Christmas cards are ordered. . . FINALLY!

Ordered 5 minutes ago from Shutterfly! (Um, they have crazy amazing deals!!!) Rocks my world!

And we have Winston's cute face on the back!  It'll be the first time that anyone has really learned of his addition to our family, so that will be interesting!

I'm later than usual ordering these...not sure how Christmas is almost here already!

These pictures were my three favorites from the 41 acceptable pictures taken on my iphone!  All together, I took over 200, so yeah . . . that should tell you how successful I was.  Thank goodness for pop bribes!!!  They worked!  (Although they were in half the photos rendering them useless!  Shoot.)

Next year, it might be time to consider using a professional photographer!

It's our dating-versary!

In the kitchen BEFORE we painted!  We were such babies...

TEN YEARS AGO, Tyler and I were official!  Last August was our 6th wedding anniversary, but we've been together for 10 years today.  Although, we argue that I thought we were already dating back on Halloween in 2003, but he didn't quite see it that way.  Psh.  (It's very crazy to think that we've been together for 1/3 of our lives!!!!)

I definitely did well when I picked Tyler; he is an A-MAZ-ING father and he is the hardest worker I know!  I'm excited for the next 60 (or more!) years with him... and it'll be interesting to see what we look like then!  Finding older pictures for this post was hilarious!  And these are only 6 years ago...from my myspace.  Ha!  Our college years were so long ago that they're just hard copies.  OLD lady right here!

Happy 5th!

The Party

Twenty days later.

Anyway!

There are really not many pictures because I was busy socializing and taking care of a cranky birthday girl.  Tyler was in charge of photographing the gift-opening.  Bad thinking.  Tyler snapped a few of the first gifts and then he was distracted by Alyssa (there is an Alyssa video, too)...all without the much-needed flash!  Here is what I found hours later as I was excitedly looking for birthday pictures:

FAIL.

So, yeah, not lots of photos, but we did have a really great time!  (I feel a tad guilty because I have over 400 pictures from Scarlett's first birthday party, but what can you do!?)

Now for the decorations...they were not pinterest-worthy, but I'm just excited because I had the party at our house.  That never happens.  (It's a fixer-upper that we're not particularly excited to fix, so there ya' go.) Buuut it was just too much to plan a party, move everything to my mom's house, and then try to decorate there.  Too. Much.

It was amazing to be able to get everything done, so when Poppy woke up that morning, it was a party everywhere!  And then I could really focus on birthday fun instead of party decorating stress!

So here they are:

Who doesn't love streamers, pictures everywhere, and (VEGAN!) cupcakes?!  For the cupcakes, I used a pinterest idea and crushed rock candy on top of the frosting and it looked really pretty!  Decorating with frosting is absolutely not my thing, so the rock candy was perfect: easy and fancy!

Her birthday outfit is from Mud Pie; it wasn't monogrammed, but it was too fun not to get!

Poppy wasn't as impressed with my culinary skills as I was, but we got her with a birthday cupcake, in the same shot, so let's call it a win!

(See?!  I was great at documenting the party girls before the actual party...!)  The morning of the party was spent distracting the ladies with doughnuts and balloons to keep the house clean!  It worked!

Not quite sure what to think...

I went to get Poppy after she woke up from her nap wearing my glasses.  This is the face she made when she saw them:

So. Confused.  It was cute!

HA!

Sorry, Poppy Ballerina! ;-)

(Sidenote:  The irony that this was on North West's mother's birthday is not lost on me!)

Happy birthday to my Poppy Ballerina!!!

She's ONE!  What a fast year it has been, but so full of happiness!  We are so lucky to have little Miss Poppy in our lives!  She is always happy and looking for fun!  She is the lovey-ist baby in the world -- always ready to give us love and slobbery, baby kisses.  Delicious!

Bananas were not a hit with Poppy early on, but now, along with eggs, sweets (shhh!), and strawberries, they are her top pick for food! (I do hope that she is a vegetable-lover like her sister one day!)

She is not quite walking, but she can stand up by herself for a few seconds and she is the fastest power-crawler I've seen!  Babies, balls, Little People, cars, and her little front door are her favorite favorite toys, but really she loves everything!  She even takes swim lessons!

Poppy may be the sweetest, little thing, but she can throw some sass when Scarlett tries to steal her toys!  Her facial expressions are the best!  See?!

No thank you, fancy birthday outfit!

I cannot wait to see what the next year brings...!  Maybe she'll start gymnastics?!

Purple Potatoes!

Thank you, Mary, for the idea!

Scarlett's FAVORITE color is purple, so when she spotted Lulu cleaning purple potatoes, she was insistent on also having some for herself!

They are actually delicious!  And not too crazy to eat...

We cleaned, boiled, sprinkled garlic, basil, and olive oil on them, then baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and then finally, they were ready!

We each had a small taste, but are saving the rest for dinner with the other Smiths!

PS--Already rocking the Christmas jammies?!  Of course!  Especially now that Halloween is over, everything Christmas is fair game!!  ;-)