Allie's Minnie Mouse First Birthday Party!

So, as I mentioned earlier, we had a Minnie Mouse theme for Allison's first birthday party. She loves The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and just goes crazy over Mickey and Minnie. So, when I saw The Minnie's First Birthday theme on the Birthday in a Box website, I knew we had to do it! Isn't it cute? :)

I've never planned a birthday party before so I was a bit intimidated by the whole thing. Paul had family coming in from Illinois and I have a lot of cousins who I knew would be hurt if they weren't invited so we ended up with 40 guests! Talk about pressure! Luckily, Allison is a "people person" so we knew that she would be thrilled to have so many people there giving her love and attention.

We bought the plates, cups and napkins from Birthday in a Box. The next most important thing, for me anyway, was finding the perfect birthday shirt for the guest of honor. I searched all over and eventually found exactly what I was looking for on Etsy (of course!) And I'm sad because I'm looking through my pictures and can't find one that show the shirt very well. But she will be wearing it in some of her one year shots when we get them taken in a few weeks. :)

The shirt was made by Azaria Designs Here's a picture of the design on a bib:

 Cute, right? :)

The next important part was finding the perfect cake! I knew I wanted a two tier cake with pink and white polka dots. I was hoping to get the Minnie Mouse head like the one on her shirt on the cake too. Unfortunately, the bakery told me they couldn't do that because of of copyright issues. I was disappointed but I get it and it turned out wonderful anyway! I found a Minnie Mouse plush and a little figurine to put near the cake and tie it all together. Plus, the bakery threw in a free smash cake! :)

Allison had a blast opening presents and absolutely LOVED being the center of attention! And she was still grinning from ear to ear when everyone started singing Happy Birthday. 

Paul's family has a tradition of putting the baby on the floor in nothing but their diaper with their smash cake on their first birthday. I think Miss Allie disappointed everyone by being relatively neat though! 

Anyway, Allison enjoyed her first taste of cake and then scared the you know what out of me when she tried to grab me with her fists full of cake!

 Luckily, we had the party at our church and we were able to stick Allison straight in the giant kitchen sink after her cake :)

Overall, I think the party went very well. I'm certainly not a party planning expert but it all pulled together. In the end, I just felt so blessed to have so many family members and friends who love us and our baby girl.

I'm ALIVE!

My surgery was successful, Gail the gallbladder is gone! I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks since I had surgery. I spent the first week home from work doing nothing. They gave me codeine for the pain which made me very hyper and made it hard for me to sleep. You would think I'd have spent a lot of time blogging during that week but instead I got addicted to Squidoo and spent most of my time writing pages for them!

The hardest part of the whole experience (aside from the pain and lack of sleep) was that I wasn't allowed to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds for 2 weeks. So, my poor 22 pound 1 year old got very frustrated with me. My mom and dad were a huge help and dame to the house to help me on the nights that Paul was in class. But, Allie wasn't a huge fan of having grandma put her to bed, even though I was right there with them. It was heartbreaking to have her walk up to me and say "bup" (up) and not be able to pick her up. Thankfully, we are now done with that restriction and Allie seems much happier now that her Mama can scoop her up from the floor again.


In other news, Allison turned 1 year old on November 5th! It's amazing how fast time flies, isn't it?











We had a Minnie Mouse First Birthday for her on November 7 which I will talk about in full detail in my next post. :)






Paul also got a full time job in IT while I was out from my surgery. He's already talking about letting me work part time at my current job and part time with Barefoot Books after we get married. Then, eventually I will be able to quit the job and just focus on my baby and my books! I can't tell you how happy it made me when he said that!

Oh yeah, and Halloween happened too of course. Here's my little chicken :)

Things are looking up my friends!

Wordless Wednesday - WALKING!

Some Practice Steps :)


Please excuse the mess... I was in the middle of unpacking a new book order when Miss Allison decided to start stepping it up.

Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh my!

We spent the last four days in Illinois visiting Paul's family. His sister, brother and sister-in-law live in Arizona and we're in Illinois for a couple of weeks so we went out to see them.

Let me tell you, traveling four hours in a car with a newborn is a piece of cake. Traveling four hours in a car with a 9 month old is pure horror. When Allison was little, she just slept the whole time. Sure, we had to stop a couple times so I could nurse her but then she would go promptly back to sleep. Now that she's older, we can't trick her into sleeping and she doesn't want to spend hours sitting in a car seat. Not that I blame her. We had to stop several times just to let the little one out to "stretch her legs". So, a four hour journey turned into 6 hours of trying to entertain an active baby who doesn't understand "we'll be there soon!".

