Birthday Party Preparation

Everett will be ONE on Thursday!!! I think I want to sob at this fact. He's going to be a toddler. I want him to be my little infant for just a little while longer.

I feel like I have been working on his birthday preparations for so long. For the past month while balancing work, taking care of Everett, and keeping up on household duties, I've managed to throw in time to create his party decor and to complete several test runs of cake pops, cupcakes, and chocolate-dipped pretzel rods. The cake pops and chocolate-dipped pretzels are good for a few days so I plan on making them within the next day or so. Cupcakes will have to be the night before.

Here is a glimpse on the making of the cupcake toppers:

I look forward to hanging and setting out all the party decor and seeing what it all looks like. Maybe I'll realize that I'm a little crafty after all? I'm not creative by any means and I think that is a requirement to craftiness. My husband said it all looked great but he's supposed to tell me that.

I am so very excited to get together with close friends and family this weekend to celebrate the accomplishment of my little's mans first year!

Putting up the Christmas Tree

We decided to go the artificial tree route so we would not have to deal with the mess of pine needles and with Everett trying to put them in his mouth. Also, with the building that we live in, hauling a real tree in the elevator would've been a bit of a hassle as well.

Surprisingly, Everett wasn't too enthralled with the tree. He was more amused with the box instead.

He did take a moment to check out the lights though.

Last year, we used my mother-in-law's tree that had been stored for years. Being boxed up for so long took it's toll. It was a sorry-looking of a tree but we did not want a treeless house with it being Everett's first Christmas and all. I'm sure you'll get a laugh out of it. Looking back at these pictures, we sure did!


It looked like we played "pin the ornaments on the tree" blindfolded. It's the memories that we have though and a year later, we can look back and have a laugh.

Within the past year, we've unfortunately managed to lose a handful of the ornaments. We only have silver decorations so it looks like we'll be going out to purchase more so we can complete our beautiful tree this year!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving last year. This was exactly one week from delivery.

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This year, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Aunt Carol and Uncle George's house. Mounds and heaps of nothing but delicious, fattening foods and best of all, time with family. My Grandma Jo just suffered a heart attack last week and was not able to be there with us. Her fragile age of 97 is taking it's course and even though we were all suffering inside at her absence, we each took the time to record our Thanksgiving wishes to her. The recordings were delivered to her today and my biggest wish is that it put a smile on her face and acknowledged that she was greatly missed.

In only having one nap, Everett was in great spirits.

My brothers

I think I had too much turkey! Everett learned to point at things a few weeks ago. Notice his little finger? :)

And he's still pointing.

And still pointing. He LOVES fans. That's where I was pointing. Everett, I think he missed.

Daddy and Everett! He decided to pull out his "limp noodle" action.

Thanksgiving this year was just wonderful! Everett enjoyed turkey, salmon, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, jello, pumpkin pie, and ice cream. Of course, they were teeny tiny bites of this and that and yes, I hesitantly offered him a bite of ice cream. He had a minor reaction to the dairy so that was the end of that. I feel so blessed to have shared this day with my family and with Everett and I am proud to say that this year, I avoided a food coma!

A day late but Happy Thanksgiving!

Special K Challenge

The extra weight that accumulated from my pregnancy has been weighing very heavy (no pun intended) on my mental and emotional being as of late. Therefore, I began the Special K Challenge. I am on day 3. I dieted a few weeks ago by means of watching what I eat but I can characteristically be a black and white person when it comes to certain things. When it comes to dieting, I need exact points to follow, and that is why I chose the Special K Challenge. I replace breakfast with either a protein shake or a bowl of Special K cereal and the same goes for lunch and I then end the food day with a sensible dinner. So far, so good. I've lost 2 pounds. The Challenge allows snacking but that is my downfall so I am only consuming a snack if my hunger is unbearable. I've hit that point a few times.

Before pregnancy at approximately 110 pounds.

6 months pregnant.

8 months pregnant.

Day of delivery. Look at how fat my face is!

Two months postpartum.

Unfortunately, that's about all the full body photos I have since I highly avoid them. I weighed about 110 pre-pregnancy, 138 when I delivered, and today, I am 122.4. I dream of being less than 110 but my focus right now is to be back at the pre-pregnancy weight. I'd be happy with that. 12 pounds to go....

