Grayson's 1st Birthday Party Was a "HOOT"!

By our standards, Grayson's first birthday part was a rather small, and intimate little party. We celebrated with just family, our little brood of course, aunts, cousins, and {some, but not all} grandparents. I made simple cupcakes, a simple little smash cake, and some not-so-pretty, but oh-my-gosh-SO-DELICIOUS owl cake pops.

The decorations doubled as props for his one year photos! I bought some letters at our local craft store and threw a coat of paint on them, picked up some balloons from Party City, and found the cute banner at Target for just a few bucks. I designed a little print for Grayson and found an awesome frame from the same craft store I purchased the letters. It's now in his room. ^_^

We visited with each other, enjoyed the yummy desserts, then sat back while Grayson destroyed his first birthday cake. After opening presents we called it a day! Doesn't get much more simpler than that.

With it being his first birthday, I wanted it to be special, but didn't feel the need for it to be over-the-top, the way I've done other parties. He isn't going to remember this party! He will know though, that those who loved him most gathered around to celebrate him on his first birthday. And that's all that matters in the end. :)

The Internet Has Turned People Into Ash-holes.

(No that's not a typo, that's me getting my point across without actually cursing. Even though in real life I would probably say worse...)

I used to love the internets. The webs. But like most relationships, eventually the veil is lifted and you see the other being for what they really are. Only instead of being a pimply mouth breather with a B.O. problem, you realize you're in love with a vile insult slewing machine of HATE.

Don't get me wrong. I still love the webs. (Which is saying something, because I dumped the pimply mouth breather with the quickness.) I'm just not IN love with them anymore. Let me explain why. Perhaps in a way where I can share pros and cons.

Pros vs Cons

You can instantly pay bills online! No more having to buy stamps! Woo-hoo! But then someone might steal your credit card information and run up a bill buying buckets of shelf stable food. (This hasn't actually happened to me, but it could. And shelf stable food is the only thing I'd find somewhat acceptable...you can't blame someone for wanting to be prepped now can you?)

You can SHOP online! Not only can you shop for just about anything from the comfort of your own couch, but you can do so dressed however you want! In society, shopping without any pants on may be frowned upon. But NOT when you're shopping online from home! ^_^ But the downside is that not only do you again run the risk of stolen moneys, often times you have to pay to have it shipped, you can't try things on, and you really don't know the quality of what you're getting until it arrives. It's like playing shopper roulette.

PINTEREST!  You can pin any amazing thing you find be it a recipe, a DIY project you'd like to try, outfit ideas, craft tutorials, design inspiration, beautiful art, funny pictures, etc. all in one easy to find and navigate place, and you get to browse what other people find awesome so that you can add to your own awesome finds. I mean, having a giant bulletin board where you can actually pin things is undesirable. For starters, that's a lot of pictures to print, it would have to be a giant board, not to mention that push pins would eventually begin to blister your tender little finger pads. But when you use the lovely website Pinterest you then run the risk of copyright infringement, accidentally clicking on something innocent and then finding your eyes being raped with horrific images, plus, you begin to lose hours of your time falling into a dark abyss if repinning. That's time of your life that you will never get back. There's not really enough delicious dinners and super cute wreaths to make up for that.

Then of course we bring you social networking. Facebook, Twitter, and all the other tons and tons of sites that bring the world together as a community. You see, that's awesome and all in so many ways. I get to interact with family that live hours away. They're able to keep up with what goes on in our little neck of the woods unlike ever before! But the thing is, while it's really cool, and can be super beneficial that we've been able to create a little digital unity, the thing is, is that it's not a nice community.

And that? Well to me that is one of the biggest failures of the webs. What should be webs of
(nice and useful) information, (beneficial and helpful) technology, and (clean and friendly) communication for good, has become very, very bad. And that's OUR failure. As people, as humans, we've totally failed at being decent anymore.

I honest to blog think, that if we step out from behind our computers, laptops, cell phones, tablets, and whatever electronic device we're hiding behind, and interacted with each other the way we did, even just 10 years ago, we would see a difference in the world. What someone may type out on a web page, or send out in a text is most likely very different from what they would be willing to stand up and say were they standing in front of the person they're hateful spews are directed at. I have seen people ripped to shreds by things people have commented on the internets. And while I say that figuratively, I am sure that's exactly what their heart is left feeling like. And I honestly, don't believe for one second, that the people who said some of the most hateful things would be able to look someone in the eyes, humanize them, and then rip then down.

Technology takes humanity and shields it from our eyes. We see people as less human and then we ourselves begin acting less and less human. And when I say human, I'm speaking of the compassion that we were created with, one of the few things that sets us apart from animals.

