Bow Ties and Tu Tus

This year for Hunter's party {because he smashed his cake while wearing a tie} I decided on the bow tie theme. My good friend Michelle from E is for Embroidery made Hunter's awesome birthday shirt and hat to go along with the theme. As soon as she sent me the picture of the fabric she was going to use, I started buying things in the same color scheme to match everything! I was pumped to be able to find some tie cookie cutters, Pop found some tux boxes for letting people take home cookies and other sweets, and we were set!

Cookies and decorating essentials for the kids to have fun with.

Oreo balls

Daddy was in the Azores and heading to bed on the night of Hunter's party, so he was able to FaceTime and see Hunter on his birthday. We had to capture him at the scene of the party!

 Hunter didn't seem to have the same issues with his cupcake this time around. He dove right in and made a huge mess with this cupcake. Maybe he's not a lover of the cream cheese icing that I put on the red velvet cake for his smash cake session?

Dear Eden,

Here are Eden's birthday pictures. She's getting prettier by the day and losing her "baby" look!

Dear Eden,

Oh how you keep us on our toes every single day! You nap some days, but not other days. You want to feed the dogs to help Mommy, but not every day. Timeout works, but not when it's your choice. You laugh, you cry, you run, you jump, you're just everything! There are no words that can express what you mean to us. You're awesome. You're still my "crazy" and you live up to the nick name! The way you can make your brother laugh is amazing to me. I think you can get the best laughs from him out of the family! You're into teaching him right now, and you do such a great job with it. You can light up any room when you walk in {but only if you want to!} and you make people smile. You are a very stubborn and hard headed little girl and you don't like when things aren't going your way {people tell me that I'll like that you have this characteristic later in your life, but it can make for some difficult days between us right now!} You love to dance, work puzzles, try the sounds for different letters, show number values on your hands, cuddle, run, jump, and be outside. Cael and Coen are still your best buds along with Charlotte and Grace - you see your friends almost every day of the week! We love you more than you'll ever know, and we continue to love you more and more every day. We're excited to see what being 3 will bring to the table!!!

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, and Hunter

Motherhood Is...{9}

This week I am blessed by the past year of a happy and healthy baby boy!

He has been a joy and has had great health. There is nothing in his life that could be better! It was awesome to get to celebrate his birthday together with family and friends. What a year!!! So glad to be blessed to be his mommy!!

Dear Hunter,

We had a birthday photo session with the kids and Hunter got to smash his cake {and he hated it!} Here are some of the pictures from his session.

And I'll leave you with a few words to Hunter from the family:

Dear Hunter,

You have been a blessing as an addition to our family. We've all loved watching you grow and learn through your first year of life! You started out just a year ago as a tiny baby weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces and now you're getting close to 20 pounds! How is it possible?! You're walking around and you're wanting to talk with us a lot these days. When you see the dogs you proudly announce "dah" with a smile on your face. You say both mama and dada now, but you don't quite have Eden down. When we ask you about her you know exactly who we're talking about though. You and Eden love to giggle in the back seat of the car together. She can bring out the best laughs in you, though Mommy and Daddy seem to be able to tickle those belly laughs out of you.  When Daddy gets home from work you run to the door as soon as you hear the garage door go up. He can never seem to get through the door quick enough for you. You light up our lives in every way and we're all excited to watch you as you continue to grow through your first toddler year.

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, and Eden

Time flies!!!

This time last year I was contemplating the castor oil route to induce labor with Hunter. I knew I didn't want to wait until the 5th and be induced with pitocin, but I wasn't sure I wanted a leap year baby. After putting Eden to bed - and I cuddled her and cried because I knew it was the last time I would cuddle her as my only child - I came back down and did the deed.

I took a tablespoon of castor oil with my nose plugged and chased it with orange juice. I sat down to watch tv, lane played an x box game and we waited. My show went off, nothing. So I did it again. I went to bed with some contractions, but decided if I could sleep through them that I didn't need to take any action. My whole world would change when I woke up to go to the bathroom and couldn't go back to sleep because if the pain...

Motherhood Is...{8}

My blessing this week is that I have this man home with me to parent, laugh, cry, be friends with, and to love!

I'm just happy that he's home right now. The time that we will spend together in the coming months will mean more than I ever knew possible. I mean, I always love being with him, but our time is more valuable these days! With the deployment only getting closer, I'm trying to remember through any situation - good or bad - how I should enjoy every minute. I love him and I love our time together.

Grounded

Lane and I have jumped ship and we no longer own our Pilot. It was a sad, sad day for me, but not for him.

I always said that when we traded in our Pilot that we would get another one. Well, we didn't. I'm the newest driver of a minivan. Yep, I'm part of the "vantasy" club. I'm not proud of it {yet}. I'm excited to be proud of it, but I'm not quite there yet. I fought hard to get another Pilot, but in the end, I lost the battle.

The Odyssey has great features - and so did the Pilot. The van and the Pilot have the same technology, so even though I'm excited about the gadgets in the van, deep down I know I could have had it with my Pilot too! The van has more space, it's lower to the ground {who cares}, and the doors open with the push of a button on the key fob. Those things ultimately won out! I will love it, I know I will, I just have to get used to the idea that I lost all my cool points that were left and embrace the soccer mom reality of a minivan. I have to accept that for now, this Pilot-loving-mom has been grounded and I will be for years to come until I can have my Pilot back!!!

She is kinda pretty though!