As cute as a button.

Look at my darling boy! All dressed up for church, bow tie and all! This is perhaps one of my most favorite outfits of Nolan's right now. These pictures came out great of him (minus the shadow of the flash - must learn how to fix that).

Looking at the pictures now, I think I saturated the color a little much. He always looks like he has an orange nose in pictures. I promise he doesn't eat a ton of carrots!

"I'm 1" Vest

I may be on a vest kick with Nolan...but, seriously, vests on little boys are so cute!

Even though Nolan turned one already - ok, I'm behind as usual - I wanted to do some cute one year old pictures. Ok, course, he would need the perfect little outfit and I thought, "SWEATER VEST!"

So I marched on down (drove) to Children's Orchard and purchased a navy sweater vest by Baby Gap. It has a little green trim along the v-neck which I thought was nice. Then I headed over to JoAnn's and found some matching green fabric to applique with.

This is a super easy project and quick to do.

Here's how I made Nolan's little one (1) for on his vest:

Step 1: Print out a 1 in a font you like and size appropriate for it's placement. I just realized that I don't have a pic of the 1 I used, but I'm sure you can easily do all of this!

Step 2: Cut out your 1.

Step 3: Trace your 1 onto the fabric backwards. You will have the below:

Step 4: Before you cut out your one out of your fabric, add about a 1/2 inch allowance around all sides - you will see why in a couple steps!  (Just love this green fabric! It has a nice weight to it which is an added plus.)

Step 5: Next cut out small sections of the fabric allowance at the corners of the 1 or just make a cut where it is an inward angle (sorry, I have no idea what the right word is for this) so that it will fold easily. See below for how I made my snips... 

Step 6: Turn up (or down) the allowance and press.

Your 1 is ready to be added to your vest!

Step 7: Here you can either use your sewing machine to sew on your 1 or you can cheat like me. I wanted to be able to use the vest again without the 1, so I used hem tape to adhere the 1 to the vest.

Here it is! Your customized 1 Vest! 

Perfect for your one year old's one year old pictures!

Please forgive the crazy orange and blue towel that I used for some of the pictures. I used the towel to iron on my kitchen counter.:)

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!

Turkey Day Vest

Nolan's Thanksgiving outfit is now complete! Complete, that is, with a turkey on his vest!

I think it turned out so cute and wanted to share! Nolan will definitely be saying, "gobble, gobble," in this:

I will post my Turkey pattern later as our scanner is not cooperating.

Fall Family Photos

It Thanksgiving card time for us here! We've sent out cards the four years we have been married, starting with our dogs dressed as pilgrims and native americans (have to find that picture to show you all sometime), and then with just D and I the last two years. But this year, we are sending out a family pic!

Our first official family photos have been taken! We actually had my brother take the pictures with our Nikon D5000, this saved money and made it easy for us to have it done on my husband's lunch break Friday.

My brother isn't a pro, he's only taken a photography class in high school, but these pictures will do!

Here we are before our barn!

I painted the bench a glossy red. It was much better than the purply gray color it's previous owner had it. Love ya, Pa!

This was the winning photo for our Thanksgiving cards. We chose it because Nolan's fingers weren't in his mouth.

Here's some of Nolan:

So these were the keeper shots. Maybe sometime I will share the bloopers!