Sparkle & shine - 4th birthday party

Today was the big party day at our house. Landen turned four on Wednesday and today we celebrated with family and some friends. Being 6.5 months pregnant while being mommy to a four and one and a half year-old have definitely minimized my party planning and decor, but I enjoy it just as much as that first birthday party. 

The theme this year - Sparkle & Shine - was inspired by Landen herself. She's into all things girly. Babies, bracelets, lip gloss, all things shiny. So I went with it. It also allowed me to incorporate PINK - a must - and reuse/repurpose some of our decor from last year's sweets party. 

I'll start with the decorations...instead of puff balls this year, I opted to make some tissue paper tassels. Just as easy as the puff balls, just a different look. And if you're going to make tons of them like I did, they just take a little time. I followed this tutorial on Pinterest.

The banners were just revamped from last year. I've actually used them for three parties now. I just replace the colored paper and save the brown card stock triangles. Using rubber cement to attach the paper usually works well, but the pink glitter paper I used on one of the banners got discolored from it...oops.

Another new decoration was some glittery garland. I spray painted and glittered some circular name tags and hot glued to some string for extra glittery decor in the window. 

I went pretty simple on the snacks this year. It was an ice cream & cake party, so white cheddar popcorn, birthday treat cookies from earlier in the week, and some mexicali dip did the trick. I used clear glass bowls and some apothecary jars to serve the food. The glitter "L" was a big hit with Landen because she got to help me make it. And, boy, was it glittery! She loaded it on for sure. Along with the snacks we served some pink lemonade. 

Party favors included homemade glitter playdoh and a cookie cutter. This was another project that Landen got to help with which made them even more special for her to share with her guests.

The birthday girl herself was feeling pretty festive, as she should, dressed in a personalized, frilly, sparkly ensemble. Shockingly, I could find very few (like zero) dresses with sparkle or any kind of sequins when I searched some of my favorite websites a few weeks ago. So we decided on this dress and paired it with some sparkly shoes, and I found a sequin "L" iron-on appliqué to add some more shine. 

Finally, the cake. Oh, the cake! My favorite bakeries were booked with weddings this weekend...and I may have waited a little too long to place my order, so I decided I would make it myself. Crazy. Never again. I am NOT a baker, and it is so stressful! I will say that the cake turned out fine, but I made SIX round cakes and one GIANT batch of buttercream frosting this week. Did I mention I hate baking? I may need to close my kitchen for a week to recover. So here it is...

It took one (sad looking) practice cake earlier in the week, a new frosting recipe and some help and moral support from my mom to get this thing put together. But I did it. Just this one time. Never again. Did I already say that? 

Of course Landen received several nice gifts from family and friends that I'm sure will keep her busy (and well accessorized) for quite awhile. She and Callen enjoyed the bubble maker from Uncle Dan once the party was over. 

Although it's hard to believe Landen is FOUR, it's also so much fun to watch her grow each an every day. Being her mommy has not been a breeze by any stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn't trade this attentive, particular, emotional, energetic little girl for anything. I'm sure this year of her life will be amazing.

Now excuse me while I go book a birthday cake for next year's party...

Callen is three months old!

My little guy is three months old today! I can't believe he's getting so big. I love seeing his little personality develop. Callen is such a smiley, happy baby it's difficult to do anything but smile when I look at him. Even in the midst of his first double-ear infection this week he was smiling. This was not the case last Sunday night though when he was inconsolable for several hours in the middle of the night. But he's doing much better now as the ear infection and cold/cough don't seem to be bothering him any more.

What's even more surprising than Callen turning three months old today is the fact that I was able to take his three month photos TODAY too. He was quite cooperative after being woken from his nap, stripped, changed and manipulated for various shots. Like I said...happy baby. So I thought I'd share a few images from our shoot.

Such a sweetie.

Checking out a book.

Big sister Landen joined for a few...seconds.

The favorite. This one captures his personality perfectly!

No, his hair is not red. I think it's just the lighting. He's actually keeping his dark hair for now, so we'll have to wait and see if that changes as he grows.

Little Nuggets

I thought I'd share some images from Callen's one month(ish) photo shoot. He did a fantastic job - with the help of the ceiling fan - and I can't believe how big he's getting! Love that smile and dimple.

For those that know Landen, you know that she doesn't sit still for longer than about five seconds, so when she was slightly cooperative this morning, I seized the opportunity to get some shots of the two. Excuse the mismatched wardrobe, this is real life and I cannot plan these things! :)

Love Callen's expression here. It's like he's sharing an inside joke with me. I'm not sure what it is though...

 Two of my favorite hands in the whole wide world...

Christmas Recap

Long overdue, I know, but I couldn't NOT post some photos of our Christmas fun. I actually have very few of Christmas morning because we opened our presents EARLY. It was still dark out and the lighting was less than desirable.

Meet Sophie - our very own Elf on the Shelf. Sophie arrived on St. Nick's Day and checked up on Landen each day to report back to Santa. Landen really enjoyed looking for Sophie each morning. Luckily Sophie's hiding spots were pretty easy this year. Some mornings she was even jumping to her new perch as Landen was coming down the stairs.  ;)  Landen was quite upset Christmas morning when Sophie was no longer here...She still asks about her and wishes she could come back sooner.

