15 Months

So Eden is our her way to 16 months...and I am just now posting about 15 months. Whoops. Honestly I don't remember what she started doing this past month and what she is doing now, so I'll do my best to remember ALL the way back then. 

Things You Love

Screaming

Brushing your teeth

Peanut butter sandwiches

Smoothies

MILK

Cheese

Dancing

Singing

Saying "Beeeeeeeeee!" 

Giving kisses

Playing with Bella

Things you don't love:

Having to wait for anything

Train rides

Eating food

Girl, you and your strong personality are just taking it up another level. We love your independence and your spunk, but it sure does come out when we are in public. You are VERY vocal and talk, sing, and scream no matter where you are. You are saying more and more words..the ones you say the most: cheese, crack-errrrs, Bella, dada, pink, yummmmmm. You also sign "all done," "please," and "thank you" (although thank you is not done correctly, but we'll take it anyway). Sometimes I worry that you don't use as many words as other kids because I am not so good at practicing words with you (I forget how smart you really are sometimes), but I know you are developing just fine. You are always surprising us with the things you understand. You are able to show us what you want. If we ask you where something goes you show us and promptly put whatever it is away. You may not be able to say many words, but you sure do understand what we are saying. One of these days I think your vocabulary is just going to explode. I can't wait until you start talking to me in the car...now if only you were forward facing so I could see you. Oh and you are now up to SIX teeth which is a giant accomplishment seeing as you didn't get teeth until you were a year old. The only time we knew you were teething was with your first tooth, otherwise the only sign that points to teething is you are an even pickier eater. I love that you handle teething like a pro.

Eden, thank you for being the best daughter we could have ever asked for. Your independence just tells us that you are going to be a strong woman when you are grown. We pray that you will seek God in whatever you do. We are having so much fun talking about Jesus and praying with you every night. We also love how great of a helper you have become and can see that you will make a wonderful big sister if God blesses us with another child one day. Your daddy and I think you are the best thing that has ever happened to us and we are so thankful for yet another month with you. 

*I'm still working on getting over the fact that I am back to using my kit lens...but the photo taking has lessened immensely. Its so hard to get photos when its so gray outside. I guess this will just challenge me even more. I have got to get better at taking photos even when the lighting conditions aren't right, otherwise I'll miss out on some great opportunities! 

Merry Christmas!

Well, let's call this a big, fat Christmas fail. I planned on showing you all some of the ways we jazzed up our house for Christmas. That didn't happen. I did take pictures, I just didn't have a chance to show them to you. I planned on sending out Christmas cards, and then we couldn't afford to order them or buy stamps. I then planned on showing you that card on here, but never got a chance before we left on the train for Washington. Oh and did I mention that I slept a total of seven hours in three days because I was so busy crafting away on every single homemade gift we are giving this year? There was a lot of them. I am tired, but oh so excited that it's Christmas day! So, since I pretty much just failed at everything, I quickly threw together another Christmas card for your enjoyment. Yes, I pretty much rock my failures.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and get to enjoy some time with families and friends...and eat lots of food, because that's important. 

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 

Being Neighborly...And Other Christmas Goodies

We have the greatest neighbors. Really, we do. We actually have experienced a lot of not so great neighbors, so moving to our current location proved to us that neighbors can be nice. Because we love them so much we like to do a little something for them for Christmas (well and throughout the year too). I didn't have a chance to show you what I did last year...or at least I don't think I did, if I did then just think of this as a reminder. We needed something simple and inexpensive, but cute all at the same time. Here is what we came up with.

Aren't those fun? We found the pails in the dollar section at Target. You could always find some at a craft store or Goodwill and decorate them yourself, but at the time (working full-time and had a 2 month old) I just couldn't find a spare moment to DIY much of anything. So pre-made worked for me! The inside is filled with Peppermint Bark from Costco. That is some good stuff! We also found little packets of hot chocolate and stuffed them in there as well. See those cute little Santa socks there? We had found out that our newest neighbors were expecting their first baby so we had to throw those in for fun. 

So, if you need an idea for an easy and inexpensive gift, there you have it. This year I have plans of giving them some homemade popcorn in glass jars. I don't think they actually read this blog so hopefully I didn't just give it away. Not that I gave much away, it doesn't sound all that great the way I described it, but I promise, it will look half decent in the end. What? I am not promising miracles here. I'll try to share photos if I get them done sometime soon! Christmas is almost here and I haven't finished one present. Talk about procrastination! 