Serious Dancing

This kid LOVES to dance. Everett has a lot of musical toys and is constantly dancing. He is so straight-faced and serious about it. He means business.

Wordless Wednesday {Tasty Prunes}

Tasty Prunes

Before and After {Living Room/Couches}

My husband finally talked me into the fact that 7 year old couches with multiple projectile formula puke from Everett meant time for new couches. I'd been a little attached to them since they were my first furniture purchase and while I thought they still looked halfway decent, Dale was convinced otherwise and thought they were a little ghettofied. I finally admitted that they were pretty stained and worned and that sinking so far you just about sat on the ground wasn't signified as comfortable.

While they look great from afar, they're really not.

~BEFORE~

~AFTER~

I no longer feed Everett his bottles on the couch so we can savor the newness of our furniture for as long as time will allow. I've been enjoying the new face lift to our living room. It's given us more room, I mean, more room for Everett to scatter his toys everywhere and play so having my husband talk me into the purchase was win win!

Visitors

Amongst the busyness that our life has been recently, we've had some recent visitors over for dinner at our house this past week. It had been several weeks since we had my parents over so they joined us for dinner last Friday. Everett got to spend some well-needed playtime with his grandma. I think she enjoyed it more than he did!

This past Sunday, we had my best friend from high school over and her husband Robbie. Everett thought Robbie was the best thing since Elmo and was constantly staring at him. It had been when Everett was a few months old the last time they saw him and they really enjoyed his playfulness. They are currently trying to get pregnant. Exciting!!!

Robbie and his tower of toys.

Spending time with family and friends is one of the most refreshing times for me and it was exactly what I needed to set aside thoughts of work and everyday hustle bustle. It's back to work tomorrow!

Blog Neglect

It's been about a week and a half since I've written a blog. My time has been consumed by a little, baby boy who loves his momma so much that he wants to crawl over her all day and be lovingly close to her. Close like faces touching. He's been into this "lets me super close to mommy" mood for the past several weeks and it's been moreso as of late. I don't mind it so much and love the snuggles but it hasn't allowed me to get much done. During his naps, I have been working on his 1st Birthday decor. I made his hanging party circles yesterday and need to get started on the birthday banner this weekend. I'm seemingly going a little party crazy and while some would think I may be overdoing it, I'm enjoying planning his extravagant 1st Birthday Party! I have gotten so many ideas from this website.

Hope you've all had a great week (or so) in the time I've been absent from Blog World. I have some catching up to do!

Have a blessed weekend!

Wordless Wednesday {Crib Guard}

Much needed new crib guard.

Riding {under} the Jeep Renegrade

I think we need to show Everett the right way to ride his Jeep Renegrade. At first, he found it amusing but a few times around the house and I think he realized this was not the right way to drive his Jeep.

And.....

Everett is 11 months today!!! I am in awe that he will be ONE in a month! Really? How does an entire year go by so quickly? It is true that time flies when you're having fun!

Halloween Day

Halloween was a whirlwind of a day but we enjoyed spending the time together and in celebrating Everett's first year of trick-or-treating and dressing up.

We started the day by taking him out to breakfast. We thought we'd treat him to pancakes but he didn't enjoy them as much as we anticipated. He gagged and looked up at me as if saying "Mom, why would you feed that to me?" So we just stuck with peaches and apple puffs.

I've had more strangers talk to me now then ever before. It's always in conversation about Everett and I usually don't mind and I enjoy the kind comments about Everett but while at breakfast, this old guy kept on talking to us while we were eating. One or two comments is fine but this guy would not stop. What made it even more annoying was that he kept on referring to Everett as "her." Could he not connect the blue pants and blue socks to his gender?

Other than the weird guy stranger talk , breakfast was great. We don't go out for breakfast very often but when we do, we always go to Wildwood Cafe which is this small, quaint, family-owned diner in Downtown Gresham. We've never experienced anything but great food and service there.

Later on in the afternoon, we had some professional Fall photos taken of Everett. We received a sneak peek photo last night. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of them!

Everett dressed up as a cute, little chicken!

We're a day late but Happy Halloween from the Connors!