Double holy communion fun

This last weekend, in addition to celebrating Jimmy's 31st birthday at T-Rex, we also spent a lot of time with Jimmy's family celebrating our sweet niece, Kenlie, and our wonderful nephew, Eli, and their first communions in the Catholic church.  

I am SO sad I didn't get a full shot of Kenlie's gorgeous dress!  When we first walked into their house on Saturday afternoon (we were late because our kids actually decided to take somewhat long naps), Kenlie was walking down the stairs of their house and she looked like a little bride!  It made me tear up a little thinking of her being old enough someday to get married!!!  But luckily for me, Shellie posted a cute little collage of her at church with her dress.  It was gorgeous!!!

I did get this cute shot of this sweet girl at the party at her house though.  She loved the purse on her shoulder too.

And even better about the dress?  Grana (Jimmy's mom) made Kenlie's American Girl Doll a MATCHING first communion dress.  So Shellie had her on display on the table with other adorable pictures of Kenlie.  So so cute!!

And just like Ben's communion 2 years ago (which was the same weekend 2 years ago because it popped up on my time hop - so crazy how fast time flies!), we all sat around in the same spot to watch her open her cards and presents celebrating her special day.  She got her very own bible too, which is pretty special.  And some holy water!!  So she walked around the room letting people do the cross - but of course I messed up because I'm not Catholic - I just blanked, even though I know exactly how it goes!!!

Charlie always takes a little bit to warm up to so many people and kids before he goes off with the kids and starts playing, but once he does, we don't see him at all.  He had a blast in the basement wrestling with his cousins and even made some new friends with two of his cousin's cousins from Shellie's side (got that...??!!).

And Maddie's outfit??! Well it's 12-18 month from Gap and it's almost too small.  This girl is growing too fast! I'm glad I tried it on because now she's going to wear it all the time- it's so cute!

We are blessed to have lots of nieces and nephews - three of which are all in second grade this year (yep, all three my SILs were pregnant at once, which makes me wish I was pregnant with them at that time too - how fun!!  Now I just need to convince my younger SIL to get pregnant the same time as me next time!).  So that meant we celebrated another first communion the next day, this time for Eli.

And I about DIED when I saw him in a suit.  Oh my goodness.  Seriously the most handsome little man ever.  He even wore it most of the party!!

All the cousins were back to celebrate Eli together and play with new toys with each other, just like the day before.  And we got to watch him open all his presents/cards too.  In just two more years, I'm guessing we will be in that same place watching Eli's sister, Katy, do the same thing.  How fun!

And the weather was GORGEOUS.  I mean seriously.  So that meant, it was nice to gravitate outside, even though the Royal's game was on.  Charlie is obsessed with baseball lately and hitting the tee - so a few of the kids got together to play outside while Uncle Jimmy pitched.  

Even Maddie wanted to join in the fun!!!  These two boys love her so.  Jimmy and I were even talking on the way home on Sunday that our kids have no idea how lucky they are to have such amazing older cousins.  Older cousins that love them, teach them to do the right things, cousins that want to hang out with them.  So so lucky.  Built in best friends.  Can't get better than that!

At the end of the playing, Maddie apparently was done with dodging all the balls and escaped under the net!  And Eli came out to announce that the Royal's WON!!  Eli is a sports expert and a huge Royal's fan - so he was super excited and that made his special day even better.

Funny story - Shellie asked Eli what he thought the wine tasted like at communion and he said "metal" - hahaha!  I guess it kind of does for kids!  Haha!!

What a great weekend celebrating two special kiddos and their first communion - we are so blessed to have them and their families as part of our family too.

Graduation weekend: success!

In August, most people thought I was nuts.  And after living this last semester, I would probably agree with them. But guess what?  We made it.  I'm done with grad school.

Why did people think we're crazy?   Because this was the first semester EVER that I was going to be consistently going to class more than one night a week.  And not just two nights...but three.  UGH.  Just typing it makes me want to puke.  I'm so glad it's over with.  I had 2 classes left - both required to graduate with my emphasis in finance and management.  Usually, I could pick my classes really based on preference, but more on the schedule.  I didn't like going to class more than one night per week and had been able to keep it like that (even last spring when I took 9 hours, or 3 classes, because I took an intercession class that was 3 nights a week, but just for 3 weeks and then another online class).  But this time, it was either you go to class 3 nights a week or put off graduation until spring. 

