After our birthday bonanza a few weeks ago, I have had no desire to blog. Sometimes I just don't feel like I have anything to say. I do plan on totally giving my blog a make-over soon. So I can't wait to unveil the new look! 

In the mean time, this is what I have been up to...

I scored the mother load of craft supplies at a church garage sale! Calico heaven!!! 

grapes & blueberries, cucumber sticks in hummus, and whole grain pasta with peas and homemade pesto from Grandpa & Grandma Brian & Betty

We're working on eating more solids and less bottle. But no one tells you how difficult it is to transition from all meals in a bottle to all solids and milk in a cup! E wants his bottle and yet, I don't want him to have funky teeth when he gets older. Do I just go cold turkey and never give him a bottle again?  He's great with a sippy cup and straws, but he still enjoys his cuddle time with Momma and a bottle.  Oh and he doesn't actually call me Momma... he says MOM. Just mom. I love it!

 To beat the heat on a 90+ degree day, we got out the kiddie pool. It was a splashing success!

Cousins: Piya, Levi, Drew, Everett, Evan & Isla.  

 My cousin and his wife had their baby girl Isla baptized a few weekends ago. Afterwards we got all the cousin kiddos together and snapped some pics.

On a side note, both my husband and I only have one sibling. I have one brother and so does my husband.  My brother Buddy has Down's Syndrome and will not be having children. My husband's brother Peter lives in Taiwan with his wife. And although they don't have children yet, even when they do we're not sure how often we will see them.
It's really important for me for Everett to have cousins. I have the best cousins, I mean my cousin Kelly is totally one of my BFFs! So although he may not have first cousins yet, he will always have my cousin's children and I hope they become great pals!

Dawson's Creek is on Netflix and I'm reliving my teenage angst... with a big vocabulary! Capeside lives! 

Whitney Farms Organic Plant Food

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Whitney Farms for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I was really excited for this opportunity to work with Whitney Farms®! I come from a long line of avid gardeners and gardening is one of my favorite past times! I love growing flowers and vegetables, and all winter long I look forward to planting my seeds. Now that I have a little one I really want to focus on using more organic veggies and fertilizers. The thought of using organic soil & organic plant food made me feel better about what I was growing for my family.


When I heard about Whitney Farms Organic Plant Food I was so excited. I really like the idea of using an Organic fertilizer on my plants, especially my vegetables.  This product to me, is better than the conventional fertilizers because they contain low to no dust, no manure odor, and they contain beneficial mircrobes. Plus it has the benefit of being 100% natural plant food! Yay!!
I have all my seeds picked out and ready to be planted. And I'm really looking forward to planting using Whitney Farms®  Organic Plant Food.

And hopefully one day my garden looks like this...

Source: Garden World

For my readers I have a $3 coupon for Whitney Farms® Organic Plant Food that I hope you will use to grow your dream garden! Have fun!

 Just click on Whitney Farms® to sign up to receive your coupon. 

Cards & Museums

card from Bill Main Etsy

Yesterday was my husband's birthday! Happy Birthday!!  I got him this card because he is always asking me to watch Predator with him. I got this card off of Etsy from Bill Main. Do you know who his wife is? It's the fabulous Christina of Sweet Lavender Bake Shoppe! The same chica who made the lightning bolts and name plaque on Everett's birthday cake! Hello talented duo!

Today E and I went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts with a bunch of other moms from my MOPS group, and Kelly, Kyle & P who decided to crash the party. I hadn't been there in years, so it was fun to walk around and re-explore the museum. E did great job looking around at all the art, only one tiny melt down when it was time for lunch.  I do look forward to the day when I can take him and he will truly appreciate the artwork. My aunt Sandy introduced me to art & museums when I was a little girl and since then I've been hooked. I've had the extreme fortune of going to art museums all over the country and the world! I hope E and any future children I have, love art as much as I do!

photo courtesy of kelly

P: I think my favorite piece was the Renoir.

E: If I'm being totally honest, I would have to say my favorites were the Picasso's.

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!