Isaiah photo shoot

Last week, I dressed Isaiah in THE cutest little outfit (courtesy of big bubba's hand-me-downs) so I had to snag some photos! Theo said Isaiah looked "country" and I took that as a compliment :) What do you think?

Celebrating two years!

Olivia is two years old today! I still remember bringing her home from the hospital and how ecstatic I was to have the daughter I always knew I would.

I never dreamed I'd have as beautiful of a daughter as Olivia has turned out to be. Her smile truly lights up the room.

I wrote Olivia's birthday letter tonight but wanted to share what she's been up to this past year.  Olivia, my precious girl, at two years old you:

-are such a joy to have around....at least most of the time!

The past six months have been up and down but the more you learn to talk and communicate, the happier you are. You are talking in two to three word sentences and are so proud when you learn new words. You have such dramatic facial expressions which I imagine you mimic from me.

-are such a little caregiver. You love on Isaiah and when he fusses, you try and "shhhh" him and calm him down. Just today, momma wasn't feeling too great this afternoon, and when I said that out loud, you immediately came over and put your hand on my forehead to see if I had a fever!

-are still a pretty adventurous eater but your appetite has slowed down lately. Last week, you ate homemade baked kale chips, which I couldn't believe! You aren't usually afraid to try new things.

-are into EVERYTHING these days! You are such a little daredevil and somehow are a magnet for off-limit things (like coloring all over the walls, dining room table, you name it). The other day, I caught you in the bathroom and you looked like a smurf! At first I thought you had covered yourself with your toothpaste but when I smelled what it was, I immediately knew it was Isaiah's selsun blue shampoo!!! You climbing all over the tables, both coffee and dining room. I blame it on your big brother!

-weigh about 24 pounds we think. You are wearing 2T clothes and still some 18-24 month clothes. You were a size 6 shoe and wear a size 4 diaper when you do wear disposable.

-are finally sleeping through the night most nights. Occasionally you get a little help (aka Benadryl) but it's okay with Dr. Lisa, so it's okay with me! If only I could give your baby brother some *sigh*..... You take a 2-3 hour nap on the days we're home but if we're out, you're usually good to go with a little catnap in the car.

-are quite the aggressive little girl! At the gym, you are often taking toys from other kids. When you see someone with something you want, you have no problems chasing that person around in order to try and get it. You don't take no for an answer most times!

-are so strong-willed and independent which often causes you much frustration!

-when you are happy, you are THE sweetest thing. I can't get enough of you. You love giving and receiving affection and are such a daddy's girl! He's wrapped so tight around your finger but shhhh, we won't tell him that!

Olivia, we love you more than we could ever tell you! Our lives would be incomplete without you. You bring such liveliness to our house and such a prissy priss. We pray you will do great things with your life. We trust God has a great plan for you and we want to help you reach your full potential in the Lord. I hope I raise you to be a woman, wife, and mother after God's own heart. You are so precious to us and we love you more than the whole world!

A Very Veggie Party {Part two}

What food is more appropriate for a Veggie Tales party than....you guessed it: veggies! :) Fortunately for our guests, we opted for real burgers instead of veggie burgers. Theo was kind enough to man the grill and grilled burgers and hot dogs. We had a veggie tray with ranch dip (in an orange bell pepper)

spinach appetizers (not homemade!)

I made crockpot beans and we had veggie chips!  But the show stoppers, if I do say so myself, were the cupcakes:

I got the idea from a book I have called, "Hello Cupcake". They are just chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, crushed up oreos for the "dirt", and chewy jolly ranchers and starbursts for the "veggies". How cute are these?!!!!

A Veggie Tales Party

{Part one}

This past weekend, we celebrated Carter's 5th and Olivia's 2nd birthday party! Since Carter decided last year to have a Veggie Tales party last year they both love Veggie Tales, we thought this would be the perfect theme for a boy and girl party.

I started perusing blogs over the summer while I was in Louisiana looking for party ideas. I found this one and this one  and ran from there. The jumping off point though was probably these vegetable baskets my mom found on one of our trips to Hobby Lobby in Louisiana:

Did I mention they were on clearance? You can't see them in this picture, but I also got yellow shovels at HL on clearance too. My mom saved the day by bringing packets of vegetable seeds (carrots and cucumbers). I tried 4 stores here last week and they had all sent their seeds back. I was so worried. What good would a shovel do if there were no seeds to plant! But it was all okay. I'm thankful it doesn't get cold down south until January :) I made the tags for the baskets on my scrapbook computer program.

And in addition to the shovels, and seed packets, Theo found some Veggie Tales fruit snacks at the grocery store! Score!!! I also had a large apoethcary jar filled with "veggie mix" (aka skittles with the purples ones picked out) and had each family fill up some bags to take home.

Ok, so next were the party decorations. I kept them really simple and used fresh produce as the cast of characters.

My mom had the idea of dipping pretzel rods into green candy melts and that's how Junior Asparagus came to be:

I also wrapped the forks and spoons in green and red napkins, tied them with twine, and put them in a flower pot.

