Carter's 1st Birthday

Did I really just say that? Is my baby a year old already? And I guess he's no longer a baby either. Toddler.....wow that's different. Anyway we had an amazing birthday weekend (except for him getting 4 new teeth in all at the same time). We headed towards South Bend Thursday night and got up there about noon on Friday. We went to Brett's grandma's house where Carter got his first birthday/Christmas present and then we stopped by the Pop Shop on 31 to see Brett's Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin. For those of you familiar with the Pop Shop or Michiana Archery, Brett's Uncle owns that, we weren't just randomly meeting them at the Pop Shop. After a couple hours of visiting with Brett's family, we headed to our hotel in attempt for me and Carter to both get a nap. Wrongo! No nap was had.

Later on we met my BFF, Casey and her husband Phil, for dinner at Hacienda. I've been craving their Mexican pizza for about 3 years now and I just had to have it. I was disappointed, they most definitely shrunk in size. Should've gotten a wet burrito. Oh well. After dinner we took Carter back to the hotel to play with some of the birthday toys he got. Like I mentioned early, he was getting 4 teeth in and had no afternoon nap, so the playing didn't last long. He soon turned into quite the grumpy little guy and it was time for bed. For those of you that have kids and have friends without kids, you can probably relate to the whole situation about trying to kick your friends out nicely so you can get your baby to bed. Kidless people sometimes don't catch on that quick. Anyway, once we got everyone out, Carter fussed for a bit but then went to sleep like a good little boy. At some point in the night he decided since it was his birthday, he wanted to sleep in bed with mom and dad, and that's exactly what he did. Here's Carter and daddy enjoying their ZZZZs. The next morning we got up and headed out to meet my former boss and his family for breakfast. I used to babysit his kids and I learned a lot about babies after watching his daughter, Ava, when she was little. I tell ya what, seeing those kids now makes me feel really old. Ava was 1 and Aaron was 9 when I started watching them. Now Ava is 10 and Aaron is 18. Crazy!! So anyway, breakfast was great and I'm so glad they finally got to meet Carter.

After that we headed to my Uncle's memorial service. It was a very touching service and just made me wish I had gotten back to see my Uncle before he passed away. I guess it's true, you don't know what you've got until it's gone. It was really nice seeing some of my family, but just wish it was under different circumstances. I wish my uncle had gotten to meet Carter, but I know he's in a much better place now and that's good.

Once the service was over, we cut out and headed back home. We had Carter's birthday party the next morning and lots to do to get ready for it. We hosted it at my parents' house and it turned out really nice. Our closest friends came and we had a blast. Carter loved all of his toys.

Nana got him a wagon. What's better than a little boy and a puppy in a wagon?

And last but not least, the smash cake. Need I mention we forgot to feed Carter dinner before we let him dig into his cake? Yeah, he would have eaten the whole thing had we not stopped him.

My Way Back Home

It's been 2 1/2 years since I've been back to my hometown of South Bend, IN and the last time I was there it was for my best friend's wedding and I was in and out of there so fast, I barely knew what happened. Actually over the last 4 years, I've only been back 2 times and it's been for quick weddings. But this Friday I will once again be heading back to SB for a quick trip, even quicker than all the rest. My uncle passed away this past weekend and his memorial service is on Saturday. It's sad that it takes this kind of event to get me back up north, but it's true. I need to be there. Unfortunately life and death doesn't plan itself around our schedules and Carter's 1st bday is on Friday and his party was planned for Saturday. So we moved the party to Sunday and will have a dinner for him in South Bend on Friday night. Due to the schedule change in his party, I feel it's given a lot of people excuses not to come to his party, but we will have fun anyway!!

Anyway, back to our trip. I am mixed with sadness and joy all at the same time. I am sad, because we will be saying goodbye to a great man and joy because I will spend my son's 1st birthday with a very small intimate group of friends that don't normally get to see him. So we will put our warm boots and coats on (must get carter a winter coat) and travel almost 500 miles north for an overnight stay. This shall be our 2nd family trip together. Let's hope everyone leaves their cranky pants at home.

Dinner for 4

Brett and I decided to host Thanksgiving at our house this year, because he was on-call for work and my dad likes to host Christmas, so I wanted one of the holidays at least. Once that decision was made, we were given the motivation we needed to hurry up and finish updating our kitchen and dining room. My parents bought us a brand new SS glass top range for our 2 year anniversary, which was an amazing gift!! So we then decided to paint our cabinets and update all the hardware from brass to brushed nickel. Then it was onto the dining room. It was a very boring beige with an ugly brass light fixture, so that had to change as well. I painted the room Posh Red and white and hung a new light fixture that will coordinate with the other light fixtures I'm going to change out in the kitchen and foyer. I wanted this all done for Thanksgiving, so we busted our butts and finished it up this past weekend. I'm a perfectionist so it takes me extra long to go back and make sure every little line is perfect and there are no 'oops' spots anywhere. It looks great!!

P.S. I do not recommend Valspar Signature Series HD paint that you see all the commercials about and it being able to cover really well. Wrong!! This is dark red over a skin tone beige and it took 3 coats (4 coats on the largest wall) to cover it completely. Next time I will stick with my Sherwin Williams paint like I'm used to.

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving. We were planning on having my family, Brett's family, and my parents' neighbors over at our house for the big meal. But Brett's family decided they'd rather stay at their house, because his dad likes to cook. Okay. So it's just my family and their neighbors. Then my dad called and asked me if I'd be upset if my mom and him went to Colorado for Thanksgiving to spend it with my grandma. No. Go ahead, I'd do the same if I could. So since my parents weren't coming, their neighbors won't be coming either. That makes it just me, Brett, Carter, and my brother. Instead of being bummed about it, I am still very excited. Just because there will only be 4 people instead of 14 won't stop me from making a meal to feed 30. I will be in all my glory from breakfast to dinner. I really enjoy being able to spend the day cooking. I used to really enjoy making great meals for Brett, but since I work so much nowadays, I really don't have the time anymore.

I can not wait for Carter to be able to enjoy his first turkey dinner. Last year he was only a week old and I was still in major pain from giving birth to him. Also I was dealing with the baby blues that I swore I'd never suffer from and was an emotional mess. blah.

So those are my plans for Turkey day, what are everyone elses?