a little bit of me.

{the party}

evan had his first birthday baby-animal-safari weekend-extravaganza (minus the live pony - BUT with a 5 foot inflatable monkey...) this past weekend, at our house in Florida...

it was just the family sharing in the fun, but that was enough for him, and i'm pretty sure he loved the whole thing.  or most of it anyways ;)

this was the birthday boy before the party started...  ((i just decorated up our humongo kitchen which is more like a gathering room -- and then spread balloons around the house and outside)):

notice the 5 foot inflatable monkey chilling next to ev.... :)

and more party goodness - with a smaller inflatable monkey dancing on the table...

During evan's party - we BBQ'd, tried to have some baby fun in the kiddie pool (of which ev was NOT partaking), & played with party guests cousin-paige and toby-the-poodle...

Which brings me to my newest classic shot.

remember this post from Toby's 6th birthday last February >> click here

welllllllllll, we thought we needed the same for evan's bday...

...cousin paige and toby the poodle LOVED their hats, but...  unfortunately evan did NOT agree:

my son has decided that hats are just NOT COOL.

unless, of course, CHEERIOS are involved....  (please take note of the all-important cheerio in ev's hand...  and while you're at it, my pony-replacement-5-foot-monkey in the background ;)

((this was aunt kimmie's totally fabulous brainchild, which worked for all of about 30 seconds...))

and so the party went on, until it was time for cake...

i made cupcakes for everyone, and made evan his own cake...

i make everything from scratch -- he had a double layer vanilla cake with buttercream frosting.

totally MY favorite... but since he dislikes everything EXCEPT cheerios, brocolli, and peas, i thought it might be necessary to cover the TOP OF THE CAKE with cheerios....  which i did :)

((PS - i am FULLY aware that cake decorating does not exactly rate as one of my stronger skills ;) -- and i will most likely be signing up for one of those Joanns decorate-a-cake class series before cake #2.  heeeee.))

and so, we set the cake in front of him, cameras ready, and he picked one cheerio off the cake, tasted it, and knew we were trying to pull a fast one on him...

and this is what he thought of momma's cake:

and so, i have been eating evan's birthday cake for the last couple of days.  cheerios and all.  and it's good....  :)

sidenote: the bib ev's wearing is something i quilted and made...

i used lisa's fabulous pattern that she posted on the Fiskars craft website HERE >> and i totally ripped her off.... ;)  but i love it - such a cute idea from one of my craftiest friends!

and so that was the party.  which took place on the 26th.  and then it was evan's first birthday the next day on the 27th, and we brunched and just played, and totally enjoyed ourselves.  and evan was officially a happy (one-year-old) boy (in his new wagon from grandma!)...  :)

{swim turtle, swim!}

so evan LOVES to put things (blocks, brightlings, small animals) in and our of any container he can find - a bucket, the toy chest, whatever...

and he managed to crawl into the bathroom last night - while i wasnt looking - and at which point must have decided that his little bath turtle needed to go swimming...

adorable.

and i just didnt want to forget this.

:)

ETA: LINK to the BATH SEAT!!!

{7.22}

5 days and counting till ev turns one.

somebody stop it from happening, ok?!

i've been a blog-loser and havent posted much lately...

just trying to do the whole florida-ponte vedra beach living and absorbing our new environment thing.

and mentally preparing for evan turning 12 months...

12 months sounds more baby than one year, right?!

;)

our families are driving up for a fun-filled birthday festivites weekend...

this was the invite that i sent out to them (i had it printed 5x5 then mounted on textured cardstock and bought square envies)....

notice he's wearing my fave gymboree lion outfit??

i thought it went with the baby safari animal theme of the party?!!

i designed the invite.  me and my crazy digi skills....  (KIDDDDDDDDDDDDDING!).  ;)

i wanted to get a live pony for the party but eric wouldnt let me.

PARTY-POOPER  :(

(maybe next year?!)

:)

in other news....

we thought we had a second showing on our MN house over the weekend...

only to find out today that the buyers never even showed up and instead put an offer in on another house.

which is just not good to hear.

for me, for eric, for our realtor, for anyone.

especially when we WANT TO SELL THIS HOUSE!

so in order to forget my sorrows, baby evan let me indulge myself in a mini photo shoot this morning.

during which, he pretty much crawled around his room and grabbed every toy/book available.

so im not so much sure that i would ACTUALLY classify it as a photoshoot...  ;)

regardless, i love that i captured the TOTAL excitement that he has while reading one of his favorite books - Millie Moo - which comes highly recommended on the baby evan (& baby paige!) reading list... :)

the best part is the last page where the barn doors open...  any momma (or dadda) who's baby has this book MUST know this... :)

and i also love this shot near the end of our my photofun when ev gets ticked and THROWS his phone rattle (nice split second shot...):

but my favorite FAVORITE of the morning is this...

not completely sure why??

it just seems so of the moment.  and it grabs me.

{ev and grandma}

real quick...

bc this is just too funny not to share...

been using my break from work to *try* to get caught up on sorting/proofing some of evan's photos...

working on month 11...

and found these 2 shots, taken one after the other, from when we were in South Florida at my parents house last month...

LOVE it.

evan's expression kills me!

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

he's all sweet and loving looking at grandma....

then turns back to look at me like "who the heck is this lady?!"

:)

love it.  he really does love grandma tho.  :)

{project city}

a week and a half...

16 layouts...

4 cards...

