behind the scenes :: first birthday.

So, last month Mason turned the big one.  

The husband and I chose to keep his first birthday simple - basically, a grandparent party. :) Anyway, I wanted to take a moment to share photos from his little, mustache party...

the pantry door.  

We LOVE this thang.  Probably one of our best DIY projects.  ever.

the little banner...

I printed some mustaches from Pinterest (they're everywhere) and added them to construction paper, brown, coffee filters and newspaper.  My only issue with banners is I never know where to attach the ends...sometime I want them in places where I have no option but to tape them to the wall...I don't know.  I'm weird.

the husband put these together.

We bought these little, dowel rods and broke them in half...

and then added the mustaches with double sided tape.

little man's table.

As you can tell, I added mustaches to random things throughout the house, which was kinda fun...had to include a dog (thank you, cousin Brittney!), because his nursery "theme" included lots of doggies.  The big one sign was super easy to make - it's just a piece of wood I wrapped with newspaper, and then, using a BIG sharpie, I free-handed a big uno.

Okay, by far, one of my favorite things about his little party!  His smash cake...A friend of mine told me about this idea (again Pinterest - you are the reason behind many, many fabulous ideas).  We made a box cake mix in a 9 inch circle pan, and then, cut a "wavy" line through the middle.  Flipped one half over and bam - you have a mustache!  We used a frosting tube thing (ya know, like cheese whiz spray cans), which was really easy.  Thanks, Kerry Jo, for telling me about this!  Here's the photo tutorial we used:  

http://themetapicture.com/mustache-cake/

I have tons and tons of photos of nugget, so I chose a photo that I had not shared with anyone for his photo cake...we added a mustache to it when we edited the photo in Photoshop, and it just looked awesome!  This was around the time when he started standing in his crib like a big boy. :)

Showin' off his bib, which is the cutest hand-me-down from the Robinson fam!  And you'll notice some photos on the laundry room door...I put photos throughout the house - most from when he was extra little.  The big mustache is actually part of a cardboard pizza box.  Thank goodness we recycle!  I free-handed that design and just added black paint.  We still haven't taken it down. :)

Little man was not a fan of cake smashin'.  I just love his sweet, little expression here though. :)

A few days later, a family friend gave him another smash cake...So, we attempted it again.  He still wasn't too sure, but we did get him to make more of a mess. :) Thanks, Berta!  Mase's parents definitely enjoyed the rest of it...

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Hope you liked the behind the scenes look at his party. :) I still can't believe my little man is one...

-S

nugget's baptism.

hello.

I am somewhat caught up on homework.  The house is decent.  The husband is out running errands.  But most importantly, little man is napping.  

So, I'm going to take a quick moment to share some personal photos with you.

I know.  I haven't blogged in almost a month...well, right at a month as of tomorrow.  Ah, a busy little place we keep around here.

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Anyway, below are some photographs from a few weeks ago when our little man was baptized.  I know most of you have seen these already, but some of you haven't, which is why I want to share.  Plus, I love them.  Therefore, they HAVE to be published on the blog.

A little background first...

You'll notice in the photos that nugget is a big boy...bigger than the average baby who is baptized right after they're born.  Months ago we actually had him dedicated/we, his parents, were dedicated.  I'm not going to get into a religious debate on what is "right," or who believes what as far as baptizing babies.  All I know is, I felt in my heart that my little boy still needed to be baptized.  

It was on my mind.  A lot.  So, once my fall semester was complete, and we all made it through the holiday madness, I contacted the priest who married nugget's parents a few years ago at a little white church.  Late one night, I wrote an email to him explaining, well babbling, about our situation...and then, asking if he would just consider baptizing our son.

The response I received was no less than perfect, and several weeks later (took some planning and last-minute adjustments trying to make sure some most of us could make it), we had Mason baptized.

I am just so thankful for how it all fell right into place - God's perfect work.  It felt like we had traveled full circle from standing with Father Kevin on the day we said our wedding vows...to 3 years later, standing with him to baptize our little boy.  

As the husband said later that afternoon...It really was a "fun, Sunday mornin'."

-S

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Special thanks to Nicola, our photographer, for telling such a beautiful and personal story through pictures...