I hate that part of all things technology.

How do we fix this? I fully believe that it's growing to be irreparable. The only thing that would begin to repair it would be the fall of the webs and technology as we know it. Can you imagine it? A life where we have to spend money just to send in a bill? A life where we can't send our loved ones eleventy-million pictures of our kids enjoying their first ice cream cone? A life where I'm limited to only shopping my local stores? NO PINTEREST?! THE HORROR!!! {I say that in jest, but in all reality it would suck very much. At first.}

I can't help but kind of wish we could go back though. And actually have to CALL someone and hear their voice, even if it's just to tell them one little thing that may be so easily sent in a text! But is the convenience of it all really worth all we're losing?

I'm not so sure anymore.

Am I going to turn off my internet? Do away with my iPhone? Ban Facebook and blogging for all time?????

No.

That won't change anything. So I will continue to (mostly) enjoy the conveniences of our modern world while it's still here. And hope, really hope, that one day, it won't be here anymore.

My Little Hoarder

{Don't let this super cute face fool you, she will turn your house into a landfill.}

At what point does it cross over from "messy" or "disorganized collector" to full blown "hoarder"??? I'm genuinely afraid that my daughter is just one scrap of paper away from being A&E's newest episode.

Every time my husband and I do a complete clean out if the girls' room I have these visions of visiting my daughter in her home and having to crawl over her mountainous collections of TRASH and... just things.

At 7 years old she is "hoarding" broken things that no longer work, every note ever written or received, notebooks that are filled to the brim with scribbles, paper scraps, artwork, pencils, crayons, markers, both working and dried out, various foods and wrappers, and I can go on. (Although I am sure you're beginning to gather a picture.)

H is responsible for cleaning her room. (Leah is as well, but being 3.5 years younger, not as much is expected from her.) When she is doing her daily clean up her room actually appears to be very tidy! It looks picked up, and relatively clean. Until you look closer.

Open a bin, pull open a drawer, peak under the bed, steal a view of the closet, or even just pull back the window curtain and you will quickly realize H's problem. She doesn't clean, she HIDES.

I have tried everything I can think of to encourage her to purge, organize, and keep her room clean! They've all failed. The frustrating thing is that she she can be SUPER organized! In fact when we had a desk she would organize it just for fun!

Sooooo...anyone have any ideas?! I'm willing to try and do anything at this point. This is my SOS!!

Here's some things we've tried:
Rewards for cleaning, bigger rewards for keeping it clean.
Both short term goals and long term goals.
I've tried plastic bins, cubby systems, drawers, just about every organizational item there is on the market, AND we've tried giving Hailey her own personal trash can for her room.

And I can't count how many times we've helped her get her room in tip top shape, hoping she would be able to at least maintain it, only to have it in shambles less than a week later.

So frustrating. So please, PLEASE, send your ideas, links, comments, or pins! This mama needs help.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness

I have had several friends post about Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, which happens to be today, October 15th. Many have shared their personal experiences with loss. Personally, I know so many people that have lost babies. At many different stages and times in pregnancy and even after. To be honest there are often times when I believe that we, as a society, don't talk about our babies enough. I know for some this is hard, like opening a wound. But I also think that just trying to forget or to suffer quietly and alone cannot be good!


I think sometimes it feels like our babies were only real to us, and are only remembered by us. That is why I appreciate this awareness day so much! To me it's saying, our babies, our losses were real!


Why must we suffer alone when so many others have suffered the same way? I believe we should support each other! Share stories, pray together, cry together, and remember together!


There are several babies I think of most when I think of loss. Two are my own. The others are children to people I hold near and dear to my heart.
I don't think of these babies once a year just because it happens to be a day that someone happened to set aside to grow awareness. I think about these lives when their due dates, and what could have been there birthdays, come and go. I think of them when I see children that would be about their age. I think of them on the anniversary of the day they were taken to be with Jesus. I think of them when I hear someone else has lost their baby. I think of them for countless reasons.


The point is, they're never forgotten. And I hate the thought of my friends, both very close, and some not so close, that may think that they're the only ones remembering.


I can honestly say I no longer feel sad when I think of the two precious little ones I know are waiting for me at our Heavenly Father's side. More often than not I feel curious. I never knew if they were boys or girls, and I know one day I get to find out! That's comforting to me! I know that even though they grew inside of me for such a short time that they will know me as their mama. If it were up to me, and we lived in a perfect world, it would be my dream to have 8 babies. But the world we live in is SO the opposite of perfect so I said, okay, 6. I can go with 6. It turns out though that our family here on earth is complete with our 4 children. And I can't help but to think it is because I DID get my 6 babies that I dreamed of! Unfortunately it is just going to be a while before we are complete as a family.