5 projects...

and a minibook later...

ALL of my CHA stuff is either sent out or boxed up and waiting for the Fed Ex man today.

:)

((feels SO good))

here are just a few little peeks...

Cloud 9 Design Halloween...  SERIOUSLY so fun.  i LOVE the bright colors - purple, lime, orange, and blue - and sparkle(!)...  and bc i love it - you get alot of pics of it.  hehe.

and ps it was super fun to dig up these bald-y pics of ev and 2.5 months old ;)

a little bit more... ;)

and more in the 12x12 variety...

and then there's the gorgeous Christmas line... :)

i love these epoxy sentiment stickers that are coming out -- one sheet = a TON of cards -- or you can stick a bunch on one card, like me ;)

...AND even a little peek at Valentine's TOO...

and now i'm going to take a break and ignore my office for a few days.  (maybe!)

:)

{he loves wheels}

LOVES them.

almost as much as cheerios.

but i think cheerios might still be winning... ;)

we have a patio-type slab in our backyard,

and - after it gets a bit cooler in the evening - when were still waiting on eric to come home from work - we head out there with toby and play "cars"...

and there are tons of squeals, and lots of pudgy baby hand clapping, and endless smiles...

and this is how excited & happy & adorable he gets..

:)

{it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...}

...both from the TONS of new CHA-S release scrap product that my fabulous new Fed Ex Man has been bringing me... ;)

...and by the product theme itself!!!

((taking a quick second during evan's nap time to post a little peek from the new Lil Davis christmas line))

AND - that also happens to be a brand new FISKARS scallop squeeze punch (XL circle) and snowflake punch decorating the top of my christmas box...  YUMMMMMMMMMMMM.  LOVE love all the new punch shapes that Fiskars is coming out with - they have completely outdone themselves!  :)

much much more in a few days.

:)

{gainesville revisited}

been so busy this past week...

((cha-summer sample craziness has started...))

working through a stack of projects right now...

but wanted to post something from the weekend...

which was so.much.fun!

my sister - kimmie - visited us for the holiday.

we showed her ponte vedra beach, and then daytripped to Gainesville yesterday (we all went to UF)...

for: EVAN'S FIRST TRIP TO GAINESVILLE!!!!!

(totally a bonus about livng in jax is our now close proximity to gator land) ;)

it had been 4 years for me, and 5 for Eric since we'd been back - and so much has changed, and we wanted to see everything...  (and i think we did?!)

we had lunch at burrito brothers (an absolute FAVE and gville staple) and went all over campus and bought lots of gator gear and just had a blast. 

kimmie and me...

a stop at the stadium to show evan where he will be spending saturdays cheering for the gators 17 years from now... :)

and baby evan totally admiring tim tebow's tile outside the stadium:

so so SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many more photos - but i think that they may be used on future projects, so i'm going to be a bit stingy and selfish and not share them... (yet).  ;)

hope everyone had a great holiday weekend :)

{at 11 months}

We are rapidly approaching ONE...

and i got to sneak in Baby Evan's (i can call him that for a little longer!) 11 month photo shoot with onesie and bear last week...  still trying to figure out the whole natural lighting situation in this crazy-dark house were living in right now...  so these really arent as sharp as I'd like them to be -- for people who ask/email about my settings: i had to break out my super-fast 50mm 1.4 lens (which i hardly used in MN) and shoot on ISOs of 640 and 800 just to get my shutter speed above 1/100 (and i really prefer it above 1/200)...  but i think i still got some cute shots... ;)

Ev's official 11 month photo (can you tell that he's totally playing the open/shut the drawer game here - which i HAD to let him do in order to get him to stay in one place long enough for me to focus the camera!)

he is seriously "BUSY" all the time now... :)  which i love ((& it keeps me BUSY!))

and the back of his onesie this month (taken while he was on the move!)... :)

PS - check out the curls!!!

Because he was moving around so much, I decided that I needed HELP in keeping him in one place...  and dumped his toys out of this bucket and sat him in it (next to a sliding glass door on the backside of our house)...  ((Which made me flashback to his newborn days of putting him in the BOWL!))

I'm not sure evan really got why he was in the bucket?!

He did, however, enjoy chewing on the edge and looking adorable!!

and FINALLY...  one of a few pics with the every-month teddy...

AND so, at 11 months, Evan...

...weighs ( i have no idea and i need to weigh him this afternoon and add in! )

...has FIVE teeth (3 of which popped in RIGHT at 11 months)

...is crawling everywhere (he finally figured it out at 10.5 months)

...says mamamamamaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and dadadadadadddddddddddddaaaaaaa ALL THE TIME.

...has the cutest FAKE laugh.  which we call him out on.  and then he laughs for real.

...likes to hide all of his brightlings and blocks under our large toy chest storage unit.  and if something wont fit under he puts it on top.

...is getting PICKY about food.  but one thing is certain -- he LOVES pancakes.  :)

...is obsessed with cars and trucks.  really anything with wheels.

...likes to play "catch" where he pretty much just throws plastic blocks in your general direction and you toss them back.

...LOVES looking at other babies.  and usually squeals when he sees them.

...gets so excited when we play pattycake - and gives me a big hug.  :)

...would LIVE in the bathtub if we let him.

...probably needs a haircut soon - ((but i'm holding out)) - and could be classified as having strawberry blonde hair...

...ENTERTAINS us all the time.  totally nonstop!!! :)