Happy Birthday Party, Hallie!

Last Saturday we celebrated Hallie's birthday. We wanted everyone to be able to make it (on both sides of the family) and Saturday just seemed to work best for everyone. It was only a couple days before her real birthday (TODAY!!) it made today a lot less stressful, and made it possible to have a big shindig on Saturday.

I might have gone a little overboard, but hey, it's my first child's first birthday! I had to go all out. Especially since I have all the resources that could help me out here.

My family showed up on Wednesday/Thursday and helped me with everything. It was so awesome to have them here and to help. Like I said before, I went a little overboard on the planning, but it turned out so beautiful I was so happy.

First things first was invitations. My hubby bought me a bamboo pad for my birthday, and it was a huge help in designing the invitation. I may have ripped the original design off someone else.... but I designed and made 100 percent of it. Here it is:

It was so fun to make. I'm so happy I decided to start planning her party so early or I would have been scrambling at the last minute.

After invites, we called our good friend/neighbor down the street (Wayne) who owns a couple ponies. He loves to have them out with kids and such. So just a simple..

"Hey Wayne are you available to bring your ponies by Saturday the 23rd?"
"Yup I'm available!"

And that was that. Ponies for Hallie's party.

Of course I had to have an amazing cake. There are so many cool ideas out there, and let's face it cakes have to be awesome. Good thing I have connections. Really close connections. My sister-in-law Tiana is so talented. She's done everything; weddings, birthdays, umm.. what else do you need cakes for? She's probably done it. She was so awesome to work with. I'm so happy she did it. She even mentioned to me it was her favorite cake to make. Which to me is awesome. I must have amazing taste. haha. I picked a cake I found on the internet. Pinned it. Sent it over to Tiana. Drew a picture with color schemes, and voila! Tiana made magic!

I also found a lady on Etsy who makes the cutest cake toppers. Her store is called RusticHorseShoe (Rena) and I HIGHLY recommend her. I gave her the color scheme and some ideas I had and let her wild with her creative awesomeness. I was so pleased. She got it to me in a timely manner (of course I thought of it 2-3 weeks early, which helps) and she was great to communicate with.

Cake+Topper=  MOST AWESOME CAKE EVER!

Jordan & Jordan went to pick up tables at Tiana's house and when they got back they just looked at me and said, "You are going to love that cake!!"

Which I did, and everyone else did too. :)

I had so many decorating ideas (no thanks to Pinterest you created a monster out of me!!) but I had to narrow down what I really wanted. Jordan and I are poor.. so I had to make most of everything myself.. in a cheap way. I was buying plates at Target (which they had the 2 color of plates I was planning Hallie's party with.. so cool) and I saw these flag banners which I thought were sooo cute! But.. they didn't have the color scheme I wanted so I thought I'd look around more. I saw some at Joanne's but it was over 30 buck and still not the color scheme I wanted. Plus I wanted Hallie's name on the banner. I decided to make it. Jordan was essential to making this happen, he cut all the cardboard out for me. I told him the size and he cut them all out and drilled holes so I could string the banner together. Yay for free boxes. I found the perfect color of scrapbook paper at walmart, 50 pages for 4 dollars! Heck yeah! And then the lettered paper from Micheals which ended up being about 10.

Tiana was also very essential in this part of the process because she has this wonderful tool called a cricket (dont even know if that is spelled right) and it pretty much cuts out whatever you want. So I had all my letters cut by a fancy machine. wahoo. It turned out awesome.

I also had to make Hallie a birthday dress. I saw this dress on pinterest that was to die for, but it wasn't the right size, and I wanted it in her party colors. I pretty much designed the dress myself and figured everything out, and Jordan's mom helped me with the top of the dress to make sure it fit Hallie really well for her big day. It turned out really cute. I was so pleased. She is wearing it for pictures tomorrow!

The last things were tables/chairs/center pieces/balloons. Can I just thank my family so much for helping me with making all the flowers for the centerpieces (I made them out if napkins!!) and for Jordan S., Jordan C., Erin, Kaylie, and Sean for blowing up/hanging/stringing all the balloons. It was a vision that I had that they made come to life! I am so grateful. It was so cool looking. I wish the pictures justified how cool it was. And I would like to thank Joann's for having an amazing sale on tulle. 11 yards for 8 bucks! ya!

Of course the actual party was fun. I felt like a chicken with my head cut off the whole time, but it was worth it. The weather was hot and nice, the food was fabulous, everyone that came contributed a little, and that was so helpful. Thanks everyone! Jordan grilled (which we ran out of propane half way through!! The only bad thing to happen during the party...) the kids rode the ponies all over the yard, we talked, laughed, had cake, and played CORNHOLE! If you don't know this game.. you need to it's awesome!

