Welcome Taylor Marie...

So, just came across this post from two years ago!  Pretty sad state of my blog!  The saddest part is Kim already has a second baby now!  But I thought I would go ahead and post this anywyas.  Here's the original post:

This past weekend a few girls threw a shower for our friend Kim, who is due Oct. 22nd with sweet Taylor Marie.  We decided to do a "bird" theme.  So we had lots of birds, a bird house, and a wishing tree.

It wa so much fun working with pink - it seems like a lot of my friends lately have been having boys!

 

Here's some shots from the day:

Elaina's 1st Birthday!!!!

I can't believe it has been a year already! So much has happened this past year and the time has passed away so quickly! We are truly blessed with 2 amazing daughters and Elaina has definitely been an absolute joy this past year!!!! It's so wonderful to start seeing her personality coming out now that she's getting older.

This past weekend we just HAD to celebrate the apple of our eye! And we did just that with an Apple of Our Eye Party. (Okay, so this is going to be a picture heavy post - so this is your official warning if you don't want to look at pictures leave now).

As most of you know, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE planning parties!!! And honestly, I think that's on the top of the list called "What I love about being a Mom". I know, it's sad, but at least I'm being honest.

The whole apple theme came to me after looking at some party planning blogs. (do you see a recurring theme? I think Steve is going to hide my laptop so I will stop getting all these ideas off of other blogs!)

So, once I saw the theme, I was hooked. I loved it because it was a little different than what I had seen before. And to top it off, the color scheme matched the colors of my house. So, I was sold!

The search was on for the perfect invite - but after several days of searching I couldn't find the right one! UGH!!! SO ANNOYING!!! Do you ever have those moments when you have a certain idea in your head, but can't find ANYTHING to match that idea? I despise those moments!

Then Holly reminded me about Regina. She's the best photographer in the world and she also does graphic design. YAY!!! My problem was solved! She made me the most awesome invite!

And of course, now that I'm trying to find the picture of it, I can't seem to find it!! I will have to update later with it because it's too awesome to not share!

Okay, I know I'm boring you, so I'll get to the pictures.

This is a copy of one of the pictures our awesome photographer, Regina, took. See, I told you she was the best photographer in the world!

A close up of the mantel. A little later, I'll show you my Goodwill finds that I transformed for the party!

This is the party favor table. This was taken before I sat the candied apples & cake balls out.

This was after the candied apples & cake balls. The cake balls were incredible!!!!! My friend Kenya made them and the birthday cake! I have to say, I have some of the MOST talented friends!!!!

The drink station. We had water, apple juice boxes for the kids (although almost all of them were drank by adults), Paula Dean's lime sherbert punch, and hot apple cider.

The food table! Look at that cake!!! She is so creative!!!

And here's the birthday girl eating her cake!

She loves Kenya's cakes just as much as her mommy does! I always smile when I'm eating them too!

And last but not least, the birthday girl in her birthday outfit!

Another sweet, talented friend made this for her. And then she made Emily a pair of pants that match.

Over all, I think it was a very successful party. Maybe tomorrow I will post some pics of everyone enjoying the party. Now I'm off to go spend some time with my wonderful family! Hope you have a great night!

Surprise...

so, I've been slacking on the blogging lately, but really do have a great excuse! This past week Steve turned the big 3 - 0!!! And I was planning a big surprise for him, so blogging was put on the back burner while I was working on planning a surprise party at night. I never realized how hard it is to keep a secret from someone you live with. Especially when you are trying to figure out decorations & doing lots of the making of the decorations.

But Steve was very surprised!!! He knew we were doing something on Friday night, he just didn't know what. Since we had so much fun in Vegas this summer, I automatically wanted to do something with a "Vegas/Casino" theme. So, it all kind of came together once I came up with the theme.

I have to say, the next party I plan on this scale, I will hire someone to cater the food! The food COMPLETELY stressed me out. In fact, if it wasn't for Holly, I never would have gotten it all finished. Holly & my sister Candy really helped me out! I was running behind the whole day and they stepped in and really helped me get it all put together!

Everyone said they had fun, so the party must have been a success! The picture above is of the awesome cake! Kenya has really out done herself with all her cakes lately! I just told her the theme and the colors I was using and this is what she came up with! She's INCREDIBLE!!!!!Here's lots of other pictures!

This is him as we came in the door. He was so surprised & felt so blessed to have so many friends willing to come hang out with us to celebrate his birthday!

Pictures of more of our friends:

This is the candy bar I set up. It was supposed to be party favors, but we all dug in during the party & then no one wanted to take any home. So, now we have SO much candy at the house! If anybody wants some, let me know!!!

To go along with the theme, I had a friend who knows about card games put together a Texas Hold'em Tournament. Everybody had a lot of fun playing! Some of us didn't really know anything about playing cards, so we sat out. But lots of people really had fun playing. Lots of laughing, moaning, and cheering came from the card tables. Look at that concentration on Mike's face!

And the winner of the tournament....

Now all the decorations & party stuff:

Only one more thing to say - Steve, I love you more than you could ever imagine! I can't wait to celebrate 30 more birthdays with you!