Happy Birthday, Hubby!

I started mentally planning Jeremy's 40th birthday several years back. He is the first of our friends to turn the big 4-0 and party planning is kind of my thing, so I was really excited for this shindig.

But as life happens -  babies, our jobs, moving, colic, babies, family events and babies - got in the way of me going all out for his 40th. And I think he was a bit relieved for this. I mean, who actually needs a video presentation, a band and surprises every 40 minutes at a party?

We decided to have his party at Cottonwood in Houston, and it was a great venue. We used their front area and it thankfully was not miserably hot.

Cottonwood Houston

My theme for the party was a caricature of him that I carried throughout on the balloons, napkins, menus and custom cookies. For party colors I used black (obviously) with beige. After all, I didn't want it to look like a funeral. I used his favorite font on the menu cards, balloons and napkins. Here are a few details from the party:

My mother-in-law helped me find these amazing cookies. They're from a company called Parker's Crazy Cookies and they do custom cookies of people. They taste like animal crackers. They were a hit!

Custom balloons with his caricature. 

Jeremy Ford - More fun than two 20 year olds. 

I strung pictures around the party with captions describing what he was doing, his age or his grade
year. Guests enjoyed seeing different stages of Jeremy's life (and some were in the pictures, too!).

Photo strand. I had 60 photos strung with mini clothespins along black and beige baker's twine.

At a point in the evening, Jeremy's brothers and I did a toast roast of him, which was pretty hilarious. Or, so I'm told. Jeremy had a great party and felt so loved by his family and friends. Mission accomplished!

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

He's ONE!

Warning: Prepare for a Connor overload as I recap his birthday celebration(s)!.

I still cannot believe that our baby is a year old. The fastest year of my life, hands down. A few weeks before the big day, we had his one year photo shoot. My favorite part was the smash cake - he went to town on the cake. At one point, he even propped his foot up on the cake stand and continued eating. He LOVED the cake!

On his actual birthday, we had a small celebration at school with mini cupcakes (he devoured two) and balloons. (Side note - I am pretty sure balloons are his new favorite thing. He loves to say "boon" and hit the balloon over and over!). It was really sweet. His teacher Mogee (pictured below) decorated the classroom and had happy birthday music playing when we came in that morning. Cue the first round of tears.

On his birthday evening I had to work (BOO) so when I got home, he was asleep. I went and picked him up and snuggled him at his actual birth time - 9:43 PM and just cried and prayed over him. I rejoiced for the perfect miracle that he is. I thanked God for his sweet life. I prayed that He would grow to know Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior and seek to have a close relationship with Him. It was a sweet tradition that I plan to repeat as long as I can, though realizing one day I won't be able to physically hold him!

That weekend we had his official birthday party, which after months of planning, was a huge success. I'll post much more on that later!

Art Cars, House Update, and Birthday

Here's a (hopefully) brief recap of what we've been up to!

1. A few weeks ago, while we had a showing at the house, we walked down to Allen Parkway to watch the annual art car parade. We'd never been before, but it was a lot of fun. We will definitely go back again. It was fun seeing how creative all of the entries were. Here's a pic!

2. Our house is currently "Option Pending" which means that we've signed a contract to sell it and we are in the time period of inspection, appraisal, and basically a 10-day period where the buyer can back out for a minimal fee. Our option period ends in 4 days, so everything will become "official" then! We've found a great house that we love.....so we're triple crossing our fingers and praying that everything works out with it!

3. For my birthday this year, I really wanted it to be low-key. And it was! I just didn't want to make a big deal out of turning 26, so it was a really nice weekend. My birthday was a Friday, so that evening, J and I went out to a nice dinner at Taste of Texas, and then Saturday I went shopping with my BF and got a pedi, and then that night had dinner with two girlfriends. Sunday night we had my family birthday dinner, which was really fun. It was a relaxing weekend celebrating my descent into my 30's....

One of the major highlights of my weekend was my trip to Tory Burch. One pair of flats and a pair of sandals later, I am a very happy girl!

I'm 25!!!

I celebrated the big 2-5 last Thursday, and it was a week full of fabulous celebrations! I love that being a girl automatically guarantees you at least a week of parties! We had a birthday dinner in Baton Rouge that was really fun, one in Houston with Ali & Pete, my family party, went out with some of my friends another night, birthday lunch at work with my co-workers, birthday lunch with my sweet cheer captains, birthday lunch with Mom, birthday lunch with friends, birthday dinner with Husband...whew! Gotta love birthdays!

I will say that J did a great job on my birthday - even though I had already figured out my gifts. He woke me up with breakfast in bed (cinnamon toast - my favorite) and then we had an amazing dinner that evening. He gave me my gifts - a new Bible that I LOVE and a pearl ring that I'm also loving - before dinner, and I figured that was it - which was totally fine! Well, at the end of dinner, he pulls out a card with "Surprise" written on it. He'd picked up a gift card that morning for me to go shopping!! He had to wait until the morning of my birthday because he didn't want me to figure it out! I'm just that good, people! No snooping, I promise...just have my ways :)

Anyway, if I get around to uploading pictures, I'll post some from the big day. I got some really cute gifts from co-workers and the sweetest and funniest cards from friends! I am so blessed!!

That's the birthday recap :)