happy twelve months!

happy twelve months olive!

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[photos taken on 11.21.14]

weight: 20 lbs 15oz.

height: 30.5″

oh my oh my oh my! our baby girl is one year old!!! whaaaa?! already?! i’ve always thought about this day, i’ve always thought about her birthday party {so daunting & it turned out perfect!}, i have always thought about what she would be like at one year…and here we are. all these milestones and moments turned out to be exactly what i expected and also so much more spectacular than what i thought! she is so amazing, funny, sweet, loving, silly, cuddly, and goofy.

olive is so loving! she loves to give kisses and hugs. it just makes your heart melt. those pouty lips and chunky cheeks just get me. every. time. i love to say to olive, “kisses!” and she will lean in for a smack on the lips. she’s so cuddly and oh so loving! she loves to lean in for a hug. she loves to snuggle into my arms. she now likes to lay right by your side and chill. it is seriously so cool. she went from a baby to a little girl with a big personality {slow yer roll!}

olive is a healthy, hearty eater. she loves food. like loves it. she will eat anything you give her. i am hoping that this carries over throughout her childhood. i am an eater. i love food. i love trying new tastes, textures, and flavors. i get so much joy from it and i want olive to be the same. i want her to explore and widen her palate as much as i love it. so, we are off to the right start since baby girl does down anything right now. she loves spicy foods, veggies, fish, meat, fruit, cereals, and cake. yes, lots of cake…just like her momma.

she has been solid in her sleep. she hasn’t graduated to that one big nap a day yet…i think that will be in the near future. but for now, she is still hitting up two naps a day. she does go to bed pretty late {like mom like daughter??} and wakes up at a decent hour {typically around 8am}. she will nap between 10-11am and then take another nap around 4-5pm. i am still amazed that she has been so structured and solid in her sleep patterns since she was 4 weeks old! does that mean our next baby will be a crazy, sporadic sleeper??? olive tends to cry out at midnight every night {it’s like clockwork every night at that time, exactly 2 hours after she goes to bed} but only for a minute or two and falls back asleep.  only once this past month did she cry out {around 3am} and didn’t stop for awhile. i got up to console my baby girl back to sleep but that definitely was an anomaly for her.

um, did i mention that she mastered walking?! yes, she finally took that bold step towards craziness. like i said before, i really thought she would be walking by ten months, but eleven months it was. now she is all over the place. it’s too cute. she just wobbles around just to wobble around. she has no purpose. she has no destination. she just walks around and around because she can. it’s so novel for her right now that it amuses me just the same. i love watching her teeter everywhere and giggle at how delighted she is that she is walking! she currently has the goofiest look on her face when she is walking everywhere. it’s way too presh.

well, last month i blogged about her crawling up the stairs {and not knowing how to get down}…she has now mastered ‘crawling’ down the stairs. yup, she is pretty good at it. a little over a week ago, she was going up my parent’s stairs and then she decided that she was going to go down. and down she went with such ease!!! from that moment on, it’s been up and down, up and down any set of stairs.

i am a bit sad because this will be my “last” monthly post of olive. the first year is so important, amazing, and full of delight. it was a fantastic way to document olive’s ever growing status and now it’s come to an end. waaaah. now don’t get me wrong…i will be blogging about olive’s future milestones but it’s bittersweet that this chapter is closing. but ya know what they say…when one door closes, another one opens. natch.

happy one year my dear, sweet olive. we love you to bits and look forward to so many more amazing years ahead. the best is yet to come.

xoxo

happy thanksgiving + hb to miss olive!!

i am thankful for sooooo many wonderful things in my life.

i am thankful for my hubby charming of 3/6+ years. he is the light of my life and i am so grateful for him. he {insert cheesy line} really does complete me.

i am thankful olive was born on this day last year and it’s been the best ride of our lives thus far. she is the most wonderful little person evah. she brings us so much joy, laughter, and love. i am still amazed that we did this…created the most perfect little human being.

i am thankful for my wonderful, wonderful family {my cooking crazy mom, my giving and loving dad, my two beautiful sisters, and my cool dude brothers}. they have been the most supportive people in my life. when the tough gets going, they are there for you. no matter how hard i fall, they will always be there to pick me up and i am incredibly thankful for them.

