A tradition in the making

Last Friday (Black Friday) Matt and I had a Date Day (we are far to exhausted to have Date Nights for now lol) so we went and saw Harry Potter 7.1 (which was great btw, loved how they kept in a lot of the little details!) and got gifts for Cassie to make for her grandparents for Christmas.

Then we went to Pottery Place to make a birthday cake plate for Cassie!

We had a good time making it though we spent almost two hours doing it :). It will be fun to be able to pull it out every year on her birthday for her cake, even if it is just for a little family thing and we have a big cake for her party I still think it will be something to make the day just a little more special.

The more I look at the pictures, the more I wish we had put something more on it, it seems a little plain to me...but then I remember oh yeah, there is gong to be a tasty cake on there every year that's the whole point :) plus it is going to look a lot different when we go pick it up on Friday since they glaze it and the colors get a lot richer and darker after they fire it. Can't wait to see what the finished product looks like!

Painting was a bit of a challenge since both of us are lefties :)

Apparently the paint has to be completely dry between layers...don't remember that tip when doing this in school, maybe that's why my works of pottery art are so abstract :)

Spectacular sponging job if I do say so my self (though Matt is the one who perfected it :) )

Trying to be the perfectionist turned out completely wrong :) ah well at least it looks hand made!

Friday Firsts - Thanksgiving!

So this year (like every year) we had so so much to be thankful for, first and foremost being our wonderful, smart, healthy little girl, the fact that Daddy has a good job that allows me to stay home with our little girl (and soon BV2 as well), the fact that we are moving into a home in a much better area with land for our babies to run and grow, the fact that Grandma Handy is moving in with us to help us out, the list just goes on and on. We are very very lucky people.

This Thanksgiving was super special since it was Cassie's first one ever :), since we are in the middle of moving and had no idea where we would be (or what state the house would be in) we decided that going out for Turkey would be the best bet.

Cassie had her first taste of Turkey and Gravy and Stuffing and Cranberry Sauce. Since we have been giving her portions of whatever we have to eat we decided to order her a Child size version of the Turkey dinner... The picture below is that portion...HUGE and messy :) perfect.

Not so interested in the Turkey...

But the RED cranberry sauce was quite a hit with her :) I think it was her favorite part of the meal since she kept going back to it. The mashed potatoes were okay, and the stuffing was too.

Then on to Dessert at Grandma Peggy's house. And even though Cassie LOVES raw apples she didn't seem to thrilled with the cooked spiced version.

Though the crust with Cool Whip on it was pretty okay.

But the PUMPKIN PIE now that was super awesome, I think she ate most of Daddy's slice :)

wordless Wednesday

So on top of things!

I feel so on top of things! It's not even thanksgiving yet and I have our Christmas Cards ordered! Another thing checked off of that never ending to do list. And thanks to Shutterfly they were free, a grand total saving of $104.50 :) can't beat that at all :) Now can't wait to get Cassie's cake smashing pictures done tonight so we can order her invitations!

Oh Holy Night Religious Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Friday Firsts - Our little walker - video

Here are the videos that should have accompanied the Friday Firsts post below.

But before we get going with the videos I just want to say please, please ignore the messes in the background, we are in the process of packing up and moving out while Grandma Handy and Uncle Joe are moving in with us so this place is quite the mess right now (can't wait till its allllll over!)

And just a warning, a couple of these are pretty long :) so you can stop watching when ever you want.

Yay! A pretty good one of Cassie's cute little toddling steps!

And one of her Climbing up the stairs (this has become a night time ritual to do when we go up to get her ready for bed)

And one of her playing in her little rocking chair...she just adores this!

Friday Firsts - Our little walker!

Well I was going to post a video (or two...) of our little walker, but she has decided to take a hiatus from those wonderful nice long naps she used to take since exploring her little world is just so much more interesting :) so I will have to post the video later when she has gone to bed

But for now I will say that she is getting very, very good at the whole walking thing, she will take about 5 or 6 steps all by herself (when she wants to :) ) or she will push her little walker toy thingy across the living room :) so so adorable watching her take these first steps (and so hard to catch it happening on video!). I can't believe this is happening already.

Another thing that she is getting very good at is climbing! Given the chance she will climb all the way up to the top of our stairs, however owing to the danger in that little adventure we quickly put up a gate. Now she tries her hand at climbing anything else she can, right now her favorite item to climb on is her little rocking chair (that once belonged to her Great Great Great Aunt, her Nana, her Grandma and her mommy :) ). She can now not only get up in it, but turn herself around and sit in it too. Just so precious.

Party Planning...Just to keep me sane...

Check one off, add three...yep that's how I role :)

Date/Time: Done

Theme: Done - Cupcakes!

