1st Year Photo Session....Check!

Who knew there was so much to do when a baby turns the big age of 1. There is the doctor's visit (scheduled for the week after his birthday), the big party of family and friends (scheduled for two days after his birthday) and the pictures, which we had done today. I found Mary Long of Emme Elle Photography, who specializes in taking pictures of children and I found her on Facebook. She lives in our area so I scheduled an appointment for Scott, and to have a family picture taken.

Scott was a star!! He was so happy and excited to be there. We took a family picture in our Chicago Cubs jerseys and the little guy paraded around with some baseballs and a bat. Mary got a kick out of him and kept saying how good he was. I'm sure her job can be challenging when you have a little one that doesn't want to cooperate. Scooty also took some pictures in a dressier outfit, some overall shorts, and then in his diaper. We attempted the smash cake picture but I must say my child was not all that enthused with his cake. I have no idea where he got that trait from because I love cake.

Mary did a great job and I highly recommend her when you need some great pictures of your kids. In a week I'll have pictures to share. Now it's on to preparing for the big party....

C25K: Week 3 and Horrible Allergies

I started week three of the C25K this week. Monday was good but then yesterday I hit a wall. It's these allergy issues that I can get rid of. When will this stop?? It was hard to catch my breath. I felt like I was running in place but somehow managed to pick up the pace and end pretty well. My actual pace has gotten better and tomorrow I am going out without pushing the little guy in the jogging stroller. Hopefully that will increase my pace even more and hopefully my allergies will get better soon.

Check out some pictures of me and Scotty getting ready for our jog!

Adventures in Cake Making

My cousin Kim got married this past weekend and I made her cake.....that's right everyone I made her cake. First let me say that her wedding was delightful. It was very simple and sweet since it was both Kim and Joe's second marriage. So when she was planning the big day she mentioned that Joe was going to make the wedding cake. I thought to myself...why would he want to do that when he has plenty of other things to do on his wedding day. So I offered, as my wedding gift, to make the cake. She, of course, said yes!




So after months of non-planning the time came. I took Thursday and Friday off from work in order to work on the cake. I was told very little about the cake: heart shaped, blue, and 100-125 people. So that's what I did...I made a cake for a little over 100 people that was heart-shaped and included blue accents. The final result was great (at least that is what I was told) but it was the process that became annoying.

I bought almost the perfect amount of supplies. I started baking on Thursday morning and I was plowing right through until the incident.



I had just put the crumb layer of icing on the bottom layer of the white cake when my baby boy woke up from his afternoon nap. I pushed the two layers of cake to what I thought was the middle of the table and went to get him. A diaper change later and I came to find my older beagle craning his neck to eat as much of the white cake as he could. As you can see he took such a big chunk out of the cake I had to remake the white cake. I must say Ted Beagle is one lucky beagle, because I really could have tossed him out on his beagle rear-end and not cared one bit.



This in turn caused a delay in everything. By Thursday night I was exhausted and my back and feet hurt. So my wonderful hubby offered to stay up with me to make the white cake and he made the icing for me on Friday morning. Once we got down to my mom's house icing the cake went pretty smoothly. We delivered the cake on Saturday morning and from then it was out of my hands.

The lesson learned from this experience was that detailed cake making is difficult, always put your cake near the back of your kitchen counter, beware of counter surfing beagles, and take some time before you attempt to make another.....at least a few weeks.

Wordless Wednesday - Can We Go Outside?

I'm Back at It and A Baby in a Pot

Since I've more or less recovered from my allergy attack the past two weeks I have been back at my C25K program. On the advice of my athletic trainer husband I am starting over at week 2. It's not exactly where I wanted to start again but it works. I ran this past weekend and since I had the day off today I ventured out this afternoon. In fact I took Scott in his jogging stroller this time. I wasn't quite for sure how it would work out but I wasn't too far off my pace which is great! Scotty loved the ride and the change of scenery. Hopefully this is something I can continue with and it may even help my training.

My mom brought my husband a cooking pot for the kitchen. Well let's just say because it sat around on the floor for a few days Scott thought he would have fun with it.

Happy Easter!!

I hope everyone had a great Easter holiday today, no matter how you celebrated. My mom came up on Thursday and has spent the long weekend with us. We went and had manicures and pedicures and did a little shopping. I got a dress to wear to my cousins wedding, which I am going to start on my cake making for that really soon. My hubby and my mom's boyfriend put up a screen door for our front door, which helps create some air flow during these wonderfully warm days. We went to my brother's house for ribs on Friday night and it is always good to see him and my sister-in-law. Then we had lunch with my mom, her boyfriend and my mother-in-law today and mmmmm it was tasty. Ham, 3 cheese mac & cheese, and homemade cheddar garlic biscuits were all very yummy and enjoyed by all.

I have a few pictures from the weekend, of course of my baby boy. He got his first Easter basket from his grandma with all sorts of goodies in it. He also got a tent in the shape of a castle. Is it possible for an 11 month old to be spoiled??