Our One Year Old

It is crazy that we have a little boy that is more a toddler than a baby. Every day I see him (especially after working for 12 hours) I just see that he has grown and is becoming less and less our baby. Collin is really a sweet and happy guy. He does not get sad when other babies, kids, and dogs take his toy or food, He even shared his birthday cupcake with his Grandma Gourley. He loves to play. He loves to play 100% of the time, even while eating. He is just a playful happy guy. He is walking little bits here and there. 

 

It is so cute when he takes steps and walks towards us (or his dog Skip) whom he loves a bit too much at times! He loves to snuggle and be held, especially when he is tired or drinking his milk. He loves to talk (especially on the phone, or anything he pretends is a phone.) He loves to babble on and on, and will even pretend babble/yell when he is upset. He has a small vocabulary, but he is learning new words every week. His vocabulary right now is "Mama" (which he say a lot) "Dada"," papa" (which are his Grandpa's but this one he is still working on,) "bite" (which means you had better give him some of what you are eating!) "tickle", "nana" (banana) "dog (and sometimes he manages to say "sip" for Skip) His little vocabulary continues to grow, ( he actually said "pease" the other night  so I am glad the "pleases" and "thank-yous" are finally starting to make a difference!) and I am sure he is trying to say more words but we just do not always understand. We are teaching him a little bit of sign language. He signed Mama yesterday, but most the time he just laughs when we are trying to sign to him. He is also adding, subtracting, dividing, and took Mike's last take-home test for him :)

 I just had to get a picture with bruises on Collin, because he usually is sporting a bruise. He many not be genetically mine, but boy he and I share the klutzy gene. I seriously am glad we have him fully adopted because with DCFS you are supposed to report accidents (bruises and such) so I would be filling out papers and calling DCFS on a daily occurrence with how klutzy Collin is!!!

He still loves to crawl (something he started at 6 months since his cousin was cruising and he felt left out!) He has a belly laugh that seriously cracks you up. He will fake laugh when others are laughing, which gets us laughing harder. He LOVES yogurt and fruit, and loves cheese. He will eat pretty much anything, although with him teething he has been not as good as he usually is at eating or drinking anything. 

He loves dry cereal, and loves "bites" of the food you are eating. Collin will never say no to spaghetti or potatoes (pretty much does not say no to anything!) He is getting to where he is taking milk less and less, pretty much only drinks his milk around naps and bedtimes. He likes to shake his head "no" and has just started to shake his head (well more like his whole body) "yes". He will dance whenever he hears music and loves to bob up and down to anything (I like to listen to Pandora and he will bop to Broadway, Frank Sinatra, Disney, and some classica) and one of his favorite songs (that he tries to sing along to) is the ABC song. I am not trying to make a super-baby by any means, I just know that exposing Collin to all kinds of music will not only help with development, but I know from my brothers that even if they balk at certain types of music they are still listening and will learn to appreciate it one day!) He loves to growl whenever he sees a stuffed animal (he even thinks that his puppet Lilly the Pig growls:) Collin puts everything in his mouth (remember the story of the dog poop people???)  but usually with a few pleases and thank-yous, he will hand it over. Another cute little delight is having Collin give hugs and kisses. He still gives open-mouth kisses (and you have to be pretty special to get one) but gives out hugs. If you are sad or pretend to cry he will go "awww" and lay his head on your shoulder. It is too cute.

I am not one to post weights and heights, etc. so there is none of that here. But I will say Collin is healthy and perfect (as his doctor is always telling us) and developmentally just is doing really great. We love and adore him, and although he can be a little stinker sometimes, he is just such a joy to Mike and I. We are grateful is part of our little family. 

He brings sunshine into our gray days of winter.

*These gorgeous pictures are taken by the very talented Emily and you can access her amazing photography skills by visiting her photography blog!!!*

Happy 1st Birthday Collin!

 Don't judge: I am still in my jammies and my hair is not brushed.