i am thankful for my fantastic in laws. dick and jane are the most loving parents and friends. they have always been there for us and we are so appreciative of them!

i am thankful for so many, many more things! i am grateful for my health and the health of my loved ones around me. i am thankful for the beautiful house we live in and how much more beautiful it will be as hc works so hard on the remodeling of it. i am thankful for grace and what an amazing big sister she has been to little miss olive. i am thankful for my friends, who love me for who i am and i get to engage in mindless gossip talk with them. i am thankful for so much beauty in my life. period.

stop yourself and think how wonderful this world we live in can be, stop to smell the roses, see the glass half full, enjoy the people around you, slow down and be kind and thoughtful.

this thanksgiving, count your blessings and give someone a great big hug to make their day a little brighter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST LITTLE BABES!!!!

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xoxo

starbucks mini me

warning: total mom photos coming your way. a.k.a photo overload of pretty much the same thing – baby and me.

when my dear friends carol, dana, and andrea hosted my baby’s shower last year, dana had given me the cutest little sippy cup evah as a gift! i couldn’t wait to use it! i’m such a starbucks addict. yes, i will pay $4.50 or so for a fancy coffee. yeahhhh, a fancy coffee for a fancy lady {what grace used to call me…fancy}.

anyhoo, olive has finally reached an age where she uses a sippy cup. we actually introduced a sippy cup months ago but i finally dug out this ‘starbucks’ cup for her. oh, i was loving it. me with my starbucks cup and her with her version?! i was in heaven. i was gleeful and excited {wow…the simple things in life}. i could not stop snapping photos. i seriously thought it was the cutest thing {well, i still do}.

this was a morning where we had glorious olive and me time. we were loving life and having a grand ol’ time with each other. we snuggled in each other arms. she played independently, i did errands around the house, we would come back together and have more play time and just chill.

well, back to the starbucks moment. when dana gave me this sippy cup…i totally envisioned me and the baby strolling around, outside on a sunny day, starbucks in hand and her sippy ‘starbucks’ cup in her hands. we are enjoying our drinks and loving life. hmph, that will totally still happen but our first moment of bumping starbucks cups was just too perfect!

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that was just so cute, non?! thanks dana for the best sippy cup evah! you know me too well {and the le petit prince livre is still my favorite!}. cheers to the daily guzzling of delicious coffee!

xoxo

olive’s first birthday party!

so, the day had come…olive’s first birthday party! oh em gee. i was feeling a bit stressed, excited, anxious, and bittersweet. my little babes is about to be one and it makes my heart melt. the first year is so full of many wonderful milestones and memories. each day possesses something new and fun. she is growing up so fast already…i can’t even take it! she amazes us every day; she brings so much joy and laughter into our lives! okaaayyy, so enough mommy gushing…okay, just keeding! i’m always mommy gushing! ha!

anyhoo. preparing for olive’s party was fun, crazy, time consuming, and very obsessive inside my nutty creative mind. i was scheming up so many ideas! i really loved the aesthetic feel of gold and light pink. i’m not a pinky kind of gal, well, okay i am but i’m not into piiiiinkkkk. for example, pink overload…like as if pink was to puke all over olive’s clothes. so not my style. but i was loving the idea of pink, albeit, a light pink {with pops of bright pink} for olive’s first birthday party! how perty it all sounded to me…pink and gold!

so, the day of her party was finally here! i had decorated, crafted, arranged, and tucked in many sleepless nights to get everything done. the guests started to arrive and we were just pulling together the final details of the decor. woooo!

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[do you remember this chalkboard?? when we lived in chicago, there was never a place where hc could do any type of wood work or really do any type of reconstruction project. i had always wanted to redo the chalkboard i had purchased and my wish was fulfilled the past month! hc finally deconstructed the chalkboard and framed it in the white border that i had originally wanted!]

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[her decorated highchair! // number 1 gold balloon & highchair banner {and most of the banners} by littledovie]

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[beautiful flower arrangements by my sister kim]

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[first birthday cake by toni’s patisserie!]

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[dessert table]

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[pink dot & gold glitter sprinkle smash cake]

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[milk glasses]

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[my favorite…macarons and they were flown in from france!]

