Thanksgiving and the Iron Bowl

We had a great Thanksgiving with our families. My brother Shane came in town from South Carolina so it was nice to have everyone together again. We had a late lunch and my parents and an early dinner at Blake's grandparents. Totally stuffed...but oh so delicious. I absolutely love Thanksgiving food. I could eat Turkey and dressing weekly. Yum. Preston was a trooper and had a great time despite only having a 30 minute nap in the car.

Blake had a friend with an extra ticket to the Iron Bowl so he planned to head down to Tuscaloosa. Seeing as the game was on Black Friday, our day went like this: My brother met me at Target (b/c Blake would not allow me to go by myself and someone had to stay home w/Preston) at 3:30 AM to score a few deals on Christmas presents when they opened at 4:00. I know, I'm nuts. We had fun though! I don't get to hang out with my brother too often now that he's in South Carolina so it was nice of him to let me drag him all over Trussville in the wee hours of the morning :)

I got back by 9:00 just in time Blake to leave for the game. So we were both happy. I got to shop and he got to go to the game. Preston and I watched the game over at my parents house and we had a fun time watching Auburn win!!! War Eagle! Below are a few pictures of both Thanksgiving and the Iron Bowl

Our Trip to the ER

I'm a bit behind in my blogging so here goes a few posts.

Let's start off with Preston's happenings. We had our first trip to the ER a few days before Thanksgiving. He came down with what I assumed was a cold, given his cough, runny nose and frequent sneezing. That was on a Sunday. By Monday I noticed his was breathing through his mouth a lot. Again, I assumed it was due to his nose being stuffy. By Monday evening I could hear a wheezy noise coming from him with almost every breath. He was also breathing a little harder. That did it. I'm on the phone calling the doctor while simultaneously scouring the internet for answers. I see stuff about pneumonia and respiratory distress and I freak out. The nurse informs me to go ahead and take him to Children's. Thankfully Blake had just gotten home from work so we loaded up and headed out. The ER waiting room was jam packed full so I started preparing myself for the wait. The check-in nurse listened to his breathing, had me fill out some forms and we were called back within 10 minutes. They do not take respiratory issues lightly. His fever was up to 102 and the his oxygen level was fairly low. They like it to be between 95-100 and his was 91 which is not horrible but definitely not very good. They ordered us a room and that's where we spent the next 6 hours.

He received two breathing treatments which were absolute torture for Preston. He doesn't like to be held down anyway but we had to hold the mask on him for a solid 30-45 minutes both times. He would literally cry until he passed out. It was heartbreaking for us. The doctors couldn't give us a definite diagnosis but said it could have been from his cold or possibly asthma. They treated him as if was the latter and sent us home with an inhaler and steroids. We were told if he gets these breathing issues every time he gets sick, it could mean he has asthma. I personally don't think he does because he's never wheezed like this before when sick. We will pray it was a one-time incident. The last thing they did was clear out nose and mouth and we had to hold him down for that one too...poor guy did not have a fun night. They almost kept him overnight but after the breathing treatments his oxygen levels went back up to about 97 so they gave us the okay to go home. He didn't wheeze anymore once we left the hospital and he was back to his normal self in a few days. I'm so thankful!

Time to Party!

WARNING: The following post is incredibly long. You might want to grab a drink and snack before you commence reading :)

I know it's not everyone's thing but I absolutely love parties. And more specifically, planning parties. The down side to this is I usually get in a little over my head and end up stressing myself out big time. So to avoid as many catastrophes as possible, I started planning Preston's first birthday party several months in advance. It helped some but I was still running around the day before the party finishing odds and ends and ended up as stressed as usual. Oh well, it's all part of the fun.

On party day, my wonderful Mom came to babysit Preston while Blake, my Dad and myself headed up to the clubhouse to start setting up the party. My sweet friend Amber came to help me too. We had just arrived and Amber and I went to start unloading my car. Now keep in mind my car is PACKED full of stuff. I open the hatch and immediately we hear not one, but two crashes. Two of my glasses I'm using for candy rolled right out the back of my car and smashed to pieces on the sidewalk. Instant tears on my part. Amber, very calmly says, "I will go to Michael's right now and buy two more. It's going to be okay." So I calm down. Crisis averted...so I think. Amber leaves and I return to the car to get some more things. I had made six dozen mini cupcakes for the party and they were in two separate boxes. I pick up one of the boxes and make my way inside. Halfway to the kitchen the box literally folds up in my hands and falls to the floor. I FLIP OUT. Poor Blake and my Dad. They didn't know what to do with me. This all happened within 10 minutes of being there. I finally pulled myself together and had the guys unload the rest of the car. I didn't touch another thing from that vehicle. Thankfully, that was the last of the catastrophes and the actual party was perfect. Preston had a blast and absolutely loved cake time. I was very pleased with how everything turned out. Below are details and pictures of how everything came together. Enjoy!