If you have experienced loss, and statistically it is very likely you have, then please join me today in remembering! And not just today! Join me in remembering every day! If the pain is still new, and raw, or fresh enough that things still tend to make pain new and raw, please know that one day it really won't hurt as badly! It may be hard to believe, but one day you will remember your baby or babies with a warm joyous heart rather than an achingly sad heart.


I believe Forrest Gump said it best when he said, "Well, that's all I have to say about that.". I just really wanted to share today. :) Hopefully it will reach someone who needs it.


- please excuse any typos, or funkiness Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Hailey's Tea Party Birthday Celebration! {7 Months Late}

Hailey knew months before her birthday came exactly what she wanted to do! She wanted to have a tea party birthday! I set out and began planning right away. I searched thrift stores for tea cups and china, table clothes, frames, and other trinkets and treasures that would beautifully decorate a little girls tea party.

•"Keep calm and have a spot of tea."• I ran paper lunch sacks through the printer, used a decorative punch along the edge, folded it over and tied it off with a ribbin.• I filled an apothecary jar with Hershey kisses that just so happened to coordinate with the pinks, blue, and teals Hailey requested.• I found the 7 which was originally black and spray painted it white to commemorate her seventh birthday! ^_^• I ordered beautiful tea party cake pops from a local baker who makes AMAZING cake pops.• I chose a beautiful bouquet of meadow flowers {artificial of course} to accent the table.•

•I hunted high and low for the perfect table cloth and just never had any luck. While making a trip to Ikea I just so happened to browse the curtains where I found the most PERFECT pattern! Because they were curtains I didn't buy them right away, but at least I now had an idea of exactly what I was looking for. Unfortunately I never could find fabric to use and ended up making a trip back to Ikea for the curtains to use as the table cloth and no one even knew that it was actually a curtain!• I found pink chinese lanters, and a garland of flowers, and made the remaining "puffs".• Hailey's Grandmother has a beautiful little tea pot collection she shared with us. They were in the most adorable shapes; a couch with a cat, a sewing maching, a cupcake, and a little cottage.•

•A tea party wouldn't be complete with cucumber sandwiches  These were a request from the birthday girl and a MUST-HAVE. We served them along side deli roll-ups on a 3 tiered tray made from tea cups and saucers.• I found the cutest pink "H" at one of our local craft stores and it accented the table beautifully!• Cream puffs were piled high upon a tray that I had give little makeover just for the party. {A little spray pain and ribbon go a long way.}• Here is a closer look at the beautiful and DELICIOUS cake pops.• Another print I made wishing my Hailey Jo a very happy 7th birthday.•

Normally I wouldn't want to compare my beautiful 7 year old to a popular movie prositiute {HA!} but how Julia Roberts Pretty Woman is this?!?! LOL This is one of my most ♥favorite♥ photos from the special day.

The girls got to chose what part of a tea set they would like to paint and got to create their own little masterpiece.

After painting their little cups, saucers, and tea pots they decorated cupcakes. There were all sorts of shapes, colors, and things to sprinkle over the cupcakes.

And of course we had tea time! A tea party would not be complete without tea. :) {Although very quickly we realized that little girls do NOT love tea. and it turned out to be a "lemonade in tea cups" party.



{Aren't her lashes to DIE for?! People pay good money to have things glued onto them to make them look like they have those lashes right there. And look at that pinky! ^_^}

Hailey's party was so fun, and so special! I loved that we were able to use special family heirlooms and collections mixed with new finds that we love for all time! I never would have thought that a tea party would be so fun to plan. But I loved it. :)

A Very Zombie Birthday

Joshua and I began collecting ideas for his 10th birthday about 9 months in advance. Originally he wanted to do a Lego birthday. I thought it was an awesome idea! As his birthday grew closer though he became unsure and was truly undecided as to what kind of party he wanted. I told him that it was completely up to him, but that he needed to let me know soon so that I could begin shopping, and crafting for the big day!

We spent COUNTLESS afternoons on the computer searching birthday websites and blogs for ideas. We tossed around ideas like a Hunger Games birthday, an army birthday, a Lego birthday, a science lab birthday, Star Wars, hunting/camo, Adventure Time, I could seriously go on and on.

Once we found it though, we knew INSTANTLY it was "the one".

