Happy 18th Month Birthday to my little cupcake...

This is a week late. You turned 18 months on 9-17-09! You are growing into such a big boy! But, you will always be mommy's little baby!

What are you up to these days?

• You are still wearing size 5 diapers
• You are wearing 24 month clothing
• You wake up 2-3 times a week for a little 2 am snack (milk)
• You LOVE climbing on things. The couch, chairs, etc.
• We got you an ELMO ball pit a couple of weeks ago. You love getting in it with Cocoa and Reese.
• The bath still soothes you when you are fussy.
• You know how to turn on the jets in mommy and daddys tub to make lots of bubbles!
• You love having your teeth brushed.
• You have so much fun chasing Cocoa and Reese around the house
• You sing I love you from Barney..."I huhhhh me" :)
• You are the cutest little penguin I've ever seen! You will be in your uncle Will's wedding on October 24, 2009. You'll be 19 months when the wedding gets here.

When did my little baby turn into such a handsome little man???

At the shower, you put on these shoes and thought you were hilarious as you walked around in them. :)

You are so funny!

Last weekend, we had my brother Will and his fiance Cindy a wedding shower here at our house. Here is my new cupcake stand with the cupcakes we had at the shower. It's not a great picture...I didn't take any until the party was half over. I had their new monogram and wedding date on the tops of the cupcakes.

My friend at work "hired" me to make her daughter some cupcakes for her 6th birthday party. Her little girl wanted "Pink Only"! :) Here they are...

My little cowboy...

I'm sorry it's been so long. I have been super busy with work, school, and extra festivities. I am actually hosting a couples wedding shower this afternoon!

Grady was given some cowboy boots that are sooooo adorable. Unfortunately he is unsure of how to walk in them without falling over everywhere! He thinks it's hilarious!

Disregard the Grady fingerprints ALL over the stove! ha!

So...I've been wanting to get some curtains for our dining room and bedroom. Since we were having the shower here this weekend...it was a good excuse to go and purchase them! These actually didn't work out for my dining room so I ended up using them in my bedroom. Grady LOVES to play with the ladder while Daddy is hanging them!

Some cupcakes I made for bible study two weeks ago. Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese filling and cream cheese icing!

Somebody's gotta lick the spoon! :)This is Grady's great-grandfather, John. He is 81 years old.
This is his great-grandmother, Nan. Both of these are on Asten's side. :) He was smacking her in the head with the fly swat!

Daddy and Grady on Nan and John's porch!

Footballs...

I LOVE this time of year. It is my very favorite season and not just because of the weather and changing leaves, it is also FOOTBALL season! I Love, Love, Love Georgia Football. The older I get, the more I enjoy watching other SEC teams play football. Afterall, it is the best conference! Yesterday our dawgs played Oklahoma State and we didn't prove anything on opening day. :( Oh well, at least it wasn't a conference game!

GOOOOOO DAWGS...'Sic Em ooooohhhhhh!

We went to our friends, Lisa and Rodney's and had a great time with everyone! I got up early and made these special cupcakes to celebrate opening day!!!
Friday night, Asten and I had a date night. We went to PorVino's and then to the Rave to see Julie & Julia. It was cute. This is Gray and I before he went to Poppy and Gigi's. Date nights are great...but we sure missed our monkey!
Today our pastor used the phrase, "Pay for a babysitter now or a divorce attorney later!" He said it was horrible to say but it is so true. Parents need adult time every now and then! :)

Family...

Grady is growing up so fast and it has really hit me lately that he isn't a baby anymore. Of course, he will always be my baby...but he is over the whole cradle hold where I could hold him for hours! He is a big boy and so much fun but I miss the little baby that he was. I am also realizing the importance of family time. For us, the week is always so busy and with my "school" (not work) about to start back up, I really want the weekends to be nothing but family time!

This morning we woke up and went to Cracker Barrel. Grady and I shared french toast. He was such a good little boy! He has even learned to color without putting the crayons in his mouth! He was so good, we thought we would let him pick out a toy in the country store! ha!

