Holidays in Review: Pre Christmas

December is filled with the traditional things that really didn't become traditions until a few years ago. I'm sure things will change over the years when Owen can vocalize what he likes to do and with what will be compatible with our schedules. But for now I absolutely love our traditions that are spent with our most favorite people!

 

Owen and I got to go to Disneyland with my little, Julie, that first week in December! It was a quick, afternoon trip but such are the perks when you have a pass! We got to see some of the characters, ride some tamer rides, and eat churros! It's always a blast to spend time with Julie since she's so busy with school and work! I can't wait for her to come back home. :)

Big, Little, Littlest in front of the tree!

 

Sorcerer Mickey!

 

Goofy outside of his house was new to us!

 

The first weekend is also reserved for Balboa Park's December Nights. For the past few years we've always gone/met up with our dear friend, Annie. We would go with Scot, but he's always busy! This year Owen was only happy when he was in Granddaddy's arms. We tried to take pictures with him in front of the Dr, Seuss tree, but he was a squirmy worm. He even gave Annie the "all done" sign when she was holding him. Still feel bad about that, but she knows he loves her. :)

Family!

 

Friends!

 

 We visited the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, since all the museums are free during those nights. It's essentially a kid's museum, so I figured that there would be things in there to entertain Owen as well as everyone else in the group! And of course there was right when we walked in. He loved the beach ball being blown around and one lady even said it was more fun watching the baby than playing with the actual contraption! We found the baby area, which was actually really cool. They had a super market with shopping carts and fake food, a musical area with a huge magnetic board with alphabet letters, wooden cars to climb on, and a super neat ball contraption that sucked up the plastic balls, shot them through clear piping, and dumped them against the wall so they would fall down Plinko style. It was really cool!

 

Enjoying the beach ball contraption with Granddaddy

  

In front of some cool toys at Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

 

The church we attend, Pomerado Christian Church, hosts a Christmas breakfast for the little kids called Angel Breakfast. Since at least 2011, maybe 2010, I’ve been asked to play the angel and Andrew's been asked to be the photographer. I get to interact with kids while they eat breakfast, read the Christmas story to the kids, and take pictures with them! Since I’ve been doing it for at least 3 years, I’ve gotten the chance to see the kids grow up. A few even have baby siblings now! I’m not sure how much longer I’ll get the privilege of being the angel, so I cherish it every year. This year since Owen is a bit older, my parents brought him by for the end of the program where the sing Christmas carols. It was fun to have him there and I can’t wait for when he’s old enough to visit the angel!  

After Angel Breakfast

 

 Andrew's work party was the same night as Angel Breakfast. Luckily for me we have some awesome babysitters that can watch him overnight if we need them to! (Thanks Mom & Dad!) So we had breakfast over at my parents', said goodbye to Owen, and headed back home to get ready for the evening. It was certainly an eventful evening, but over all it was a lot of fun and I got to meet an awesome couple from his work!

  

Us in front of the Christmas tree

 

At the beginning of the month (technically way before), I was given the awesome opportunity to work with Urban Style Wedding Network and Classically Lovely Events on their Urban Lofty Holiday networking party! There will be another post about that, so stay tuned. Since the first few weeks of the month was filled with doing things for the event, I was on a bit of a crafting hangover and really didn't do anything for presents until I realized it was Christmas Eve in two days. So, friends, I'm sorry, your gifts will be coming soon ;)

 

Sneak peek!

  

The next weekend we tried to squeeze in our Santa pictures with the Kuglers. Last year we went up to Orange County for Santa pictures, fondue, and presents! This year, since things were a bit tight with their schedule and ours, so by the time they were down it was time for dinner and bed for the little boys. We still enjoyed our fondue (I always forget how long it takes!) and James and Owen opened their presents the next morning.

Tearing into the presents!

 

Enjoying Owen's new book set!