Seriously, the thought of going another 16 weeks was just not something we wanted to do.  So Jimmy and I decided we would suck it up and deal with it for 16 weeks this fall and we'd be done.  Easier said then done, right?  Have you ever done something like that and then while you're in it...you think...what the HECK was I thinking?  Yes, that is exactly what we said to ourselves a few times.  With school + craziness at work with both of us having new(er) jobs, we were not happy campers for a while.  But we made it.  And that's what matters. 

So when it came time for graduation...we celebrated and it was wonderful!  It for sure wasn't just a celebration of my and just my accomplishment...but celebrating that we made it as a family.  And a celebration of all the support of family and friends we had this last semester that made all this possible.  And really to Jimmy because he's awesome too.

It kicked off at work - my Hallmark friends are the best and so sweet.  They not only got me this delicious cake, but took me out to lunch too!! My last Crown Room cake.  It was delicious!!!

On Friday, December 13, we all met at UMKC's rec center for graduation.  I really didn't want to participate - mainly because I'm cheap and didn't want to have to pay for the gown, hat and robe thing.  But Jimmy said I had to and that Charlie would love and appreciate that picture someday that we had together.  Yep.  He was right.  And it was so good to see some of my friends from grad school that I'd made over the past 3 years and hadn't seen in awhile.  It was long, but great!

Snacks are the best entertainment

Walking across the stage!

My favorite picture! (made the Christmas card also!)

We were going to go out to dinner to celebrate after the ceremony, but it was 7:00 at that point and our little man was fading fast.  With snack for dinner, he was tired and we decided to just go home.  So we ordered Chipotle online, I put Charlie to bed, Jimmy got Chipotle and we celebrated just me and him.  And it was perfect and delicious!!

The next night, we had planned on having our families over to celebrate with a small party.  Little did I know what my tricky, party planning husband had up his sleeve.

At first, my friend Emily and her husband Jeff walked in and just figured that Jimmy had extended the invite to a few of my closest friends...and then more and more people started walking in and I finally got the picture.  Jimmy invited like everyone.  And it felt like everyone came.  I was in shock (mainly to see all these people AND that they drove all the way out to our new house...which is about 15 minutes from our old house which was in the heart of KC).  It was seriously SO so fun to see everyone.  I had so much fun talking as people came and went and their kids came and played with Charlie - who is already a party lover just like his dad!

So thank you Jimmy for such a wonderful surprise and to everyone that came and celebrated with us and for so many others that reached out that wish they could have been there.  It seriously meant so much to me.  I love that all the people are here for us during good times and bad.  Love you!!

 Some party pics my mom snapped!!

Charlie and Brodie hanging out with Carly!

I mean people were EVERYWHERE!!!

Yes Bennett, Charlie loves the freezer too!!!

Cousins love Charlie's toys!!!  And he loves them!

 It still feels surreal to be done.  I dont' think it has sunk in yet.  Everyone keeps asking me how it feels, but with the holidays these past few weeks and getting every thing ready to leave my job at Hallmark, it seems like the craziness hasn't stopped.  I start my new job on January 3, which I think after a week of going to that and NOT going to class every night and being able to cook and play with Charlie and not walk into our house at 6PM stressed out about everything...I will be VERY happy it is all over.

So in the end and after 3 long years and one kid in between...we are happy that I did it and I finished it.  Check to that life goal!!!

Two BIG summer events: 60 and 40

The reason I started this blog was to be able to look back on our lives and remember all the fun we have had and exciting events.  Well - I missed documenting TWO huge events in our lives celebrating family members.  So here I go!!

First off - 60 years.  My wonderful dad turned 60 years old just a few days before Charlie turned one.  Actually, Charlie's birthday falls right in between my dad's birthday and Jimmy's dad's birthday (which is on August 3)- so that's kind of fun!!

But his birthday fell on Saturday, July 27 and we weren't going to let it go unnoticed!  So my mom sent out a Facebook message to family and friends and his coworkers to come over to my parents house for dinner. My dad was golfing with my sisters boyfriend, cousin and my mom's cousin in town from Texas.  And he came home to a backyard FULL of his family and friends!!! Pretty fun to see his reaction. 

And then an even bigger surprise?!?  Jimmy and Charlie rode in the backyard on my dad's present...a riding lawn mower!  Pretty much his dream for a long time that my mom finally made come true!!!

