Baby E's First Birthday Party {A Pumpkin, Pink, Gold, Burlap & Lace Rustic Vintage Chic Birthday Party}

Can anyone else believe that we celebrated Baby E's FIRST birthday party with family and friends last week? Does it not seem like just yesterday we

announced

that we were expecting our little bundle of joy? I didn't even really

know

that little bundle of joy then. I felt her, I felt a bond and a deep connection, but I didn't

know know

her if you know what I mean. Our lives have been so blessed in this past year with getting to know, love, and bond with the best thing to ever happen to us. It truly is amazing.

So to celebrate the first year of her life was something we were looking forward to - in that bittersweet way. We wanted it to be memorable for her, for us and for those that love her. And let her look back on photos to know how special her first birthday was to everyone around her. She had a blast, to say the least.

We went with a pumpkin fall festival theme. Including a pumpkin patch for pumpkin painting,  sack races, ring toss, fall eats & treats, carnations and baby's breath filled mason jars, pinata bashing, and cake smashing. A pumpkin, pink, gold, burlap and lace rustic chic birthday party fit for a chic little gal.

She loved every last pumpkin, carnation, and grain of glitter she could find. But more importantly, she loved all the family and friends who came to celebrate her day with us, in person or in spirit :)

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Let's start with the details, shall we? Momma love her some details!

(Purchase Invitation Personalized Digital File

Here

!!)

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And let's finish with the moments. Each and every special moment - complete with soccer playing, kids sack racing, adults sack racing,

falling on our asses

, kids drinking glass bottle root beers to look like they are in the 21+ crowd, painting pumpkins with a blob of mixed up metallic paints under twinkle lights, sparkler twirling, chowing down on pulled pork sandwiches, crock-pot chili & Chick-fil-A nuggets, and oohing-and-aahing over our pride and joy who is beautifully growing up. I'd say it was a day spent well!

Baby girl dug into her cake, until she realized it was easier to just nix the hands and smash her face directly into the cake. Much easier, right?! Mmmm!

We ended the evening with some sparklers under twinkling lights and happy goodbyes to family and friends.

And maybe even some beer pong under a twinkly light arena.

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Baby girl's first birthday party was certainly memorable, fun, and magical. It was quite the celebration of the first year of our beautiful girl's life and I am thankful for how much fun she had and for how loved she is :)

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And once again, HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY to our little love!

Little Friends.

This past week we celebrated with an old friend. There was, however, nothing to really celebrate -- aside from the fact that it was just simply that time to catch up, reminisce, and gaze around to examine just how our lives have evolved from where our friendship all began. So to us, that's celebrating.

Celebrating friendship! And how that friendship has evolved from younger wild days to babies laughing and screaming together, breastfeeding, and sharing mommy stories. Oh goodness!



And celebrating how our little ones will grow as friends any time we get together to pick right back up where we left off.





These friends of ours -- oh, the places we've been! The things we've seen, have been through together, and have spoken about only happen in a friendship like this. And that includes all of the absolute craziness and ridiculously stupid things we have done together. The college life will do that to ya! Those times just add a little piece of flair to the masterpiece that makes up our friendship.



To witness each other's lives transform into families has also been one of the many pieces of flair that add depth to our masterpiece.



How fun it is to reflect on those times -- drunken nights, memorable vacations, Florida State graduations, engagements, career paths, marriages, pregnancy announcements, and the births of our children whom are still on the way. Baby girl #3 on the way for those folks! And to think of how our future visits with them will go will only be more memorable and crazy as our families expand to add more craziness to the mix. Oh Lawdy, they will be full of excited parents, NO tequila, happy-to-see-each-other-kids who will eventually bicker about nothing that matters, and all of us creating memories. With some of the biggest steps in life taken alongside these friends, there's no turning back now!



Yup, I'm sappy. And sentimental. And somehow I'm able to bring those qualities out of them once in a while in between our crazy, sarcastic, and faux southern-speaking antics.

