baby shower

I had so much fun putting together a baby shower for a coworker. Maghin's husband started residency two years ago and brought them to this city. We work closely together and have a ridiculous amount of things in common. I'm not sure how I would survive the daily grind without Maghin! I have been blessed to work with wonderful people in a great work environment for so many years.

She is due with her second child in August and has a little boy who is three. Claire's nursery is pink and navy with a few elephants scattered about. I love pink and navy, so it was an easy choice for her shower! I tried to keep things somewhat simple, so others in the office wouldn't think I was totally crazy. :) I had so much fun designing all of the paper items.

 

I snapped this picture before everyone had a chance to add their presents.

 

I had so much fun putting together my present for Maghin and Claire!

I couldn't commit to one design for notecards, so I included both.

the office

Now we just need baby Claire to arrive!

July 2nd

The day my sweet baby was born! I took the day off and planned some fun things for us. Last year, on his first birthday I went into his room when he woke up with a balloon and sang Happy Birthday to him. I wanted to make it a tradition and Jack loved it!

We started our day off by going to a berry farm to pick blueberries. It took awhile for Jack to decide to actually pick blueberries. He just wanted to run and go see the cows, but he eventually got the hang of it.

Sampling the goods!

Got a sour one!

As we were walking to the cash register, Jack picked up a big stick. Cooper, the dog, wanted the stick too! They played tug-of-war for a bit. 

Saying bye-bye to the big tractor!

Decorating birthday cupcakes

We snacked on a lot of blueberries. They were so good!

Sprinkler fun after naptime

I bought these beautiful candles at a boutique in Stillwater. A 2 for Jack and a C for my best friend's birthday, which is the day before Jack's. They are Tops Malibu sparkler candles.

Time for presents! You guys, I am beyond proud of the train table pictured below. This was a project I took on by myself and it turned out just like I wanted. 

Ended the day with a turquoise bath using fizzies, aka colored bath tabs that we gave him for his birthday.

My original present idea was an actual train table, but after deciding that it was just too big and would take up too much room I decided to make one that could slide under our couch and fit on top of our coffee table. I read a few tutorials on Pinterest and asked my Dad for advice. I got lucky and he had a piece of wood that he cut to my dimensions and my Mom brought it to me when she was up here visiting last. I debated on painting it green for grass and making a blue pond, but ultimately decided that I wanted something a little more classic. I used leftover stain from our front door, but first had to use wood filler to fill in a few spots. I taped off the road and used chalkboard spray paint. I bought a spray can of polyeurathene to protect the stain and wood glue to glue down the tracks. The tracks are Melissa & Doug. Jack had a small circular track, but whenever we played with it all he wanted to do was take it apart. I wanted to glue these down, so I wasn't having to constantly put it together. I used a chalkboard paint pen to make the white dashes on the road. Overall, it was actually a pretty easy project! Especially, since I'm not experienced at all with doing this type of thing!

Jack, 2 years old

Jack,
Today you are two! You respond happily with two when we ask you how old you are and can hold up both pointer fingers to make two. We are still working on holding up two fingers on the same hand. You keep trying and say, "hard." Of course, it is adorable!

You are such a blessing to your daddy and me! You have the sweetest personality and are such a good boy. I pray that you always have such a sweet demeanor. You bring so much joy and laughter to our house. We love you!

I think I'll just bullet point a few (by few, I mean lots) a things about you to avoid long paragraphs.

• We think just about everything you do and say is the cutest thing ever. A few things that stand out to me are calling clouds--snow, bunnies--hop hop, Danielle (your summer nanny)--Dan Dan, pa pa--pacifier, fishies, fishie pole, ew!, oh my!, aw man, okay, choo choo w/ the hand pump, this way (you've become a little bossy with directing us around), and my favorite calling dada--Ty. You've even named one of your dump truck driver's Ty. It's hilarious!
• When we are in the car, you are always pointing out trucks and saying "big truck". I've also taught you that green means go and red means stop and you love to say it at every light we go through. You also say "whee!" when we are on a big on ramp or exit ramp. 
• Your favorite songs are the Ants Go Marching and If You're Happy and You Know It. You love to march along and call out certain parts of the Ants song with enthusiasm--Hurrah! and Boom, boom, boom... You've also picked up on all the motions to the If You're Happy song. I especially love to see you put your fingers to your cheeks to the "your face will surely show it" part. 
• A couple of months ago you loved saying 1, 2, 3 Go! and that has led to you counting things. Well, counting to two. You also randomly throw out other numbers. Last night in the bath tub you said five, six while playing with your Splash Jack cards from Aunt Amy.
• You love to read and we read several books every night. You go through cycles of favorite books. Right now, you prefer the Lucky Ducklings and Steam Train Dream Train.

