penelope turns two

Category: holiday | January 23rd, 2013










miss penelope turned the big 2 this past saturday. it was a special weekend filled with lots of family and friends who came to celebrate! we had such a fun time. the mister might have had a little lot of fun building her a fort…made with secret passage ways too! it took up our entire dining room! there was lots of play-doh, coloring, and donut eating involved too. penelope has some pretty cute friends. i love them all! and of course a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped with the decorations, food prep, running errands, fort building, and all the tiny details that made her day so awesome. 2nd birthday party = success!!! man…time sure does fly by.

a birthday and a blog

Category: everyday | May 10th, 2012

the mister had a birthday last week. i tried to make it all about him. it was a little challenging considering he had to work/be on the phone/go to meetings all day…and i had miss P to chase around. but i think we did a good job. and to celebrate his day he decided to launch his new blog! i’m so excited for him because he has been wanting to do one for so long now. it’s a how to live life to the fullest/what’s your purpose/find your passion type thing. and i love it. and i love him. :) go check it out for some great inspiration too! oh and say hi! who doesn’t like to get comments from readers??  i will warn you…there are no pictures or bright colors. in fact he’s the exact opposite of me when it comes to style. hah. it’s still pretty awesome though. ;)

and here’s a little recap of parts of the day.



side note: he wakes up later than normal and isn’t very hungry so that’s why there’s no “happy birthday breakfast.” and i was probably too tired to make something. (story of my life right now) ;)





we went to a meeting with him at starbucks (his clients are pretty cool with us coming and trying not to be a distraction). all of the seats were pretty full inside so we chilled outside…which wasn’t the most fun for me since i had to chase her every 5 seconds since she wasn’t happy sitting still. and it was about 105 degrees outside. but she had a blast and that’s all that matters right? ;)

after he drank a weeks worth of calories in his drink (so just kidding), we went to barnes & noble for him to pick out some books….while i chilled in the car because P fell asleep. lol. we then went back home only to pack up some other stuff and got back on the road again to drop off P at the grandparents house so we could go to a “happy birthday movie date!” (thank you!!) i’m pretty sure that was the first movie we saw in theatre since P was born. saw the hunger games. it was intense but i liked it overall (and no i didn’t read the books. i’m not cool like that). i did take some photos there but they didn’t turn out so pretty so i’ll leave those out. ha

some might say this wasn’t a very exciting birthday but i mean it was a wednesday and he had to work. ha. i loved it. he did too. even though he probably didn’t get as much work done as he’d like. it was his birthday, come on. ;) don’t forget to check out his blog www.howuseful.com!

penelope’s 1st birthday party

Category: baby | January 23rd, 2012


this sweet girl had her 1st birthday party last weekend. we ended up doing a rainbow (not an actual rainbow, just the colors) and book theme party. i tried not to get too overwhelmed with all the colors, because well, it’s a lot of color, but i loved how bright and, of course, colorful it was. since her birthday is so close to Christmas, she didn’t need any more toys so i asked for books in lieu of toys. this girl loves her books (and now we have an awesome collection!!) the goal was to make as much of the decor as i could and use stuff around the house that i already had. i think i did pretty good. :) there were some things that i didn’t get a chance to do…so i will save them for her next birthday! (yes, i already thought about her next theme…too soon??) ;)



*my canvas portraits were very fitting since they are all about miss P.
*i made some circle garland with wonderful construction paper. :)
*i hung up this awesome vintage lace table cloth as a background, and threw up some finger knitted garland i made a couple years ago.  then i pinned up this paper doily garland (thanks katy!) with the tiniest/cutest clothes pins ever. i loved how cute and handmade this turned out. :)


(don’t hate on my super creased table cover. didn’t have time to worry about that) ;)
*here we have the DIY table. kept it simple with balloons and streamers on the wall. (simple, but how cool does it look?) :) inspiration table here. (thanks mom!)
*to go along with the book theme: decorate your own bookmark station and decorate your own colored book (made from paint swatches. thank you home depot!)
*and DIY painted initial goody bag




*my favorite party decoration! it’s still hanging up too. i guess you can call these accordion paper flowers. even though it took awhile to do all of them, they were fun to make! (thanks M&D and husband for the hanging advice) :) this was my inspiration. super easy to make and hang up. (perhaps a DIY post coming up?)


*made this tent/reading nook for her. i followed this tutorial which was super easy, but there are tons out there. i made it with the vintage sheet that i’ve been wanting to use for something special but never knew what. :) and i love how it’s easy to take down/set up and put away when we’re not using it. i would keep it out all the time but we don’t have that much room.

*more paper circle garland over the window. so simple but looked really fun. i might have this up still too… :)


*i used some of her vintage golden books to display her photos by month. this was an easy and super fast way to show her year’s worth of pics. i simply used some hole punched circles and added stickers for each month..and of course used the cute, tiny clothes pins to hold them up on the books.


ahh the cake(s)! my sweet friend katy, who is mastering her baking skills, made P’s cake and smash cake (first time attempting this kind too!)
*i made little matching accordion flowers for the cake toppers.
*it looks like P is really loving the cake…but she’s really screaming in that pic. haha. she gave some to her daddy instead.

*LOVED how the rainbow cake turned out. (watch out martha stewart!) :) looked pretty AND tasted great too! you’re the best katy!

she didn’t care for the cake so much, but she went to town on her ice cream. it was her first taste of sweets! i think i was more excited for her to try it than herself.

*made just a few mini cupcakes for her play date buddies too. :)


*had a little something for the big kids too. printed out this fun “Alternative Names” children’s book titles quiz over here. some of those i didn’t know. i need to work on that.



well there ya have it folks. penelope ruth’s first birthday! yay! i can’t believe it’s already been one year since THIS! :) thank y’all for everything! she is so blessed and loved by many! *i have waaaay more photos from her birthday party, but i felt like this was plenty for now. ;) (any questions on how to’s or anything, feel free to ask!)

365 days

Category: baby | January 19th, 2012


at 1:19pm on 1-19-11… :) a moment i will never EVER forget (especially since i wrote it down here) ;) we love you sweet girl. you are amazing. praise God.

p’s birthday week

Category: baby, everyday | January 15th, 2012


it’s party week people! i have been a little busy these past few days. i wanted to get a post in at least but that hasn’t happened. oops. you know when you think something will take an hour…well triple it. that’s really how long it takes. ;) at least for me that is. lots of little things pop up that need to get done and then random things get thrown at you. lol. but it’s birthday week!!

we had her big family shindig on saturday and it was so much fun seeing everyone!! our entire immediate family came into town just for her (we did miss a couple due to not feeling well. sad day). it was like our wedding day-happened all too fast. lol. got lots of good pics (thanks K & H!) so i am excited to go through them and show ya a few…okay a lot. ;)

i can’t believe this tiny human being is about to be one (on thursday!). it’s fun to think back one year ago and see how my life has changed completely…for the better of course. i won’t get all mushy on this post…i’ll save it for her birthday. :) i’m so going to be that mom who says all that sweet lovey dovey stuff to them on their special day in front of all their friends. ;)

here’s to more celebrations! P has a little birthday play date with all her buddies tomorrow. excited to leave the party decor up for a little longer. :) have a great week everyone!!!