I bought a set of 12 mason jars for the adults to use and cut out rectangular chalkboard labels and stuck them on the jars. The kids all had plastic cups from Micheals with chalkboard labels too. The only thing about the labels is that they were hard to write on once the jars got wet and our guests kept wiping off their names when they picked up the jars. Will have to find another solution for the next party but I LOVED using mason jars.

Stay tuned for the food and the rest of the party details later this week!

Carter is FIVE!!

This is always an extra special day for me. It's the day I became a mom. Theo became a dad. We welcomed our firstborn into the world with widely opened arms. What an exciting day it was. I will never regret not finding out the gender of our baby. It was THE greatest surprise to find out we were having a son....someone to pass down the family name. We never knew how much a heart could love until we saw our little Carter man for the first time.

The past five years have flown by! I can't believe the baby I brought home from the hospital almost five years ago is the same one who just started kindergarten. It makes me want to hold him close and not let go.

Each year, in lieu of a birthday card, I've written Carter (and Olivia and will do for Isaiah too) a letter. I hand write them out but wanted to share for posterity's sake what Carter is doing these days.

At five years old, Carter, you are THE smartest boy I know. You have such a love of learning and have enjoyed school already immensely. You are reading independently and daddy and I are amazed the words you know. Once you see a word, you don't usually forget it. You are writing and drawing all the time but sometimes need help writing your letters the correct way.

You spend hours during the week drawing and coloring. You create things all the time. Just yesterday, you built a cardboard house with a roof, chimney, people inside of it and even drew windows, doors and a doorbell on it! You love playdoh and moon doh and love the cut and glue anything you can get your hands on.

You are now starting to get away from your usual shows on t.v. and have discovered PBS. You love the show Super Why. We got you a super why kit for your birthday that included a mask, cape, and why writer and you've hardly taken that thing off since your party!

Lately, you are really into quantifying things. You are always asking me "How many is sixty?" Will Omaw stay for one hundred seven thirty two years?" You love coming up with the biggest number possible and want me to measure everything!

You love playing outside and are really into having playdates. You ask me every week to have a playdate with at least one or two of your friends. We love that you are so social!

You are such a good big brother (most of the time!) You love on Isaiah every day and tell him as much. You usually are pretty sweet to your sister but when she's acting like a diva, you're not such a huge fan of her :) You are generally a really good kid and are such a huge helper to us.

We love you so much Carter and are so blessed to be your parents! Happy birthday sweet man!!!

Are you ready for some football?

Saturday we had Carter and Olivia's birthday party! I'll post pictures as soon as I can go through and edit them all (100 plus of them!)

Saturday night was the first LSU football game of the season! In the spirit of a true Southerner that I am, I decked Carter and Olivia out in their LSU gear from grandpa. Olivia loved wearing her little cheerleading outfit and didn't want to take it off when bath time rolled around (despite how uncooperative both of them were for picture time!)

(Oh, and in case you are wondering...a week ago, Olivia was following me outside, tripped over the threshhold of the door, and skidded her face across the concrete. This picture looks MUCH better than it did that day. Poor thing had blood all over her face but I think it made me more upset than it did her!)

Theo and I were able to have a date night (thanks to Omaw being in town and staying home with all three) so we headed downtown to watch the rest of the LSU game and see them kick Oregon's tail!!!! Geaux Tigers!!! Thanks dad so much for making us die hard LSU fans (well, except for Theo of course) and thanks to Omaw for letting Theo and me have a great date night! Can't wait for the rest of the football season. I love the SEC!!!

7 months old!

Friday, Isaiah turned seven months old! He's changed so much in the past month, growing and sitting, and moving! We'll blink and we'll be celebrating his first birthday. Hard to believe.

At seven months old, Isaiah, you:

-weigh about 16 pounds I think

-not sure how long you are as you won't go for another check-up until 9 months

-LOVE to eat! You are nursing on a really good schedule now for the most part and at least Monday through Friday. Carter being in school has really forced us all to be on a routine. You nurse around 7-10:30-1:30-4:00-7:30 (give or take a half hour)

-get baby food two to three times a day. So far, you've had banana, avocado, peaches, pears, apples, squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, mixed veggies of corn, green beans, and carrots (once), brown rice, oatmeal. You LOVE the baby food and so far, you've only had two non homemade jars (except the cereal which I am not making at home!)

-still wake up a few times a night but at least once or twice a week, you have a seven hour stretch of sleep and it makes mommy feel like a new person

-are sitting up by yourself but I'm always close by in case you topple over!

-are spinning around all over the floor on your tummy but not crawling just yet

-wear a size 3 diaper when you're in disposables which is about half of the time these days

-wear six to nine months clothes but are almost too long for those already

-wear a size two shoe but haven't worn shoes all summer!

-are still THE most laid back and generally happiest baby I've ever had (shhhhh! Don't tell your older brother and sister I said that!) You really only fus when you're hungry and tired. I'd say you were the perfect baby except for the whole night time waking up a gazillion times thing :)

-we love you more and more with each passing month. We can't wait to see what a big boy you become in the next few years. We pray God blesses you with health and brains and daddy's good looks :) We love you baby boy!!