First birthday photo shoot

Today I finally got the chance to take my sons first birthday photo shoot. I originally planned to do it a few weeks before his birthday but the flu hit and once we all got better the weather hit. After that we went on our planned vacation and just got back yesterday. His birthday was almost a week ago but better late than never, right?

I got this great wooden chair at a thrift shop and painted it "shocking green". I love the way it turned out. His party theme is bright blue/green/orange monsters so the shoot was incorporated with the color scheme. I got the cute bow tie and suspenders from the sweetest Etsy shop. The owner was amazing helping me find what I wanted for this shoot. Her link HERE.



We really lucked out with the weather today. Great temperature, little to no wind, partly cloudy, perfection!

Here is my little cheese ball showing off his 5 teeth!



Such a dapper gentleman



I love pictures taken in orchards. I wish there were more blossoms on the trees but that's what I get for taking pictures here in March.



This one is my FAVORITE!





He got so close to the edge on so many occasions....

And only fell off once! Daddy to the rescue!



Tried a different angle of the orchard but didn't like it much.



I seriously love this green chair.



And seriously love this sweet face!





Reversible craft

I got this cute reversible wooden craft kit from groopdealz.com (one of my favorite websites). It came with the wood block and vinyl letters. I painted the wood white and mod podged the scrapbook paper onto each block. Then of course added ribbon to give some pizzazz. I loved hitting two holidays with one project!

Elephant themed baby shower

 My sister wanted a elephant theme for her baby shower and let me tell you, there isn't much out there for an elephant themed shower! We had to get super creative to pull this one off and I think we succeeded.

Here is the elephant cake. Strawberry cake with butter cream frosting and marshmallow fondant. The "E" on top stands for Elizabeth. I used a elephant cookie cutter for the cake and the party favors. Here is the link to that cutter.

Here is the diaper cake my sister made. She made the elephant topper out of wash clothes and added little eyes.

Our colors were light pink and gray. I loved that we could find kisses in our colors.

And of course we made pom poms to decorate the dinning room!

We thought it would be funny to have a sign that said "drop your load here" for the presents to keep with the elephant theme, but I guess that wouldn't of been classy.

 The food!

Here is one of the counters we decorated. 

 

Although this will be my sisters second child, it's still nice to get advice!

Here are the party favors. Little elephant sugar cookies. Yummy!

Here is the mantel. We took some of my mama's baby pictures and made them black and white, added flowers and a sign. Loves it.

Some fun elephant decorations!

Here is the game we played. "Do you have an elephant memory" game. More about that game HERE 

Here is something I made to add to the elephant decor. I took a large frame that I got at the thrift store and painted it gray. I then free-handed the elephants onto pink scrapbook paper and cute it out. I put the cut-out onto white poster board and put it in the frame. I thought it turned out quite cute.

My little niece was so cute in her pink dress and elephant clip. Totally representing our theme!

Sandwiched in between my two pregnant sisters. The mama of honor is on the left. 

I can't take a serious picture 

Ok, maybe I can

The bellies! 



Do you have an elephant memory? Baby shower game

Have you ever heard that an elephant never forgets? It's true, elephants have amazing memories and since my sisters baby shower theme was elephants I used that fun fact towards the game. "Do you have an elephant memory?", matching game. I used pregnancy and baby phrases to created a matching game board. With each match the winner would get a corresponding candy bar. Below are the phrases and candy I used. I only used 15 but I'm sure there are lots more to be thought of!

1. 12 pound baby - Whoopers
2. First Trimester - Rocky Road
3. Delivery Doctor - Butterfingers
4. Baby's arrival - Pay Day
5. Hospital bill - 100 grand
6. Deciding baby's name - Whatchamacallit 
7. Umbilical cord - Red vines
8. Mommy's lunch break - Reese's fast break (or Take 5 if you can find it) 
9. Day Care - Sour Patch Kids (or sugar babies)
10. Baby acne - Dots
11. Baby Lullaby - Symphony Bar
12. Hospital Nurses - Sweetarts
13. Breastfeeding - Milky Ways
14. Babies 1st giggle - Snickers
15. Epidural - Lifesavers 

I found that there are lots of candy bars that are really hard to find and I had to alter the answers a bit based on what I could find. For example, I couldn't find Take 5 and Sugar babies anywhere so I replaced them with Fast Break and Sour Patch Kids. Ultra sound was a phrase I also wanted to use but couldn't find a LOOK! bar so I had to remove that completely. 

I used one of our invitations to trace and cut out each elephant. You can find them HERE.

I loved the elephant decor 

Playing the game! It was a huge hit! 

Homemade bow holder

My sister is pregnant with her first girl and as one of her baby shower gifts I made her this bow holder. "E" for Elizabeth! 

This letter is from Hobby Loddy; scrapbook paper and ribbon is from Michaels. 

Another one I made found HERE

Christmas 2012

Well Christmas has come and gone and now we prepare to start a new year. The month of December has been a joyous one full of tradition and special moments. I apologize for bundling it all in one post but I will claim I was too busy even though laziness played a part as well. Here are our December highlights:

Broderick learned several new tricks this month - clapping, waving, and saying da-da. He has also become a little faster at army crawling.

Tyler enjoyed a train ride at the holiday festival in Cameron Park. The train was also "robbed" by some dirty bandits, it was quite a show! 

Here is our little 12 footer. It's normally several feet taller than this.

View of the some of the decorations. It takes days to put up and days to take down! 

I of course did lots of baking. Here are the reindeer heads I made out of gingerbread  The recipe I use calls for butterscotch pudding mix instead of molasses. Its my fav! RECIPE 

   

Broderick loved the Christmas tree. I had him upstairs with me and he army crawled over to the banister to get a better view. It was so cute! 

I made this cute little elf craft that I saw on pinterest. 

Here are a few pictures from our ward Christmas party where the boys got to see Santa. Broderick didn't quite know what to think of him.

Beard test

I couldn't get Broderick to take his eyes off of Santa. 

Daddy liked to joke that Broderick's hat was a Christmas yamaka. It was supposed to be a "elf" hat which is why it looks so tiny. 

 He was enthralled with daddy's hair. 

Here we are on Christmas Sunday.  It was just the two of us since Deke had to work and Tyler was at his dads. Broderick loves his life sized Santa. See them holding hands?

And then we have Christmas Eve! This is the evening where my whole family comes together for a delicious ham dinner and gift exchange.

Cousins!

Brothers!

Kyla helped Broderick opens his presents while he ate the paper.

This was Tyler's excited face to get the game "hedbanz"

What would Christmas Eve be without an assortment of goodies! 

Santa came! 

Broderick checking out his stocking

Santa brought Tyler his very own camera. 

 Skylander Giants!! 

 Christmas morning is a beautiful mess

What the boys got for each other 

Tyler pushing Broderick around the house in this new Micky Mouse stroller 

Tyler helping make Christmas breakfast

Always have to have puff pancakes! Or what some would call German pancake

And of course we skyped with family who couldn't be with us this year. 

Christmas day was also a milestone for Broderick as he turned 9 months old!

the end