• Every night after your bath, you run to momma and daddy's room to interrupt Daddy's study time. He always welcomes you with a big smile. You play for a few minutes and then I whisk you off to read and rock before bed. You always have to give Daddy and Nuts a hug before you go into your room.
• I've been praying with you at night and a month ago you started saying your own prayers. "Dear God, dada, Nuts. Amen." It is mirrored after the prayer I have been saying where I name things I think you are thankful for. One night you said Grammy and Grandma and I couldn't wait to tell them. You've also thrown in a few silly things like poo. Such a boy.
• You are a good sleeper and it rare for you to wake up at night! (Unless, we are away from home, but I'm sure that's normal.) You are an early riser, but I know a lot of that is due to the fact that we leave the house at 7 am during the week. You extended your bedtime to 8 pm and I'm sure you would like to stay up a little longer. These summer days have you longing to stay up later.
• You have a toddler pillow and a couple of stuffed animals in your crib. You have the bunny we bought you for your first easter and a stuffed penguin I bought you at one of our Barnes and Noble trips. The bunny is named Peter and the penguin Happy, but you call them hop hop and hap hap. 
• You love to help and are always willing to throw things in the trash. I've found your cups and other items in there before. I'm also convinced that you have thrown away one of your Sperry's, as it has been missing for two weeks!
• Last night, while we baked cupcakes together you leaned over to me from your step stool and gave me two big hugs. It melted me!
• You love to be outside and are pretty obsessed with your new bubble lawnmower from Aunt LeAnn. You love to jump on your trampoline and run. My goodness, you love to run! You also turned your water table into a swimming pool by climbing inside it. Silly boy.
• You like pretty typical boy things--trucks, trains, blocks, your barn and animals, dinosaurs.
• You love to play hide and go seek, and you love for one of us to chase you and roar, while the other one runs with you to your room, jumps into your chair and hides under a blanket. 
• You also love anything that you can push--toy vacuum, shopping cart, wooden push toy, suitcases, etc.

• You love your pacifier and we've started to become pretty strict about only having it at naptime and bedtime. You do not like this. 
• You still like to watch Bubble Guppies and also like Jake and the Neverland Pirates (yo ho), Chuggington, Paw Patrol and Mickey Mouse. You love to watch random things on YouTube like Winnie the Pooh, 10 Funniest Scenes from Tangled and some random playdough egg video. We try to keep our iPads out of sight, because you love to play on them.
• You've learned to drink out of a regular cup, but would prefer to put your hand or toys inside the cup to play with the water, so we don't give you a regular cup very often.
• I was not planning to start potty training for a while, but you are showing some interest. You like to flush the toilet and sit on it. You tell me that you need to pee and I've been sitting you on there with your diaper. Twice you have told me that you need to pee and I've actually taken your diaper off and you have gone! 
• You are still a pretty good eater, but you could always eat more veggies! You love ketchup and chicken nuggets, fruit, peas, cheese, cheddar bunnies, veggie straws, hummus and popsicles. 

weekend at home

Saturday morning, Ty, his brother-in-law and nephew went fishing. Ty has been wanting to do this for a long, long time. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a lot of time or energy to do it where we live and we are normally too busy when we visit our hometown. It worked out this weekend and they had a good time!

You can barely see Lucas in this picture behind Ty's shoulder.

I designed Mason's invite for his party. 

 My mom told me there was a jungle gym for the kids to play on at Nations of Fun, the place my sister rented for the party. I was expecting something small. It was anything but small! I made the mistake of wearing a dress and couldn't play on it with Jack. The thing was huge and the kids had a blast!

I loved these dinosaurs with tiny party hats on their heads!