St. Nick also brought Callen some goodies...

This is one of my favorite photos from the holidays. Nothing better than my favorite little girl with my favorite movie playing in the background. <3

Callen got a swing from Uncle Aaron; although, Landen has laid claim to it so far. She happily opened presents from the swing.

It was tough to get her out of the swing...

 Christmas morning...drawing on her new Magna Doodle.

Another favorite of mine. This is her "excited face". She received a fully loaded baby diaper bag, baby clothes and a baby bed at McCormick Christmas - hence the "excited face".

Just goofing around wearing Daddy's socks...she thought it was hilarious...and so did I.

He's here!

Sleeping in my arms is the most perfect little boy I've ever seen. He arrived at 3:32am on Monday morning. He's absolutely beautiful and looks a lot like his big sister when she was a baby. Big sister, by the way, just adores Callen Patrick. I'll just share a few pictures. Many of these have been posted on Facebook and Instagram.

Fall Family Fun

I'm going to go ahead and ignore the fact that I haven't blogged since August. I'm also going to ignore all the blog post ideas I had floating around in my head since then. I'll just fast forward to now and share with you some pictures from our second annual family trip to Lincoln Ridge for pumpkins and fall fun.
We thought the rain might keep us away, but we had decent weather the entire time and only felt a few sprinkles before we left. Thank goodness it held off because I'm not sure when this busy family would have made it on another weekend...

Getting sooooo big!

Checking out some animals up close. 

Mommy and Landen.

Not as cooperative for a family picture this year.

She could not get enough of the trampoline/balloon...would have bounced all afternoon if we let her. We witnessed some impeccable balance...she's not nearly as balanced on solid ground.  ;)

 Picking out some "Landen-sized" pumpkins...

Happy fall, everyone!

It's a....baby!

Our ultrasound was this Wednesday, and we made it through the appointment without finding out the gender! It wasn't too tough these past few weeks leading up to the appointment, but right before I got called back, I saw another couple smiling from ear to ear after finding out what they were having. THAT made my heart flutter and wish we were finding out...just a little bit. Of course Scott had to ask the ultrasound tech if SHE knew what we were having...she said she was "pretty sure". Scott has his own opinion based on the viewing, but I don't think either of us can be sure AT ALL! So we will be surprised in November/December when our little one arrives. 

The best news of the day...confirmation that Landen is WRONG! There are NOT two babies in mommy's belly! Whew.

It's a Ladybug Birthday

Landen is ONE! I cannot believe how the past year has flown by. It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital meeting our beautiful little girl for the first time. Now she's walking, talking and getting into everything! 


This summer I took on preparing a proper ladybug themed first birthday party for my precious little girl. It all started when we bought a book for her around Christmas titled Ladybug Girl Dresses Up by David Soman and Jacky Davis. Ever since then we started calling her 'Ladybug Girl'. It just seemed natural to have a ladybug theme for her first birthday. 


Had I not been off all summer, I can't say that I would have gone to the same extent in my decorating; however, I had a lot of time to think about, prepare and shop for my decor. So here we go....

Here are some ladybug oreos along with black and red "milk chocolate gems" a.k.a. M&M's, mini oreos, and red licorice to accent the black and red theme. The ladybug bowls were found at Meijer this spring. I also picked up some roses for some extra red decor around the kitchen.

This is the beautiful cake I ordered from ele cake co. located in Beaverdam, OH. 

My mother-in-law found these little ceramic ladybug salt and pepper shakers which I used as decor on our kitchen shelves.

I found these ladybug napkins on ezpartyzone.com. I ordered them on Sunday and received them by Wednesday - quick shipping!

I also made six of these tissue paper puff balls for random decor around the house. Three were red, two were white with black dots and one was white with red dots. These were possibly my favorite part of the decorations.

I picked up a couple of bouquets of red, black and polka dotted balloons from Celebrations in town and anchored them with ladybug ceramic pots. I painted these pots red, glued black fuzzy dots, antlers and eyes to them. 

For this birthday sign, I painted letters on regular paper, glued them onto the red construction paper and strung them up on a thin wire. 

Here are Landen's gifts from mommy and daddy. I just had to keep the red, black and white theme in my wrapping! 

I decked out Landen's highchair with some tulle and wrapped her chair in part of a tablecloth so we wouldn't stain the material with cake and icing.

Landen didn't have much of an attention span for opening her gifts, but she got some great stuff from everyone. She's had a great time today trying out all of her new toys. Mommy's equally (if not more) excited for some new things to keep her busy for the rest of the summer!

After presents Landen was able to dig in to her cake. She's had some tastes of sweets here and there this summer, so we knew she was going to love all of that icing and cake. She actually didn't get too crazy smashing her cake, but she was trying to savor every sweet bit of that icing in her mouth. :) I think someone has a sweet tooth.

Later in the night after most had gone home, our little ladybug was still on her sugar high. She finally crashed around 9pm and didn't wake up until almost 8am. She was a worn out little girl!

I have to say that the day was an entirely enjoyable one. It wouldn't have been as great without all of the family and friends involved in celebrating our little one. She is blessed to have such wonderful people in her life.