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[owl treats by the krispie bakery // made especially for o{wl}ive]

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[personalized first birthday book by i see me // add extra pages and have your guests sign in by wishing the birthday girl something special!]

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[cookie favors by rpconfections and the biggest balloon evah!]

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[monthly birthday banner]

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[photo booth!]

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olive was still napping when our first guests arrived. within a half hour, the guest of honor had arose! i gleefully ran into her room to greet the little babes and get her ready for her big day! i got her dressed, hair styled, and all purty for her party. she was ready to go in her graphic black and white dress, gold glitter tights, and a gold glitter bow hair clip. natch. she looked so cute!

olive and i greeted all our guests, while hc got all the food ready! libations and snacks were out and about, while our guests mingled around and explored. after visiting with our guests for a bit, the food was ready to be served and everyone grabbed a bite to eat. it was great; our guests relaxed, mingled, and enjoyed themselves around the house while olive bounced around amongst different peeps.

hc and i had cleared out the basement and made it a play area for the kiddies and boy, they sure loved it! they had a blast running around and playing downstairs. it was a perfect area for them to go wild!

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[birthday girl waking up from her nap!]

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[about to get her ready for her big day!]

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[gold bow hair clip by pink toast boutique, dress by jcrew, and gold tights by hanna andersson]

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[cousin jay, sister in law missy, and aunt wendy]

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[jaime, liam, and marina]

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[cameron, courtney, chaz, lexi, and dominick]

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[barbara, lynne, and patrick]

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[katie and me]

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[pam, elva, and parker]

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[the loot!]

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[reagan, bennett, and aj]

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[parker and liam]

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[smiley brady, kim, and me]

via tandeminlove.com[grace, auntie missy, and olive]

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[helloooo.]

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[goofing around]

https://www.facebook.com/thekrispiebakery

[hanging out with the big kids!]

after lunch and a bit of resting, it was cake time! we changed olive into her second outfit of the day. a birthday crown, ruffled white onesie, and a pink fluffy tutu! we paraded her around for a bit and then plopped her into her chair.

we lit her glitter candle, presented the cake, and sang happy birthday to her! she was so unfazed. she stared at the cake and didn’t know what to do with it! ha! so, i helped her along by poking at the cake and putting a little frosting into her mouth. yes, that got her going. delicious, sweet frosting on the lips will inspire any babes to dive into a big yummy cake!

it was too sweet {literally}. we let the birthday girl sit there and maul her lovely little smash cake, while hc and i sliced up her beautiful gold birthday cake. we served the cake and ice cream on pretty little gold speckled confetti paper plates by merimeri.

https://www.facebook.com/thekrispiebakery

[getting all jazzed up for her birthday smash cake! // tutu by my sweet pea couture // birthday crown by little blue olive]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/197929454/gold-and-blush-felt-crown-medium-first?ref=shop_home_active_7

[smash cake!]

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[paparazzi]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/197929454/gold-and-blush-felt-crown-medium-first?ref=shop_home_active_7

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[hmmm, it tastes good…]

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[hmmm, i’ll try some more…]

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[yeahhhh, it tastes great!]

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[nom, nom, nom]

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[milk, please]

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[lori and jay]

after the cake smash fun, olive was given a quick bath and changed into her final outfit of the evening {such a fashionista…three outfit changes on her big day!}! hc dressed olive in the adorbs outfit kt and kar had given her a few months ago!

once the cake was served, all the guests hung out, socialized, and had some super fun with our photo booth! as you can see in all the pics down below!

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[mom and thuy]

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[lexi and dom]

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[yesss, her third outfit change…such a fashionista!]

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[auntie kim and olive]

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[bennett and reagan]

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[lexi, cam, and chaz]

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[cousins]

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[new fuzzy pbk chair by auntie karen and katie]

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[dana and scott]

slowly but surely, all the guests went on their merry way. we were so blessed to have been able to celebrate olive’s big day with our wonderful friends and family. it was a day filled with fun, love, and laughter. we seriously had a great time, i know olive did! the whole party was a success! wow…it had come and gone and nothing but fabulous memories now remain {well actually the glitter and a bit of confetti are still lingering around!}.

thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate olive’s first big day! we can’t wait to celebrate her real {for reals} birthday on thanksgiving day with more of her family, this week!!! woo hoo!