Don't judge us that it says "keep kids away" all over the mower.  Charlie very much enjoyed it and is looking forward to mower rides with Papa!!

As always, my mom made SO much food (all delicious) and jimmy smoked lots of pork!! We had my dad fooled a bit because all party prep was disguised as Charlie's party prep. 

Highlights of the night??!? 

(1) getting to see my dads surprise face!!

(2) LOTS of great people that we haven't seem in a while.  My parents have some great friends that have all known me forever so it was just to see them and have them meet Charlie!

(3) celebrating 60 years of such a great guy!!!  Seriously- I still don't believe he's 60!  He's still soooo energetic, fun and just such a great guy that I am so lucky to have as a dad and friend!

Overall- a great celebration!  (The third one in the last year for us celebrating parent's 60th birthday!!  Jimmy's mom and dad just turned 60 too).

So to round out the year of big birthdays, my mother and father in law celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in late August.  I mean 40 years?!?? And if you're following along, they got married at 21 and 20.  Babies!!!  It's amazing to me that people got married that young and made wonderful decisions!!  

Jimmy and his brother's wanted to go big celebrating, but they said that is for their 50th and a mass honoring their marriage and a party with family was just the perfect way to celebrate.  So that's what we did!!

During mass, Father Mike did an amazing job of helping to celebrate and show the amazingness of being married 40 years.  They stood up in front of the congregation and he commented on their life, love and family.  And love in Christ that helped get their marriage to last this long.  It's pretty special!!

After the mass, we went back for the party!!!!   With lots of family and friends in town, we ate some delicious food and drank some beer while the kids ran around and entertained themselves outside (did I tell you how amazing having 8 nieces and nephews is?? Full time babysitters....)

And when it came time to give his parents their presents, I was interested to see what these boys came up with.  Jimmy was asking me for Pinterest ideas about something cool to get them...and I will say Pat came up with an amazing present!!  A frame that has their wedding picture, invitation, marriage license and the scripture readings from their wedding!!  It was a hit!!  Good job boys.

Unfortunately, we took off early because Charlie was rocking a double ear infection (diagnosed the day before which mean we had to miss dinner the night before- mi ranchito!).  But it was so good to see family members we hadn't seen in awhile and celebrating Red and Sue.

Seriously- 40 years!!! I mean amazing.  We are coming up on 4 years and just one kid...40 years and 5 kids and 9 grand kids later...pretty amazing!

So there you have it.  Two BIG celebrations from the summer that I didn't want to go undocumented because this blog is like our family memory book.  We are lucky to have some pretty amazing parents that are such a good example!!  

On a side note: still cannot believe going on 5 years of this blog.  I need to make a blog book ASAP- any ideas?!?

Beach bash: first birthday party

So I gave you some insight about how I felt about Charlie's first birthday in this letter to him on his birthday almost a month ago now.  What I haven't shared yet?  His birthday party!!!  AH!  Shame on me.  But don't worry - he had one, it was a blast and I attempted to make it really cute and fun.

First off...my take on the first birthday party?  Well this was for sure something that Jimmy and I didn't align quite well on.  I didn't want to go all out like something on TV/pinterest, but I did want to make it special for lots of reasons.   In addition to getting together our village of supporters (aka family and friends that have supported us and given us so much love during this first year of Charlie's life) together to help celebrate our little man, it was also the last party in our first house.  I mean - part of the negotiation was keeping this house just long enough to have his party there.  And I'm so happy we had it there - after all the parties and wonderful times that house has seen, Charlie's first birthday was a great one to end on.  So what I'm trying to say is when I showed Jimmy who I thought we should invite - he pretty much flipped out.  And said multiple times, this isn't our wedding, this is Charlie's birthday.  Yes - I know that - but if I could have had most of our wedding guests there - just know I would have.  So I was forced to cut the guest list to a more reasonable number.  Dang husbands!!

To say we were busy this summer is probably the understatement of the year.  Moving, packing, temporarily living with your parents - with two stressful full time jobs, three dogs and a super mobile almost one year old - time was not on my side in going all out DIY on his party.  Once I had the beach party "vision", which really stemmed from his love of Sebastian on his Little Mermaid "Kiss the Girl" video that Charlie loves, I called  in the experts.  In my case, the expert was Victoria at RV Parties.  We both went to K-State and I have been involved with Pi Phi stuff with her mom and follow her on Instagram and just love her company's designs, so I emailed her frantically telling her my beach idea and she was so awesome and so quick to send me some great invite ideas.  I loved them.

