Two Years

Yes. It's true! The first of February {I'm a little late!}

was our blog-birthday, so I thought we'd do a little

celebrating with some giveaways! What do ya say?

I'm really excited about todays giveaway from one of my sweet

bloggy friends, Mary. She recently opened up an etsy shop and

it's full of the most precious children's hats. I was so excited

when she sent Noah a few hats to model. Isn't he just precious!?

I am so impressed with Mary's work.

The hats are very well made and just as cute as can be!

And the prices of her products-- very reasonable!

Mary is giving away a custom beanie hat

{with or without a flower} and you

can choose two different colors.

Update: Giveaway closed.

To enter the giveaway:

Leave a comment telling me which

colors you would pick if you won.

For extra entries:

Follow my blog

{tell me if you already do}

Follow Mary's blog

You have three chances to win!

Oh, and please leave a separate

comments for each entry.

Thank you!

December Catch Up & the New Year!

We are back home, and it feels so good! We have been to Amarillo {for a funeral}, Oklahoma, and back to Amarillo over the past three weeks. Whew! Talk about a lot of traveling, but it was well worth it since we were able to spend Christmas with both of our families. However, it's nice to be home after a bunch of traveling. I hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours!

I have a little bit of catching up to do for the month of December. I don't know about you, but the month of December flew by! I knew it would. Right up until our trip to Oklahoma, I had all of our Christmas gifts {unwrapped} under our tree. Usually wrapping gifts is something I love doing, and most of the time I have the gifts wrapped & placed under the tree weeks before Christmas arrives, but not this year. I was a little behind {or lazy; I'm not sure which}. There were also a few December events I didn't get around to blogging about, so better late then never. Here they are:

We had a birthday this month. Josh turned 26 on December 11th! Shame on me for not blogging about it. The weekend of his birthday was also the weekend of the big Christmas drama at our church, so we didn't get a chance to go out and celebrate. And we still haven't been out to celebrate, but will one of these days, right honey?

Speaking of Josh, I have some really exciting news to share, and I want to take a minute to brag on him. In October, Josh took the BEI Master interpreter certification test. The BEI Master is the highest certification for ASL interpreters in the state of Texas. Well, last week we found out that Josh passed the test! I couldn't be prouder of him.

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day {despite the fact we had a 6 hour drive home}! Josh & I celebrated 3 years of marriage. Can you believe it? I can't! What a wonderful three years it's been. Here are a few pictures of the evening I married my best friend:



Ahhh! Sweet memories. Oh how I would love to go back to size 6! New years resolution, perhaps?

Guess what?! While we were in Amarillo Noah got his first haircut {more detail & pics on that later}, and oh boy he looks stinkin' cute! Here is a little teaser. You'll see his new do soon!



The count down begins! 2010 is quickly approaching, and I am really excited about the new year. I've been thinking the past couple of days of some things I would like to accomplish this year. Here goes:

1. Completely give up Dr. Pepper. And yes, I am serious. If you know me, you know giving up Dr. Pepper is no easy task, because I love it! So tonight when the clock strikes 12:00, I say goodbye for good.

2. Potty train little Noah. Well at least start the process of potty training. When do little boys usually potty train anyway?

3. Control my spending on Etsy {haha I already know I'll break this one}.

4. Take a few photography classes to expand my knowledge of photography & my fabulous new camera.

5. Work on my relationship with Josh. We have a wonderful marriage, but things obviously change when kids come into the picture. This year I would like to go on more dates together, and spend more one on one time with each other. I'll admit it right now, since we've lived in Fort Worth, we haven't been on one date.

6. Spend more time meditating on God's word on a daily basis.

What are your New Year's Resolutions? Have you thought about what you would like to accomplish this year?

Before I go, I would like to wish my grandmother, Gigi, a happy birthday!! Hope you have had a wonderful day! We love you, Gigi.

20 minutes until the new year rings in! Happy New Year Everyone!! I pray God's blessings on each one of you this year.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I love shopping, but when it comes to black friday, I would prefer to do my shopping another day. You are one brave soul if you are getting out tomorrow to shop. I personally am not. Instead I am spending the day with my two sisters, my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother to help my sister, Abby, find the perfect wedding dress. And Noah gets to join all the girls tomorrow. Haha. I'm sure he is thrilled about it. I am really excited to see Abby try on dresses tomorrow, and you can bet I'll have my camera tucked away in my back pocket to get some pictures of her. Ahhh wedding dress shopping... what an exciting time for her. So I guess I am technically going shopping tomorrow, but hey, if we find the perfect dress it will be worth it, right?

Anyway, I decided to change things up a bit this year and do most of my Christmas shopping online {something I never thought I would do}. Last year around Christmas time, Noah was three months old so it was still pretty easy to get out and shop. But not this year. Nope. Trying to shop with a very active little toddler is, well, one word sums it up: impossible. In fact, it stresses me out. So I decided this year do the online shopping thing, and I absolutely love it!

I thought since tomorrow is a big shopping day, I would share with you some of my favorite things that I have found while shopping online.

Cute decorative Christmas pillows. So much fun!

Something for the guys.

Vintage stuff is the best.
I like this personalized vintage
typewriter key money clip very much.

Look at these precious little things! Elf baby booties!

These wrist keychains are perfect for those who
can't keep up with their keys. That's totally me!
I love all of the bright colors.



I can't get enough of these coffee cozy sleeves.
Perfect little stocking stuffer, don't ya think?



I love these personalized ornament boxes.
What a cute little gift for a new baby.