He couldn't decide on just one and had so much fun playing with all the different little things. So we snuck out without buying anything! He has so many toys and if he isn't just in love with it, what's the point in buying another one?

We went up to the mall to run a couple of errands and ended up meeting Lisa. We had a great girls day together and Grady was so good! I got a lot accomplished! Josh drove up and met us around 3:00 and we had lunch at P.F. Changs. Then did some more shopping! Josh gets 25% off at Old Navy so I stocked up on some stuff!

It was Bryan's birthday, so we met everyone at Big River for a little surprise party! We had a good time, thanks for inviting us.

Last night I made another batch of cupcakes. The only way to truly practice, is to use realy cupcakes and let friends and family sample them! I'm just glad I have people around that will try because I can NOT eat all of the cupcakes I have been making!

Bryan, Josh, and Myles came over last night. Myles was really wanting to play with Grady. He was more than willing to try out a cupcake!

This is what Myles' cupcake looked like when he was all "done".

Here are some of the designs I created last night! Again, these had the raspberry filling, but these were vanilla cupcakes.

I had used all the blue, so I filled the same bag with yellow and this is what I got. Cool, huh?

Cupcakes...

I have always wanted to learn to decorate cakes. So yesterday I went with my friend, Jennifer to Hobby Lobby and purchased a cake decorating toolbox full of fun tools. My goal is to be able to do my own cupcakes, cakes, etc. for showers and birthday parties. I starting practicing yesterday with designs and my skills have definitely improved in the last day! Here is a picture of the buttercream icing I learned to make. It has the best taste! I used it all up last night playing around with all the different "tips" that go on the icing bags. So I made another batch today and look at all the fun stuff I created!

These are devil's food cake with raspberry filling cupcakes. :)

I love how fancy you can make regular cupcakes!

I could NOT keep all these sweets here! Ha! So I took some to our neighbors, Bryan, Brittney, Jennifer and Philip.

I also played around and created a 3D banana for Grady. He's not too big on icing though! :) It's definitely not perfect, but not too bad for my first cake, huh? I have lots of showers and parties coming up! Hopefully my skills will save me some money!

Happy 17 Months Baby...

You turned 17 months today! Where does time go?

Your little friend Ruby Foster (7 months) came over last night and it seems like yesterday that you were that small.

What have you been up to lately?

• You surprised Mommy this past Saturday as you climbed up on the couch to sit by her. That was a first!


• You are sleeping on your big boy nap mat at Mrs. Carla's.


• You have started getting a little scared when you hear a loud sound and aren't sure where it's coming from.


• You love toys that are vehicles...ambulance, fire engine, trains, etc. Daddy got this train set for you. You don't like to let the trains go on the track, you'd rather pick them up and hold them.

• You LOVE Elmo or Melmo as you call him.


• You love fresh strawberries! We just found out last week and you can't get enough of them!


• You created your first artwork last Thursday at Mrs. Carla's. See photo below:

Since mommy started back to work...she's really been missing you. You stay at Carla's from 7:20-3:20. Around 1:30 mommy takes her students out to recess and wishes so badly she can just run and pick you up so that you can play with them.

Happy Birthday (#17) Big Boy!

Tonight, we went to our friends (The Foster's) house for dinner. You and Aiden play so well together. Here are you and him tickling each other on the couch.

I'm sure you will have many memories with your buddy, Aiden as you two grow up together!

Monkeys...

I was folding laundry the other day and Grady found his daddys underwear! Hey, at least they were clean!

As you know...we love monkeys! I found out that the Creative Discover Musuem in Chattanooga had a Curious George exhibit. We had so much fun. Grady really loved playing with all the fun stuff! Especially George! Me and my boy (and his new Curious George) at the museum.
Here is Grady's friend, Aiden and him swimming at the pool. He loves holding his breath and going under.

I just loved this picture of my boys.