Event Planner, Photographer, Family girl

I have a decision to make. I hate making decisions.


First, let me say that I value my time with my friends and family. I lead a relatively busy life and always welcome the joy and laughter that comes with gathering with people I enjoy being around. It's one of the reasons why I quit medicine. I just couldn't be at the beck and call of a hospital... not, when cousins are graduating, babies are being born, and my older aunts and uncle go on to become ancestors.

On a slightly unrelated note, I also have a love for planning a great party. Maybe it's the design, or the decor,  or maybe it's the good times that a good party can bring. You can tell by the effort that I put into my son's first birthday party- I like to do it up for a shindig.

Earlier this year I was asked to work on a party for a close family member of mine. She was turning

Mother's Day re-cap

Ahhh! Mother's Day weekend. Am I the only persons who celebrates "Mother's Day weekend" as opposed to just Mother's Day? I'm not trying to be selfish or anything and extend the celebration- but over the years Mother's Day has become a weekend celebration for a number of reasons.

1. Sunday's are hard to deal with. We are regular church-goers and so we spend most of the morning there. Then we have a tendency to "end" Sunday's a little early because you have to get ready for Monday- be it getting lunches together or just going to bed at a decent hour in an attempt to be well rested- Sunday evening aren't really for celebrating. Unless you have a three day weekend then Sunday's are for partying!

 Anyway- back to my point. 

2. We have also come to celebrate throughout the weekend because my family has grown considerably since I got married. Instead of just celebrating my mom and aunts, I now have my Mother-in-Law and Sister-In-Law to celebrate as well! The more the merrier :)

Whoa. This is happening!

Birthday on Birthdate

Birthday week continues with more recapping of our celebrations... I told you first birthdays are a big deal.

So on the day of his actual birthdate, we did a bit of minor celebrating.

Honestly, I couldn't believe a year had passed. I survived my first year of parenthood and had a healthy, happy baby to show for it. I woke up that morning feeling grateful and in awe. We still had to get ready for church but I took a peaceful and quite moment to Thank God for one of my greatest blessings. I was counting down the minutes until 10:08 am when my little guy would officially turn one. At the moment the clock struck 10:08 I scooped him up in my arms and sang Happy Birthday to him. Then I cried. It was a joyous moment for me reflecting on his birthday and how it had gotten a little scary for a bit but we made it through.

I think I sang Happy Birthday to him 20 more times that day.


At church that day, there was a special function

Birthday party in pictures

the fun stuff.

Okay this is what you really care about. All the drama and hoopla is overshadowed by the fact that my little guy, my baby boy turned 1!!!! And trust me, you'll want to read this one to the end :D The party planner in me LOVES this part. So many people told me they were impressed and thought it was cute.

Ok, so here are the deets. Every birthday boy needs a birthday shirt, right?

1st Birthday Party In Words

**from 9/9/12**

I can't believe this day has come and gone in the blink of an eye. It was almost as fast as my wedding day. I didn't have much time to reflect and be sappy about things because we were in the midst of so many changes. However, I will admit that I had been planning this for months- or at least coming up with ideas. I wish I had done a few things sooner but you live and learn.

Theme:

For this momentous occasion, I chose a Dr. Seuss theme.

Happy SECOND Birthday!!!

Wow! This day has come a little faster than I had hoped. But nonetheless I am so happy that it is here!!!

Much to my dismay- I'll probably be going to work for the first half of the day then  from there we'll be playing it by ear. However, I have some much awaited posts scheduled for this week- it's birthday week here and I am so excited (cause you know my birthday is only 5 days away). I'm going to be sharing all the details of my son turning one hopefully to be followed up by all the details of him turning two (although I doubt it- just look at my track record).

Please take a moment and give my little guy a Happy Birthday shout out in the comments below- I know he'll be thrilled!

31 years

31 years is a long time. At least for me it is. Heck, it's longer than I've been alive! Do you know what you can accomplish in 31 years- you could pay off a mortgage in that amount of time... but I digress.

I don't know much about what happened on this day 31 years ago although I have heard awesome stories about the events surrounding that day.