 

The week before Christmas, my brother graduated from college! I was sad we couldn't be there, but glad that he understood and told us not to make the drive over. My parents drove over to Tempe and my Grammy flew out from Mississippi to see him walk. He graduated from ASU with 2 degrees and honors in 4.5 years... don't tell him, but that's pretty cool to me, even though it's from ASU. :P

Proud parents!

 

The graduate

 

On the Saturday before Christmas, the 21st, we were invited over to Annie's for a family Christmas morning. It was so much fun, even though it was early! Annie and Scot were going to be gone for Christmas and New Years, so they had family and friends over to celebrate, eat breakfast, and exchange presents with them. I loved it, and I'm totally okay if they want to do it again next year! The Christmas morning part... Not the cruise over the holidays part.

 

Owen and Scot... The only picture on my phone from that morning

 

That night was spent with some of my favorite ladies! We did a Secret Santa with our group of girls, so that Saturday we all got together for dinner, presents, photo booth, conversation, and Elf! It was so great to see everyone and I'm still waiting for those pictures, Michelle! :)

 

It turned into a footie PJ party! Michelle & Ryan

 

Playing with James' zoo

 

Bouncing on the airmattress with help from Ryan!

 

And somehow during this part of the month we managed to cram in books, playing, being goofy, a Purdue basketball game, shopping, decorating for Christmas, piano playing, snuggling with the kitties, and a celebratory graduation dinner at Melting Pot!

 

Playing piano with some help from a chocolate moose!

Climbing into his toy box was one of his favorite things.

The newest Purdue baby model

 

Family!

Love these guys!

Dessert fondue was the favorite for this tired baby!

 

 

 

Christmas and New Year's recap is next! :)

 

 

Owen's First Birthday: The Party!

Thank goodness for my family and friends (mainly Scot) who arrived early enough for me to actually put my party planning vision to life!

The party was a huuuge success (at least in my book). Granted, the last kid's party that I went to I was a guest at, but it seemed like everyone had a great time.

After everyone started to trickle in (of course there was bad traffic that day), we got started on the dogs! Grampa made sure the hot dogs were cooked thoroughly and we used our little hot dog spinny thing (real technical here) to keep them nice and warm. Plus the canopy doubled to warm up the buns!

(Again, the photos are correct on my computer, but upload crooked! :( )

My parents got a swing for Owen, so my dad hung that up while he was hanging up the paper lanterns. We gave it a test ride while everyone was mixing and mingling and then let our friend Carter take a turn as well! I'm so happy we have the swing! Now Owen has a place to sit and watch the wind blow through the trees (one of his favorite things to do outside)

And since we only had one "older" kid in attendance, I set up a Mickey Mouse bowling game for her. Super simple thing that took me about 10 minutes to make. I put some sand at the bottom of it because I thought that they'd blow over, but that made them impossible to knock down! Anyways, Alli enjoyed her game and made new friends with my brother and his girlfriend. :)

After some hanging out time, we moved to the cake! During "Happy Birthday" Owen decided to help us out with the "singing". Although the pictures may depict him as being afraid of all of us singing at him, he was actually yelling back at us!

Side-eyeing us blowing out his candle!

I made cupcakes and Owen's cake from scratch. Owen's was a layered vanilla and chocolate cake. Once the initial tests showed that it was indeed edible, that hand did. not. stop. shovelling cake into his mouth! Andrew and I took pictures with him and he just ate the whole time!

Needless to say, he was a mess after eating almost half the cake. (Nope, he didn't stop, we had to make him!) Gramsie cleaned him up, Granddaddy assisted with a wardrobe change, and he was good to go again!

Presents were had and enjoyed. I think his favorite at the time was the box that his Little People zoo came in. Once that present was open, he was all about looking at the box!

