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A Monster Celebration

July 2, 2014

Henry turned two on Saturday. TWO. As much as I thought I’d be sad about him getting bigger, it wasn’t as hard as his first birthday. I felt happy. Happy that is he understanding more, happy that he is in such a cute stage, happy that he is learning so much and using more words. This is definitely the hardest stage and the cutest and I wouldn’t change it for anything 🙂 Last Friday we had a small party for him that included all his friends and their moms from my mom group. I wanted to keep it more low key this year and celebrate with family on a different day. It definitely went a lot smoother and was much more stress-free than his big first birthday party. I had some amazing help (our wonderful babysitter and my best friend/Henry’s godmother. Not to mention my husband who worked hard before work to set up the “pool” area). The theme was Monsters University since that has been Henry’s favorite movie for the past 8 months and we turned it into a toddler pool party. I found most of the decorations online (Party City, Oriental Trading) and the blue food baskets were from the dollar spot at Target (3 for $1); they were the perfect size to hold the kids food. We ended up having 15 kids including Henry and a teeny tiny newborn! We borrowed our friend Kelly’s water table and slide and a few other toys. The blow up pools are from Sam’s Club and Target. We also had chalk, bikes, toddler lawnmowers and a bunch of other toys. The kids had a great time and the party lasted about an hour and a half which was the perfect amount of time to visit and play.

(these amazing cookies are by Yummy Delicious Cookies in Marietta, GA)

{Invitations bought here}

{A HUGE thank you to my BFF Shayda for capturing all these pictures and helping me out so much the night before/morning of, despite being 25 weeks pregnant!}

Father’s Day Weekend

June 18, 2014

It’s really crazy how fast the weekends go by. Here I am writing this post and it’s already Tuesday night. I am also watching my cat take the baby outlet protectors out of the sockets with her teeth … Is that normal?! I always end up picking the “strange” animal out of the pack. Her, Henry and our two dogs really keep things exciting around here. If you can call it that. Also, let me say that I have been working on this blog post for over an hour … I am so easily distracted when it comes to writing. No wonder why it takes me so long, in between looking at new stamps on usps.com (why??), texting friends and scrolling through pinterest pinning recipes and crafts I will never do, it’s a surprise I get anything done in my free time at all.

Friday evening we went on a double date with our friends to Studio Movie Grill to watch 22 Jump Street. It was so funny, however I think the first one has it beat (just a little!) Groupon usually has a deal where you can get a ticket for $6, nearly half of what tickets normally cost. And an added bonus is eating dinner/having drinks while watching a movie. Saturday we ran some errands and hit up another BBQ spot called Jim N Nicks. It was so good! I highly recommend it and it was toddler approved. Henry ruined his shirt with all the BBQ sauce and watermelon, but at least he ate!

My husband and I didn’t do gifts for Mother’s/Father’s Day this year, just a card/flowers/small favors mixed with a nice relaxing day. Of course I cannot just give a card to my husband on any special occasion so I wanted to do a little something extra, but not over the top and not too much money. I found this plastic bucket in the dollar bin at Target and filled it with his favorite snacks, some fireworks and new boxers. Totally f’ing random, but he loved it! Plus, it’s the thought that counts right?

After Jan read his cards and went through his goody basket, he decided he wanted to go to Waffle House for breakfast (which was just fine with me). The food is always good there and you always know what you’re getting. It’s great for a toddler too because they have basic items (eggs, sausage, toast). Speaking of toast, do you like how Henry is eating his with a fork?

Following breakfast we went to a nearby park so let Henry run around before nap time and so we could walk off some of our breakfast calories. Henry’s new thing lately is to sit down immediately when he sees a large puddle/body of water, even when he is fully clothed. Needless to say he rode home pant less and was carried out of the park in a wet diaper filled with river water. I’ll be sure to tell him that story when he is sixteen.

We ended our Sunday with Henry playing naked in his baby pool on our deck and drinking water from a hose. We keep it classy.

I hope everyone had a great Father’s Day weekend! (and seriously, have you seen the new Johnny Cash stamp??)

Weekend Wrap Up

June 13, 2014

Friday is as good a day as any to talk about last weekend right? Seriously, there are not enough hours in the day lately it seems. But last weekend was too perfect to not share. Better late than never! {PS: this post has been written since Tuesday. Not sure why I couldn’t just hit “publish”}

This weekend included family time, friend time and even some time alone with my husband. I would say it was perfectly rounded out. Friday I dropped Henry off at my moms house for an overnight stay and then went and visited my friend Emily at Bobo. I picked out a few things for Henry’s big boy room and then we had lunch at FIGO. It was my first time eating there and it was amazing. {This weekend was also filled with lots of firsts.} Friday night we took our best friends, Shayda & Lockett, out to celebrate Shayda’s 30th birthday. We went to Nuevo Laredo and Jan and I each had the chimichanga; it was delicious. My favorite though were the chips. They were thicker than the usual Mexican chips at other places and were very filling. After a yummy dinner we headed home to enjoy some late night TV watching knowing that we were going to be able to sleep in Saturday morning. Such a great feeling. We started watching the TV show Once Upon A Time and we am hooked. We are almost through the entire first season in less than a week.