ZOMBIES

There's no hiding the fact that my son and I are somewhat insanely zombie obsessed.I knew this was going to be just as fun for me to plan as it was going to be for him to celebrate!

Inspiration was somewhat hard to come by. I couldn't really find any other zombie birthdays. But luckily when it comes to zombies I have all I need to become inspired right at home!

This was Joshua's 10th birthday. DOUBLE DIGITS! So I wanted this to be a big bash.

{Clockwise} I was able to find some awesome bags from Oriental Trading! I bought test tubes from Amazon and filled them with nerds. They were the 'zombie antidote'. I found zombie necklaces, and my favorite, syringe pens! They were the zombie 'vaccine'.

I lucked out and our local Dollar Tree had "CAUTION: ZOMBIES!" tape, and even blood splatter window clings, complete with a bloody smeared hand print. :)

I made good old fashioned Jello dirt cups, and stuck some zombie hand cupcake toppers in them, topped with a gummy worm.

I found an awesome recipe for "swamp" cake and thought it would make a GREAT graveyard cake. After adding some zombie hand cupcake toppers, eyeballs, and various other severed body parts it looked perfectly zombiefied and almost too disgusting to eat!

We had a "Zombie Outbreak Response Team" kit filled with survival gear that you would need to survive the zomie apocolypse. Rope, a canteen, flashlight with batteries, various bandages, a screwdriver, etc. These were the prizes you could pick from if you won a game!

{The "Let's Paint the Town Dead!" table cloth was from BirthdayDirect.com, along with the blood splattered gauze, plates, cups, and zombie hand cupcake picks.}

{Clockwise} We had a "zombify station" where our party guests could get into character. We had make-up, fake blood, bloody bandages, and zombie teeth to help give them the perfect zombie look!

I lucked out because my mom had a brain Jello mold! We made it into a worm filled Jello brain.

"Pin the Brains on the Zombie"! {I would have loved to see the face of whoever printed that out at Staples! lol} We had to have some zombie games and what's more perfect than feeding a zombie some brains? When I first thought of the game I just assumed we would pin the brain to the zombie's head where his brain would go. But after having it printed and hanging it I decided that we should do the obvious and pin the brain to where it SHOULD be. The zombie's mouth!

Okay, so technically these are mummies, and mummies aren't zombies, but they ARE the walking dead. So close enough right? I just called them "walking dead dogs".

A closer look at how the table came together.

{Clockwise} The birthday boy! I think the smile means good things. :)

The zombie walk!! First we had a zombie walk, where each guest did their best zombie impression one by one. Then we did a zombie race! But you couldn't just run, you had to move how a zombie would move.

We used a bandage as a blindfold and the guests got to try their best to get the brain to the zombie's mouth.

A zombie hoard!

{Clockwise} A zombie party wouldn't be complete without Ghoul Aid! I started with a recipe I found online and just added a few things here and there until we ended up with something yummy but completely gross looking!

"DO NOT ENTER: dead inside"

Zombie cake pops! I did my best to make some living dead cake pops. Some zombie had their eyes gouged out, some had nasty zombie teeth, some had mohawks, some were bald. They were as different and unique as real zombies! And they were delicious...

"CAUTION: zombies ahead"

Another shot of the graveyard cake, this time with 10 candles for the birthday boy!

{CLOCKWISE} After "pin the brains on the zombie" our zombie became a target for target practice! Nerf bullets were dipped in fake blood to mark where they hit. {It served to purposes, we knew where the bullets hit, and it created a really cool splatter effect!}

The boys chowing down!

Taking aim at the zombies brain.

This was one of my favorite pictures of the day. Grayson just stood by observing all of the chaos and activities with his little hands behind his back! It was precious. :)

Joshua making a wish and blowing out the candles!

The zombie party was definitely a success! The food was good, the guests had a blast, the activities were fun and prizes were won. When the goodie bags were handed out and everyone headed home we were POOPED.

This was hands down my most favorite party to plan! I hope Joshua will look back and remember this party for the rest of his life!

The Pinterest Project

If you haven't heard of The Pinterest Project you are definitely missing out! Miranda and Jamie are two awesomely funny ladies that set out to create things they've found on Pinterest. I was super lucky when they asked me almost a year ago to do a blog design for them, but even more lucky when they decided that for their one year bloggiversary they wanted to give that said blog a new look and once again came to little old me for help!

They went from this:

To this:


This was honestly one of my most fave blog makeovers! It was super fun, and it turned out super cute! It REALLY makes me want to give my own blog a little makeover!

Seriously head on over and give Miranda and Jamie some love! They share amazing recipes, really cool tutorials, and have awesome giveaways!