And then he clapped his appreciation! Such a spoiled boy :)

After presents, everyone mixed and mingled some more... Owen's bestfriend finnnally woke up (the kid slept through everything!), so the boys got to hang out and discover the wonderfulness of balloons together. And we got to play in the photobooth :)

Owen was running on empty near the end there, even with all of that cake, so we put him down for his first(!) "nap" of the day after some play time with bestfriend James. Some of our friends stuck around later, so we ordered Chinese food and cleaned up the kitchen (a big thank you to Michelle!) and then got ready for our big Disneyland day!

Owen's First Birthday: The Crafts!

Alright, might as well get this blog officially started, right??
(And if anyone knows how to flip pictures around so they're right side up... Let me know!!!!!)

And what's better than kicking it off with my son's first birthday Disney extravaganza!

This past Saturday we hosted a Mickey Mouse themed party at our house. I made most of the decorations: simple felt table runners, signage, pennant banners for the various tables, and cupcakes! Of course I didn't get everything I wanted to done, but I'm (slowly) learning that if it's not there people won't notice!

My mom was awesome enough to make this awesome Birthday Balloon Wreath to greet guests at the front door! We bought a Mickey Mouse from Walmart and since the wreathe was big enough, we just popped him in the center! And now we can switch it out for all birthday themes and even hang it for Mom and Dad's birthdays too!

 We had some signs along our walkway with some typical Mickey phrases.

Once inside, we had our little entryway table cleared off and filled with the Mickey Thank You goodies! We only had 4 little ones at the party, so their goody bags were a bit fuller than the typical ;) For the adults, I made some of my infamous cookies, packaged them, and sealed them with a Thank You sticker! (They read: "Thank you for making my day mouse-ka-tastic! Love, Owen")

Our huge formal living room is still acting as the play area, so we kept the play mat and toys in there for the little ones to play with and then set up the photo booth in the second half of the room! (It's a big, long room!) Presents were piled on our dresser-turned-buffet table and since I'm lame and I love guest books of any kind, I bought "Happy Birthday to You" by Dr. Seuss and had everyone sign it! And of course, Mickey ear party hats and a Happy Birthday Owen banner hung above!

I also made a chicken wire frame and filled it with pictures of Owen and his firsts and some favorites. That thing filled up quickly! I was going to tie strips of paper/ribbon and write to explain the pictures, but not enough room/time for that!

In the living room, all the mantel decorations were taken down and replaced with sunflowers and a Mickey balloon centerpiece! This is the only place in the whole house that I can keep flowers since the cats love to get into them! I spray painted old timey Barq's root beer bottles that my grandma found at her Sam's Club. I love love love how they turned out! My mom made the Mickey head and the red and yellow balloon ball in the same way she did the wreathe.

I made the banner that hung on the fireplace. Each Mickey head has a picture of Owen on his month birthdays! The black Mickey heads are the 3-D folded paper pinwheel things and everything else I used my handy dandy Cricut for!

We moved our kitchen table and put our desserts on it. The rest of the food was outside, but we didn't want the frosting to melt on the cupcakes or bugs to get into them! Cupcakes were homemade and nothing fancy with decoration. The hubs made the Mickey oreos!

Outside was where we had our Hot Diggity Dog bar! I moved the dresser from our guest bedroom outside, added a felt runner and some Mickey art and voila! The art is actually a huge bag from the Disney store that I taped around some canvas! Seriously, easiest decoration ever. The runner was simply felt sheets sewn together, another easy 10-minute project for the win!

We had the usual condiments, cheese, onions, and chili for people to top their hot dogs with! I even splurged a little and purchased a vintage hot dog roller for $30. I figure we have a lot of parties and hot dog eating in our future and we might as well make it fun!

For the outside decorations, my mom and I made a long paper chain to hang on our fence. I ordered various paper lanterns from Luna Bazaar and I am definitely keeping them out there until the end of summer!

Yep, we even tied bows to the plastic tablecloths!

Well, I think that's it for now! I'll post on the actual party itself and our awesome Disneyland trip later!