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[the end]

xoxo

first celebration for her first!

we were able to get together with dick, jane, aunt wendy, and their cousin donna for a little birthday celebration! olive’s first birthday! well, her birthday day is still a wee bit aways but we love celebrating all week long here!

it was our typical routine. wake up. nurse. playing around on the bed. she gives me kisses. olive gets bored and now slides off the edge of the bed and scurries away. i get ready. she tears up the house. i run around and pick things up. i brew a pot o coffee. i make her breakfast. she eats. she plays. she rubs her eyes. she nurses. she goes to bed for her morning nap. every. single. morning. that we have together. so trying to predict how long she will sleep is a gamble!

so, i waited and waited and waited. a bit stressed out because we had to leave for our lunch date! so i went in her room to peek on her…i kind of made a ruckus to see if she would stir {i shuffled through her drawers to pick out her outfit of the day}. stir she did! woo!

she nursed again, i got her dressed, and we were off! i had already thrown everything into the car and got myself ready while she was napping. we sped on our way to the restaurant. we had agreed to meet at a halfway point…at the streets of woodfield, where maggiano’s is at. we were already a half an hour late!

they so kindly waited at the bar…a good excuse to have a drink, non? once we arrived, we were seated right away. it was too cute…they had decorated the table with confetti and wrote a sweet note to us. we were celebrating a few birthdays! olive’s and jane’s!

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[sitting next to papa]

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[they sprinkled our table with confetti!! how cute!]

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[jane, donna, and wendy]

we perused the menu and quickly decided on food. how could you not go with their buy a classic pasta and take one home?! um, best deal evah! i ordered the mushroom ravioli and asked for the eggplant parmesan to take home. yum!

we entertained olive and conversed amongst one another. she was having a blast playing with the crayons and having papa feed her pieces of bread. I had a great time talking with the ladies. It was wonderful to finally meet donna! over the summer, while jane was watching olive, donna stopped by to visit…she was able to meet olive but i didn’t get a chance to meet her. so today was the day!

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[my babes]

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[yummy mushroom ravioli]

after our meal, the sever came by with a birthday cookie cake topped off with a candle. olive wasn’t quite sure what was going on. she stared at it, perplexed. we wished her a happy birthday and i then blew out the candle for the little lady! she then proceeded to throw almost all the cookies onto the floor! hey now, mama will eat those cookies! thank goodness there was another plate…i devoured three! they were so yummy!

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[lemon cookies]

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[happy birthday olive!]

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[make a wish!]

after dessert, we started to pack up to get going. i tried to get olive to walk to show dick and jane but olive wasn’t cooperating. she just wanted to crawl. so, all they got was a little stroll while she held onto jane’s hand. too adorbs.

it was a lovely lunch date with the fam! we had a great time starting out olive’s week long birthday celebration! woo hoo!

xoxo

first birthday candle

i searched and searched for glitter ‘1’ birthday candles. no one sells them in a retail store {at least i couldn’t find one!} and i found a few on etsy but i was not going to pay $10 for a glitter candle!! yes, i will pay for handmade things but it has to be comparable to time + price to push me to buy it. making one costs less than 1/5 of what they were charging for it {including shipping}. so, i decide to makey a candle myself! it’s so easy peasy, that is why i couldn’t bring myself to buy one at that price!

everyone wants to have a little sparkle on their birthday, non? well, olive definitely does. much to hc’s dismay {he hates glitter}. so glitter, sparkle, shine i did.

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1. just buy a one candle at the local party store or whatever number you wish to glitter.

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2. take the rubber cement wand {tap off the excess glue} and brush it along the outline of the candle. just enough to the edge so the colored outline will be covered. if you want, you can also use a different, smaller brush to help control the glue and be more precise.

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3. take gold glitter {or the glitter color of your choice!} and sprinkle it all on top of the candle. be generous! cover the entire top and let it sit for just a bit before you tap off the excess. you want to make sure it has a thick, even coat of glitter.