Our thoughts today have been all over the place. What a day to celebrate Collin's first birthday. So many of our thoughts have been with Collin's birth mom (her name is Nikki.) Nikki is our angel. She is the one reason of why we have Collin. Don't get me wrong, there are many others that made it possible, but Nikki will always be in our hearts and thoughts. Nikki loved Collin so much, and she wanted Collin to have a home with two parents. She was selfless, and chose the best path for our little boy. We started the morning by going and getting Collin up together. We took him out to the kitchen, where the birthday fairy decorated with a banner, and balloons, and with hanging Chinese lanterns. 

We made him breakfast and it was nice to sit and eat together, and would make a nice tradition for years to come. Collin was really cute today. He was so happy and excited (although by the time the party started, he was getting worn out but somehow still managed to greet all his loved ones and stay up till 8:35 pm, which is way past his bedtime!) Our family came in shifts. 

 Grandma and Grandpa Vallen came first. Than our family came bit by bit, some not being able to stay for long, but coming still to show their love and support for our little family, support we love and appreciate. 

 

Once most of our peeps were there, we dressed Collin down and put him in his highchair. He was spoiled with a lot of obnoxious noisy toys and received lots of presents and lots of love. *A note to family who gave us "obnoxious toys"~yours will be coming!!! The kids all together were so cute, although taking any of their pictures together was impossible! It made me laugh. 

Collin was funny with the cupcake. He did not make too much of a mess, and kept nose-diving into it.  Collin kept giving Grandma Gourley bites and icing kisses, which was really cute.

kljll

It was a wonderful day, and I am exhausted. There are some more pictures, but they were taken on some of our family's cameras.

Here are some of the decorations I made (which I am pretty pleased with) and will be selling in my Etsy shop.

I made the banners that say "Happy Birthday Collin" and the small matching banner

that goes around the highchair. They were perfect and I plan to make some for 

each niece/nephew whose Mom or Dad want one.

It was a great day, and again, there will be more pictures (I have friends for some very good reasons, such as remembering to take pictures of important moments i.e. having children, your child's first birthday cake, etc.) and I will show the cake I made, which was not perfect, 

but hey, neither am  I !!!! Thank-you to all our friends and family for the Happy Birthday wishes!!!

And thank-you Collin's birth-family for giving us this day.

Birthday Inspiration

I have been spending a lot of time on the computer laying there rather pathetically while watching Collin got into everything since I have been under the weather. Oh-my-gosh, there are some REALLY talented folks out there in blog-land. So I have found two new favorites ( there are other party inspiration blogs that are already listed on my side of the blog!) My first is Shannon of Eight Crazy and she runs the Creative Party Place. I love her blog, because not only is she really talented, she also shares the talents of many other party throwers. She has people submit their parties, so you get quite the variety of ideas. One of my favorite parties she shared was the Pink Pig Party. Here are a few pics  I seriously need to find a good excuse to have a party like this that give you a taste of what you are so lovingly exposed to. 

These are just the invites!!! 

 

 

 I am just loving the colors. 

The banner I made for Collin is actually quite similar to this.

I love the little display table.

Another view.

And what is a party without some really cute favors?

Can you believe the talent??? There are so many ideas that are almost as cute equally as cute!

 

Our next talented blogger is the Well Heeled Hostess.  It was hard to narrow down a few of my favorites, but here is just a very small sampling of her work:

 

I love the Noah's Ark idea.

 

I can not help but include a cute Lady Bug party idea. Just slightly baby girl-hungry here! 

 

Love the Pink.

 

I love the colors of spring (especially since I am really very ready for spring!)

 

The black and pink with bright accents just make me sigh. *Sigh. 

The pictures are to die for. Collin's birthday is going to be a lot more simple than this. We are going to decorate (and about 90% of the decorations are homemade DIY projects!) There will be his banner, the Chinese lanterns, the tissue paper hanging pom-poms, and of course some balloons. I will be attempting the cake *cross your fingers* and there will lots of fun for all. 

