, I was looking for a little more. 

I borrowed a pipe frame from Barb's mom, and threw on it sheers from my bedroom window. That with a coordinating bunting gave a nice look to the area. I was truly pleased with the overall effect.

The food table was kept pretty low key with a veggie tray, hummus and chips, tea sandwiches, two kinds of filled phyllo cups. That with the cupcakes and some candies completed the food. Thanks to Barb's mom and my mom who helped me bring everything together for the shower!!!!

I wish I had more good friends who need showers thrown for them...it's so much fun!

Barb's Baby Quiz

We've all been to those baby showers where they play the melted candy diaper game. I know a lot people like this sort of thing, but I've never been a big fan of it. I like to have fun, but for a party, I like things done in a classy way ( I hope no one takes offense with that). Ergo, I'm a big fan of quizzes!

I created a fun quiz for Barb's shower, using questions I found online. I can't find the exact site that I pulled the questions from, but there are tons out there. Baby Center has a lot of ideas for baby shower games.

The quiz consists of 8 questions. I wanted something to make ladies think, laugh and not take to long to complete. I also had some nice bath salts as a prize for the winner.  The most fun comes when you start to grade the quizzes. You can have people switch quizzes to grade, or let them do their own. These questions aren't too easy, so people score pretty low, but it sure is fun! Most people get two to three correct. 

If you would like to use any of these questions, here they are with the answers.

Baby Quiz Questions:

Babies are born without which body part?


A. Kneecaps
 W

B. Elbows


C. Tailbone


D. Shoulder blades

A: A. Kneecaps

What is the first sense a baby develops?


A. hearing


B. taste


C. smell


D. touch

A: A. hearing

What is a diaper called in South Africa?


A. Nappy


B. Dispenser


C. Disposable

A: A. Disposable (A nappy is a diaper in England. A disposable is a diaper in South Africa. A dispenser, well, it dispenses things.)

When born, what size is the baby's head in relation to the rest of his/her body?

A. one half the size of the body

B. one quarter the size of the body

C. one eighteenth the size of the body

A: B. one quarter the size of the body

What color was used for boys in 1900's?


A. Blue


B. Pink


C. Yellow

A: B. Pink (Pink was believed to be a strong color, so naturally people would dress their boys in it. Girls were dressed in blue because it was thought to be a delicate color)

A baby is born with how many bones?


A. 300


B. 206


C. 275

A: A. 300 (A baby is born with 300 bones, but an adult has 206 bones. These bones fuse together later.)

A baby is born with all the following reflexes, except...


A. The ability to swim


B. Understanding foreign language


C. Sucking 


D. Grasping a finger

A: B. Understanding foreign language (Ok, this was a freebie. The baby is born with the natural ability to swim, but it is lost quickly. It naturally knows how to suck and grasp a finger. But the baby most likely will not come out knowing 3 languages.)

Who was the original Gerber baby?


A. Shirley Temple


B. Ann Turner


C. Mr. Clean

A: B. Ann Turner 

Barb's Baby Shower Invitations

We don't have much going on this week, so I thought I would take the opportunity to share some past projects, namely the baby shower I threw for Barb. Barb is my sister-in-law and neighbor (Our husbands are twins and we live across the street from one another.), who had a sweet baby boy, Aiden Michael, November 2nd of this past year.

I jumped at the chance to do a Baby Shower for her.  Since it was her second babe, I didn't have to go hog crazy...ok, I went a little hog crazy. 

I had found a pair of sweet booties, and knew I wanted to get a picture of Barb's hands holding them to use throughout the shower. I took this below photo....

After a good crop and edit, I added it to the invite I designed. 

I really am quite pleased with how the invites came out! I know it's kind of hard to see here, but there is a watermark that I added in tangerine that says "oh boy oh boy" repeatedly. 

After I designed these and had them printed up, I told my hubby that I would love to do things like this on the side! Just a mere couple months ago, before I became a full-time stay at home mom, I did design work for the non-profit company I worked for. Not that I have any formal training and not that I think I am anything but ok at this type of thing, but I really enjoy it. So when my mom has dinner parties or other little things come up, I love jumping at the chance to get to design a little something!

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we spent Thanksgiving at Granny and Pa's home. It so nice to have it there since they live only two houses down from us! :)

It was a wonderful day, and we all were stuffed to the gills! Even Nolan ate up the mashed potatoes, stuffing and green bean casserole on my plate!

Here's some photos from the day!

One of two desert tables!

Nolan trying to get to the goodies on desert table 2.

My new nephew Aiden. He's just three weeks old here and a little over 6 pounds!

Here's Nolan getting ready to drive Papa Joe's car. He was waving goodbye to us!

Here's the family! This is the photo I took to make sure the timer of the camera was working. Yep, it worked! I love all the things people are doing!

Here's the keeper!

Here's the Bakan/Lee family! If you think the two guys look a lot a like. You're right! Their twins. Todd's in gray and Derek's in the burnt orange.

Here's my family!

Here's Nolan playing in the kitchen with his Thanksgiving vest. Super cute.

This is the first time Payton and Nolan really played together!

No they aren't kissing! Nolan likes to head bump people. It's his way of saying goodbye or I like you!