First Month of ONE

Calvin's been one for a whole month now and the developmental and physical changes that have occurred just since his birthday are amazing.
I swear it all happened over night!

Here's what's new in our world:

He's got another tooth or 2 coming in.

I swear he's grown at least an inch.

He RUNS!

He will hand you something if you ask for it.

He gives kisses when asked (if he feels like it)

He makes a "vroom-vroom" sound when playing with toy cars.

He loves giving High-fives.

He knows how to say and sign "all done" and thinks it's hilarious. (sounds like "aye-daa")
He's really good at dribbling a soccer ball and can take it pretty far (soccer-dribbling, not basketball dribbling)

He can throw a ball with surprising accuracy.

Throwing while running.

Words:

Book

Daddy 

Doggie

Diaper (sounds like "Deeya-pa")

Mama- although most of the time he calls me "daddy" too.

But most of the time he just points at things at says "Dee!"

We're really looking forward to Halloween.

We tried Calvin's costume on him the other night and it we could barely handle the cute.

Tristan and I just put together our costumes too.

Pictures to come!

I've also decided that next year we're doing a family-group costume.

I LOVE group costumes so I'm going to take advantage of Calvin being so young while I can.

Our Trip to Green Bluff

Last week our friends Ashley and Mia from Bend, OR came up for a quick trip home.

We wanted to get the kiddo's together and do something "seasonal" and fun!

So we ventured to Walter's Fruit Ranch at Green Bluff.

We picked pumpkins, played in a sandbox filled with dried sweet peas and tried to communicate with some very funny goats.

Plus there were so many great photo opportunities!

The first patch we went into had a bunch of great toddler-size pumpkins which Calvin kept trying to pick up. He's such a boy.

Seriously, How cute are these two?

Similar plaid shirt, Jeans, Robeez

Then we played in a big box of dried sweet peas. The kids were leery at first, but quickly got into the spirit.

Mia was a fantastic "pea-thrower"

Then we found the patch with the big pumpkins in it and had to take pictures there too.

 

And we made sure to snap some quick Mama-Baby pics before we left. The kids were obviously distracted.

Similar Cardigan and boots

We left with a car full of pumpkins, fresh-pressed apple cider and exhausted toddlers.

We always have so much fun with our friends. 

I'm really hoping we can make it an annual event.

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

I made a killer Chicken Pot Pie last night.

Tristan had two helpings so it must have been really good.

I call it "traditional" because it tastes exactly how you'd want a chicken pot pie to taste. I did however, omit green peas because Tristan (and his entire family) absolutely hate them. Feel free to add peas if you'd like.

I just kind of winged-it based on a bunch of other recipes I found.

Here's what I did:

Check out more of my recipes Here

Fall is in the Air

Fall is in full swing at my house.

I love these sunny days and cooler nights.

Mostly fueled by my love of sweaters, jackets, jeans and boots...

Top it off with pumpkin and cinnamon and apple EVERYTHING and I'm one happy camper.

Room on the Broom

I randomly declared to my husband last week that I want to try and decorate the house for every season.
Nothing crazy.
Mostly just the mantle and front entrance.
I want Calvin to have fun and happy memories of our home.

So I gathered a bunch of apples, bought up some tiny pumpkins, dug out the fall scented candles and made a run to the craft store so I could make some festive fall garland.
I strung together some felt acorns and leaves with some jute (which smells terrible btw) and hung it up with command hooks.

Calvin has been rocking the fall fashions too.

Here's some stuff we're loving right now.

One. Two. Three.Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Warm accessories are vital for the cooler mornings and evenings this time of year. Bonus points if they're ridiculously cute. These moccasins and visor beanies were gifts and we LOVE them!
The puffer vest is definitely on our wish list right now. Vests on babies might possibly be the cutest thing ever.
He's been sporting the long sleeve tee's and onesies everyday. Light enough to play in, but keeps those arms warm. They're perfect.
Footie jammies are my favorite! I like to put Calvin in one piece sleepers because he moves around so much he gets kind of twisted in two-piece PJ's. I also thinks he sleeps much better snuggled in a sleep sack. I'm going to be pissed when he gets too big for these.

And my new favorite fall obsession.
Warm apple cider with a "nip" of fireball.
If you've never tried these together you must!
It's the perfect evening "wind-down" beverage.
You will thank me.

We have more fall activities in the line up this month.
We're going pumpkin picking at Green Bluff with good friends next week and I couldn't be more excited to start some fun traditions with our kids.
And of course, Halloween is coming!
I'm not sure what our game-plan will be. Calvin's never had candy before and I think I'd like to get one more year out of him before he really discovers it.
But, I'd also like to let him trick-or-treat a little.
I'm thinking we'll hit the grandparents houses, and maybe do a little of the mall so he can actually walk.
Thoughts or suggestions are ALWAYS appreciated. What do you think?