Birthday Wishes

I'm interrupting my blogging hiatus with a shout out to my hubby.

I'd like to wish you the happiest of birthday's and many many many more to celebrate! You are an amazing, wonderful, caring man who I am happy to have in my life. Love you bunches and I hope you enjoy your day :)

Easter Weekend

For the past 4 years my Easter weekend has always started with Maundy Thursday and Ended with Resurrection Sunday. I worked at a Catholic institution and while I am not Catholic 'Holy Week' is one of several things that the two sectors of the Christian faith share.

This year is different. I am now at a public institution so religion has nothing to do with anything :( I did however, at the last minute, decide to shift my schedule around and have Good Friday off.

Father's Day

I have a secret: the only reason I remembered to post about my Mother's Day is because I realized I never posted about Father's Day!

So here is our Father's Day re-cap photo dump. Now normally we would spend the day before Father's Day with hubby's family but we had a lot going on that weekend so this time EVERYONE headed over to my sister-in-law's for dinner which included my mom, dad, and brother =) It was so much fun spending time with everyone all together.

I feel bad that I didn't have the time to make hubby Father's Day breakfast- so I owe him one. But this time we made it to church on time. The problems started after church and the length of a meeting that I got sucked into. I'm not sure why the committees at my church INSIST on holding meetings on days like Father's Day I know these people have Father's in their lives to celebrate. So dinner was off to a way late start. But we all made it- and the rest of the evening looked like this...


Dads are in the pool while moms are on the grill...

I must note that my sister-in-law's pool is heated. So although it was 75 degrees outside it was 80 degrees in the water.

So my husband has this shirt that says "have you seen my zombie". Whenever you ask him this question this is the outcome...

The little guy had macaroni and cheese for the first time. I swear this is his "i like it' face!

Quality father son time

Trying not to burn dinner

This was me and the little guy's first time having s'mores! Yea, you read that right...

I love ending nights like this

And better late than never but Happy First Father's Day to my hubby...

And Happy First Grandfather's Day to my dad...

Mother's Day

I recently recieved the pleasure of celebrating my very first Mother's Day. If you know me then you know I was emotional all weekend! I can't believe that I am now a part of this elite group :)

My weekends are usually pretty hectic. And this particular weekend was no different. We had just gotten back into town (which I'm still not able to blog about just yet) so I was what you call 'travel tired'. You know that type of tired you get from slinging suitcases, travel documents, and sitting for any number of hours in kind of closed quarters. But I still got up at 7:30 am to make it to my Zumba class that's being held at my church. Zumba starts at 8 am every Saturday for 13 weeks (I miss sleeping in). After Zumba then men of my church hosted their annual Mother's day breakfast. Let me tell you- those guys can throw down in the kitchen! We had everything from fish and grits to turkey sausage and salmon cakes. I basically undid any progress I made at Zumba, lol! We had so much fun stuffing our faces! Plus I was able to catch up with a few people that I haven't been able to have a pow-wow with in a while.

We always spend the Saturday before Mother's Day with hubby's mom. She was extra excited this year because she had another grandbaby to celebrate with. We all met at hubby's sister's house for lunch. It was a perfect 80 degrees outside.

Isn't this awesome?! They have an in-ground heated pool so it really wasn't ridiculous that we went swimming! This was baby boy's full on first time in the pool. The last time we went "swimming" he just put his feet in because I forgot his swimmies (swim diaper). This time I remembered everything- sunscreeen, swimmies, and the most adorable new swimmer ever! Im not sure who had more fun- him or his dad! As long as dad was holding him- he had a blast!

He even got to play 'ball' with the big boys

After loads of good times, eating, and laughs, we ended the night. But not before enjoying some time by the fire.

Sunday morning, I was greeted by the best Mother's Day smile ever! I really enjoy waking up to my guys everyday. We headed off to church- really, really late. We did manage to get in some whole wheat pancakes and sausage for breakfast. But being late for church really threw me off because- my little guy and I performed for Mother's Day!

