confessions on the blog - i'm freaking out!

yes, i'm freaking out!  why, you ask?  because of this...

see this little fella,  he's cute.  i would even go as far as to say adorable,  but he's a little stinker.

i love him to pieces.  he's the funniest little thing around,  but he's a pistol.  this face he is making above, that's the face he does when he doesn't want you to see him.  he thinks if he closes his eyes he's invisible to the world.

he's cute alright and he knows it.  so, what's the problem?  why am i freaking out?

 the problem is, he is a total mama's boy and that's why i am freaking out!

 baby grady will be making an appearance into this world in approximately 16 weeks and i have got to get this little fella out of diapers (which he is totally opposed to) and sleeping on his own.   i've tried.  i've bribed.  i've pleaded.  but, this one oh no, this one is stubborn.  the thing is i can usually handle stubborn.

but, not this one.  he's quite the challenge and my patience is being tried.  he's lucky he has those eyes

and that smile or else.  well, i don't know what else.  but,  you get it right?  wouldn't you be freaking out?  because i am freaking out!  or maybe i'm just a freak who is tired,  sleep deprived and totally hormonal and making a big deal out of nothing.  i guess we will find out in 16 weeks.  oh my gosh,  16 weeks!  see, i'm freaking out.

gare + heidi: a photo sequence

i am completely convinced that every party needs a photo booth or an area to take pictures of friends and family. we recently did this for my girl's 7th birthday party and i am pretty sure it will now be a tradition for every party we have. we captured some of our most precious friends and some memorable moments. if you want to view some of the fun you can go here, but for now i have to share the session i caught between these two cuties. of course, you know my little fella, but this cute little miss is his dear friend heidi. these two are truly buds. they ask for play dates with each other and they always play really well together. heidi's older sister is friends with avery and the two big kids have actually planned a wedding for these two littles. hmmmm.... i don't know if it will ever actually happen, but these photo's would definitely be a hit at there wedding. maybe someday...

i love everything about these photo's and will cherish them forever even if these two don't get married. but, it would sure be fun if they did. check back in 20 years.

from trash to toys

this little fella found some scraps of wood in the mister's shop and put them to use as a race track for some of his hot wheels. who needs store bought toys when you can just dig in the trash to find some fun, right? sounds good to me. i'm all about creativity and natural resources, so i game. lets play...

on celebrating him + a charlie brown birthday

2 weeks ago we were finally able to celebrate our little fella's 2nd birthday. i say finally because this little fella turned 2 way back in february and we had to reschedule his party 3 times due to illnesses and rain. it seriously has been one heck of a season, but that's a whole other story. so rain or shine we were having our charlie brown birthday party for our little fella. and, of course it rained. like not just a drizzle or a sprinkle, but full on down poor. we were sticking true to our theme because wouldn't that be charlie browns luck, to rain on his birthday? i think so. so, we went with it. thankfully we have this home now and we are able to fit more than a handful of people in here. it was time to celebrate. it didn't go exactly as i planned (something i am learning just to let go of), but it went and we had fun. take a look...

the birthday boy

the party favor table. i wanted to keep it simple with a homemade touch. the little miss and fella colored most of the decorations we used on the tables. we used recycled food jars wrapped with black rick rack as vases.

we made black/white chocolate chip cookies we called "snoopy snacks".

and homemade playdough stamped with a 2 and the letter G.

the food table consisted of a lot of sugary goods. just for fun i took most of the goods that snoopy served in "a charlie brown thanksgiving". i added some peppermint patties to the mix, as well as some hostess chocolate cupcakes because they just had that classic look i was going for. and the mister made a yellow + black paper chain to hang around his handmade birthday sign.

as you may know, when you throw a party for your little one or anyone for that matter, you hardly see them through the day. so after the party we took some of these shots...

mama + g

dada + g

our little charlie brown family

today he's two

two years ago today our little fella came into our lives.

it was such a happy day for our whole family.

this little guy continues to bring us happiness everyday.

he is such a joy to be around even when he is being the ornery

little stinker that he is. i am so thankful to be his mama,

i can't imagine my life without him and look forward to being

his mama for the rest of my life. i love you little fella.

here are a few of my favorite photo's from the last two

years of his life. happy birthday big boy...