Nathan's 1st Birthday Party

If you are anything like me then you appreciate all the small details that go into party planning. I love following the Hostess with Mostess to see all the great parties she blogs about.

My SIL, Sarah, did a fantastic job of planning her son's 1st birthday. Everything turned out great! I believe that she found most of the items on etsy.

The invites.

The party favors were construction rubber duckies and soaps that were in the shapes of construction trucks. SO cute!

Me, Lillian and Lucas (Ty's niece and nephew)

Nathan in his cute birthday outfit!

I just love those little curls!

The gift pile grew quite a bit from this. Nathan recieved so many cute gifts!

The gift from Ty and I came wrapped in the blue wrapping paper with construction trucks on it.

I was so excited to find that paper at Target.

We bought Nathan an Eat This, Not That for Kids book (Sarah is really into healthy eating.) and a personalized melamine plate.

{plate purchased from Molly Caroline Designs on etsy.}

My sister, brother and I all had personalized plates that we loved. In fact, we still ate off of them in high school. We need to dig those plates back out for the next time I am at home.

Even though Sarah was busy with the party planning she made me this

adorable apron for my birthday!

She sewed the apron and then embroidered this on there.

The embroidery makes me swoon!

Birthday Extravaganza

This weekend we headed home to attend Ty's nephew's 1st birthday party. It just so happened to be my birthday weekend. (Nathan's birthday is this coming weekend, but the party was a week early so that everyone could attend.) I haven't been at home for my birthday in years. My parents have always traveled to my college town or we have met in the middle.

My grandma took us out for a birthday dinner on Friday and then we made the drive home. We spent late Friday night and Saturday with Ty's family. We had the most gorgeous weather.

Nuts loves to play with Harley as long as Harley is tied up.

Ty's parents' house is down in this valley and is in the middle of a huge plot of land. There were still several trees that had beautiful leaves on them.

Saturday evening was spent at Nathan's 1st birthday party and I will do a post

on it soon. It was adorable!

We spent Sunday with my family. Sunday, the 8th, was my actual birthday.

I love cookie cakes!!!

Mine had a cupcake with sprinkles on it!

We used to always get a cookie cake for everyone's b-day in my family.
If it was your birthday you got to cut out whatever the center design was and have it all to yourself. No one else could eat it. You also had slices of the outside too. But you were guaranteed that center piece. (Yes, my family has some issues with sharing food.)

I was so excited to cut out my cupcake to take home.

My Mom had the table set with her china and my great-grandma's serving pieces.

I have been begging my Mom to let me take these gorgeous green bowls home.

There are 4 or 5 small bowls like the one above and one big bowl.

This picture describes my family perfectly.

Ty, Nuts and I drove home late Sunday afternoon. We celebrated my birthday by getting Chili's To Go (my fave!) and opening presents.

This was one of my gifts from Ty.

It's the kid size snuggie! It is the perfect length for me.
This gift was a complete surprise. He thought that since I spent so much time on the couch I needed something to keep me warm. Not sure if that was a nice comment or not. But hey, now he is encouraging me to stay on the couch!

Nuts kept trying to get under the snuggie with me. Since it is the kids size there isn't quite enough room for him. Plus he is a cover hog.

I told my Mom that Nuts had a Christmas list and he wanted a dog snuggie. I was just joking, but now I think he really does need one, because I'm not sharing!

I had a great birthday weekend with lots of family, presents and fun.

The W, New Orleans, part III

When I usually travel for work I stay at hotels like The Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express. I love these hotels and their nice, white bedding. But my New Orleans trip was a little different.


There were about 4 conference hotel options and I was the most excited about The W. Being the small town girl that I am I have never stayed at a somewhat "boutique" type hotel like this.

The lobby

Another part of the lobby.



A little alcove off of the bar and the lobby.

The courtyard

The courtyard at night.
Can anyone tell which movie they were playing??

I loved the hallway lights.

One of the best parts of the hotel were the free Bliss products.

Across the street from my hotel was a little restaurant called, Mothers. I had breakfast there a couple of times. I love the egg biscuits.