Baptized Baby

Back to reality after Superstorm Sandy hit DC the past couple days - we are so thankful to be safe and warm.  Sending goodness up to those areas hit harder.

Before we came home to Sandy on Sunday, we had a WONDERFUL weekend in Indiana to celebrate Nora's baptism.  We are a lucky little family, to be so loved.  Grhonda and Grandbob hosted a fun and delicious brunch for us and the whole family before the ceremony.  Here are some highlights of that party:


I ordered a glitter garland from "The Flair Exchange" - LOVE IT.  I plan to use it at all of Nora's parties.

Cake from Joy Ann's bakery in Richmond, IN - our favorite!  I love that it said "Bless Her Little Heart" - something we actually say all the time.



My mom had framed tons of pictures of Nora and used them all over the place.  She also took pink and orange ribbon and pinned it into the top and bottom of white pumpkins for centerpieces.  She made it look really easy, and it turned out so cute for a Fall party!



I bought this beautiful garland at Paper Source - you can make it say whatever you want!  I also plan to use this again and again.

Party favors from Nora - smiley face cookies (again from Joy Ann's).

 

I used this little bow punch on the tags for the cookies and a little program at the church.  I also plan to use it on the Thank you cards I send out (later this week...?)

And the baby of honor:

This gown has been passed down in my family for over 60 years - my Dad was baptized in it, I was baptized in it, and now Nora was too.  The Chuck Taylors are new - but her Godfather, Uncle Sam wore Chucks when he was baptized (in this gown) too!

She wore this dress from Zara Baby when she wasn't in her gown - it was SO CUTE on her!

The ceremony was perfect.  My great uncle, Father John (who also married Henry and I) performed the baptism, Aunt Jayne read "On the Night You Were Born", and then  Aunt Jayne, Godmother Tia Mia and Godfather Uncle Sam led everyone in singing "Tell Me Why."  We are so thankful to everyone who was there to help make it such a special family gathering!

Weekend Treasures

We just got back from a really special weekend in Indiana, for Nora Jayne's baptism. It was super quick  ... we were in town for less than 48 hours (and as you'll see below, at IKEA for a handful of those), but every moment was super special. It was so great to see the whole fam and celebrate NJ. Just couple of my fave Nora pics from the weekend (I'm sure Katie has more coming on all of the festivities):

Praying during the ceremony.

Silly afterwards.

We made a special trip to the IKEA in Cincinnati while we were in town. We crammed it in on Friday right after we got in. The hour drive each way after our 9 hour drive? Worth it. Of course we left with some odds and ends from the Marketplace (I think I said to Dac, which he then kept saying himself to make fun of me, "Now this is where I really get into trouble. You'll need to hold me back.") But for the more exciting items...

The Docksta table that I mentioned recently, which will be going in our kitchen when we have a chance to put it together:

And this awesome rug, which I've seen in some really beautiful living rooms on blogs/Pinterest and have had my eye on. The plan is our family room for this one, but it could move around to just about any room as time goes on.

And that's about all the house budget could handle at the moment. I had to really restrain myself from buying the Expedit shelves (for the office) and a Rast dresser to makeover (both mentioned in this post). Need to learn to take things slowly and remember we're going to be here for awhile. Home, sweet home. :)

Also, news flash: Tomorrow is Halloween. I keep forgetting.

Day by Day

As I mentioned long ago, I had some great plans to take amazing monthly or weekly photos to document our sweet little babe.  Turns out that especially in those first couple months, arranging Nora in some hilarious costume on a little customized set and then taking a great photo weren't feasible for me.  I was sad that I had already "missed" the first couple months when I realized that I had taken about a million photos, many that I loved...maybe I could bring them all together after the fact to document the growing NJ.  I was able to figure out which photos I had taken on Mondays (by going through emails and texts I had sent out with pics), and I just put a little label on each of them with the "Labelbox" app on my iphone (side note: I think the iphone is my #1 most important baby item.  I use it daily to take photos and video of Nora and then share them with family and friends.  It takes awesome pics and it's almost always with me.)