I just cannot believe it has been a year. I remember all to well Mike calling me sobbing at work, and being sent home early to figure out what was happening and what we were going to do to bring Collin home. It was a very emotional time. So go throw a party and have a bit of fun, and visit one of these amazing sites. I will be posting about our little one year old. He had taken last Saturday by this also very talented gal (who also happens to be named Emily: 

She is so much fun, so sweet, and so many talented in so many aspects

(she's definitely what I would call well-rounded!!!) So look forward to some serious posting!!!!

Been Working

I have shared my thoughts before on wishing I could work from home and have my own business. Well, hopefully in the next week or two, that dream can start to come true. My sister and I are going to be opening our very own shop on Etsy. What will be selling? A lot things. She makes gorgeous quilts (mostly for the youngin's) and truly they are just simply beautiful. Most of them kind of have a vintage/retro feel and they are so warm and soft (I happen to have been given one from her for Christmas and it was the most amazing gift I think anyone has ever made me!) I bring a whole slew of different items to our little Etsy store. I have some skirts ready (and boy are they cute!) some little dresses, headbands, little girl shoes

(I am working on these right now!)

and I am learning so many other cute little items (ruffled diaper covers, little boys pants and tees, more skirts, and much, much more!!!) I just love soft cute things for baby, and I have decided I can make these items myself and charge much, much less than the baby boutiques out there. We are going to be getting photos taken of our items, and than get the shop up and going. Right now though, I am trying to just relax and get better (I am down and out with bronchitis, hence the blogging silence!) 

So look forward to some fun things for your little ones!

*We will also be having a sneak-peak of the items probably next week!!!

DIY: A Little Bit of Sewing

My sister and I are somewhat of blog addicts. When we find interesting/fascinating/supertalented blogs we devour them (mind you not at the most decent hours of the night which is why this Mom needs nap time too!) I have lots of favorites. Do you remember me asking if anyone knew how to smock? Apparently it is a lost talent/art and even after searching the internet pretty extensively, I had resigned myself to the fact that my yearning to learn would just have to wait. But than my sister shared this wonderful little gem. I love her blog. I lover her ideas, I love her style. Now this may not be the exact look I was going for, but I think I can get the look I want, with this simple style and even make some really cute pillows for couches or our bed! So this is the look I was going for. 

Really cute, but again, still don't know how to do it! So I will go with this look, which happens to have an easy tutorial from Make It and Love It. 

So I think my week is going to be filled with some sewing. Starting the sewing of the skirt tomorrow and the little dresses. I just love the creation aspect right now. I currently am not in school and it gives me the same feeling of purpose school does. And it feeds my creative need. So, off to sewing I go!!!

*Make It and Love It really has so many cute tutorials!*

Thank Heavens for Little Girls

For those of you who were blessed to have been able to know our sweet Lilly know how much I loved to dress her up and put headbands on her adorable little head (our Princess had quite a bit of hair!) She was so teeny. She was 5 pounds 6 ounces when she was born, and was just under five pounds when she was passed away. Even though she wore only teeny preemie clothing, she was just one well-dressed little Princess. 

 

I love little girls clothes I own enough girl's clothing to fill 3-4 Rubbermaid containers and I hope that one day Lilly will have a little sister that can share some of the things we bought for her ( I know she would love that!)

For newborns, I love soft and fashionable little clothing. I've said before that I have champagne tastes on a Kool-aid budget, so of course I can not help but love these G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S little outfits.

These darling outfits are from the wonderful designer Nay Khoubnazar . She uses darling fabrics with classic styles, and these little outfits are just so soft if they came in my size I probably would own a couple.

These outfits are even cuter in person, and if possible, even cuter on!!!

These are probably the cutest swim-suits I have ever seen! (I really would like this designer to make some in my size.) Most of these suits are frilly and just adorable. Is there anything cuter than a chubby baby in a little swimsuit with the little fat rolls??? Not cute on me, but oh-so-cute on a little princess!!!

I can not begin to pick between these yellow swimsuits. (Sorry the top yellow one is so tiny and not very clear!)