Hopefully, our babies will feel the same about each other, minus the drunken times and faux-southern accents. Gotta teach them babies right! ;) (which means teaching them better grammar than that last 'sentence')



We're still in the middle of some of life's biggest milestones -- and it's safe to say we are all excited to see where each other end up. And in between our life milestones, we watch each other's babies reach milestones.







Although our lives are strutting along in their own crazy separate pathways, there are so many similarities that keep us moving along together.

Like our hubby's being some of the busiest men we know (yet they still make time to catch up with each other). And we both get lonely at times, so visits to each other are essential. Which is exactly how this past week brought us together. And even though they can be some of the busiest men, we are proud wives, and thankful for all that our hubby's do for us and our babies. Shout out to you wonderful Daddy's :) Even with her husband miles away (and mine leaving soon), she still spoke the words of how "lucky we are to have great husbands who are such good Daddy's." We really are :)


She already gets excited for Daddy to come home from work :)



Cheers to old friends, good friends, and little friends!

simply enjoying

Amidst the chaotic details of everyday life, I'm loving the chance to kick back and simply just enjoy living in the now. Just simply enjoying my (busy) husband, my beautiful baby, my playful pup, our great friends, and everything in between. The calming scent of candles nestled in the perfectly dim lit living room call for just my kind of night -- even if they only happen few and far between.  The wide open windows welcoming fresh air and that 'feel-good' scent of freshly laundered clothes call for just my kind of day -- again, even if they only happen few and far between. When I stop to truly just enjoy simple pleasures like this, it makes everything else in life that much better.

The sound of my girl's soft cries seriously sound like music to my ears at times. It reminds me just how blessed I am to have her here. And my soaking wet pants after getting peed on by her before a bath -- well that's okay because I know my baby is about to love every moment of her warm bath, and following that, a yummy smelling cuddly baby, and soon after that, freshly laundered jeans, of course.  And when we realize at 8pm that we've accidentally skipped dinner, well it's no big deal because we'll just find something quick to eat in the house (like a fluffernutter!) and that gives us more time to just be. And just enjoy. Days where I'm able to just kick back and think like this -- oh they are wonderful. (...and don't we wish we could all think like this every day?! Easier said than done, yes, but oh so wonderful when they happen!)



I've been enjoying: Days at the park, Bachelor night with friends, watching my husband solve his Rubik's cube over and over again (because he can* after years of having it), reading to my girl and teaching her things I shouldn't be teaching her for another 4 years because she has no clue what I'm talking about, after dinner milkshakes, DIY projects, doing a little photography research so I can hopefully one day master the art, Blue Moons with a fresh orange slice, the fact that I'm able to pump while blogging right now thanks to the hands-free pumping bra that Baby E got me for Christmas, homemade chicken fried rice, day dreaming about all the future DIY projects I'd love to tackle, watching Grizz let himself in and out of the house to bask in the sun (mostly out, he still hasn't mastered the getting back in thing),  and I think the thing I've been enjoying most are my mid-morning naps on the couch cuddling with Baby E + 2 homemade blankets (1 new and 1 old).
*thanks to internet tutorials

It's all about the little things, lately. As I've said before, the little things take me far.













A picnic in the park on a Sunday? Yes, please!



Me = Simply enjoying! For now, at least :)

Baby girl went to sleep at 8:30 tonight and I may be setting myself up for a rough night after this happy happy joy joy post, but hey, if a rough night follows a few wondrous days, I'm okay with that!

What is it that you've been enjoying lately? Take the time to ponder that ;)

100

100...
...blog posts I will have written once finished with this...woohoo!
...times I heard the word y'all this weekend
...girly onesies I've probably washed, dried, and folded in the past week
...times I said "aww.." while gawking at baby girl things at the shower
...dollars spent on just terribly good fried food between all of us at the fair
...times I thought 'holy crapppp, my feet are killing me'
...percent of awesomeness this weekend brought!!

Amen to that!