I don't LOVE the Labelbox app - I think there's probably something cuter out there.  I could also do something better looking with photoshop, if I knew how to use photoshop (oh well).  So this will do for now, and I can always go back and re-do, now that I know which photos are from which week.  I have saved 2 photos labeled from each week like this:

And then I've put every 4 weeks together in little blocks (using the Foto Frame app on my phone - sorry, can't find a link to Foto Frame) to make it easier to see her grow:

As you can see, she is sleeping in most of my pics of her from the first 4 weeks of her life.  She's turned into quite the little ham.  I love the Foto Frame app, and also recently got the "PicFrame" app, which also seems great!  I plan to use these for something special for her first birthday.  I can't believe she's 15 weeks old!  She's the best.

Privacy Problems

So I have been keeping a list for awhile now of things I knew we would want for our new house, so we could review, edit and prioritize once we actually moved in and knew the kind of funds we were working with. 

Some things at the top of my list:
- New TV
- Dining room table
- Nightstands+Lamps for our bedroom
- Rugs

Something not on my list at all?
- Bathroom door

But guess what jumped right to the top after we slept in our room a couple of nights and realized our doorless bathroom has great acoustics? Perfect for shower singing, but not so great for middle-of-the-night bathroom going (or really anytime bathroom going). Our bathroom is really pretty. It's pretty much perfect - other than the fact that it has no door. The doorway is larger than normal, so we will likely need a custom door of some kind.

We talked about maybe a pocket door, but that's likely expensive and we may run into some electrical issues. We also thought maybe some type of double door would be cool, but it's not really a wide enough doorway for that.

So now we're wondering if we can pull off one of these cool urban-meets-farm sliding door deals:

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Thoughts? Any other door ideas?

#1 Dad

Saw this on Look Linger Love last week:

This Dad (Dave Engledow) has created some awesome (and hilarious) images with his daughter and Photoshop.  "World's Best Father" indeed!

IHWSH - Halloween Whatnot

Halloween is such a fun holiday - dressing up, yummy treats, and no presents to purchase!  (Don't get us wrong, we LOVE buying gifts for others, but the lack of pressure for Halloween is nice.)  For this week's "I'll Have What She's Having," we chose some Halloween-ness that we'd like to have in our lives this year:

Katie's picks:

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Source - love that door color and the topiaries too!

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Jayne's picks:

Graveyard Pie - Source

Choirboy/Glee Squashes - Source

Etsy - Source

Apparently I like Martha Stewart. Broomstick Favors

Crazy Pants

Not a lot of sleep happening at our house this week, which leads me to find videos like this very funny:

 

Nora's not amused:

 

 

 

We need more sleep to get back to this:

 

 

 

 

We're In! + Hot Pockets

I officially feel like a grown up, or a pretend one at least. It was the strangest - and coolest - thing ever to walk into a big empty house that we OWN! We get to park in a garage ... and we have a back yard ... and nobody living above or below us. What a completely new world. So, we're pretty pumped.

Camping out pizza style on our first night slumber party:

Now that we spent all of our money on the house, we're preparing to live off of ramen noodles and hot pockets so that we can afford some new furniture. But don't worry, we'll still have it goin' on:

Pocket like it's hot..

Celebratreats

You would never guess that I made that up, right?  WELL, I DID.

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CELEBRATREATS

So, you know about Pinterest, right?  If you don't, more power to ya, but I sure do love it.  The main problem with Pinterest is that it can make you feel bad about yourself and your skills.  Any kind of skills.  Stuff on Pinterest is AMAZING.

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Well, this is where Celebratreats come in...to make you feel good about yourself!  Everyone can make these, in about 5 minutes.  That's not much of a commitment.  Creating these Celebratreats is about the maximum amount of time/energy/etc. I am willing to spend right now to make something fun/cool/special/pinteresting.  I made these to take to some friends who just had a baby (Henry made them super-delicious enchiladas, I will share that recipe soon).  So the next time you feel like getting crafty or doing something nice for someone but lack true motivation, hop on the Celebratreats train.

I just sprinkled a boatload of sprinkles into the treat mix after the rice krispies.  Magic.