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!!

Sneak Peek

In 19 days we'll be having little man's first birthday party! I'm way, way excited with how the decorations have come together so I thought I would give you guys a little sneak peek!

and he also got to open his very first birthday gift ever today from our favorite people in Kentucky...

He loved it (and mommy and daddy are going to love the teething tablets for sure)! I can't wait to watch him open so many more on his birthday.

also before I go..... say a little prayer for our little boy tonight. He went to the doctor today with a runny nose, cough, and sneeze, and turns out he has another ear infection in his right ear and also has some asthma (probably a result of his RSV he had when he was a baby). So we are on antibiotics and breathing treatments for awhile.  Include mommy and daddy on that prayer list too because holding a our little mans arms down while he screams for 20 minutes getting his breathing treatment is super, super tough but I know it's what's best for him.

Birthday Cupcakes!

Well in a month from yesterday we'll be having our little boy's first birthday party!! Everything is about 90% done which is really exciting! This past weekend I decided to go ahead and try out a very yummy recipe that we'll be using for some of the cupcakes for the party. For Dax's smash cake we'll be using this banana cake recipe that my best friend used for her little boy with a substitution for the cinnamon... b/c apparently Dax is allergic to it (something I found out about 2 days ago). For everyone else we'll be doing a dozen regular, boxed cupcakes and then a dozen of these yummy goodies you're about to hear all about!  Introducing the low fat, about 80% organic Strawberry Banana cupcakes!
So here's what you need....

2 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup skim milk (we had 1% so I used that)
1/3 cup low fat banana yogurt (we had plain yogurt so that's what we used)
1 mashed banana
1 large egg lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

Ok so this was absolutely delicious! I loved that it was low fat and used whole wheat flour. I used everything organic or all natural except the salt baking powder and vanilla. Here's where you go from there...

1. First, preheat the oven to 400 degree and spray or line the cupcake tin. This recipe made a total of 18 cupcakes for me.

2. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. Once you get that mixed well stir in the strawberries.

3. In a small bowl combine milk, yogurt, banana, egg, and vanilla and mix well.

4. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.Then fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 full

5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tops are firm and golden (ok so the golden part is sort of hard since it's whole wheat flour...mine cooked for 16 minutes and were just perfect).

6. Let cool completely and then ice if you want. These would be great just plain (I was thinking for breakfast) but since we're serving them at the party we decided to put a thin layer of cream cheese icing on top.

These were a definite winner! They won't only be served at the party but I plan on making them here pretty often as well! We figured they're about 180 calories each which is really good for your typical cupcake which apparently are on average 300 calories each!  Winner for sure with the low fat strawberry banana cupcakes!

Birthdays...

Happy First Birthday Caedmon Michael!!!

Today is this very special little boys first birthday. He doesn't know it yet but he is very lucky to have two of the best parents a little boy could wish for! His mom just happens to have been my best friend since 1st grade and is more like a sister than friend. She is beautiful, smart, fun, a wonderful mom, and not to mention and awesome blogger (like how I threw that plug in there).  We have yet to meet this special little boy in person but I already love him so much. I remember being 7 1/2 months pregnant and anxiously waiting every day to get word that he was here, and then finally getting the message that he was and feeling like a little boy of my own was born.  Now I'm anxiously waiting for our family cruise in March so that I have the chance to spend a whole week with 3 of my favorite people that I rarely get to see. I can't wait to see Daxton and Caedmon play together for the first time... I'm predicting a lot of emotions will start streaming through my head.   Once again though, Happy first birthday sweet Caedmon.... your family in Oklahoma loves you!

Dax's first birthday is around the corner! Decorations are coming together and invites are almost done. My mission today was to find recipes for Daxton's smash cake as well as for the cupcakes for the guest. I think I'm going to use the Banana Cake recipe that Melissa used for Caedmon's smash cake and for the guest cupcakes I think I'll do some with a  basic vanilla recipe and some with a yummy, pretty healthy Strawberry Banana recipe I found this morning. I plan on trying that out soon and when I do I'll give you all the yummy details!

Hello World!

Well hello world! It's been awhile!  We have been one busy house the past two weeks. We'll start first with Daniel...
Well Daniel start his rotations! He was very excited to finally be out of the classroom and in working with patients! For those of you not familiar with the med school lingo (trust me... it's a language of it's own that I'm just now catching on to), rotations are done you're third and fourth year of medical school. During this time you'll spend six weeks (i think) in several different fields of medicine, letting you get a taste of each. Daniels first rotation is OB/GYN which he originally wasn't looking forward to but has since realized that it isn't so bad. His first week was working the night shift of labor and delivery. He really enjoyed it and really learned a lot in one week. He got to watch an emergency c-section lasting a total of about a minute and got to help with some of the not so glamorous parts of childbirth. This week he's in the clinic and while he's not enjoying it as well as labor and delivery he is still learning quite a bit. And once again, other than being a great soon-to-be-doctor, he still a great chef!

Cedar plank Salmon with garlic, shallots, and onion, and grilled asparagus.

Now on to the star of the show... Daxton :)  This little boy has been up to so much! We spent nine days at the lake and during that time he had so many first! While we were there he said Papa, Yie Yie (chey chey... his cousin), makes a boat noise, and yesterday he tried to say puppy (which ended up just being the p sound) and woof (minus the f). That makes is repertoire of "words" up to  seven plus some great sound effects for cars and boats! He's getting way too big way too fast! I love watching him learn... it's possibly one of my favorite parts of motherhood. At the lake he once again fell in love with the golf cart and being outside. By the end of the week he would make his way to the door and cry wanting to go out and would then squeal with excitement when we got near the golf cart. He also had his first wave runner ride!

Oh yeah... and one other special little development while we were at the lake.... FITS. This boy can throw some fits! I knew he was strong willed and stubborn but man these fits get me every time. They mostly happen when I'm cutting him off from eating (bc he would literally eat ALL day). He pushed my hands away while I'm cleaning him up and as I try to get him out of the high chair he will twist and turn and arch his back. Oh boy I am not looking forward to the terrible twos with this little boy!
As for me I am enjoying my last month and a half as a stay at home mom... which is a full time job in itself. We're completely settled in and unpacked now and most of the pictures are up on the walls. Being a mom is getting more and more fun as the time goes by. Food with Dax is getting fun and lately I've spent a lot of my time thinking about and planning finger foods for him. He loves to munch on berries, peaches, carrots, toast, pasta with EVOO and parsley.

This was not for Dax but since we were talking food I figured I would throw it in! We had this recently and is one of the few things I can successfully make. Tortellini, black olives, spinach, cherry tomato's, and Italian dressing. Yum-O!

I have lots of things on my "to make for Dax soon" list and I'm very excited about start new and exciting things! I have also been staying busy planning Dax's first birthday extravaganza which I am WAY excited about! Here's a peak at the invitations.

Lake vacation as a mom was a completely different experience but it was still enjoyable nonetheless! I love getting to spend time with my entire family and my favorite part of the lake isn't the typical swimming and boat riding.... it's the time in the morning when everyone is just sitting around in the cabin together eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and talking. Those really are priceless memories that I wouldn't miss for the world! I can't wait until Daniel & I buy our own place right there by everyone!
And here's one more precious pic for your viewing pleasure :)