Jack's Birthday

Matt's sister Stephanie has been in the hospital since January and unfortunately her son Jack's first birthday happened to fall during her stay. Since she was unable to make him the cake and have the party she had planned on she gave me the honor of making his first birthday cake for the party we were to have at the hospital.

Stephanie had planned on a jungle theme, so I went with that and did a monkey cake. I also made cake balls with little Bananas on top.

We had a fun time at Jack's party. Matt and I went to the hospital early so I could do Steph's Hair and make up.

These are the ties that I made for Jack. I got this cute pattern here .

Owen's First Birthday!

I can hardly believe that a whole year has passed since Owen was born. He is such a joy in our family and I couldn't imagine not having him. His first tooth barely broke through just before his birthday and he is getting closer to walking. He has just in the pas few days figured out that he can stand without holding on to something for a short time. He gets so excited and thinks it is funny. He had his 1 year check-up today and is still only 19 lbs. Our kids are just little.
For Owen's birthday we had a little party at our house for our family and a few close friends. Our house was packed with people that we love. I know that Owen won't remember, but it means so much to me that we have so many loved ones near us. I did a fire truck theme and tried my hand a decorating his cake with fondant icing. It is a little less messy so I made sure that he had a chocolate cake to dig into. I think the cake turned out pretty cute for my first attempt a fondant.
Owen loved his cake! He ate like half of it before I realized that he had slept through dinner and was starving. So he went to town on the cake. What a good mother I am to let my child eat half a cake without any nutrition in him before. Oops.
He was spoiled with gifts. Between Christmas and his birthday he has plenty of boy toys to last him until next year.

Yummy.

Celebrating 60 Years

My mom turned 60 on October 25th and when I asked her how she wanted to celebrate, she said that she wanted to go bowling and have pumpkin pie. So that is just what we did. Matts parents were in town for a pageant and so they joined us for the fun. It was Bailee's first time bowling and she had a blast. The bowling alley has sure gotten high tech, it was programed that the bumpers came up only on Bailee's turn. It was so fun. Matt won the game and I didn't don't think that I even beat Bailee. I guess I need to brush up on my bowling skills.
After bowling we went back to Mom's for pie and to give her our gift. Bailee didn't want to leave when it came time so she stayed the night and went to church with Gramma. Bailee wanted to carry her ball to the lane all by her self ever time. She is such a big girl.

We picked up GG and she was our cheerleader. She always is the best company.

Matt showing off his skills.

Mom looking for a strike.

Mom opening the card that Bailee made for her. Bailee was so funny, she insisted on having a gift bag too.

New Dishes!!!

When we got married we didn't get any dishes so I just went and bought the cheapest set I could find. About three years ago I picked out this set and I finally got the first pieces for my kitchen for my birthday this year. Matt got me 8 "ice cream" bowls and his parents got me a 16 piece set ( a place setting for four). I am so excited and can't wait to get the rest of the set.

Bailee is 3!!

Wow! Where has the time gone? We can hardly believe that Bailee is 3 now. She had quite the birthday week. Her birthday was on Monday this year and we started it off with a birthday breakfast. I let her choose whatever she wanted to have... she of course chose pancakes. I decided that I would make it special by shaping them into 3's. It took me a few tries but I got the hang of it and she ate several of them. We let her have a friend party this year and so on her birthday she got to have 4 of her friends come over for a "Cars" party. I wanted to do a princess party but she chose "Cars". We started the party off by letting the girls decorate their own cardboard car. Then we went outside to play "red light green light" and have some races. They all had fun with that, even though I am not sure they quite understand the game.

Then it was back inside for gifts and cake. Bailee isn't a big cake eater, so I attempted to make my own ice cream cake. She loved it.

Then on Friday Matt's parents, Steph and Kelly came to town for Family pictures and to celebrate Bailee's birthday. So we had a little family party Saturday too. Bailee got EVERYTHING she wanted. It was like Christmas, she had so many gifts.

Bailee just started getting into the whole Disney princess thing. My mom gave her a set of princess dolls and this cute lunch box along with a few other fun toys and games.
Matt's parents got Bailee her own digital camera. Bailee has been quite the photographer for about a year now. So now she has her own and it is just like her friend Rylie's

(but it is her favorite color, orange) so she loves it.

She also got a scooter from us. Her friend Julianna has on like it and it has often been a fight over who gets to ride it. Bailee was so excited when we gave it to her. She didn't say anything, just got on it and started down the walkway.

We Love our little Bailee and are so glad that she was able to have such a fun birthday. Now it is time to get rid of some of the old toys... our house is overflowing.