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I hope the start of October has greeted everyone with cool weather, fall foliage, and all the fall scents you can sniff up! The weather has justttt started to dip a little, but that sun shining keeps things from cooling off too much.  Today was actually beautiful and cool, with long sleeves on during a walk at the park.  I'm still waiting on that fall foliage, though. With the weather beginning to cool down, pup loooves being outside.  His current obsession: frisbees. He even sneaks them down from the table when he thinks we're not watching. Silly pup.



Oh yeah, and just look at how I've been spending my days....cleaning and organizing. I know there's usually a point where a pregnant woman 'nests' and of course that is what my husband thinks I am doing. But let me assure you that I have not reached that point yet. I still do not feel like doing this stuff, I just know I have to and I've been putting it off for a while. Once the nesting phase does set in, I will be excited, because I know there is more to be cleaned and organized to get ready for baby to come and family to be here!

This is just the newborn-3 month stash -- it sure does help having 2 baby nieces :)


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Our wonderful friends (or should I say Erica) wanted to throw us a little baby shower here in Georgia and came up with the most clever idea for a shower in which she knew most out-of-town family/friends would not be able to attend. She told me she was having something for us (a small co-ed get together) but that she would not share any further details.  And what she came up with was so creative -- and so appropriate for us :)




There was delicious food and treats catered to my liking, yummy punch, and incredibly cute DIY gifts made from the heart! Our friends here are awesome :)



How adorable is this diaper wreath and equally as important -- those amazing DIY baby shoes made by Erica! I am so in love with them!


Some of our wonderful gifts -- and that quilt made by Erica.. holy adorable! Not quite sure who will like it more -- mommy or baby?!


The idea here was for anyone who wanted to participate to send her a baby photo of themselves, a onesie, and a children's book.  She then created a banner, hanging each person's baby photo from it with clothespins, and placed their wrapped gifts above their photo on the mantle. Erica would hand J and I a baby photo for us to guess who the gift was from, and if we couldn't figure it out, then the gifts might help us to know. The idea was so unique and wonderful.  It made opening the gifts a game, and left us with an awesome stock of children's books that I was almost ready to go buy myself! I LOVED it!!



It was a great way to incorporate family and friends who couldn't attend. Loved having them 'there'!


Grandma's baby photo on the left and Mom's on the right..


Books and onesies!! Yayy :) And those 3 on the bottom left -- the author of those would be my husband :) Made back in elementary school!


Thank you, thank you, thank you! A very big thank you to our sweet friends Erica and Courtney for all you did to put on this wonderful shower! And thank you to everyone who participated and made it such a fun day for us! Oh, and must give credit to Eric here as well. He must be included :)

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We were also lucky enough to have friends in town! Dana, Dave, Rachel, and Anna graced us with their presence Saturday morning and we all got to watch the Seminoles together that night after the shower. What a sad, sad loss it was after our sweet little winning streak we had going. Aside from the loss, it was fun having friends around to hang out, including Ugo who also stayed the night.

The next morning we all headed to the Georgia National Fair and met up with the Clausons. It was a b-e-a-utiful day!



If you're unfamiliar with that fair, you must be missing out -- because well, it's a big deal round these parts. Anywhere I go, all anyone talks about is 'The Fair.' Well, it was pretty sweet! And huge! And tough to walk around after a few hours for this nearly 9 month pregnant momma! But it was worth it -- or at least the carny food was worth it!




Ugo's first go at fried Oreos. Oh. So. Delicious!


Baby faces at the fair make me smile..how fun for them!



And well, Fall 'anything' also makes me smile!





Must check out the world's largest live rat...obviously.





I must say that the fair lived up to all the hype it gets around here. It was wonderful, even with my feet swelling up to give me sausage-looking toes. Gross. But it definitely did not disappoint. Friends, fair, feel-good weather, and food that lives up to the carny food taste we know and love.


Georgia National Fair..you were wonderful :)

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On another note, I promise to get a 35 week post up before I hit 36 weeks in a few days. We've been busy in the best possible way here.

Happy, happy fall! And happy official one month left until my due date! And happy 100th blog post!

All that happiness calls for a photo of one adorable pup that brings mucho happiness to our home year round!! We love him :)