Mother...

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is such a great day but it can also be a hard day for so many women.  I've had so many friends struggle with infertility or others waiting years for an adoption to go through. I know there is pain as each Mother's Day passes and there is no child in their arms. I've also have friends lose children, and the pain they carry each Mother's Day without their sweet child with them.  Or there are women out there who long for a child, but are not in a relationship or in the right one.  It's hard to spend year after year hoping that maybe someday soon, they too could have a family. I fell into the latter camp. Growing up, I had always assumed I would be married young and a handful of children to follow. But year after year, and relationship after relationship went by and the longing for a child just grew deeper. There were days (years) when I just started to think it maybe wan't going to happen.  I just knew I was meant to be a mom. I would pray and pray about it, hoping that God would bring a man into my life who wanted to also have a family. Finally that prayer was answered. And last year on Mother's Day I got the best present of all... 

This little guy...

Thank you Tim & Everett for making me a mommy! I love you both so much!!! 

One Year of Awesome!

Happy Birthday Everett!!! 

I can't believe it's already been one year since you came into our lives! You made me a mother on Mother's Day and you changed my life forever! We love you so much and are so excited to celebrate a lifetime of birthdays with you!!! Happy Birthday Bubba! 

Today Everett and I are just going to have a fun day together and then we'll have some more fun when daddy gets home. There is a dinner and playtime at the Library tonight so I think we'll go there later. But mostly there will be lots of hugs and kisses and doting on our ONE YEAR OLD... so crazy to say that! 

I made a little photo video of Everett's first year. The first time I played it, I balled my eyes out. It's so amazing how much he has grown... and touched our lives! 

Birthday Boy!

Everett's birthday party was an epic success! We invited both sides of our family over to celebrate with us. The weather people were predicting massive amounts of rain on Sunday, but it didn't rain! It was a perfect day. Our house is pretty small, so having 30+ people cooped up inside was not my idea of a good time.
I busted out the triple crockpot (amazing!) and had meatballs, chicken wings & bbq wienies. The theme was Greek Mythology, so I also made hummus dip & Greek yogurt dip.
I made cupcakes and a healthy cake for Everett's smash cake. I had no idea how his cake would taste with very little sugar, no dairy & no eggs. But it was a delicious Applesauce recipe and I'll share it with you in another post.
We also had another cake and it was pretty awesome! Like I mentioned before i had my sweet blog friend Christina make a custom order of her edible decorations. She made a name plaque in Greek font & lightning bolts.  Check out her blog and her shop! Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe is amazing!!!!

We brought Everett out onto the driveway so he could dig into his cake, without the mess in the house. Hence the fact that you can see our garbage cans in the photos. (ugh)
I don't know if he really liked the cake, because he was having more fun smooshing the whip cream between his fingers!!

I can't believe my baby boy is going to be one tomorrow! And I'll be back to post a video and his final monthly photo. My mom asked me if I was going to continue to take photos of him each month. But at this point if I can get him to sit still for a second, it's a miracle! He is always on the move!

Birthday Party Madness!

Happy Friday Friends!!! 

Party Party Party Party Party Party

As you can see I am in full PARTY mode! This Sunday we are celebrating Everett's first birthday! (his actual birthday is on Tuesday) I have been pretty busy getting together this DIY party, that I've had no time to blog... or visit my bloggy friends! I miss you all! 

I'm making all the decorations and the food for the party, so I have been strategically planning my days out, so come Sunday I'm not running around like Chicken Little with her head cut off! 

I can't wait to show you all I've done for E's special day. The party's theme is Greek Mythology! We thought about either a Superhero party or Greek Mythology. My husband knows EVERYTHING about both! I mean you ask him something about superhero comic books and he can tell you anything you want to know. (And yes he was at the Midnight showing of The Avengers last night). But he also loves Greek Mythology and I find it pretty fascinating too, so we decided to go with that. Not to mention that we thought about naming Everett... Zeus! But I thought that might be a bit extreme. 

So we have a really fun party planned with lots of fun food and treats. I'm making cupcakes and sugar cookies. And I'm also making a sugar free Smash cake for E. I know, I know, I may be depriving him of his right to eat sugar on his birthday. But I figure he'll have a lifetime to develop a sweet tooth, so I want to hold off for a just a little birth longer. 

Next week I'll be reporting back on all the fun, food & decor for the party! 

I'll leave you with a little teaser... 

I had my awesome blog friend Christina over at Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe do a custom order of edible cake decorations at her Etsy Store. She blew me away with her creativity!!!  I'll be writing more about the cake decorations in another post. But I am most excited about these more than anything! 

