Brody is 17 months!

Our big boy.  You are a barrel of fun and it so neat how you fit into our family more and more.  We love how you try to be like the big kids and you even try to talk to let us know what you are thinking or what you want.  We all have you watch you like a hawk because you are into everything. 

Here are some things you are doing this month:

• You wear a size 4 diaper, you are 23 pounds, you have 12 teeth and are about to get 4 more
• You wear size 12-18 month clothes and you can even fit into your size 9 month jeans, this is nuts considering we have big babies and Blake and Sydney would have been in 2T by this age, you are our smallest baby by far, guess it's all that running around you are doing
• Hats, bats and baseballs are you favorite toys.  You swing a bat so well for your age and daddy says you bat left-handed even though it looks like you are right-handed.  You throw anything you can find, even the landscape rocks.  You threw one at the back of mommy's head, ouch!!
• You love to open up the dishwasher and stand on it trying to get utensils out
• You started to climb and you can get up on a chair, the couch, even the kitchen table and desk in Blake's room
• You absolutely LOVE being outside.  One mention of outside and you look for your crocs and stand by the door.
• When we tell you to sit down, you listen (mainly to put shoes on), now sitting in a high chair when we go out to eat is a completely different story!!
• You love suckers and if you see one in sight, you let us know how bad you want one
• You light up when we have family jam out sessions to Justin Beiber's "Baby" song.  You dance and smile and bop you head, it's sooo cute!
• When we sing "Stop Talking Bout", you say, "Blah, Blah, Blah"!
• Favorite words of yours are: stop, ball, hat, momma, dadda, Bub (for Bubba/Blake), school, outside, moon, sky, up,
• You let us know you want something when you say "uh, uh, uh"!
• If you think something is cool, you say, "Ooohhh"
• Bathtime is not your most favorite.  You don't sit down anymore and you cry the whole time, until you get out
• You are terrified if water is on the floor since you don't want to fall
• You are starting to run
• If Mr. Moon is out, you get soooo excited
• You have become so interested in reading books right before naptime, we call it Rock and Read.
• When I ask you what a dog says, you bark like a dog and you point up in the air when you see an airplane

We can't see what new and exciting things will be happening in the months ahead our little monkey!

Sydney's 6th Pink Carpet Princess Party

Two Saturdays ago, we had Sydney's 6th birthday party.  A lot of planning and work went into it since it was held at home this year.  The pink "carpet" was rolled out with glitter all over in front of the sidewalk to our front door and I hung a white backdrop with Sydney's birthday logo (thanks to my sister Stephanie's creative graphic design)! all over it to make the girls look like they were walking the red carpet. 

Sydney with my niece Alexa

The tables were covered in hot pink satin, zebra and leopard fabric and the chairs were wrapped in matching tulle.  For the centerpieces, I bought clay pots at Michael's and painted them hot pink and added lime green polka dots with rhinestones.  Inside the pots, I made tissue paper flowers with hot pink, lime green, black, silver, zebra and leopard tissue.  They turned out really cute.  I got the idea from my favorite childhood place - AstroWorld.  My dad bought my sister and I those huge flowers and I used to always make them.  Each princess had a crown at her seat along with a plastic wine glass full of lemonade and a cotton candy puff on the straw. 

I love thumbing through magazines especially In Style and finding party decorating ideas and one thing I have always loved is the look of paper lanterns.  So, I bought hot pink and lime green lanterns at Hobby Lobby and Michael's.  Blake hung them for me even though it wasn't easy.  Sydney's cake matched the whole theme.  I found this awesome cake lady at Michael's - Confections By Erica, she had her magnetic sign on her car, so I thought I'd give her a try.  She did a wonderful job on the cake.

I made the 6 on the cake, I got the idea from some customers of mine who order initial cake toppers for baby showers.  It was in the wood section from Hobby Lobby.  I painted it, cut out paper with pinking shears, sanded it, Mod Podged, glittered and rhinestoned it all up!  I am going to be adding cake toppers to my website.

I kept the girls busy with fun activities like painting princess crown and high-heeled shoes and then once they dried, they decorated them with rhinestones and feathers.

Then, we invited Sydney's older friend Kinley (from baseball) and her friend Cassidy to help out with the mani/pedi/hair station...

Sydney's friends Malynn and Katie

Finally, we had a sugar scrub station.  One of my favorite shops in a little town about 15 minutes from us is called The Bath Hut.  You can choose your favorite scent and mix up a little scrub and get a matching lotion.  Sydney loves to go there with me since they let you try it out on your hands and they rub it off with a big pitcher of warm water.  So, I have a ton of scrubs and when her friends come over, they always ask if they can do scrub.  I figured since her friends love to do it, we could do this at the party.  Each girl stood in line and we scrubbed hands at the sink with a sugary pink scented mix.  Then we sprayed an oil spray followed by yummy lotion.  The girls loved it. 

We also made our own sugar scrub that the girls could take home.  They had fun taking turns mixing it all together as did my sister and some of the moms.  The recipe was so easy and I think we tripled this so there was enough for each girl to take home a little plastic Glad container of it. 