Saturday morning we got to sleep in and lounge around before heading to get Henry at 11. We stop in Vinings and ate breakfast at the Broken Egg Cafe (there is one also near us which we frequent regularly). The rest of the day was spent doing yard/house work and just hanging out taking it easy. On Sunday we ventured out to Decatur to {finally} check out the Dekalb Famers Market. We had planned to go while Henry was taking his morning nap and while he was sleeping we were watching BBQ Pitmasters which always highlights the best BBQ. Needless to say we were craving it and impatiently waiting for Henry to wake up. We looked up some places on Yelp and saw that Community Q was very close to the farmers market so we headed there. The service was great, the food came out fast and it was delicious. My husband and I are huge BBQ fans and always dream of going to Memphis in May where they host a huge BBQ festival. Maybe 2015 will be our year!

23/52

June 6, 2014

“a portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Henry: I’m not really surprised that this week is also a water picture. I couldn’t resist though, look at him in his shades! If he wasn’t wearing a puddle jumper you’d think he was a teenager.

Weekend Wrap Up

June 4, 2014

It’s been a while since I posted a wrap up of our weekend. Partly because we haven’t done anything that exciting and last weekend my husband was out of town and I was sick for three days. Wednesday seems like a strange day to talk about the previous weekend but after being on the computer for work from roughly 7am-4pm, my eyes need a break when I get home.

This weekend was a tad more eventful (Except for the fact that our AC was broken for two days. Luckily it has been fixed). On Friday Henry and I got to visit with baby Davis, who is only two weeks old. He is so precious and tiny! I cannot believe Henry was ever that small (actually he wasn’t. He was a whopping 8 pounds at 39 weeks). It was fun to visit and see Henry interact with a newborn. It was his first time around a baby that small and he did so well. He was very calm and gentle and would point to his toes and say “toes” and his footed onesie and say “sock.” He also gave him a stuffed animal before we left. Davis has an older sister around Henry’s age and they enjoyed eating each others pound cake and sharing their apple ciders.

Saturday morning we went to the farmers market near us and got some fresh baked bread, grass fed beef, tamales, coffee and bbq sauce. All local made/grown too. Henry loved seeing all the doggies that were there and enjoyed munching on a fresh croissant.

Saturday evening was our annual pizza night and it was our friends turn to host. We decided to bring cupcakes for a dessert because who doesn’t need a cupcake or two after stuffing their face with pizza? How cute do the boys look eating their pizza at the toddler table? My favorite pizza of the night was the pesto with fresh cut roma tomatoes and a light dusting of fontina cheese.

On Sunday morning we headed to Ikea for breakfast and a new dresser for my husband. We also looked at new big boy beads for Henry. He will be getting a day bed and moving into his big boy room soon! I hope the transition goes smoothly (fingers crossed!) Later that evening was my friend Ashley’s 30th birthday get together at Sips N Strokes. It was my first time ever taking a painting class like that and I really enjoyed it. My husband liked my painting so much that he took it to work and hung it in his office 🙂

Happy June, Friends!

52 Portrait Update (19/20/21/22)

May 23, 2014

“a portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Week 19: Busy busy busy. This guy never stops and can find something that fascinates him anywhere.

Week 20: Water baby. What else is new.

Week 21: He’s got the bike riding down. Our sweet friends let him borrow this bike and he has been riding it non stop, all throughout the house.

Week 22: Home Depot run. He started saying “depot depot” when I told him where we were going. Picking out paint colors for his big boy room which we are starting on next month. He still has this serious face in pictures and he doesn’t understand “smile” yet.

Life with a Toddler

May 16, 2014

Henry and I had to run a few errands today after his morning nap. A few days ago he took a nasty fall on this poor little face and also skinned up his finger. His new favorite word is “boo-boo” (also the name for bandaids) so as soon as he wakes up he is asking for boo-boos. I wrapped a bandaid around his finger and off we went. While at the store Henry told me he needed this Mike Wazowski ballon (by telling me, he literally screamed for the whole store to hear). Afraid that someone would alert the cops for a potential kidnapping, I gave in and got him the ballon and checked out. While outside, the balloon came off the stick and the wind blew it across the whole parking. You would have thought that I just killed the family cat. With Henry screaming, I stood there for a second wishing the wind would blow it back to me but then came to my senses and realized it was just blowing it further away, in and out of cars. I grabbed Henry and walked for what seemed to be 5 minutes just to grab this damn balloon. Finally back in the car and headed to our last errand (which happened to involve driving on the highway), Henry decides that the bandaid on his finger must be killing him because he is throwing the biggest, most epic tantrum I have ever seen. Of course I cannot pull over because we are ON THE HIGHWAY so I have to suffer through this until I pull off at a QT and remove the ~~tumor~~ bandaid. While he was throwing his bandaid fit I had rolled down the window to distract him and forgot to roll it back up after we stopped. All seemed to be good once we got back on the road and wouldn’t you know it … that damn balloon flew out the window. And for a split second, I dreamed that we had a clothes line.

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