I did a poem about a Mother's Love:

Oh my little one I love you with a Mother's love

I pray my Mother's love will understand your tears
will soothe your disappointments and calm all of your fears.

I pray my Mother's love will share the joys you feel
When something you  have dreamed about quite suddenly becomes real.

I pray my Mother's faith will help you on life's way
And inspire you in confidence you'll need from day to day.

For a Mother's heart, and a Mother's faith, and a Mother's steadfast love
were fashioned by Angels and sent from God above

~author unknown


We both did pretty well- but I think he stole the show :) Everyone thought it was so adorable that all he wanted to do was play with the mic.

After church we headed over to my parents house for Mother's Day dinner, which I have absolutely no pictures. And since it took me forever and a year to post this I have absolutely no idea what we even had for mother's day dinner :(

I'm still in awe that I am now able to celebrate Mother's Day as a mommy :) It's a good thing that I wrote down last year's pre-mother's day celebration because my memory clearly serves no purpose.

Merry Christmas!!!

From our house to yours!

Weekend Wrap Up

So, Friday was my last day half-day at work according to the summer schedule posted by my job- so I thought. I went to the doctor that afternoon because- I needed to know what was going on with my body and the baby. While everything checked out okay- she put me on a reduced work schedule for now. So now every day is a half day! This is really good because I feel like I'll be more focused to do more tasks both at home and at work.

Saturday was a day I had been waiting for and just last week I anxiously awaited Saturday even more! First we had a scheduled 3D/4D ultrasound. O boy! I could not contain my excitement from the day I made the appointment. I remember running around my friends house in Illinois (which I realized that I didn't go into great detail about) making sure everyone was going to be available to come- yep it was that type of party. We spent so much time bothering this little one we were able to see that baby has dimples! Although now I think we spent so much time trying to wake baby up- s/he will get us back when baby is outside the belly.

After which we had a few things to do including looking at a house that will be for sale soon. My husband's good friend knows the family that is selling it and they wanted us to get the first look to see if we would be interested before the 'general public'. I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures to show you all because a) they were in the process of setting it up for an estate sale they are having next week or so b) you really wouldn't have been able to get the gist of the home and c) I'm sure it would have looked really weird.

Then came the really fun stuff... dinner with the family! My dad's birthday celebration continued with a limo ride into 'The City'




My mom took this- not that it's bad mom it's just that the door is open :/


We ate a family favorite seafood restaurant and it was the.best.ever. I was still slacking on my picture taking duties and my mom basically took charge of the camera for the night (thank god- even though I tease her incessantly about it).

I love food *sigh*

Crab legs, lobster, shrimp, ribs, onion rings, rice... heavenly.

We stayed at my parents house until 2 am laughing, joking, eating, and just having fun. On Sunday, I stayed home. The weather was crappy, the baby was heavy, and I just couldn't get myself together. When i finally did come around I was able to get a little bit of housework done. Hubby continued to work on the baby's nursery in the process discover more problems :/

We are getting so close to baby's due date and I never thought I could be excited and nervous at the same time! I can't wait to see what next weekend brings :D

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Okay, so this particular birthday wish comes a day late to my blog.

My dad's birthday was actually yesterday- but we were so busy celebrating that I didn't get to post about it and tell the world!

Dad's birthday celebration began last week when we surprised him by stopping at the Professional Football Hall of Fame on the way to our family Reunion.

We kept the party going by giving him his now most beloved man toy (I think I want one now!)

Last night my mom, dad, brother, and I reconvened at my parent's house for some of my moms good home cooking :) and baking :) My husband is insanely jealous because I left his piece of cake at my parent's by accident (I claim pregnancy brain on that one).

This weekend we get to keep celebrating because my parents, aunts, cousins, husband, and sibling are going to dinner! I am so excited. I love hanging out with these guys- it's always full of laughs.

Dear Dad,

(because I know you are reading this) I love you more than words can say. I'm sure you enjoyed your birthday celebration over the past week and I told you that you had no idea :) I hope you have many many more birthdays to share with your new grandchild (and the rest of the family too). Love you much!