I hear purple is the hot color right now.
How cute is this neck warmer?



A perfect gift for The Beatles fan.
Who would have thought The Beatles would
finally go digital on... a USB stick?



I love Mary Jane shoes for little girls, so when
I came across this stocking I was smitten.
I wish I was creative enough to think
of making a Mary Jane stocking. Seriously.



Personalized bag tags = A-d-o-r-a-b-l-e!



A little something for the dog lover.
I think Einstein would look pretty good in this mistletoe hat
{i don't know though, it may not fit his chubby little head}.



Want to spice up your gifts?
These gift hang tags will do the trick.

Of course, the best gifts are always priceless.
What a sweetie!

Whew! That's enough shopping for tonight. I'm worn out! Haha.

Goodnight!

Giveaway

I've been inspired...

...by a lovely fellow blogger.

She won a contest, and then thought it

would be fun to host her own.

The prize: a custom holiday card design!

They are adorable; you really should check them out.

So, I've decided to steal her idea {thanks Cynthia}, and host my very own contest for my faithful blog readers. Because well, you deserve something nice. Sounds like fun, huh? I think so. My prize isn't anything creative like a custom holiday card design, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna like what I have for you.

Etsy is one of my favorite sites to shop. Let's just say I've got a slight addiction to the website. Don't even look at the link if you aren't prepared to blow all of your money. I'm serious. Don't do it. Anyway, why do I bring up Etsy? Well, because, I found these lovelies for you there:

They are called coffee cozy sleeves and are found here and here. I love them! What a creative idea. I thought they would go along perfectly with a $5 gift card to:

Noah is pretty excited about this contest idea. He's rooting for you!



Ok. So here is how you can win. Really, it's pretty simple.

Leave me a comment on the blog
{not Facebook so I can keep them in order}
telling me what you are most thankful for.

That's all. I told you it's easy.

Comment and then you're entered in {guys, don't be shy!}.

You have until 11:59 pm November 19th, 2009,
and then Mr. Noah will pick the winner!

If a guy wins, he'll get the brown coffee cozy,
and if a girl wins, she'll get the pink one,
or you can have whichever one you choose.

Good luck!

Noah's 1st Birthday!

Putting together Noah's 1st birthday party could not have been more fun. I can admit I had my moments of stress over it, but who doesn't when they are planning a party? One day Josh and I were talking about how in just three months our little guy would be turning one, so we decided we should start planning his party. We are usually huge procrastinators, so planning three months in advance was a big step for us. Ha. Then again, we ended up not getting the invitations out until a week before the party, so I guess I shouldn't be bragging too much. Hey, we tried!

We tossed around several ideas and themes for his party, but we finally decided on a monkey theme. I'm a sucker for monkeys, so I had to curb my spending for the party. There are just so many cute monkey party supplies, darn it!

So we started with the invites. I am oh so lucky to have a husband who is incredibly talented with computer design. I am not lying when I say he can create anything I ask him to make. If we find an idea that we like, he can usually make an exact copy of it or make a design that is even better than what we found. See for yourself:

Isn't it so cute! I was so happy with the way they turned out. After he finished designing the invites we printed them off at a local print shop, and then realized finding a custom made 61/2 X 61/2 inch envelope was almost impossible. In fact, it was a nightmare trying to find an envelope big enough for our invitations. But I won't go into detail about that, because who cares? It was just one of those *little* party planning stresses.

Josh also created the design for Noah's birthday t-shirt, and we made it together (another one of our projects to save money). We were really happy with the way it turned out.

Anyway, after Josh finished the invites and the design for the t-shirt, I started looking for a cake idea for Noah. I looked around for ideas online, and came across these pictures and knew I had to have it!

I sent out a few emails to local bakeries here as well as an email to the Cake Company in Canyon. We ended up choosing the Cake Company because they designed my wedding cake, and we knew from experience it would be quite tasty! I emailed them a few pictures of the design, and they got it right on! It was perfect! It turned out exactly how I hoped it would.

Of course while I was looking for ideas, I came across an item on Etsy that was absolutely, positively the cutest thing ever. And I couldn't pass it up. But I also couldn't justify spending almost $50 for it. This is what I found.

I fell in love with it when I saw it, but spending that much money for a bib is absolutely insane, no matter how cute it is. Luckily, my mother is so very talented, and I knew she could make this cute little bib in no time. The bib she made looked exactly like the picture above, except she added her own special touch to it. Thank you so much mom for taking on another one of my ideas! Here is the bib my mom made for Noah to wear at his party.

We had the party at Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, and we could not have imagined a better place to have Noah's 1st birthday. It's such a neat place to have a party because it has toys for the little ones to play with...

...but it also has an upstairs area with pool tables, ping pong tables, Wii's, Guitar Hero, etc. for the big kids!

Isn't this collage Chriselda made adorable? What a wonderful way to look back and remember Noah's party.

The morning of the party I was getting ready and about to leave when Noah woke up. I gave him a bottle, he laid back down, and to my surprise went back to sleep. I had to leave early to get everything ready, so Grammy brought Noah to the party around 9:30.

Poor baby. When I saw him I could tell he wasn't feeling well; I could just see it in his eyes. He hung in there though, and he managed to eat a few bites of cake and to help mommy and daddy open some of his presents. It's just not fair being sick on your birthday!

We all had so much fun, and we are so thankful for all of our family and friends who came to celebrate Noah's big day.

Chriselda took sooo many good pictures, so I made another slide show so you could see the rest of them. What a blessing to be able to look back at all of these pictures and remember Noah's 1st Birthday.