That Mom

It's finally come to that point....

and the first step in fixing a problem is admitting there is one....

well that's what I'm here to do...

admit...

that I'm officially "that mom"...


That's right. I'm the mom I always made fun of working in childcare. The mom that thought her child was above all others.... cuter, smarter, funnier, just over all more awesome than any other toddler out there. Well folks... I have to admit.... I'm there.

I always made fun of those moms and just knew that I would never be like that. I mean seriously... how ridiculous is it to think those things.... you have to be pretty full of yourself to think your kid is the coolest kid of all.

But like I said.... that's me. I have the coolest kid on the face of the planet... as well as the smartest, cutest, and funniest.

In the past week he has just started talking so, so, so much. From the moment he wakes until he goes to bed he just walks and walks and plays and just goes nonstop. He just loves books more than anything and would sit for probably at least 30 minutes and listen to me read. He has started getting really excited about things and  stomping his feet super fast out of excitement. He laughs and laughs.... sometimes at himself. He's a dancing machine.

His personality has just blossomed in the past week....

leading me and Daniel once again to the conclusion that he's the coolest kid around...

at least in our eyes :)

First Birthday: The Goodies!

This little boy is so unbelievably loved!  We had such a good turn out at the party and of course everyone came baring the best goodies for him. The hard part was figuring out what to do with all of it once we got home!

This was his gift from mommy and daddy!! This little boy is such a monkey that we knew we had to get him something for him to get his energy out on! We were also so excited about it that we gave it to him the morning of his party... we just couldn't wait any longer :)    He loves it and spends a lot of time climbing up and down and rolling balls and cars down the slide. It was a hit!

I knew ahead of time that keeping a one year olds attention the entire time you're opening a ridiculous amount of presents wasn't very realistic. So I didn't fret too much when he sat for about 3 presents and then took off to play with his cousins.  We occasionally rounded him back up to come see his new toys but he was quickly off again. Chasing Cheyenne & Zain around was much more fun than all the toys :)   But he really did get so spoiled from all of our friends and family! There was just so much love!

Wowzer!! This was the stash all laid out when we got back to Bixby! Good thing Daniel & I drove separate cars to OKC or I don't know what we would have done!  For about a week it looked like Toys R Us exploded in our living room but I think we have things pretty much put away where we want them now. We'll def be rotating toys in and out so he doesn't get bored with the same things all the time.  We'll also be getting rid of the couch (in the picture with all the toys). Right now it's just sitting in his play area holding all of our junk so I'd say that's a good move. Books, cars, balls, ball pits, push toys, and V-Tech toys pretty much sum up all the goodies he got!  And I'd also say we're pretty close to being set on fall and winter clothes as well!

Thank you so, so, so much to everyone who came to the party or sent gifts to Dax. We truly are so completely blessed to have such amazing, supportive, and loving friends and family. Thank you for being a part of our little mans life.

First Birthday: The Cake

Well for Dax's smash cake I went with this banana cake recipe, but left out the cinnamon (Dax is allergic) and added in applesauce (so I guess you could say it was an apple banana cake). It was sugar free but I went ahead and used regular icing with sugar and all!

It wasn't that pretty but it served it's purpose :)  At first Dax had no idea what to do with it. He sort of poked at it a little and made a weird face. So I had to dig in for him and give him a little taste. He decided then that it wasn't so bad...

He ate it.... but I think he liked the attention he got more than the cake. That big chunk that's missing from the cake was not him... it was me :)  He also decided that the icing wasn't for him and started just picking at the cake part (apparently our boy is not a fan of sweets.... but anything bread-like is his favorite food)!
He ate for a few minutes... but then started getting a little fussy like the cake wasn't what he wanted. I went and got some fruit and instantly he was better...

Apparently Daniel and I did something right because this boy rather have fruit over cake any day!  It was pretty funny!
And after cake his little face was all broke out where the icing was at... so apparently he was allergic to something in the icing.... maybe the sugar ;) 

First Birthday: The Look

Get ready for an explosion of birthday party post with lots and lots of pics....   :)

Well the original plan was to have Dax's party at the lake so I had decided a beach ball theme would be super cute. I had some beach ball things but most of the decor was going to be basic color polka dots (red, blue, yellow, green, orange).  I thought it would be super cute for a one year old and the bright colors would make it very fun :) A lot of the decorations were hand made or bought on sale or in the dollar section at target so while there was a lot that went into  the party  it really was very budget friendly.  So here's a peak at how it all turned out.
The invitations I showed  here.  They were all handmade and a little different. I loved how they turned out!
And here was my sneak peak at a few of the details.
And now picture explosion in 5...4...3...2...1....

We had 25 of these cuties laying around the floor of the gym! Some big and some itty bitty! They were super fun, especially inside the moon bounce!

Cute beach ball plates right?!  For drinks we had 3 sodas, water, and sugar free raspberry lemonade.