P's party theme was tigers and the colors that accompanied the tigers were orange (duh), aqua blue and lime green. I researched the internet for some unique party ideas and came across this awesome blog - Kara's Party Ideas. It has some phenomenal party ideas for every occasion.

Preston's invitation was done by Kottageon5th who has an Etsy shop. She can customize any of her invitations for you or make one from scratch. She emails you the finished invitation and you print out yourself.


One of my favorite ideas that I found online was the balloon wreath. It was a cinch to put together and I customized it to coordinate with Preston's party colors. I'm planning on using it every year and just changing the balloon colors as necessary. Here is a step by step picture tutorial on how to make one.


Here is a picture of the entry table. We used the canvas as a place for everyone to write their special birthday wish to Preston. More details to follow about the other items on the table.


I wanted to make tiger tails for the kids to wear so I lucked out and found sheets of tiger print felt at Hobby Lobby. I simply cut them in half lengthwise, rolled them up and hot glued the edges together. I then hot glued the black pom poms on the end.


Another favor for the "lil tigers" were bags of "Kitty Kibble" which consisted of Goldfish, Cheerios and Kix cereal. Preston loves it and it's a pretty good snack for Mommy too :)


This is the main food table. I love the "candy bar" idea so I gathered all of my clear jars and glasses from home and set to work arranging the variety of candy and snacks. I also made sausage balls, ranch dip, chicken salad sandwiches, pb&j and pb and cream cheese sandwiches. And we still managed to display a few dozen of the unscathed cupcakes...grr



Here are a few more up close picture of the food table. Also, the cupcake tower letters read "P is 1". A few people got confused...





The next table was the drink station. I hand made the birthday banner using a circle cutter I bought from Michael's, cardstock and raffia ribbon. I also made the photo board (details below) and the water bottle labels. I used the circle cutter to make all the food labels too.


I got the inspiration from here but I did mine a little differently. I used my circle cutter again to cut out the pictures. That thing is amazing!





Some of Preston's Presents!


One of the guest tables.


These were tiger tunnels that I made using large cardboard boxes, orange tablecloth paper and spray paint. The kids had a blast in them.



Preston showing off his tiger tail!


Here are some more pictures of the birthday boy. He had so much fun opening his presents and soaking up the attention.






Cake time was the best! You wouldn't thinks so with this first photo but he was mad because he didn't want to wear his party hat. He forgot all about it though once he saw the cake (made by yours truly). I was nervous he would get scared of everyone singing to him but he absolutely loved it. He laughed and dug right in to his cake. What a ham :)






And the loot! He got so many great presents and we are thankful for such sweet family and friends who helped give him such a great birthday!



Congratulations! You made it to the end of the post. Hopefully you enjoyed it but if you did get tired of reading...can't say I didn't warn ya!

Got your Christmas card yet?

First off let me just say that while I am blogging about Shutterfly today to promote their 2010 Holiday card collection and receive 50 free cards, I am not pulling your leg when I also tell you they have an amazing company with awesome products. I have been using Shutterfly since 2003 and have nothing but positive feedback for all my photo purchases. I have made photo calendars, photo books, baby announcements and all sizes prints and enlargements.

This year they have some fabulous Christmas card designs http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards and I can't wait to get started on ours! They have an abundance of options to choose from so every family can have that perfect card to share with loved ones. And not only do they have regular photo paper cards, they offer 5x7 and 5x5 (new!) photo cards printed on cardstock!

As mentioned above, Shutterfly has an array of items available for every picture need. Their calendars make awesome Christmas gifts and you can't really go wrong with a coffee mug for Mom or Dad. I strongly encourage you to check them out for your next photo gift or prints. They frequently have great promotions for shipping and I've always received my photos in a quick turnaround time.

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And after the holidays, keep Shutterfly in mind throughout the rest of the year. I'm sure you will love it as much as I do!

Happy 1st Birthday Preston!

12 months...52 weeks...365 days...any way I look at it, my baby has been here for a whole year! What a life changing year it has been! From the moment I laid my eyes on that precious bundle of joy I knew I would never be the same. It's funny to remember how nervous and scared we were to be parents. The responsibility of another human being hit us hard when we were on our way home from the hospital. You mean the nurses don't come with us? Ha!