One last thing....our Secret Santa struck again! If you remember we had someone drop a tree at our door and make a run for it. Well, we are guessing that same person (the knock was the same anyway!) dropped a little gift box with all of the fixings for hot chocolate and smores. I happened to be standing next to the door when they knocked, but of course had to do the whole ninja thing and quietly creep to the window to see who it was. No luck, I was too slow and didn't catch them! I would have taken a photo BEFORE we ate everything to show you how cute it was, but we kind of inhaled all of it and ended up in a sugar induced coma. Here is a picture of the cute little mugs that were in that gift box. 

Hope you all are enjoying the holidays so far...and hoping that you have gotten a better start on gifts than I have this year. 

Famously Famous

Okay you guys, I have been so anxious to tell you about my little secret and I can finally share it!

Eden's nursery was featured on Baby Lifestyles today! 

Insert picture of Josh and I freaking out and celebrating early this morning when we woke up and saw it. We actually knew it was coming. They had contacted us about  featuring our nursery and we of course said yes. Who says no to such an amazing blog? Not us! I have no idea what rock I had been living under, but I actually hadn't heard of them until they contacted us. Honestly what a great place full of inspiration. I wish I had known about it when I was pregnant! Good thing we plan on adding lots more littles into this house so I will definitely be heading over to be inspired in the future. 

Seriously though we are so thrilled and so honored to be featured on there and I just had to tell you! I felt like it was too good to be true so I had to wait until I had seen the post and refreshed the screen five times (you know, in case my eyes were playing tricks on me) to actually believe Eden's nursery was there. Head over and check it out, its a wonderful feature. I know you all are sick of me talking about her room by now, but seriously they did a wonderful write up about it. 

Also, for those of you who are new here from Baby Lifestyles, WELCOME! We are glad you came by. Now, grab a snack or two, sit down, and enjoy all my random musings. I have lots to say. Feel free to ask questions if you have any about the nursery, but to help you out here are all of the nursery posts for you to catch up on! 

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4,Chapter 5, Budget Breakdown, The Reveal

Thank you dear readers for being so supportive and encouraging as we learn the ins and outs of design and making our house a home. We cherish you!

Bring On The Fat

Lately we have been adding lots of butter into our diet. We use coconut oil in everything. We strive to only buy products that were made/grown locally. In fact we rarely buy anything that has been pre-made and make most everything in our kitchen. We choose full fat and never low-fat food. We like our eggs to come from chickens that have roamed freely. We even buy milk that is not homogenized. I know it looks like we have lost our minds, but let me assure you...our minds are (mostly) intact.

I used to dream of being a dietitian or personal trainer. I loved food and its relation to our bodies and I just wanted to soak up every bit of knowledge and pass it on. Then, I married a man who gagged at the sight of a vegetable or anything else that resembled "healthy food," I got busy, etc. I just kept making excuses. Well, after 9 months of eating whatever food we could possibly buy (usually cheap food means not so healthy food) or that people gave to us, we are finally done with eating poorly.  Literally, we were just eating to survive before and now we want to eat in a way that will help our bodies thrive. Eating good food is the best thing you can do for yourself, and most definitely for your children (whether you have them now or in the future). I think we can all agree that something is wrong with our society...diseases, obesity, etc. I think I am just over it all. I don't want Eden growing up thinking that eating something that resembles meat at a fast food restaurant is actually good for her body. I mean, who else is going to teach her the best foods to eat? Anyone else willing to step in here? As much as I enjoy watching The Biggest Loser, I would rather not have to have my children on the show. Dear Jillian Michaels, don't take this personally, but I don't want to meet you. Well, I want to meet you, but just not because I chose to abuse my body with harmful foods. Is she even on there anymore? I don't even know!

While we venture on this new "real foods" journey I just want to give you tips, tricks, and resources that we find while on this adventure in hopes that it may benefit you as well. Even if you are fine with eating your Big Macs each day without thinking twice about it (coughMYBROTHERcough) you still may enjoy learning just a little bit more about treating your body (and your planet) right. Oh, and Brett, please don't disown me as a sister. I truly do love you, just maybe don't love your food choices..haha. Okay, but seriously I do still want you to claim me as your sister.

So, after that ridiculously long-winded (hopefully not too preachy) post, here are a few blogs that have inspired me so far on our journey.

First, I have to give major props to one blog in particular.

via

100 Days of Real Food

Lisa is one smart woman. I wish we could be friends. I love reading about her journey and boy oh boy can this woman cook. So far we have tried her homemade honey whole wheat bread, whole wheat tortillas, berry sauce, banana ice cream, chocolate sauce, whole wheat crepes, biscuits, chicken enchiladas, pumpkin bread, granola, macaroni and cheese (I know I'm missing some), and used her recommendation for homemade creamer from Deliciously Organic (I made the pumpkin spice one for Josh). We have loved EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. No joke. We are obsessed. 

A few (very) new to me blogs have been providing me with even more wisdom. I am starting to feel the whole ignorance is bliss thing because honestly sometimes it does get a bit overwhelming (you know I always have to state the facts). However, each one of these blogs has broken it down in such a great way. In fact at Kitchen Stewardship, the goal is keeping it simple and doing baby steps. Love this!

The next blog is new to me, but I fell in love instantly. Monica, who writes Oh Sweet Escape actually commented on one of my posts so I went to check out what her blog was all about. OH.MY.WORD. She is gorgeous and super sweet to top it off. Oh and the best thing? This girl can cook. If you want to be inspired in your cooking, go now. You'll love her.

Looking to "green" up your life in all aspects, this next one is sure to give you a great place to start: Frugal Granola

Greats posts and easy to read. Lots of resources on eating and living healthy lives: The Nourished Life

Loving this blog! Another wonderful resource: Simple Organic

Great tips, especially for you moms: Keeper of the Home

I found this blog via Jamie Oliver and love it for planning out healthy meals for kids. Even if you don't have kids you can find some great inspiration: Healthy Meals and Food for Healthy Kids

Now I need to make a little disclaimer here. I am in no way a nutritionist. I know this may come as a shocker (ha!) to most of you. Technically I am just a wife and a mom who is concerned about the state of health in this generation and am refusing to follow that trend. Also all of these blogs that I have shared are just blogs that I have fallen deeply and madly in love with in recent days. Most don't even know I am writing about them (hope they don't mind!).

Here's the other thing. I don't want you to think that I expect each one of you to choose this lifestyle. I don't. We all make our own choices for ourselves and for our families and I expect you are making the best one. I respect that. I am just so over the moon excited about what we have learned and how much better we are feeling these days that I felt the need to share. I can't imagine that we will ever go back to eating processed food. Yes, we let ourselves eat it while on vacation, and we even have a treat once or twice a week. However, our overall food intake is food that would have been ingested on Little House on the Prairie. It's natural and downright good for you.

Please let me know if you have any questions or anything! I love this subject and would love to chat more on it if you would like to hear. Maybe another post will be in order? 

Update Schmupdate.

I've been making some changes to the blog. I'm pretty excited about it. Nothing too fancy, just a little facelift of sorts. It needed it in a big way and I finally had a chance to make it happen. There is still so much for me to learn when it comes to coding and all that fancy stuff, but I'll learn one of these days.

Also, sorry for the sporadic blogging. I am hoping to get some more detailed posts of Eden's party up soon! I've been a bit of a downer lately and I really don't love blogging when I am Miss Negative Nancy. Plus life has just been hectic. I haven't said anything here and I am still not quite sure how to go about talking about it, but we may not be in our house after the beginning of the year. I won't go into details here because things aren't sorted out, but it's just the way it is. In the end it will be a good thing, but its one of those times where you know its the right thing, but it still bums you out a bit as well. Maybe I'm the only one that gets that way. 

Anyway, I promise there is more to come! I also have some fun news to share and I can't wait to be able to tell you (no its not a baby!). Thanks all for sticking with me (if anyone is actually out there...). Hope you are all loving getting ready for the holidays as much as we are! 

Speaking of the holidays, I might as well share a couple photos while I am at it. You know I can't leave a post without any photos!

Thanksgiving

 

My brother and sister-in-law hosted this year. The food was DELICIOUS. I definitely enjoyed a couple portions. Also, I loved what Stephanie did with the napkin, such a cute little detail. Eden, being the picky eater she is, decided to just be a grump. Thankfully her aunt Brooke is always willing to jump to her rescue and entertain her for countless hours. We actually accomplished a family photo thanks to the tripod the besties gifted me for my birthday. I'm spoiled. Also, look how everyone looks at me in that last photo. Yep, they were all like, "Mallory is so pretty...ooh look at her!" In reality everyone is looking because every single time the camera snapped a photo Eden thought it was a good time to elbow me in the face. I am being completely serious. She just knew. She really does love me.

Christmas (well, almost)

We enjoyed our first fire of the season. I think it looks like our heads are on fire. We watched Elf and listened to Christmas music (we actually do this throughout the year, but its the first time we did it AFTER Thanksgiving). I have a bit of a story about the second photo...

I was giving Eden a bath and had just pulled her out of the tub. I wrapped her in a towel and was just walking out of the bathroom when I hear a loud knock. Even though NO ONE can see me, I still go into ninja mode and tiptoe to her room, hoping that whoever the scary man is outside of our door won't know I am home. I should probably tell you that Josh was in fact home. He was just in the basement so I took it upon myself to just be a big scaredy cat and run away with my naked toddler. Bella is barking like the crazy dog she is and Josh comes up to see what the commotion is. At this point I am safely hiding in Eden's room debating if I should put her diaper on (apparently the burglars would know I was there if I put a diaper on my child?). After a noise that sounded a bit like, "OOF!" coming from the front door, Josh says, "Mal, come here now!" The naked toddler and I head to the front door to see Josh covered by a Christmas tree. I stand there, mouth hanging open. Josh says, "I opened the door and this tree fell on my head!" Naked toddler and I jump out on the front porch to see if we can see the culprits. No such luck. So now we have this gorgeous tree that a little Christmas elf left on our porch. We put some lights up on our perfect little tree and are going to decorate it sometime this week. We still have no idea who blessed us with this tree, but we sure do hope they know that it was a true blessing for our little family. We thought we were going to have to go without a tree this year, but someone took the time to go pick out a tree and leave it for us. This is definitely a Christmas we will never forget (and it's not even December yet!). 

Hope you are all having fun preparing for the Christmas season! Personally I think it came way too fast this time around. I LOVE Christmas and I usually think it can't come fast enough, but this year I feel like things are so chaotic that I can't even enjoy this season. Hopefully I can put the brakes on and just treasure each moment that this great season brings us. Happy decorating!

14 Months

*I took the photo and wrote this post when she actually had just turned 14 months and then never finished it. That was November 17th. Mommy fail.

Well, here we are at yet another month gone by in our child's life. This month was quite exciting because she started truly understanding us. Sadly, because of this, that also meant we also started doing timeouts. This girl definitely learned how to throw tantrums just like the best of them. Thankfully we quickly learned to just let her throw them and just walk away. I usually stand in the same room, but only acknowledge her in the beginning to give her a rundown of what's going to happen. "Eden, I'm sorry you are upset. Mommy will be right here when you are ready to ________." Usually she is throwing a fit because she wants me to carry her EVERYWHERE. While I would love to do that, its not always practical, and it certainly is putting a strain on my back. Besides, she should be able to walk around on her own. Oh the life of a toddler.

We actually have a fairly accurate guess of Eden's stats since we had to go to the doctor this month. She had a horrible cough...I mean so frightening that I had to stay up with her all night...and the doctor decided it was asthma. We don't know if it was or not since most every child has had a bad cough, but we started her on a nebulizer as the doctor instructed. Thankfully she is finally better after lots of time in front of that nebulizer, keeping her in from the cold air, and lots of Vicks on her feet (it works, try it!). 

Eden's Stats:

Height: 27.5 inches

Weight: 17 lbs. 13 oz.

All of Eden's baby friends have passed her up. Yes, I mean BABY friends. This girl is petite just like her momma...sorry Eden!

Things you love:

Saying "YUM!" every time you see food

Running

Pointing to your nose, mouth, eyes, toes, fingers, and belly button when asked

Stacking and sorting everything

Making monkey sounds

Making lion sounds

MILK

Brushing your teeth (you take us to get your toothbrush)

Popcorn

Bananas

Eggs

Screaming

Babies

Things you don't love:

Food (seriously you don't like to eat all of a sudden)

Waiting for your milk to be poured

Being patient

Lately this is the conversation that happens between Eden and I:

ME: Red Robin!