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4. ta da! you have yourself a nifty, cool, homemade glitter candle! let it sit for at least another thirty minutes before you can tap off any excess glitter {again}.

so, there you have it! a lovely, gold glitter candle for olive’s first birthday cake! i’m super excited and can’t wait to see it on her sweet little smash cake.

xoxo

paper rosettes

so, olive’s first birthday is coming up…and i have been a mad women preparing for it {brainstorming months in advance}. it’s oooohhhhh so much going on, with her birthday party planning and prepping, thanksgiving coming up, we need to decorate for christmas, and get some holiday shopping done! i must admit…it’s been a bit overwhelming.

to top it all off, we are hosting the party at our house and we needed to get soooo much stuff done internally. hc was in the middle of remodeling our bathroom, we needed to buy a bunch of supplies for the party, we had to organize the basement {of course, it’s on our list to remodel…well, basically the entire house}, and execute a lot of cleaning!

the basement was our biggest task! when we moved in, we knew that we would eventually remodel the space, so we threw a whole bunch of stuff down there and promised ourselves that we would ultimately get it organized. well, that time was now. ugh. it wasn’t hard but time consuming!! we are super happy with how it cleaned up…it usable, but we can’t wait until we really can make it an awesome playroom down there! so, as of right now, it will do. it’s all cleaned up and now the kids have a play area!

anyhoozle, what a tangent i was on {it was a much needed rant!}! so, for olive’s party, i mostly bought the decorations…although it kills me to do so. ya know i love crafting and making everything myself but with soooo much going on, time is money and i had no time, so i spent the money 😉 everything i purchased, i can make but since i was stressed for time {so click, click, click and buy i did}, i saved it by just purchasing what my creative mind wanted to do. besides, if i do have any free time, i love spending it with my olive…just chillin’, getting hugs and kisses, and giggles is priceless!

so, some of the decor…i ended up making myself because 1. either i couldn’t find what i needed/wanted 2. it was too late to order anything to get it on time! i needed paper rosettes to decorate certain areas for olive’s party and i couldn’t find them so easily…isn’t that cray?! online, yes, but in store…no. it was hard to find them. i thought i was in the twilight zone! c’mon…paper rosettes should be an easy find and buy!

alas, that wasn’t the case so i ended up making them on my own. besides, i was then able to get the colors i wanted and the quantity i needed!via tandeminlove.com

1. i chose a packet of paper card stock in five shades of pink. card stock is a bit difficult to work with, i would use a lighter weight paper but i couldn’t find the size or color i needed in a thinner paper. it just makes it a bit more tough to fold.

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2. fold the paper {long length} in half inch folds, back and forth, to form an accordion style.

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3. fold the entire piece of paper until it’s all an accordion fold, don’t worry if it’s not perfect…any flaws will be hidden or not noticeable.

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4. fold the paper in half.

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5. tape the inside fold sides together.

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6. your paper, once taped, will look like a fan.

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7. repeat with another piece of paper and attach your fans together to form your paper rosette. you can do four fans and make a more dense rosette, but i chose to only fold two sheets of paper to from mine!

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ta da! you have your pretty paper rosettes! so easy peasy, non?! you can also fold the paper long ways to make different sized rosettes; and depending on your party, theme, color scheme, you can make your rosettes in solids or patterns…no matter what, they will always look fabulous and add total pizazz to any party decor and ambiance!

xoxo

we got a walker!!

well, we thought for sure, that olive would be walking by ten months {’cause she was standing up so early!}. but ten months came and went and she did not independently take a step. then came her eleven month mark and holy moly, we got a walker!

oh it was just fantastic. it started out at my parent’s house. hc is away for work and my parents wanted us to come over for dinner.

btw…it’s soooooo cold out! windy, cold, and a low of 7 degrees! yowza! ohmygosh how it reminds me of my maternity leave…we were paralyzed by the polar vortex. i was trapped inside for months, with it being so cold, and almost went out like jack nicholson.

anyhoo, we were over at my parent’s house when this glorious moment occurred. we were all upstairs hanging out when my dad stood olive up and had her walk towards him. walk she did! she took a solid three steps. so we kept it up. my mom sat across from my dad {about five feet apart} and they called for olive to walk. she would take 4-5 steps and fall into their arms! she was so giddy! she was having a blast taking her first sturdy steps. they did it back and forth. we were all giggling and laughing joyfully. it was just so awesome to watch her walk for the first time. olive was so happy! this went on and on for quite a bit of time. i think i recorded a dozen video clips.