Presents were so fun.. she hauled! Maya and Tristan opened most of them... haha.. but it was so fun. Hallie opened what she could, and was so excited for all the presents. She has not touched any of her old toys since. haha. She got clothes, foam letters, a baby Stella w/ outfit, a push stroller and some books from Jordan and I. She also got a school bus (probably her most favorite toy she got), another baby, clothes, books, a sound puzzle, a piggy bank (she can already put the coins in herself!!) a sit/stand walker from my parents, Toy Story, more clothes, dresses, small singing doggie with a blanket, and probably more I cannot think of. As I said, she hasn't played with her old toys since. She loves them all.

Hallie was a little bit of a bear, but only because she is getting 5 TEETH RIGHT NOW! oh man the pain that girl must be in, but she was a trooper. Especially when we brought out the cake. She looked at us.. like I can really have this? And dove right in. Her hair looks funny because she pulled out her bows.. of course... but I'm glad she did because she was touching her hair with cake all in her hands so it would have been a ruined bow.

 (Don't you be eyein my cake....bwahaha).

After the cake we filled up her little pool and stuck her in it. She splashed and had a blast. She loves to be naked, so she thought it was awesome.

After swimming/bath in the yard we put her in her jammies and let her play with some of the toys she got, and then gave everyone kisses and headed off to bed.

The party was such a blast and I had so much fun planning it. Thanks to everyone who contirbuted. Jordan and I are so thankful for you! And most importantly...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HALLIE BEAR!

Before it's too late....

I have been terrible about blogging, journaling, scrapbooking, anything that has to do with Hallie. I feel like the only accomplishment I had was blogging about her. And even that has gone at the wayside. I feel terrible I am not tacking her accomplishments, her "milestones." So here it goes. I am going to try to recall everything that I haven't written in the past few months right now, before she is a ONE YEAR OLD! Holy cow. I am not the mother to a ONE year old. Not just yet anyways....

Oh man where do I even begin....

Hallie is an amazing sleeper. I mean legit. She takes 2, 2 hour naps (at least) everyday, goes to bed at seven wakes up at seven like clockwork. I can't count on my hand the amount of times that she has screamed going to sleep. I am one lucky mommy. There have been a couple times in the past month or two when she has woken up in the night whimpering, like she had a bad dream. But all I had to do was pick her up and rock her until she was soothed.

Hallie is a talker. I can not believe how amazing she is. She legit talks. She says, "bye, bye" and waves of course! "Hi, Daddy" "Mom" "No" and "baby".

The first time she waved and said bye bye was sometime in May. I don't know when. I was actually opening our front door to throw some trash out and I opened the door (Hallie is sitting in her high chair) and I hear "bye bye!"and I turn around and she is waving at me. I think that was the first time she said and and used it properly, and she has been doing it ever since. She says it before she goes to bed, and sometimes randomly. But she has learned to open and close her bedroom door and when she closes it she looks at me and says, "bye bye!" waves and shuts the door. Then she opens it and giggles because she thinks she's hilarious.

She probably got the dadadada down at the very first. And now when ever Jordan gets home from work, our front door makes this loud creaking sound and when she hears it, she just knows it's Jordan. She gets a big smile on her face and when Jordan pops his head in Hallie is right on cue, "Hi Daddy!"

The other distinct time I remember her using "Daddy" was at church and we had split from sunday school to relief society and Jordan had left. I was holding Hallie and she didn't want to be held by me. She kept pushing me away and was saying over and over, "dad! dad! dad! dad!" I took her to Jordan and she was content. Little booger.

Mom only gets used when she is mad or wants to be held, unfortunately. But that's ok because she yells for me a lot.

Of course the word No. She only uses it when you try to make her do something she doesn't want to do. She just starts chanting No, no, no, no, and then occasionally throws a mom in there, "no, no, no mom!"

And last, Baby. All children are babies. ages 0-15. Babies. All of them. She loves to stare at them, wave at them, laugh at them. She points to them and whispers, baby. I think she wants to go play and run around. But since she is not running yet she just says baby.

Of course there is the occasional word that she is repeating the sounds that I make so it makes her sound like she is talking. Those words include, "doggie, cracker, oh no, oops, mickey mouse, minnie, daisy, and many more that I can't think of right now. 

Pointing. Oh my goodness she cannot get enough of it. She points at everything. It is helpful when she knows to point at something she wants because I can go get it for her. She points at Jordan when she wants him to hold her. She points at toys. She sometimes just points at my face because it makes her laugh. Her dexterity is amazing to me. I think I have an advanced child.. but maybe I'm just boasting. lol.

Hallie is taking a swim class right now. She is awesome. She loves the water. It helps that the pool is 92-95 degrees. She doesn't even cry when we put her under the water. She gags a little when she comes up, but who wouldn't when they take a gulp full of pool water?

Loves to pull her books off the shelves. Not to look at them. Just to pull them off and throw them on the floor. She thinks its hilarious. She pulls one off, drops it, turns and sees if we are watching her. She starts laughing when she knows we're staring at her.

Hallie hugs her Pooh Bear, and her Lucy Lamb. The only 2 stuffed animals she will hug. And the only 2 things she will hug on command. We stick them in front of her and say give them hugs, and she wraps her arms around them so tight. Or if the are laying on the ground, she will go and lay on top of them and squeeze them. It's probably one of the cutest things I have seen, and the fact that she understands it. We can even just be in the room with pooh bear and say, go give pooh hugs! and she'll crawl up and pounce on him. It's awesome. 