Calvin's 1st Birthday Mustache Bash!

Saturday was my baby's first birthday.

We had a party just for family at our house.

Unfortunately the weather was total crap so we had cram 21 people into our little house. It was definitely cozy but we had so much fun.

I decided to throw him a Mustache Bash, complete with fake stick-on mustaches, mustache straws,  and mustache theme chalkboard favors.

Here's the rundown:

I edited this image to remove my address and phone number which were under the RSVP.

The invitation was done by Stephanie at Pickle Noodle Boutique through Etsy.

She was awesome to work with and the invites turned out perfect.

I took the picture, sent it to her with the details of the party and she put it into the design. Then I just had them printed through Walmart. Easy.

I tried, tried, tried to take a picture of Calvin with a fake mustache for the invites, but he was NOT into that idea. I have about 40 images that look like this:

I was really hoping to have the party outside but mother nature had a different idea, so I had to adapt my outdoor decorating plan to work inside.

 Happy Birthday Banner

I put out big sheets of packing paper (from the office supplies section of Walmart) on the table and mason jars with crayons for the kiddos to draw.

The favors were little chalkboards I found at hobby lobby with mustache fabric rolls with chalk in them that I got from Mrs Crafty RVing on Etsy.

The rolls are actually crayon holders, but I thought the chalkboards were more relevent since I've documented Calvin's whole life thus far on a chalkboard, AND the colored Crayola Chalk fit perfectly in the rolls. 

Boom!

The mustache glasses are from the party supplies section at Target.

Speaking of the chalkboard...

 

I decorated the board for the occasion.

I had planned on putting it out by the front door, but it was raining (boo!) so I just leaned it against a wall inside.

The balloons are from Hobby Lobby

So I'm really into this website called Groopdealz.com . It's a daily deals website and I've gotten A LOT of super awesome things there. 

Including the silverware vinyl cut-outs below that I put on dollar store glass candle holders to make ridiculously cute and functional silverware holders that are PERFECT for parties.

 

paper straws, napkins and plates. 

I ordered these paper mustache cut outs from Sweet Party Provisions on Etsy and attached them to the straws with glue dots.

The cupcake wrappers were another groopdealz.com find.

Each pennant on the banner has a month picture of Calvin in front of his chalkboard. I really had to fight back the tears as I was making it but it was so fun to show how much he's grown and changed in the last year.

High chair decoration and Tie bib.

 If you really "mustache" I'm one! T-shirt was yet another groopdealz.com find.

Tristan and his Brother Schuyler had fun channeling Old Timey Boxers

Stick on Mustaches, but these one's are cooler.

We had a pretty awesome slider bar. Unfortunately, I was too busy to take any pictures of the food. 

Sorry.

I made homemade rolls to use as buns and we made the sliders in the oven. Then I just put out all the condiments and let people put whatever they wanted on them

There was also, BLT Pasta salad, fruit salad, Asian cabbage salad, a veggie tray and for the beverage I bought a gallon of Simply Raspberry Lemonade and added 2 liters of Sierra Mist.

It was quite delightful with a little vodka added to it... not that I'd know or anything... *ahem*...

Moving on.

Then we opened a ton of presents!

My Mustache Infinity scarf was yet ANOTHER groopdealz find, but the vendor was Retail Therapy GIRLZ and you can find their website Here.

After presents we sang Happy Birthday and let him at his cake....

I found the idea for Calvin's smash cake through Pinterest (shocker!).

I found a 6" round cake pan and cut it out like a yin-yang.

Here's a tutorial if you just can't picture it.

The cake and cupcakes were a roasted apple spice cake I found on Smittenkitchen.com with a fluffy brown sugar icing I found on iwashyoudry.com

The icing used egg whites which Calvin has had a negative reaction to in the past, so I just whipped up a quick cream cheese frosting for his cake and used some cocoa powder to make it brown.

The "cake smash" was a bit anti-climactic. 

He was content to merely stick his fingers in the frosting.

 

After we cleaned him up it was family time!

Reading his new book with my Mom, Step-dad and my Step-Grandma.

Uncle Michael and Auntie Dani, showing off his new Jordan's.

My brother and dad. Can you tell where Calvin gets his blue eyes?

With 3 of his Great Grandma's!

It was a great day. 

We are so blessed to have so much family so close. And Calvin is a very lucky little boy to have so many people love him so much.

I know this was a super long post, there were so many things to cover and I may have left out a detail or two. If you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me and I promise a reply.