  

After those were set and I ordered TOO many (yes double what I needed, was having a bad math day the day I ordered them...), we sent them out.  I'm sure people thought we were crazy because the invites had our Prairie Village address on them - but yes...that was where the party was.  We were closing on that house that Tuesday after the party (and just one day before Charlie's birthday), so maybe we were crazy and maybe it would have been easier to just have at my parents house - but dang it, I wanted to have this party at Charlie's first house and the house that all our family memories were in.  One last party and one last set of wonderful memories.  So crazy or not, we were doing it there.

So when the day came, my family helped bring stuff over and my dad borrowed some table and chairs from his school.  My friend, Lindsay, came over and helped me set up decorations and my sister dropped off the cupcakes she made - and this my friends is what we came up with....

His 11 monthly pictures were on display.  The cupcakes were just on cardboard boxes that were wrapped with wrapping paper.  I ordered the net from amazon and beach balls from Oriental Trading company.  RV Parties did the banner and cupcake toppers and wraps.  So cute.

I saw this idea for birthdays from a blog that I follow and just loved it.  I loved it even more because we had an awkward hole in the wall from where the TV mount was.  So this worked perfect.  And it was a great way to display some photos over the last year.

Then we had some birthday treats for all Charlie's friends that came too! (all from Oriental Trading company too)

These cute little bags of treats were in the buckets!

Here is a full shot of our living room with the party tables.

Then came the food.  Well, I usually go ALL out and have way too much food at every party.  I feel like we did the opposite this time and maybe didn't have enough snacks.  But the party was from 2-4, so it wasn't really time for a meal...so we went with fruits, veggies and cheese balls and goldfish.  My mom and aunt (in town from Colorado) took the lead on the food.  And they did amazing.  I just showed them some of the things I had pinned and they went with it.  Very grateful for their help!

Beach ball fruit tray

The watermelon shark!!!!!

THe attempt at octopus veggie tray

Beach balls (aka cheese balls) and gold fish

Our old house had a fabulous back yard.  Like I miss it every day.  So huge and private and just great.  With awesome grass.  Here's what it looked like for the party time.  Complete with our gift to Charlie, which was a water table - that he LOVED.

The upstairs patio we had tables and chairs for outside seating.  (Two of Charlie's teachers from school were so sweet and came to his party!  That little man is his teacher's son that is just one day younger than Charlie!!)

And what's a birthday party without a bounce house?? Haha.  Ok not really, but Jimmy's parents have one for their grandkids and Charlie loves it, so we brought it over for everyone to play in.  It was a hit!

And the fun began.  People arrived, eating and drinking ensued and lots of playing.  It was so fun to see all the kids playing.  How cute is Jackson with the water table?  (And check out Charlie in the background playing with mud...typical)

It's safe to say that Charlie liked his birthday present...

When it was time to open gifts, well that was interesting.  But I guess everything is with a one year old, right?  The present opening was interesting to Charlie for 2.5 minutes. At least he had some help from his cousins and friends.

My sister in law Hillary was so sweet to take some fun pictures too.

Finally - it was CAKE time.  Oh my.

And the birthday boy didn't quite know what to think!!

He finally stuck some in his mouth and gave it a try...

Since he was getting only blue frosting, I decided to let him try some actual cake too!

This sweet boy was in the front paying CLOSE attention.  It is his turn come October!

Family picture with a full face of frosting!!

My favorite frosting picture!

After the guests trickled out and we started cleaning up it became real.  That we weren't ever going to have another party at this house.  Never going to have another memory at this place that we called home for 4+ years.  Pretty crazy.  But instead of crying (which I did plenty of that later), we rejoiced at all the fun times.  And that this wonderful celebration of our little man and his first year on this Earth was the last celebration at our house.  

So we took a picture in front of our house.  Just like we did with our wedding party.

And after it was all over and EVERYTHING was out of our house?  Well, the birthday boy was all tuckered out.  For good reason too.  He partied hard and enjoyed his day.  Just as it should have been.

The day was so fun and such a blessing. So lucky to have all our wonderful friends and family that support and love us and Charlie!!!

However, birthday party number 2 will probably be a little more laid back - because I'm exhausted just typing about this.  haha.  But that's what we do as parents, right?!