It has not been an easy road, full of dirty diapers, fussy nights (and days), food fights, fevers and colds, injuries and just flat out parent errors. But despite any tough circumstance, our first year with Preston has been the best of our lives. He has brought so much joy to Blake and I and we can't thank the Lord enough for our beautiful boy. The look of his smile and the sound of his laugh can melt my heart in an instant. Any bad day can be turned around with one of his cuddles :)

Preston's birthday was on November 4th which fell on a Thursday. Blake decided to go into work late so he could spend some birthday time with P. I made us all some pancakes and we sang Happy Birthday to Preston with a candle in his pancake stack. He looked a little confused about the big deal over pancakes and a candle but nonetheless he thoroughly enjoyed his birthday breakfast. That night we took Preston to dinner at Arby's. Yes, Arby's. Preston absolutely loves it. He can eat a whole jr. roast beef and value fries plus a little more! My parents and Blake's mom joined us and we had a great time with the birthday boy.

In addition to turning one, Preston has been a busy boy this month.

-He's cutting a second tooth. It's a top tooth coming in exactly above his single bottom tooth.
-He can't walk on his own but walks along the couch or his music table or anything else he can hold on too.
-He has a fascination with the dog food and water bowl. I've caught him twice eating the dog food (yuck) and had to dig it out of his mouth. And he loves to splash in the water bowl...so now those go up on the counter anytime the little stinker is let loose to crawl around the kitchen.
-We just started on cow's milk the day after his party (post to follow about the party) and he seems to like it "okay". He will drink some of it but not a lot at once. I'm determined to only allow the sippy cup simply because he is not reliant on a bottle and I don't want something else to "wean" away. We will see how it goes...
-Speaking of weaning, Preston decided on Monday afternoon that he no longer wanted to breastfeed...more on that in another post.
-He can say a few words now, not perfectly clear but we know what he's saying. Kitty Kitty was his first word but sounds more like "Ki Ki" and now he has added "Hey" which sounds more like "Hee" but he has learned to wave along with his "Hee" which is so adorable. He waves both hands sometimes and says "Hee, hee, hee." We are still working on "Ma Ma" but every time we say "Ma Ma" he responds with "Da Da." Really? Throw me a bone here baby boy. I just tell myself he's meaning to say "Ma Ma' but it just comes out wrong, ha ha.
-He has started throwing a few fits when he doesn't get his way...for example, I found him splashing in the toilet today (disgusting) and once we washed hands and I put him down, there he goes heading for the toilet again. I tell him no-no and pull him away and here comes the screaming fit...note to self, purchase toilet seat locks this weekend.
-He loves to crawl all over me when I sit in the floor with him. I just love it when he wants to stand up against me and hug me.
-He eats mainly all table foods but still eats a few baby food fruits and baby oatmeal. I've discovered the huge variety of applesauce flavors at the store and Preston seems to enjoy all of them. A new snack that he likes are the Club cracker minis. Mommy likes them too. He wants everything we eat so I have to be sneaky if it's something he can't have...or else a fit will ensue.

I think that's all of his new stuff for this month but he's developing and changing so quickly that new things are happening daily. I truly can't believe how much he has changed and grown this last year. it's amazing to watch such a little baby become a little person complete with his own personality :) We love this little boy so much! Thank you Lord for our precious gift.

Here's a few pictures from Preston's actual birthday. Party post to follow soon!


Birthday Pancakes!

Loving his pancakes

Playing with a cord...geez

Taken at 2:23 p.m. exactly 1 year old :)

Birthday dinner at Arby's

Happy Halloween

Preston celebrated his first Halloween this year. I'm sad because it was his last "first" holiday. He was born four days after Halloween last year so we had just missed the cut. Now everything will be his second going forward. It's definitely bittersweet...okay, I'll save my mushiness for his one year post. Anyway, we always have a big Halloween party at my brother and sister-in-law's house every year. They have a huge neighborhood that is filled with trick-or-treaters so it's always a lot of fun. We dressed Preston up as a "lil monster" which was absolutely adorable. My first choice was a skunk but Daddy didn't agree with me on that one...but I loved the little blue fuzzy monster too. Preston hated the headpiece so he mainly wore it for pictures. He decided to trick or treat without it. He loved being carried around (he only lasted a few minutes in his riding car) the neighborhood and observing the spooky festivities. He got a good bit of candy in his sweet little bucket so Mommy and Daddy pawed through it after he went to bed...hehehe.

The next day, on actual Halloween, we went to some friends' house and had a big group pumpkin carving. It was a great time of food and fellowship and pumpkin gutting :) I found a carving template for Preston's favorite Nick Jr. character, Moose A. Moose. He absolutely loves this little moose. Well let's just say he was not the easiest thing to carve. Everyone was done with their pumpkins while we were still outlining the moose. We FINALLY got him finished though and though he didn't look too pretty under natural lighting, he lit up nicely in the dark with just a candle inside. Preston didn't really participate very much in this venture but opted to play with his toys and crawl around us most of the night. He had fun though and I think he enjoyed his first Halloween! Here's a few pictures from our Halloween weekend. And his one year post is coming soon!