after awhile, we called it quits. olive looked a bit tired {she also didn’t nap very well today…she took two very.short.naps}. we wrapped it up and decided to head home. once we settled in, i wanted to see if olive would do some more walking. oh my, she did a lot! this clip you are about to watch was so impromptu, i wished i had better lighting! we had just gotten home and i only flicked on a few lights in the house, so therefore the video footage is so dark {sorry folks!}.

her face is too presh in the video, isn’t is?! she is now officially on the go and we are now officially screwed 😉

xoxo

chill night

hc came home from work and brought home some ingredients for me to make it a mexican meal night {woot, woot}, so cheesy quesadillas it was {does that say cheesy cheesy??!…natch}. i first whipped together some guac to go with our chips and eventually to dollop on our meals! most folks will say gauc should be simple, salt, pepper, a dash of lime but i do like mine to have a touch of tomatoes and onions {preferably red onions}. yuuuuummmmmm.

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[ingredients]

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we broke open some coronas and lime and cheered our way to some yummy food. i started out cooking the sliced chicken on the skillet {a bit of olive oil…is that mexican?? 😉 }, on high heat. after the chicken was cooked {no pink!}, i scooped it out and threw in sliced onions {i have to always have a kick to it!}. i then threw the chicken back in {medium heat} and threw on some seasoning and water. like i said, it needs a kick, some flavor.

after the chicken was cooked. i threw some mexican rice into a pot of boiling water and started that, so it would be nice and fluffy once the cheesydillas were done. i then took the chicken and folded it into some tortillas. i buttered one side of the tortilla, threw a whole bunch of cheese on top of the chicken and folded the tortilla in half. normally, i would cook the quesadilla on a skillet until the cheese was melted and the shell was a toasty brown but i decided to put it in the oven to see how it would turn out.

um, i definitely prefer the skillet method. the oven did it’s purpose but i didn’t like how the tortillas turned out. a little too crispy for my taste. but all in all it was all so delicious!

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[cheers!]

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olive enjoyed her snacks and eating bits of my rice and chicken in-between. she loves eating! hc and i noshed on our food, drank our beer, and reveled in olive’s antics.

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[eating her cereal puffs]

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it was quite a chill night. i had a great time making dinner and relaxing with my darling family. we were stuffed, satisfied, and ready to hit the couch and put on a movie after dinner. cheers to simple meal nights!

xoxo

october snapshots

warm, cold, outstanding october has passed us by! it was a great month full of changes and fun. it was olive’s first halloween! the leaves changed, the weather changed, the ’tis the season’ is starting to creep up on us!

we had a fabulous time soaking in october’s glorious offerings. i loved the days when the sun was shining bright on cool temperature days. we had the best time doing fun activities such as apple picking with the family for reagan’s birthday, doing seasonal baking, carving pumpkins, and trick or treating.

olive and i spent a lot of time together. hc pretty much spent the entire month of october traveling for work, so we had a lot of girly time! she’s getting so big and developing a big girl personality!

i love october for it’s change of leaves, the vibrant colors are so beautiful. i love how it’s the start of the best holidays. i get so excited to decorate for the season. there’s something warm and inviting about this months {albeit the temperature change!}. maybe it’s because mother earth starts to shut down for the cold winter and we begin our indoor hibernation, where we get to spend a little more time being closer together, warming ourselves up with burning fireplaces and hot chocolate.

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[her new thing…putting sticks and such in her mouth like a cigar]

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[date night]

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[cheeeese!]

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[first time falling asleep outside of her scheduled nap times]

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[how she likes to drink her bottle…swinging her legs back and forth]

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[learning to walk with papa]

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[playing around // sign language for more]

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[my halloween outfit]

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olive’s first halloween was pretty cool, we loved her little lamb costume and she did collect a whopping three pieces of candy in her awesome black cat treat bag. i tried my best to outfit her in cute little festive outfits and she was the best apple picker of us all! so many wonderful firsts for miss olive this past month!

anyhoozle, we seriously had the best time this past october with all the fun things we did! i think novembers snapshot are going to be just as swell! 😉

xoxo