2014 challenge . . . December 31, 2013

How many of you are on Pinterest?  I joined a couple of years ago and haven’t spent a lot of time on it, but there have been a few things I have tried.  Mostly a few recipes here and there.  I have a lot of pins, but never make the time to attempt the projects.  It is so easy to make excuses.  I don’t have time to do this.  It is too involved, etc.  So after doing a lot of thinking about it, I have decided to create my own Pinterest challenge.

I was pretty successful 2 years ago with my 30-day blog challenge, so along those lines I am going to do a 52-week Pinterest challenge.  There are no “rules” per se.  I will attempt one project, recipe or other pinned item per week.  I will take a photo of my accomplishment and share the good, the bad and the ugly.

For example, I have been looking at a lot of organizing tips and there are some places in our house that need to be organized (my office space, my closet, kitchen).  So I will take a before and after photo.  Not too excited about showing the before photo’s but I want this to have an impact.  And it will help me “take ownership” of my not-so-organized life.

I have been compiling a bunch of “pins” in a secret board on Pinterest and will try to come up with some good ones.  Ideally, I would love to do a recipe, an organizing task and a creative task each month.  Having 4 or 5 pins to do each month should keep things interesting and by the end of the year I am hoping the house in organized, I have some really cute crafts (some will definitely be Christmas related) and some new recipes that our family loves.  If things are going smoothly I may even throw in some bonus pins.  We will see.

I have some other things in the works, but I am not going to talk about those just yet.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, have a safe and Happy New Year!  I think 2014 will be a fun year.

Thanks for reading!

birthday party and christmas . . . December 27, 2013

This has been a crazy week, but now we can relax and settle into the new year.  (Well, hubby still has some big gigs but come January 1, he can relax too.)

We had a really good time at little guy’s birthday party on the 21st.  In addition to our little family, my parents and about 15 other friends were in attendance.  This was the 1st really big party that I have thrown since having our little guy and it was so much fun.  Although I am sure those around me the day or 2 before did not think that.  🙂  I did get a bit crazy but it all worked out.  I did almost forget to put the olive penguins out, but they made it to the table and they were a hit!   I kept the food simple.  We had small ham sandwiches, a veggie tray, chips and dip, crackers and cheese, the olive penguins, pasta salad and cupcakes for dessert.  I also made sugar cookies as a favor for everyone to take home.  Here is a photo.

They were snowflake cookies and I iced designs on all 46 of them!  🙂

Little guy didn’t seem all too interested in his cupcake.  (I opted for a cupcake instead of his own smash cake.)  He poked at it with his finger.  I actually put a little icing on my finger and he ate it and did that a few more times.  I also gave him a couple of pieces of cake to try and that was enough.  I guess he figured he liked being fed.  After a few bites of the super sweet goodness he had enough.  He would wrinkle up his face.  That was his first taste of something sweet (outside of fruit), so he wasn’t super crazy about digging in.  That was ok with me and hubby.  I did give him a taste of two of one of the small butter cookies I made for Christmas and he seemed to like that as well.

Christmas Eve I decided to start a tradition of a Christmas Eve Box.  In the box would go a pair of pajamas that my Mom bought (she has always bought the grandkids pajamas for Christmas Eve/Christmas, an ornament (I decided last year to buy little guy a Hallmark Keepsake ornament every year so that when he went out on his own he would have some for his tree and they would have special meaning/memory for him.  This year I got a picture frame ornament that had “My 1st birthday” on it.  It was perfect.  And lastly the book “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”  In the years to come I will probably add a little snack like hot cocoa or something like that.  Then we will open the Christmas Eve box and celebrate before going to bed.   Here he is checking out what is inside.  🙂

On Christmas morning, he did ok with opening presents.  I actually opened most of them with his help.  He really loved everything he got but really loved this white bear that had lights, moved and played music.  He would dance around when the music played and also try to give him kisses. 

All in all it was a great week with a lot of activities and a lot of being thankful for the blessings we have with this little guy, all of our family and our friends.  Thanks for letting me share with you, dear readers and I am already thinking about next year and what new and exciting topics to talk about in this blog.  I have an idea and am pretty excited about it.   It is a challenge of sorts and something I think is doable, I just want to go about it the right way so I don’t get bored or put too much stress on myself. 🙂  Stay tuned . . .

In the meantime, I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and will have a wonderful New Year.  Thanks again for sticking with me and my blog.   I appreciate it and look forward to sharing more in the new year!

Thanks for reading!

1 year . . . December 23, 2013

Our little guy turned one on the 21st.  I still can’t believe that it has been a year.  The time has flown by so fast and our little guy has grown and changed so much!  He is such a joy and we are so blessed.  I will sit down and write more about the birthday party and also Christmas when things calm down around here.  Probably this weekend.  Thanks to all of you for following our journey and for sharing in our joy.

Thanks for reading!

penguins (pinterest challenge) . . . December 18, 2013

As I have posted, our little guy is turning one this Saturday (YIKES!).  I have been preparing the house and goodies for the party and I have a few more things to do before Saturday but I have one thing marked off my list.  With the Winter ONE-derland theme, I saw this item on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect.  I am posting this because I was inspired by A Wee Nest’s 12 DIY Pins of Pinterest Challenge she has been doing during the month of December.  Even though I did not participate in the monthly challenge I did actually find this on Pinterest so I am counting this as one Pin completed! 🙂 

Here is the original Pinterest post.  And here are my finished penguins.  I am so pleased at how these turned out!  For the most party they were pretty easy.  The trickiest part is stuffing them with creme cheese.  I used Jumbo-sized olives for the body and medium for the head.  I don’t like olives but I know most of the guests do so I think they will enjoy them and get a kick out of them as well. 

Thanks for reading!

throwback thursday . . . December 12, 2013

OK, I have missed posting about a lot of things.  Sorry dear readers.  It has been quite busy around here.  We traveled to St. Louis for Thanksgiving and when we got back Hubby’s busiest time started.  He works every single day this month (December) except for the 7th, 24th, 25th and 26th.  I try my best to help in any way I can, doing a few more of the errands, making some phone calls for him and not to mention I have been planning our little guys FIRST birthday party!!!! Here is the invitation I sent out.  I thought this was appropriate since he was born on the 1st day of Winter. 🙂

Not to mention I have been cleaning and planning Christmas.  I need to do some baking and ordering of some food, etc.  I really do love this time of year.  It got me thinking about this time last year.  How I really had no idea our little guy would be making his entrance last year at all.  Feeling like I still had time to prepare for Christmas and to pack my hospital bag, etc.  What a joke!  LOL  But everything worked out!

Here is one of the last ultrasounds I had for the throwback portion of this post done a year ago yesterday. 

It is just so crazy to think that our little guy will be one!  We came so far and went through so much and he is here and he is thriving!  He is such a joy and people tell me where ever I go how happy he is and he truly is!  He is such a wonderful little boy and brings us such joy.    He smiles at everyone and one lady even told me that she was having a bad day and seeing his smile just made it all better!  What more can I say.

Thanks for reading!