But, eventually we got there and it was good to see Paul's family again. Paul's brother, Steve and sister-in-law, Rosy have a 7 year old son named Brandon and 2 year twins named Connor and Shannon. Oh boy, and I thought I had it rough! They had to travel four hours in a plane with that brood!

But, aren't they cute? It was beyond difficult getting them all to sit still long enough... we didn't even bother trying to get them all to smile at once. Okay, I lied. We sang, we danced, we took about twenty million pictures in an attempt to get one shot of them all at least looking at the camera. The picture above is the best shot we took. I'm learning that when it comes to kids sometimes you just have to take what you can get!

Steve and Rosy left for Arizona with the twins on Sunday but Paul's sister Tina stayed behind with Brandon (the 7 year old) So, on Monday we all loaded up and went to Brookfield Zoo. Yes, I took a 9 month old to the zoo. It was so much fun. :)

Allison's favorite animals were the Toucan and the fish. The toucan sat very close to the fence of his enclosure and he was so colorful, Allison just couldn't take her eyes off him! When it came time to leave she waved and said Bye-bye Birdie. Okay, it was more like "bye bye byeeeeeee" but you know she meant to say birdie.

The fish tanks were really amazing because the glass reaches all the way to the floor and Allie could stand there with her hands on the glass and just watch the colorful fish swim by. She was truly fascinated and it kinda made me feel like a bad mom for not having a fish tank in the house, but only a little bit. I won't be surprised if she wants a goldfish when she's older though.

Allison slept through the monkey exhibit and the giraffes but all in all I think it was a great experience for her. I know in a few years she'll be telling me she's never been to the zoo but it's okay, I don't mind going back :)

Allison eating a picnic lunch in front of the sea lion exhibit

Paul and Allison watching the gorillas... that is, until Allie heard me turn the camera on!

This is Allison the River Otter, signing off! "Bye Bye!"

These are a Few of my Favorite Things...

I've been feeling a bit down all day today and I don't really know why. So, I decided to make a list of things I love in an attempt to lift my spirits.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things...




My daughter, Allison. Beautiful, funny, charming and full of wonder about the world around her.











My fiance Paul. He's actually really getting on my nerves at the moment but I always love him. And I love watching him interact with our daughter!

My dog, Bella. She's a vampire dog who likes to lick your flesh off, she can teleport to places outside her fenced in yard and she's pretty much Allison's favorite person.










Other things on my list:

• My parents because I'm just beginning to learn how hard it was to raise me ;)
• My boss because she is also my friend which, actually can be hard sometimes but it's nice to have support at work.
• Diet Mt Dew. Zero Calories, same great taste and lots of caffeine to get me through my day.
• My blogger friends and readers because you make me smile, make me think and "listen" to me whine.

That's all I've got today. But, really I have to say, I'm pretty blessed. <3

Wordy Wednesday (I still have 3 minutes until Wednesday is over!)

Some days it seems like I'd be better off if I just stayed in bed...

I woke up late this morning, or I should say, I woke up even later than normal this morning. I rushed to get ready, gave Paul and Allison kisses goodbye and ran to the door to put on my shoes... and I could only find one of them! I searched everywhere while Paul lay on the couch watching me (don't bother offering to help - I'm fine!).

I eventually remembered I had an extra pair of acceptable shoes at work and slipped on my flip flops just as Paul found the energy to sit up and dig my shoe out from under the couch cushion. Apparently, my 2 year old dog has rediscovered her old passion for chewing shoes! I told Paul to forget it as I ran out of the house and into the rain. Let me tell ya, wet feet are definitely an amazing way to start your day!

Halfway to work I realized that I didn't have enough gas to actually get TO work so I had to stop and fill up, putting me even further behind schedule. Luckily, when I reset the time clock at work for Daylight Savings I "accidentally" set it 5 minutes behind. Also, my boss had a similar morning so I still beat her to the office. I made it to work "on time", but not without a lot of stress.

I work at a print/copy shop. My job title is Administrative Assistant. My title in no way describes the variety of work I’m expected to do. Billing, printing, deliveries, shipping, graphic design… I do a little bit of everything. Not to mention doing whatever one of my bosses asks me to do, whenever they want me to do it. I guess you could say, I'm a professional ass kisser. But, I just wasn't feeling it today. The hours dragged and my coworkers seemed hell bent on annoying me. 8 1/2 long hours later, I was finally allowed to leave.

I picked up Allison as soon as I walked through the door and we cuddled and sang and played together. And when she got tired she lay her head on my shoulder and took a nap.

Allie usually prefers to sleep on her own so I can't remember the last time she slept on my lap. It really brought me back to her newborn days when she would fall asleep nursing and just cuddle against me.

*contented sigh*

Moments like that make getting out of bed so worthwhile.