Guest list: Done (though not everyone we would like :( )

Invites: TBD - will probably be 98% facebook

Decorations: TBD - will probably be handmade

Cake/Cupcakes :) : TBD

Food: Going classy with this one...pizza and wings since it will be almost all big people

Cake Smash Pictures: TBD (to be taken this weekend if I can get daddy's help)

Sort through Cassie's pictures pick out favs: TBD

Make Video of fav pics and videos: TBD

Snack Time!

So Cassie has been getting pretty bored puffs for snacks so last time we were out I figured I would pick up some thing new for her to try out...

I picked up some Gerber Arrowroot Cookies for her to try...now I had never heard of these before, but they looked big enough for her to hold onto and to last her a while and hard enough to get her actually in the practice of chewing. What I did not know was how big a mess these little cookies could make! Oye they get all over her, me, the couch, the carpet, the dog, the cat...the list goes on and on.. but they do keep her quiet and occupied for quite a while and she just loves them (all 2 of them she gets all day...) and they make for good pictures so I guess they were a good choice for now...

P.S. I just can't get enough of those eye lashes!!

Wordless Wednesday - Stair Stepper

Friday Firsts - Snow!

While technically the snow we got last Monday,11/8/10, (all 1.2 inches of it) was not her First snow, the last snow storm we got she pretty much slept through while we were outside taking pictures so I am counting this as a first since she was actually kind of interested in it.

She wasn't too sure about it at first...after all it is cold and wet...

but then she started trying to catch it in her cute little hand...

Can't wait till next year when we can go out together and play in it when it really snows! Oh the sledding fun we will have as a family!

Shutterfly

So Shutterfly is doing this awesome promotion where they are giving away 50 free Christmas cards to bloggers...want to know more? check it out here...Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

I have been using Shutterfly pretty much since we started planning our wedding in 2006, I do have to say they put out great quality products, in fact the year we got married we had albums made up with our wedding pictures to give as gifts and they came out great AND got to us in time for Christmas even though I wasn't all that prompt with ordering them :) (plus they let you do cool things like share slide shows of your albums on things like your blog ;) )

Click here to view this photo book larger

This year we will be ordering our Christmas cards through them yet again, can't wait to take our pictures so that I can decide which style to go with! Right now I think the top contenders are...

Choice 1:

Choice 2:

Choice 3:

I guess it just depends on how good I am at taking pictures tonight whether I get one with many pictures in it or just one :) we shall see come December!

And on a non-christmas card related note, I can't wait to take some cake smashing pictures of Cassie so I can get one of these made to put up in what will be our entertainment room at the new house! Something about having a picture printed up on canvas just seems so much cooler than just a picture print sometimes!

Party Planning...

In a little less than 2 (TWO!) months our sweet little princess will be a year old, it's almost unfathomable how fast time is flying.

So amidst all of the house buying/selling/packing we have a party to plan! It is kind of weird planing a party to have in a home that we are not even in yet, but I can do it!

So things that need to get planned/done:

Date/Time: Done (I think)

Theme: Done - Cupcakes!

Guest list: TBD

Invites: TBD - will probably be 98% facebook

Decorations: TBD - will probably be handmade

Cake/Cupcakes :) : TBD

Food: TBD

Doesn't look like much when you write it out like that but I still feel like I have a tone to do!

Wordless Wednesday - Winter's on its way

Friday Firsts - Halloween

So this past weekend was Cassie's first Halloween! She did very very well with the costume, I was afraid it would be to hot and she would hate the hood (which I found out too late was not one that could come completely off of the costume) but she did great in it, she didn't pull at the hood at all. And the tail that was on it was just too cute for words.

We made the rounds to as many family members as we could, unfortunately our families are pretty spread out so we couldn't make it to everyone. (maybe next year we will have a party?)

In other Halloween news...Matt and I the chance to dress up this year! We dressed up as the child version of Carl and Ellie from Disney's UP. We had a blast doing it and the party was great!

For those of you who have never seen UP, here is my favorite Carl and Ellie clip...and the one that I watched pretty much non stop leading up to halloween so I wouldn't forget any little details :)

And it wouldn't have been a holiday of any sort with out a baked good so I made these mini jack o'lantern pumpkin pies. Not bad for my first try if I do say so myself. the crusts didn't come out as neat as I would have liked them, but they sure came out cute!

I originally found the recipe for these here on Bakerella's website (my favorite site for baked goods!) I didn't edit the recipe at all. I have no idea how she got those crusts so neat and orderly, I guess practice makes perfect though! (and I think the little faces make up for the crusts by bumping up the cute factor) These ended up going over well with Matt's work so I will definitely try them again!

Wordless Wednesday - Mommy's little packing helper.