Loves to be naked. She just loves to crawl around in the nude. It's hilarious ( I think I have overused this word in this post, but there is nothing more to explain it!). She will sit on the tile floor even, by her own choice! She is a crazy woman.

She has 3 teeth. Barley three. The third just cut through last week. I'm pretty sure there are about three more to come. Her top gums are looking very, very full.

Hallie will not wear bows, clips, flowers, headbands, ponytails, ANYTHING. The past couple months have been a fight, a loosing one at that. The minute I put anything in her hair, she rips it right out. It stinks! I have all these cute bows I have been wanting her to wear and.. nothing. I might have a tomboy on my hands...

She has the cheesiest smile. She crinkles her nose up and makes her eyes go squinty. She does it mostly in front of people, because they get a kick out of it, and she just loves the attention. It's quite funny to witness.

Has officially stood by herself 3 times. Not holding on to anything just standing alone. We think she is so close to just taking off one day. She loves her baby walker. She can do it all by herself. Stand up to it and push it around. She thinks she is such a big girl. But she is. Who could blame her for thinking it?

She likes to get up on all fours and then put her head on the ground and look back through her legs. It's so funny. Today she even added a leg lift to that, so she was only standing on one leg and her hands, and her head of course.

Hallie dances. She basically just moves her shoulder and belly up and down to songs she likes. Which is mostly to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. 

She is so flexible. I can't even expalin it. She can bend in half. She can do the splits. She can grab her foot and bring it to her head while she is in sitting position. I might have a dancer/cheerleader on my hands!

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I hope that is everything that I need to remember about my little baby before she is a ONE YEAR OLD!

The past year has gone by so fast. I cannot believe it. It has been such a joy to have her in my life!

Busy Busy Bee.

I have been a very busy busy bee!! I have this new years resolution of writing one blog post every week and that has pretty much gone at they wayside. As I write this I am listening to Hallie talk to herself through the monitor because she is just waiting for me to come grab her. Hopefully she'll be ok for a couple more minutes....

Just updating everyone on our lives right now.. super quickly!! Hallie is 11 months old!! AH!! I will write a post specifically about that.. maybe tomorrow.. but she is one crazy woman. We love her so much. Again.. more later.

Jordan and I have been job hunting like crazy. We even applied for a job in Tennessee... He job interviewed for it.. but we got an e-mail today saying they went a different way... It's ok though because Tennessee is very very far away from pretty much everyone, except Cristine. haha. Love you girl! So I guess the point to this is... If you know of a job.. we are looking. And pretty much willing to go anywhere. That's the update for that.

I am planning Hallie's birthday party. And my it is going to be one crazy shindig. I just sent out invitations. So cute. If you don't get one... Sorry. We're only inviting family and a couple close friends because we are doing the food and everything.. so it gets expensive. haha. But we have you in our hearts. But I already have invites done and sent, the cake topper ordered, the cake picked out, the plates (so random), all the fabric for Hallie's birthday dress (it's going to fabulous, thanks Pinterest!), the PONIES! yes ponies. Go big or go home right? It helps that they are free :)

We are in swimming class for Hallie. It is a hoot. She LOVES it. Except that she was getting a tooth the last class so she was grumpy (that makes THREE teeth. Sheesh she's slow). But it's great she been sticking her own face in the water, we stick her on the edge and she falls/jumps into our arms, been crawling around on the stairs and holding onto the handrails all by herself, going all the way under the water, and playing lots of games. She has not cried once. It's been awesome. Pictures and more stories of our little baby to come!!

But that is just a snippet of our lives. More to come. Promise.

Sautter Family

I actually wrote this post about two weeks ago and have been neglecting loading pictures... it's awful.. But I needed to get them up. So here is my post dedicated to the wonderful Sautter Family....

Which Sautter Family do you ask? Well Jordan's brother just older than him, Brant, and his family that is! Macy asked me to do their family pictures and I was so excited. I haven't done a larger family for a couple of months now, and I was excited to get into the groove.

Their family did so awesome. Their kids were all smiling awesome despite the wind. I guess you always have to account for wind living in Idaho. My assistant/husband did so awesome in helping me make the kids smile. There are a couple (Hunter... cough couch) who has some wandering eyes... haha just makes me laugh... but he did awesome. They all did.

I have to say this was probably one of my favorite shoots. My camera acted awesome, I could handle the weather, the kids were great, the parents were ok (haha jk you guys! love you!), Hallie just sat and watched, when I went to edit the colors were so vibrant already I barely had to do anything. It was awesome.

The best part is knowing my clients/family like their photos. Which I know they do, and that is the best part. Knowing you did exactly what you wanted for the family. Everything just came together perfectly. It was awesome.

Thanks Sautter Family for letting me do your pictures! Love you guys!

Here are some of my favorites: