Tuesday, November 29, 2011

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!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

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! 

Friday, November 18, 2011

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? 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

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 :)




Mini Mac+Cheese and Veggie + Dip Cups





Fruit Kabobs





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. 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

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!

Blow Out The Candles



Today is my birthday. I turn 27. I grew up in a family that LOVES birthdays. We celebrated all month long. This is not a joke. However, for some reason, this year I really didn't want much...in fact I didn't want anything at all. I asked to go see the movie, "Courageous" with Josh and that was about that. I don't need anything. I don't want anything. I am doing my best to set an example for our household. One that doesn't focus on the getting of gifts, but of giving gifts. Trust me, I think Eden deserves the world, but I pray that she will grow up not focusing on the gifts. As the holidays approach I am asking for money for Christmas. I have plans for it. I hope it blesses the people that need it. We may have little in the way of money right now, but I still feel like I am blessed beyond belief. I have a husband that loves me more than I could have ever dreamed, a beautiful and loving daughter, a dog that may cause me grief but sure brings a lot of laughs into our home. I have clothes on my back (although maybe not the most stylish) and food to eat. We may live a very simple life, but that's just fine with me. I am thankful for what I have. There are certainly days where I look at our bare cupboards and wonder just how I am going to feed my family for the day, but thankfully those days are getting more rare. No matter where I am in life, no matter where I live, my home is with my family and that's really all that I need.

Since I am not really in the celebratory mood for my birthday, I thought you all may want a little fun instead. A little later on I am going post Eden's birthday! Yay! And only 2 months late...whoops. First I waited because I had ZERO photos of Eden at her party. That was not okay. Then the lovely Charissa saved the day and provided me with some fabulous photos of my girl having lots of fun at her party. Then I debated sending my photos to another blog (totally out of my comfort zone), but then realized that the photos that I took were very sub-par and I just couldn't get myself to go through with it. Then...I had no excuse. So, here we are. I don't know why, but I am super nervous to post them. There was a whole lot of blood, sweat, and (a few) tears. I loved every minute of planning the party, but then when it comes right down to it I beat myself up over every little detail. It's a horrible trait. One I hope to kick someday. It truly did turn out perfectly and I should probably just stop worrying. I wish the photography was a bit better and I surely will hire someone next time. I was just way too focused on everything else so the photos suffered for it. This makes for an unhappy Mallory. Anyway, be looking for the post this afternoon! I hope you like it...

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Have I told you yet that I am a L-O-S-E-R?! Because I am. Majorly. I also named my Beta fish "Resol" in high school (loser spelled backwards), but maybe I should have kept that to myself. Either way, I am crossing my fingers that I am going to be a winner. Let me tell you what I want to win...

Red Pearl Designs is having the best giveaway! Megan is letting one lucky winner choose 50 holiday cards for FREE. Oh you know I want in on that. I know our friends and family are so anxious to see a current photo of me because I am just that pretty. Oh fine, really they just want to see Eden and most likely you won't even see any part of me in the photo, but give me a little hope please. I must also let you know that these 50 cards are for the most beautiful, gorgeous, magnificent letterpress cards. Letterpress + Mallory = one big weird happy family. 

I'm sure you are so tired of me saying this, but let me just remind you that the beautiful Megan is the one who designed Eden's birth announcements. In case you forgot what they look like here it is one more time. 



She does amazing work people. So if you are in need of holiday cards then head on over and enter the giveaway. You can bet your bottom dollar (what?!) that I am. I am only telling you this because it truly is a great giveaway and I just realized that by telling you all to go over and enter means I have even less of a chance. Oh by all means please make it that much harder for me to be a winner. I dare you. 

Enter HERE.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

SPOOOOKY

Eden loves Halloween. She didn't inherit that from me. Honestly, she was the happiest child ever. I tried to keep her from eating candy, and yet she found it and DEVOURED it. Serious. Here's proof.



See? Terrible right? I hate to admit it, but she is so cute with chocolate on her face, even if I am wincing watching her eat it. It's one of those moments where you throw up your hands and realize kids have some innate love for sweets. I am still going to do everything in my power to keep the sweets out of our home at least and I'll choose to be less rigid when we are out. I'm all about the happy medium.

Look at my girl dressed up as a cupcake frozen yogurt. She cried every time we tried to take off her costume. She LOVED it. Weirdo. She most certainly didn't get that from me, I despise dressing up. Josh on the other hand...well, yeah, we will just say she got it from him. 

We also carved pumpkins for Halloween...well the day before anyway. Did you know I absolutely LOVE yanking the guts out of pumpkins? Honestly its like Christmas morning for me. Every year I can't wait to get my hands on the pumpkin and clean it all out. It is my goal to get every single solitary strand of guts out of those beautiful orange gourds. It is even more fun to separate the seeds from the stringy guts. Yep.

Do you see how Eden is holding my arm? The girl wouldn't touch the guts for anything, but she held on to my arm the majority of the time. My girl can be sweet when she wants to be. Oh and please pay no attention to me in this photo. I had planned on not letting you see what I look like wearing no makeup and hair shoved under a headband. Sorry for this image. 


Want to see something less sweet? Take a look at my husband carving the pumpkin. That's how we do it around here.


And the finished product. 


                                      
Many people ask if Bella likes Eden. Well, does she have a choice? Look at those two. Eden loves to lay on top of Bella. Eden also weighs ten pounds more than her puppy. We may need to have a chat with her about not squishing the dog. Oh and the disposable diaper? That was the just in cause our daughter actually wants to get messy and play in pumpkin guts but oh wait she apparently is terrified of all things messy. You know she is rocking her cloth diaper all other times. 



I made Eden do a photo shoot in her costume. Yes, I am that mom. I particularly enjoy being that mom thankyouverymuch. I had to use the flash on my camera during Halloween (because my gosh darn nifty fifty lens bit the dust) and I just couldn't handle posting a bunch of photos using flash. I needed to capture my girl in her cute costume. So, we wheeled the wagon down the street. I had dreams of her behaving the way she always had in the past during all of our thousands of photo shoots. She would sit where I wanted to, slyly look up at me with the cutest grin, happily throw leaves up in the air...you get the picture. Yeah, that didn't happen. I was literally CHASING her across the grass and scooping her up every time she made it to the street. I even bribed her with snacks. That did no good. She either had chipmunk cheeks from shoving in too many crackers or would throw her arm up in the air while simultaneously whining until I gave her another one. My perfect photogenic child is no more. 





Excuse the truck and the house in that last one. I had to include it because it reminded me of the fact that she suddenly feels the need to stand on her head. Literally, she puts her head to the ground and has her rear in the air. No idea where she got this idea, but it happens when you least expect it. Makes us giggle. 

Last week we also got to spend some time with friends. We don't seem them often enough. It's so fun to get all of our kids together and watch how they interact. I think they are going to be longtime buddies. 



I need to show you part 2 of the pumpkin patch, but that must wait. My eyes are closing and there is a certain one year old who likes to wake up at the crack of dawn these days. Time to rest!