Friday Five

Linking up this week with Darci & friends for this Friday's Five!

1.   Christmas of course! We had a cute little Santa’s helper on our hands. While Conrad didn’t understand the whole Jesus’s birthday, Santa brings presents, we all eat and drink a lot thing, he sure did like the lights, paper and bows, and Santa figurines. And we liked how cute our little elf was running around saying “Danta, Danta, Danta!”

2.   We finally got over a double ear infection so now our once fussy, crabby baby is now a happy little guy…as long as he’s fed! He must be going through a growth spurt or something because he wants to “eat eat” all the time.

3.   We had our first…poop in the tub incident. We thought we may have escaped it after going 14 months without one and BAM…there it was. Disgusting! I’ll spare you the details but it was no small feat in cleaning up and I hope to not ever have to do that again.

4.   Christmas pictures with my family. Since I did not get much time off for Christmas this week, we spent the weekend before with my family and then Sean’s family came to our house for Christmas Eve and Day. When we went to my parent’s house we had Christmas pictures taken with my parents…and this, by far, is my favorite one:

Santa?! I KNOW him!

Cousin cuties!

5.   New Years is almost here! We are spending NYE with some of our best friends; they are bringing over their two year old boy and after the kiddos go to bed we are feasting on yummy food and champagne. We’ve spent a lot of crazy New Years with this couple in the past and I have a feeling that this year will be much more low key since we are now…ahem…over 30 and have kids.

Thankful Thursday

This Christmas week I'm most thankful for our Lord God, Jesus Christ! His unconditional love, forgiveness, and sacrifice are qualities that all, regardless of faith, should strive to have and I'm so blessed to know and be known by Him.

Especially now that I have my own little guy, I wonder how Jesus was as a baby and little boy. He was, after all, human! And I sometimes think about how Mary was as a mom...did she struggle with the same things we all did? I remember last year at this time, Conrad was only two and a half months old and I thought I would  go insane with all his fussiness and crying. I posted the following quote on Facebook and got about a billion "likes" and comments from all my fellow moms out there:

"I wonder if baby Jesus ever made Mary want to down an entire bottle of Pinot at 12 noon?"

HA! She was human as well and I'm sure had to deal with poopy diapers, breastfeeding, and sleepless nights! I mean, I know the song says "The little Lord Jesus no crying He makes" but hey, a baby's a baby.

All jokes aside, this Christmas was an amazing one and I'm so thankful for such a special birthday. I can't wait to someday tell Conrad the real Christmas story and have him understand what a precious gift we've all been given.

Merry Christmas!

 From our family to yours...

Feels like Fall

 When we bought our house one of the biggest things that attracted us to it was the huge yard and the abundance of trees. They provide great shade in the summer, privacy from our neighbors, beauty to look at...and lots of leaves to rake. I'm talking TONS of leaves. My husband and brother in law spent an entire Saturday blowing and raking leaves and it looks like they only did about a quarter of what needed to be done.

And we discovered that our little man LOVES his backyard and "helping" rake. We of course had taken him in the backyard tons of times to swing and carry him around but now that he can walk on his own he loves trampling around in the leaves.

What a good little helper!

 The Land of the Leaves!

Love dressing up in fall layers!

Fall play time at the park!

Is it beginning to look and feel like fall where you are?

Thankful Thursdays

This week I'm thankful for my mother-in-law, Jessica. 




Yep, that's right, ladies! I love my MIL. She's probably the most selfless, caring, thoughtful person that I know and I strive to be like her! She's also an awesome cook and so creative! She's been an enormous help this past year with Conrad; despite having children 30 years ago, she is so knowledgable about current baby/child raising! She takes the time to research about foods, illnesses, allergies, toys, products, you name it! After Conrad was born, my mother spent about a month with us and then when she left, Jessica came.




I don't know of that many girls who could stand (or want) their MIL around for a month or more, but I definitely appreciated the help and support. Thanks, Jessica for being the best MIL!

Ring! Ring! Anybody Home?

Yes, I recently fell off the face of the planet...for about a month and a half. I have no excuses except that life got in the way. There's LOTS of fun things happening in our household, including THIS GUY who is now WALKING! For the past month Conrad's been taking some tentative steps on his own here and there but this past week he is all out walking - no hand holding, no walker-toys, nothing! We are so proud and a little sad surprised it happened so quick...our sweet one is no longer a baby!

Work has been CRAZY! I'm booked out with clients all day every week which is a good thing but it sure is tiring. At night when I come home from the office or appointments with clients, I spend time with Conrad, cook/eat dinner, put him to bed, and then get right back to work. I appreciate my job to the fullest but it sure is exhausting!

We went to some beautiful fall weddings in NY this year - an especially gorgeous one was for Sean's cousin in upstate NY:

Halloween of course came and went and we had a cute little lion on our hands! Our neighborhood had a potluck block party, our first since moving here, and we met some great neighbors and showed off our little animal. Then we raced back to the house to meet the trick-or-treaters, but it started to rain so we didn't get many.

~~~ sorry, this pic is the best I could do as we forgot our camera! ~~

And now...Thanksgiving is almost here! I feel bad for this holiday, I think it always gets the shaft. There's already Christmas trees up at some local shopping centers and CHRISTMAS MUSIC ON THE RADIO. I'm sorry...what?! Here's what I have to say about that:





Morbid, I know, but it is entirely suitable for this situation at hand. Can I please enjoy my turkey first?


So, lovelies, that's what I've have been up to in Working-Mom land..not too exciting, I know, but that's life nonetheless. 

Hope everyone is well and ready to enjoy some pumpkin (or apple or pecan) pie!

Attempting to keep it together 24/7,

Elizabeth

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

So this is a little really really late...but for Conrad's 1st birthday we had A Very Hungry Caterpillar theme!

I had been pinning, saving pictures, trolling etsy,  plotting, and planning Conrad's first birthday party since he was born! When he was about 8 months old I settled on the theme "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" as that was a book we always read to him and...well, let's face it, he was a little roly-poly just like a caterpillar! 

I loved the idea of basing the menu around the food items in the book - how fun (and easy!) is that?! Menu already planned! 

I made a caterpillar banner with the help of my mom and dad with paper strung together with burlap string and printed out the month by month pictures of Conrad.

 

Apples, oranges, plums, pears, and strawberries (complete with dipping sauces!) just like the book!

For the one slice of salami and once slice of cheese, we of course, did a meet platter, and incorporated the pickle.

I did a salad for the "one nice green leaf' and of course cupcakes, cake, and ice cream! There was also watermelon, lollipops, and pie...just like the book! It was all very easy and perfect for a party.

With simple print out tent cards and cupcake toppers, we carried the theme throughout.

The piece de la resistance was the cupcake caterpillar! My mother-in-law (so creative!) made the head with the eyes and antenna out of fondant and licorice and I made the cupcake body. She also made gluten-free cupcakes on the side (Sean can't have gluten).

And what birthday party is complete without the stats poster! I created this on my own rather than order from etsy to save money. My parents helped cut out the fruit shapes on the sides.

My one etsy splurge was Conrad's custom shirt and bib (I am NOT a seamstress) and I'm glad I did. He was so cute!

Happy Birthday My Little Caterpillar!