Happy First Birthday Grant

My Dearest Grant,

Today you are one! Your first full trip around the sun.

I had a hard time sleeping last night. I kept remembering that oh so scary way you came into the world.  When 9 am rolled around I told Daddy that I was haunted by the thought that 365 days ago I was arguing my brains out for the doctors and nurses to return you to me IMMEDIATELY.

And now here we are, 365 days later, having spent every single day together. :-)

You are my amazing littlest boy.

You continue to show me (and everyone else) that there is NO stopping you now.

It was a hard and scary first year, I won't lie. But now we are cemented together like peas and carrots, peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti and meatballs baby.

You light up my days and sadly still my nights. Did we really have to get up at exactly 2 am last night to relive your birth?

At one you are:
Inquisitive - you crawled over to the fridge and put your ear right up next to it when it started making noises
In love - with your siblings
A talker! whoooboy. A new word every single day.
On the move - crawling at lightening speed, standing up and starting to make your feet move
A worrier - about places and sounds that are new
An eater - everything in sight
An explorer - you love opening doors and cabinets and finding all sorts of new and exciting things
A builder - trying hard to put big legos together already
A thinker -  I can see your brain ticking away in there

And my sweet little pile of yummy, chubby baby love.

It might have been hard work getting you here, but you are worth every minute of it my sweet.

Love you,
Mama

Grant's first birthday - the elephant party

Done and dusted. My last first birthday party. It makes me sniff just a little.

Orange and aqua elephant party this time. Picture overload.

(My first time making hats!)

I love this "cake topper" a lot. It took a lot of coats of paint to cover that plastic elephant though.

I did the ever popular on pinterest head with birthday hat buntings. But I just stuck them on the fireplace. The pictures are in order and start with 2 weeks old and move to his 11 month photo monthly.

2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months.

3 months, 4 months, 5 months.

6 months, 7 months, 8 months.

 

9 months, 10 months, 11 months. (I left his funny mohawk.)

I LOVE how his crown turned out.

A beautiful, beautiful elephant from Rebecca. I wanted him to have a special stuffed elephant and she made him one. Thank you so much. Everyone admired him yesterday.

I also love how the wreath turned out. But man it takes FOREVER to do that yarn wrapping business. That's a never again for me.

(More accurate color, but it wasn't hanging right.)

The other plates are empty here to keep Sammi from eating it all. We served animal crackers, circus peanuts, orange cotton candy and popcorn along with cupcakes and ice cream.

Love the favor boxes too. Those wind up elephants are from dollar tree.

And gymboree even had an orange and blue elephant outfit for Grant.

Sammi does not want to look at the camera when we try and do all three kids. Ever.

(Those are mosquito bites, horrible huh? I ALWAYS put spray on him but I forgot on Saturday. Serious bummer.)

The end!

*Almost all of the party supply stuff came from oriental trading. They have a new line of orange and blue striped/dotty stuff. I used oilcloth for the table covers this time so that I can actually reuse the fabric for something rather than just throwing it away. Little blue elephants are from Gymboree, wind up elephants from dollar tree.

A quick master bedroom makeover

I decided in the middle of the night the other day that I wanted to put our bed back on the wall we had on it when we first moved in.  Sammi sleeps on the other side of the wall we were on and her tossing was keeping me up half the night.

Dave indulged me over the weekend and moved all the furniture and our giant ass tv. (Yes, do not be fooled by pretties, I have a 42 inch tv in that room. Hey, we live here!)

I decided I wanted the room more funky bohemian and less shabby princess chic. But mixed.

Instead of a white dust ruffle I made one with vintage fabric I had rescued from a nasty old blanket. Our bed is an antique so it sits WAY off the ground and in the past I have tried a 100 different things for a dust ruffle. Two ruffles, layered ruffles, ruffles of different sizes, blankets, etc. Nothing is long enough. There was no way around just making one. (Hard on the arthritis in my shoulder for sure.)

Then out went the matchy matchy curtains.

Out come more quilt tops from the cabinet. I want to live with them and love them every day.

And I do love them!

When we went to Iowa in May (total bust - it snowed), I bought this frame for the princely sum of $1. It was in pieces. I had Dave just screw it back together, nothing fancy. While I was rummaging in his work room I found a painted cast iron piece we bought when Jack was a toddler.

He screwed it to the top and added chicken wire for me.

LOVE IT. I want to get more photo booth pictures taken of us so I can hang them up there.

Another quilt top on the other window.

My favorite hooked rug came out of storage.

I am still playing with what to do on this side of the tv.

I just pinned up glass glitter letters from Michaels for now.

And I am still playing with what to put above my night stand.  I think it needs fun canvases. I have one coming of Grant this week I plan to try out.

So, a fun and funky bedroom makeover for ZERO dollars. Score!

This wall is next up on my "hit list". It no longer looks exactly like this, but I am dying to put something funkier up there too.

 

But what?