And although I think pink can be a bit over done with girls, who could resist 

this ruffled cotton candy pink little swimsuit???

 

So I think I would have to go with a blue toile swimsuit or a yellow. 

Another look I love is leggings paired with dresses, skirts, and tops

(just not on me, maybe someday when I lose some weight!)

I am loving these polka dot with lace pair (also Baby Nay!) 

I cannot help but love these cute leggings from Gap (in a whole variety of colors!)

And these darling lace leggings could not be cuter

I am loving these lace leggings. Especially the white ones,

which look darling paired pretty much with anything!

I am excited to make a couple of the simple fabric dresses and see what they

look like paired with a charming  pair of leggings.

*Here are the sites to see some of these really cute styles: Baby Nay, A Child's Closet, 

Kate Mack's styles here and here, and Lacey White Leggings

Thank-goodness for nieces, and thank heavens for each and every little girl in your life!!!

DIY: A Couple of Small Projects and Ideas

I have started two posts, and I probably will still publish them eventually, but when I started this blog, I wanted it to be something I enjoyed, a place I could share thoughts and ideas with those around me. The two posts I was working on were even kind of boring to me. So, I decided to put them away for now, but am betting with time and some tweaking, I can get them to where I want.

This lamp has since been painted white, and once I try again to redo the shade 

(not my favorite project BTW)  I will share the new and improved version!

These are most likely the last times you will see my pictures taken with a flash. I am not trying to dabble in photography (way too intimidating for right now) but I am just learning some basics. One of the basics I have learned is to NOT take pictures with flashes. So from now on, I will try to take pictures mostly during the day, with natural lighting so as to not wash out the colors in the pictures. 

 

Do you all know what a printer's box is? This interesting thing hails from Amish Country in Ohip (man do I miss Amish Country!) Back in the day of printing presses, they used this to holding the printing letters in. This one had been well loved. It was all wood with an orange handle on top.

I cleaned out the old paper and dirt, wiped each box out, dusted the little slots, and than painted to give this piece a bit more personality. I grew up with one of these, and I think nearly every one of my siblings now has one in their home. It holds knick-knacks, and I love it. I think it turned out well, but I still may rough the paint job up a bit and stain it to deepen the paint. But I am still enjoying the blue and fresh look!

The spoon, knife and fork were Mike's when he was a baby, cute huh???

 I have never been one to enjoy the thrift stores (the thrift stores in Utah are called the D.I.) and even Mike today was commenting that he just did not enjoy shopping there today, that there was a feeling of being dirty. But the thing is, there are some really good buys there. You have to go about once a week to really watch for the good stuff, but good stuff there is. For the e girl's skirts (with the cute ruffleslittl that I posted about ) I did not have the shirts to make the skirts. So I went off to the DI, and found some good shirts. I also found some nice glass pieces, and guess what? I only spent $1.50 total.

I plan on using the two glasses as vases and the little apothecary jar to hold candy for Collin's birthday. There are beautiful, old (not quite an antique) but the details cut in the glass are B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!!! I washed and shined em' up, and I could not be happier with the results! I told Mike (that besides couches, cribs, mattresses and appliances) I will probably buy the rest of our furniture needs at the DI. Because you can paint anything I look around my house everyday and think " I can paint that"  and make it work in your home. 

My Mom had to borrow my sewing machine for awhile while her sewing machine was being fixed. So my sewing projects have been on hold for awhile. But after I get these skirts finished, I am going to make these cute little dresses. They are cute on little girl's of all ages, and can be worn as a longer top 

once they are too short to be a dress.

I think it will be darling with tights, or leggings, or a little pair of jeans for when it is becomes too short. I've seen these dresses made up and they are so cute! You can layer it over a t-shirt or pair it with a sweater.

Anyone else jumping on the DIY bandwagon? I love to see ideas and see others creativity. Loving the creative juices flowing once more and using my hands to create and enhance.

*This pattern is from a cute little Etsy designer Leila and Ben and can be purchased here!!!