Sugar Scrub Recipe

You will need a large bowl and spatula

2 cups sugar

1/8 - 1/4 cup shower gel

1/8 - 1/4 cup lotion of your choice

6-10 drops of vitamin D oil (you can find at Hobby Lobby or Michael's)

6-10 drops of aloe vera oil (Hobby Lobby or Michael's)

6-10 drops of fragrance oil (Hobby Lobby or Michael's)

4-6 drops of coloring

Mix away with a spatula!

Your hands will be soooo smooth and soft after using this!

Then it was time for cake and presents.  Sydney opened her presents so fast, I missed so much of what she got and I tried so fast to write everything down so I could do thank yous.

Sydney with her sidekick/BFF Brooklyn!

My awesomely talented sister made me this super cute sticker to put on the goodie bags. 

If you are in need of any kind of sticker/logo design, you can get in touch with my sister through her blog - http://www.queenofthejuggle.blogspot.com/

Each girl took home a sugar cookie cutout of a high heel shoe.  My friend Kimberly (one of my fellow baseball moms) is starting a cookie company with her mom.  We were her guinea pigs and first customers.  She did a fabulous job on the shoes and they made them with our colors and added ribbon to each cookie.  They were so yummy too!  I think she even got some new business before she left!  If any of you are in Spring, Tomball, Cypress, Magnolia areas, let me know if you need a cookie lady!!

It turned out to be a very fun party and we had 16 girls once everyone showed up, wow!  I remember how much fun I had at my birthday parties that were at home.  I wanted to do the same for Syd.  There was so much planning and shopping trips to buy stuff.  It was a lot of work and I'm glad I did it, but I'm thinking next year, we'll do it somewhere else!!  I'm not much of a drinker, but I did kick my feet up and had a few glasses of wine once it was all over!  Oh and the mess, it took hours, I think I was up till 2am cleaning!!  :-)

Thanks Mom for all your help watching Brody & taking the kids to breakfast so I could get ready!

Thanks Steph for all your help with the finishing touches.  I don't know what I would have done without y'all!

Love you bunches!!

Shan

Happy 6th Birthday Sydney!

Today at 1:01 pm, my baby girl turned 6.  She's so proud of her new age!  I told her she can count how old she is on two hands now and not just one.  My, how time has flown. 

We had a fun day.   I ate lunch with Sydney at school.  Her request was that I bring her chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A, her favorite.  After lunch, I got her an early dismissal from school-it's a tradition on the kids' birthdays.  We headed to our favorite spot - The Woodlands and to Sydney's most favorite place ever Sweet and Sassy!  Since I sell some of the stuff on my website to S&S, the owner was nice enough to send Sydney a gift certificate to get all dolled up.  She was in heaven getting her updo and mini pedi.   For dinner, we ate at Shogun and she got to wear the big Japanese chef hat while they sang Happy Birthday to her.   She looooved all the attention. 

 Miss Sassy Pants

Here are six of some of my favorites of Sydney through the years!  I love you my birthday princess!  I hope you had a fun weekend and it was everything you wished for!

Anticipation of the big day!

The countdown to Sydney's 6th birthday has ended.  Tonight was the last "nap" as she calls it before her party.  We started many months ago and have had a countdown going.  We can't wait for the the big day!   She assembled all her goody bags tonight and was so excited to help.  It's going to be a long day tomorrow since the party is not until 5.  I bet I will get asked at least 10 times how much longer til my party.  :-)

Chocolate Easter Bunny Heaven

A parent's worst nightmare and a kid's dream - an 18 ounce chocolate Easter bunny waiting to be eaten, courtesy of Nana and Grandpa (thanks so much by the way)!!  Sydney couldn't wait to rip that plastic wrap off and dive right into her $9 bunny.  The thing is almost three times the size of my shoe.  Sydney was in pure heaven!!!  We have a whole stash of chocolate bunnies to eat - thanks Uncle Kirk!!  I'm thinking of melting them all and adding it to my Texas Sheet Cake batter the next time I make it - yuuum! 

By the way, the only other person I know who loves chocolate more than anything is my niece Alexa.  She absolutely adores chocolate.  I would give anything to see this in her hands and see the kind of faces she would make...priceless!  I hope everyone had a nice Easter!

Oh, you better believe I'm gonna try to eat this whole thing, cavities, what cavities??

His eyes were tasty and he smells soooo good!

 

Yeah, it was me who ate his ear, you want some?!

Sydney's Easter Bunny Sidewalk Chalk Art

Playin' in the Bluebonnets

The kids were off of school on Monday and in between taking pictures of Lisa's family, I got some shots of Blake, Sydney and Brody playing in the bluebonnets.  I love Spring when all the trees and flowers are blooming.  Blake happened to find a beat up, dirty little red car that someone had put in the trash.  It turned out to be a great little prop for our pictures.  Blake got his wish this time around and I didn't take a million pictures of him.  He then later asked, "How come I'm not in many of those pictures?"  Go figure!!

Photography Practice!

This past weekend, I have been hanging out at a local park that has a patch of bluebonnets and it has great backgrounds for pictures.  I took two sets of family pictures for some of my girlfriends.  I have always loved taking pictures and it was fun experimenting and practicing.  I took over 1,000 pictures combined and went through all of them realizing what I am doing right, mistakes I am making and things I need to work on, especially lighting.  Most of these aren't edited since my laptop crashed and the desktop is slow as molasses and freezes up whenever I try to play around with the pictures.  Such gorgeous families! 

Toni's Family

Lisa's Family