Eden: ba?

ME: No, say YUM!!!

Eden: YUM!

I am determined to have my child star in her very own Red Robin commercial. I am such a stage mom.

I was planning on having Eden's monthly posts be MUCH simpler than her first year, but that doesn't seem to be happening. Oh well. As always here are some photos of her last month. Oh and of course the disclaimer that my lens is all whacked out so please don't critique them!

Grandpa Crain took her on her first carousel ride
(She was not so happy once the horse started moving..)

Holding hands with Beckett
(I couldn't upload a video of them kissing, but they did!)

No more pictures mommy!

She is such a confident walker...and is hard to keep up with!

Her newest love, Clifford! 

This is how she sits when she eats EVERY.SINGLE.DAY without fail.

We love you Eden! 

Pinkalicious First Birthday: Smashing The Cake

Every baby must have a smash cake at their first birthday party right? Well, I thought so. I pondered giving Eden a healthy version of a cake cause you all know I'm kind of crazy and well, I was struggling with the idea of just introducing an entire sugar filled cake just because my child turned one. So, I looked for recipes and came to the conclusion that to make one that was dairy/wheat/orange veggie free was nearly impossible. Yes, I could have figured something out, but at that point I was overwhelmed with party details and just knew I had to let this one slide. So, I made a cake. Out of a box. The frosting? From a can. Tinted with pink food coloring. Not my proudest moment, but sometimes as parents we just have to do what works and I am proud to rock that mantra for today. 

 

So, here's the thing. I actually thought Eden would dig in face first into her smash cake. I mean, this girl is not afraid of a little dirt. Or so I thought. I think my idea of "dirt" is a little different than most. Maybe I should have considered the fact that as soon as she is done eating she holds her hands up until we take her to the sink and wash them. Either way, this girl did not even think the cake was a good idea. In fact, she downright threw a fit in the middle of her party crying, "mama! mama! mama!" and holding on so tight with her cute little fingers wrapped firmly around my neck. I'll admit, while it was disappointing to not have a baby covered in pink frosting, I wouldn't trade the feeling of having my daughter need me. Made me feel loved. I have no pictures of her sitting in front of her smash cake, bawling her big eyes out, but I did decide to do a "take two" at home with just the two of us. 

This is actually the same cake from her party, I just saved it and brought it home. I added sprinkles to the top (as I had intended to do the first time around) that helped to cover up some of the imperfections that occurred when she hit the cake at her party. 

Also, just a hint. I knew I wanted to get all of these great shots of Eden enjoying her cake at her party. This was super important to me (this was before I found out that she would have nothing to do with the cake). So, I taped up a large white plastic rectangular tablecloth (bought at a local party supply store). I made sure to tape it high enough that it would serve as a background, but also left enough on the ground so that all of the mess would be contained and we could just toss the tablecloth when she was done. This was especially important since we were in a business that was also serving customers at the time. Just a hint for those of you wanting to get some great shots of your little one! 

Aren't you in love with the ombre pink insides of the cake? I was so excited to reveal it at her party and then extra disappointed when she never even made a dent in her cake to reveal all the work I had put into the INSIDE of the cake. So, of course I had to cut into it the next day to show all of you what was hiding on the inside. It turned out even better than I had imagined and I was so happy with it. All I did was put a little pink food coloring (this is crucial, don't use the red dye, it just won't work. I found some pink coloring by Wilton's at WalMart and it was so worth it) into the cake mix until it was the perfect shade of light pink. I then poured the batter into my small 6 in. cake pan (found at WalMart as well in the craft section). Then I would add a bit more into the batter until I had a medium shade of pink that I was happy with, and then baked that in the 6 in. pan. I think you can guess what happens next. Yep, I added some more until it was hot pink and baked that. The frosting was a similar process, just added a little bit of pink coloring until it was a very light shade of pink. Super easy and yet definitely an attention grabber. *Thanks to my handsome hubsters for helping get the frosting absolutely PERFECT!*

Here are some shots of our little pot-bellied girl getting her cake on. As you can see, she still wasn't that into it. 