The snacks!! We had whole wheat goldfish, whole grain crackers, pita chips, cheese, and hummus. We were going to make the hummus home made but ended up running out of time. And didn't the labels turn out cute?  You'll see a close up of those cute beach ball pictures stickers in just a bit! They were quite the find!

I found those cute letters for .30 each at HobbyLobby!  As far as sweets we had the cupcakes I talked about here, some basic funfetti cupcakes with blue cream cheese icing, cookies, and a cake my dad insisted on buying which actually turned out super cute!    We also have Dax's cute little smash cake in the pic (sugar free banana apple cake with regular cream cheese icing).  And of course one of the biggest hits of the party a collage of pictures from Dax's first year!

And here is the entire spread.... with the birthday banner I made hanging behind it :)

Here are the tables! I thought they were really cute! We did four tables with sand buckets, tissue paper, and balloons and the rest just had our memory card activity on them. I also had a few extra pieces from the high chair decorations I made (you'll see that in a minute) so I just laid those around on the tables as well.

Here's the memory card activity I just mentioned. I got inspiration for this from my besties party for her little boy. I had these set up on the table and small squares of construction paper set out for people to write on. We'll save these in Dax's keepsake box and give them to him later in life.   You can also see the cute beach ball stickers really well here! I found these stickers online (I really wish I still had the website) but they were only $1.95 for 24 pictures!! WOW! Such a good idea and I LOVED them!

Here were all of the tables. Like I said I only put balloons on 4 but I thought it was just enough and looked pretty cute!

Here were the goody bags for all the kiddos!  I was pretty pumped because there was absolutely NO sugar in these bags and had awesome gifts that I got super super super cheap at HobbyLobby or Target.

Here was the gift table before it started overflowing with presents!  You can also see Dax's seat (a closer pic in just a minute)!

The birthday boys seat!!! The original plan was to make his hat but we found this one on sale for $2 at HobbyLobby and decided that I probably couldn't make one that cheap. Plus... it's super cute! I also made the banner with left over pieces from his shirt his aunt Lori made. I was super happy with how it turned out! 

That's it for now.... but get excited about future post on the cakes and presents!

Our 12 Month Old

So it's pretty depressing not having as much time to blog anymore as I did this summer.... but tis life I guess. Well since our last post I have started student teaching (which has gone great and I am gaining my confidence back day by day.. more on that on another post), Daniel is finishing up his weeks of Pediatric wards (which he has decided is way to depressing for him), Dax has is still a rock star at daycare (I'm pretty sure he's a fav among the teachers), I have started my class on Tuesdays (which is going to be the DEATH of me), and then there was this little known event called, Daxton's first birthday!!!

That's right folks... I have a toddler.  Here's a quick run down of where our boy is at 12 months (that feels much easier on my heart to say than one).

* Walking... all. over. the. place..... and with this walking brings even more disaster to the house. I thought he was into everything before.... yikes... that's nothing compared to now.
* We are down to our morning bottle (which is going to be hard to break.... we both love that time a lot) and the rest of the day is finger foods, the occasional puree, milk, and water.
* As of yesterday he has two teeth! I thought we were going to have to buy this boy some dentures but turns out he just likes doing things on his own time :)
* He has a girlfriend at daycare..... they're often seen playing together and I caught them holding hands at the snack table yesterday....
* He just talks and talks and talks. He mimics pretty much every sound now and is super good at mimicking the tonation of your voice. It's pretty fun.
* It sleeping so, so, so good at daycare!! He takes an hour nap in the morning and a two hour nap in the afternoon!! This is way better than he ever slept at home! And did I mention it's on a cot?? Such a big boy! Bedtime is still great. He goes to bed between 6 and 7:30 and is up at about 6:00 in the morning.
* His favorite toys right now are balls (especially his ball pit), dump trucks, books, blocks, musical instruments, walking toys, and anything with a door that opens and closes. Bubbles are still one of his absolute favorite things too.
* His little personality is so funny. He's getting where he laughs at himself and will do things just to get you to laugh at him. His favorite thing right now is to pretend like he's eating. He'll hold food up by his mouth and make a smacking noise and laugh. Pretty. Cute.
* He is quite the dancer now and has moved on from the raise the roof move to full on bouncing my body.
* When we go outside of look out the window he looks up at the trees and says, "bird". Melts my heart.
* He has a yucky virus starting the end of last week until yesterday. Started with tummy nastiness and moved on to a nose that dripped like a faucet, sore throat, congestion, and coughing. Thankfully that's over.
* He will randomly walk up to you and lay his head over on you and say "awwww". It's. adorable.
* He's a climber. He tries to climb on anything and everything he can.... so daddy and I got him a toy made just for that for his birthday (more on that later too).

Here are some recent pics of our 12 months old....

sweet boy...

Mommy & daddy's entertainment

Dax's favorite hang out

My newest nephew Kason Ryan!!

Big boy on his birthday!!