I just had a breakfast date  with my favorite soon to be one year old. Just him and I chilling 

at BK having apples and hash browns. Those are such sweet moments! Is it possible to freeze time? I wish! 

Happy Friday and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

Direction?

I've been thinking a lot about my lil' ol' blog lately. This June will be 5 years of blogging! 5 YEARS!!!!
When I first started this blog is was to document my busy crazy fun single life. And in that time, I bought a house, met my husband, got married, then had a baby. Oofta! (yes we really do say that in MN!)
Back in 2007 I had no idea what a blog was or where I wanted my blog to go. And really, I don't think many people did back then. I often wonder if I had started blogging and putting  myself out there, where my blog would be? But I just wanted to document all the fun I was having and I had no plans on going big or making money.
My first readers where a handful of friends & family and I loved all their comments and love towards my blog.
Did you know that my blog address used to be Puke Vs. Meow?!!! I'm totally not even kidding. And if you are reading this and remember that, you are awesome!  Puke vs. Meow was just a silly little inside joke that I won't even go into.
People that don't blog don't really get it, but I really enjoying blogging! It's a fun way to share what is going on in my life and what I am up to. Even if just a few people are reading, I don't mind, It's just a nice expression of who I am.
But I find now that I am a stay at home mom, I've kind of lost direction with this blog. For me it's not about growing my blog, although I always love new readers. And it's also not about making money, but it's fun to get a few $$ for what I do. It's really about having fun and writing and sharing what is going on in my life.
So I need a direction for my blog. I've been thinking about narrowing it down to a few things I really enjoy and blogging about those things.

1. Crafting\DIY Projects. I love creating and turning junk into awesome stuff! It's so fun to share the fun things I've made and hopefully inspire others to make their own projects. 
2. Cooking\Baking. If I wasn't a SAHM I would love to run a Bakery. I love cooking and baking. I used to blog once a week with a group of bloggers called Tuesday with Dorie. Every week I would bake some really yummy (and not so yummy) stuff along with some really awesome other bloggers. I miss posting the food I make. 
3. Mommy Stuff.. Since I am now a full time mommy, I really want to write about that... I am by no means an expert (not even close) but I just want to write some things on my heart. 

So I am thinking I am going to blog three times a week about those three things. That way I'll have some direction and I can hold myself accountable to get the piles of projects and recipes done that I have been meaning to tackle. And I can also write from the heart, which I used to do a lot of, but not so much anymore. I just want to keep it real. 

Alright... I've gone on too long. It's time to continue my party plans for a certain little boy who is turning ONE in week & a half! WHAT? Where has the time gone?!?!?!?!? 

Monday Monday!

Good Monday Morning Friends!!
I have been really lame about blogging lately, but I just haven't been feeling it. But I do have some fun blog posts up my sleeve for this week. Including some embarrassing photos I promised awhile back. whoo hoo!

But I leave you now with a video shared over at Design Mom. Do you read her blog? If not, you probably should head over there and check it out. She said this video was emotional and oh boy! was she right!! I love the Olympics so much. And this video combines the Olympics with the daily life of mothers and their children. Now that I am a mom, this video was a double whammy for me. Olympics + Motherhood = Waterworks!

Have a wonderful day!! 

To travel or not to travel...

Well Hello there!

This past week has just been one of those weeks where I wanted to cuddle my baby and not blog... or do much of anything else. I had a great time in Michigan last weekend, hanging out with my gal pals. But for some reason when I come back from a trip, I don't like to join the rest of the world for awhile. As I've grown older, I've turned into a homebody. And I get lonely for home when I'm away. When I was a kid and then all the way through college, I LOVED to go away! To camp, to Grandma & Grandpa's house, trips, adventures, world traveling, YES PLEASE! No homesickness for me!

But now, as much as I still like to see new places, or visit old friends, I like being home more. Sleeping in my own bed, having my own routine, and not living out of a suitcase (which BTW, mine still isn't unpacked and put away!)
Now don't get me wrong, I still think mommy time away is good. And maybe it's just hard because I only have one child and he is still a baby and very dependent on me. I'm also still pretty newly married, so I like being with my husband. (not to say I won't like being with him 10 years from now!! :) And so of course I miss him too.
I don't know... just some thoughts. Maybe marriage & motherhood has turned me into a homebody. But I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything.

It's like in the book of  Ecclesiastes,

There is a time for Everything,

and a Season for every activity

under the sun.

Have you found your travelling habits changed as you get older? Is this just me?