Right after I snapped that last photo she promptly picked up her foot and stomped on the cake. I think that was her way of staying, "get rid of this darn thing!" I listened...and then Josh and I totally dug into the center (where her baby feet hadn't smashed into) and ate it right up. Quite the load of sugar. 

If you missed the first post where I revealed photos from her party check here. 

Also a quick thank you to all of you who have commented on her party! I have definitely done my share of picking the party apart until I feel like it was a terrible event because that's just what I do, but you all have reminded me that it was fun! I know Eden will enjoy looking back at the photos of her party and won't know about all of the little details that didn't go perfectly. What actually turns out "perfect" anyway? 

Pinkalicious First Birthday: The Eats

I'm back with my favorite part of any party....FOOD!  Seriously, I love eating food, cooking food, talking about food. Yes, food is most definitely one of my loves. On to the details. 

I "pinned" a ton of food inspiration to come up with the perfect menu for Eden's party. I knew I wanted to go with food that made you feel like a child again so that's where I started. The other important issue with the food was the fact that Eden has had a dairy allergy (yay for growing out of it!). We wanted food that Eden and any other child with allergens of some sort could at least eat something. 

Also, just a note that any recipes used are linked to the food title, so just click on the name of the food and it will take you to the recipe! If there isn't a link its because we didn't use a recipe or because we bought it :)

Pizza Balls

Mini Mac+Cheese and Veggie + Dip Cups

Fruit Kabobs

PB+J Sushi

Tortilla Roll-ups

(Not pictured...just used the standard ones from Costco)

Goldfish + Animal Crackers

Now I know it looks like I forgot to feed my guests dessert, but that's the best part. Eden's party was at my parent's frozen yogurt shop (our shop is just too small for our guest list and my parents willingly agreed to let us make a mess of theirs) so everyone got to go fill up their cups with frozen yogurt and all of the toppings they could want. This was SUCH a huge money saver for us and we are so thankful to my parents for letting us do this. I had even thought about purchasing some cute cups that I designed, but then realized the Limeberry logo cups were cute as is and my mom kept reminding me that they were happy to have us use them. So, I did. I'm so glad. We are obviously in quite the financial crunch right now (maybe that's not so obvious..but we are on a spending freeze permanently I'm pretty sure) so any money saved was quite a blessing. Besides, who doesn't love some frozen yogurt?! 

As for drinks we went with pink lemonade served in mason jars and then organic whole milk and natural apple juice for the youngest ones in the group. More on the drink portion of the party later!

I cannot close this post without a GIANT and HUGE shout out to my friends, Maggie and Kristen. They were extremely vital in the food portion of the event. In fact, there would be no food if it wasn't for them. See, I loved the idea of all of the food, but actually making it happen was a different story. I needed to be able to set up the party, but also cook the food and keep it warm all in a few short hours. Yeah. Not going to happen. They willingly volunteered their morning (and the time to go pick up all of the groceries!) to get the food prepared. Can I just say they did an AMAZING job? LOVE THEM!


I'll be back with more details later! Anyone else feeling like "this is the party that never ends...yes it goes on and on my friends..." What? You don't remember Lamb Chops? I loved that show. Even had the lamb puppet.  

Let me know if you have any questions about the food or even another aspect of the party. Oh and just so you know, people are still talking about the peanut butter and jelly "sushi" that we served so that's a must make. 

Pinkalicious First Birthday Party

When it comes to Eden's first birthday party, all I can say is WOW. It was a lot of planning and even more work, but in the end I was so happy that we decided to go all out for her big day. I know she won't remember it, but it really was a great time with all of her family and friends and a great way to say, "we made it a whole year!" Eden is blessed by so many people that love her and we were so thankful to everyone who made it. We only wished we had a bigger venue so we could have invited the rest of her friends!

 

I'll have a source list for everything in a future post. I am also planning to break down the party into a few more specific posts so we can get into the details. If you have any questions, requests, or anything pertaining to the party feel free to comment on this post or email me at thecrainsnest[at]gmail[dot]com.

A big thank you to everyone who helped make it happen...we couldn't have done it without you. Seriously. The party would have been a flop. Thank you to everyone who came out for Eden's special day! And I can't forget to say thank you to all of your wonderful blog readers for all of the sweet comments and support you gave to me as I planned this shindig. More to come!