Sock Monkeys!

Here are the details of the Micah's 1st Birthday bash.

Thank you Pinterest for keeping my ideas organized.

Here are the cake pops we made - thank you mom and Sarah! I would have never been able to do these by myself as getting all of the pieces in place before the chocolate hardens is quite a task! I got the idea here.

Micah wasn't at all interested in his cake but he couldn't get enough of his monkey!

Here is the table completed. It looks nothing like the perfection of this but I tried :)

I also picked out my favorite pictures of Micah from birth to a year. I asked our parents to bring pictures of Bryan and I as babies to compare and it was really fun to see how sometimes he looks like his mom and sometimes his dad.

I have been wanting to craft with all of the baby food jars that I refused to throw away. So I googled and came up with this idea. It was so easy. I just spray painted the tops and tied ribbon on the jars for hot chocolate favors. I planned on having tags but who has time for that?! Micah also helped by shaking up the contents of the jars...

I had so much fun crafting all of these things and even more fun celebrating Micah's first year.

I wanted to get a cute picture of Micah in his birthday hat but he wasn't interested in wearing it, just pulling off the fringes and getting tickled by daddy. We had quite a few snuggle moments at his party and I was excited that this one got caught on camera! (I have very few pictures of me and Micah-as I realized while putting together his scrapbook for the party)I also should post that Micah walked to me this morning. Of course I cried, especially because I feel so blessed that I didn't miss his first time really walking. God is so faithful in answering even the smallest prayers!

Travels, Birthdays, and Changes

We flew to Texas at the end of January and we actually got complimented for how great of a baby Micah was! I would take flying over driving any day :)

Micah turned one and we had such a great time at the party!

This is my second week back to work full-time. I am so grateful that God provided a way for me to stay home part-time during Micah's first year and am thankful for amazing women to help raise my little boy! The thing I have already learned about being a working mom is that I don't take any moment with Micah for granted. I wake up early to get extra snuggle or play time before work and I can't wait to go home and get on the floor to hear Micah laugh!

Baby step

I don't know if we can count it but since we were both there to witness it we will...

Micah took a step! He has been standing up without holding on to anything and this morning he lifted his foot off the ground, took a step, and then tumbled. But thats how it starts, right?

We are close! He might be taking steps by his 1st birthday!

This is where he was at Christmas- starting to get more steady standing with one hand.

Another house update

at least there is insulation!
YAY- siding is done!

An update on the house

I don't have an updated picture of the inside of the house but this is what we have been up to:

We got the new window in and boarded up the little window in the pantry. In this picture you can see the new sill plate above the bricks. Hopefully when we return from our stay at the Goads we will have siding in place from the contractors.

We decided to take off siding from a small section of the house and sadly we discovered MORE termite damage!!!!! ugh...luckily since the siding was off and there was no piping in the way, the sill and studs were replaced rather easily (I think considering the contractors did it in a few hours).
Here is the finished project with new vents for the dryer and new siding. I am really glad you can't tell that the siding isn't exact but what I really notice is that we need to power wash...add it to the list!

Too Busy to Blog

I decided to tackle a pretty large Christmas craft - personalized stockings. I started with mine in the middle playing around with the embroidery and finished with Ariana's. I have yet to make Matt and Sarah's and told them they would be done for next Christmas because the hand embroidering is a little more time consuming than I planned. I am pretty impressed with the project and how they all turned out!

House updates

Bryan says all I post about it Micah so this is for him.

We have had quite a setback in our endeavor to fix up an old house...

In hopes of remodeling our very outdated kitchen, Bryan started the project and it came to a dead halt when he discovered extensive termite damage.

Before- the wall that was going to come down to expand the kitchen.

Before: Pantry

studs/floor joists/sill- all termite eaten and need to be replaced- ugh

Progress as of today- everything is braced up and the sill (what the floor joists and wall sit on) is about to come out- the moment of truth

Sill being nailed in

I look forward to picking out the wall colors, floors, and kitchen layout but this is exciting stuff too. We are a long way off because of doing the work ourselves but we are saving thousands of dollars in the end which is worth it! Oh and by ourselves, I mean Bryan, his dad, and friends. Not me!