Liberty's Strawberry Party

Liberty turned ONE on September 11th so perfect time to have a outdoor party ( almost too warm in AZ)  I am totally obsessed with chevron decor so I thought it would be cute for her first birthday! 

As I started searching for chevron party decor I came across these adorable strawberry baskets at The Tomkat studio I love her stuff! I purchased the strawberry baskets, chevron favor bags, paper straws and came up with Liberty's Strawberry Party

I searched around for vintage Strawberry Shortcake decor I could not find really anything in the time frame I needed. So I ended just buying few plates, cups napkins just so it didn't feel too overwhelming as Strawberry Shortcake party :0 

It was a awesome party!

We had fresh strawberries and strawberry candies through out the table 

We enjoy the weather outstide and BBQ for everyone!

Strawberry Candies in cartons with pink twine :) 
Twine from Domestic Charm

Totally obsessed with these chevron bags

party favors: bubbles, Strawberry candies, sunglasses, lipgloss and tiny note pads
most items were purchased at the Dollar Store :) 

table display 

Chevron name banner

DIY name banner: I found card stock that matched the theme color .  I cut the card stock into triangles and then first traced the Liberty's name in pencil ( a key to any project) I also purchased sharpies that match the theme color. I free handed the chevron design it was not perfect but who is perfect right? I attached all the triangles about 2 inches apart using pink twine :) 

ONE happy baby that turned ONE on a beautiful day 

Origami OWL!

I started a new business adventure ORIGAMI OWL! 

I am totally in love with this stuff! 

I love that you can change your living lockets as much as you want or keep the same charms in forever.

Let me know if you want to order anything

Perfect for Mother's Day, Birthday's, Graduations, Christmas etc... 

ashpage.origamiowl.com

~Ash 

Here are some examples of their awesome jewelry: 

7 Fun ways to celebrate Mother's Day {guest post}

{guest post}

 Kristin a busy mom herself came up with some awesome ways to spend Mother's Day! 

Enjoy! 

7 Fun ways to celebrate Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is not just a day to celebrate all your mom has done for you. It is also a day to recognize the huge impact mothers have on their children. Mom is all too often the unsung hero of the family. So Mother’s Day is all about her. Here are seven fun ways to celebrate Mother’s Day.

• Breakfast in bed: Just about everyone remembers making breakfast in bed for their mother when they were children. And the tradition will certainly continue! Even if it isn’t the most delicious breakfast mom has ever had, it will certainly be the most memorable. Make sure to have a Mother’s Day card on the breakfast tray. Ahead of Mother’s Day, make a custom Mother’s Day card on shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/mothers-day-cards-stationery  You can upload your own photos and enter exactly what you want to say.
• Give mom the day off: One of the best things anyone can do for a mother is to let them have a day just for them. Forget the cleaning, the laundry, and the running the kids around from soccer practice to ballet class. Mom should get to take the nap on the couch on Mother’s Day and have control of the remote if they wish.
• Mother’s Day picnic: If the weather plays along, why not plan a fun family picnic? Pick up a wicker basket and pack a lovely lunch. Most importantly, don’t make mom pack it! On Mother’s Day, she shouldn’t have to do a thing.
• Go for a hike: Why not combine that Mother’s Day picnic with a hike through a local state park? The weather in May will be warm and everything will be blooming, making for a lovely day to enjoy outside!
• Movie and ice cream: Sure mom may go to the movies all the time…to see kid’s movies. This time let mom pick the movie she wants to see and then head out for ice cream after!
• Run/walk a 5K: There are many 5K run/walk events planned on Mother’s Day around the country. They are usually fund raisers for different non-profit organizations, such as the Mother’s Day 5K in Denver that benefits HERA’s mission to fight ovarian cancer. mothersday5k.com
• Go bowling: Bowling can be the ultimate family outing. You can break up the teams however you would like; adults versus kids or girls versus boys. It is a great way to get everyone involved in mom’s special day.

Notice that none of the ideas are very costly. They are all about enjoying each other as a family and letting mom be the center of attention on her special day.

~K   

@instamommy 

Month by Month Pics!

For the first year of Liberty's life I decided to take pictures of my sweet baby every month.. since I totally forgot to do this with Jeffrey I wanted to make sure I did it this time. It was so fun seeing how much they change month by month here are some of the sweet pics!

 

2 Months 

9 months... Lib was a little sick this day :( 

Lib started getting very active, it was getting harder to get a good pic.

 1 year OLD! I thought it would be cute to take a picture in my wedding dress, Liberty was not a fan at first :)

 Here are some awesome picture of Liberty from a good friend of mine
check her blog out!
lizmason-biesemeyer

Road Trip

We have officially moved.... 

to KC, MO 

We are loving every moment of it!

We drove for 2 days around 22 hours...

with a 18mo girl and a 4 year old boy and our boxer :)

how did we do it?

Well I picked out new toys (from the dollar store) and every time they were getting a little crazy I handed them a new toy super exciting!

We also had books and a ipad definitely helped pass the time

We however did not have a DVD player on with a movie on after another

It was really cool to watch our kids find something to do with out throwing technology at them

We limited the ipad use and Jeffrey our oldest got to play some games on it every now and then.

We were able to stop in El Paso, Texas and visit the kids Great Granddad what a treat! 

We really enjoyed our trip!

Our kids slept a lot of the road trip which was very helpful

Baby Food

Its that time again.... baby food time!
My little peanut is growing way too fast
With Jeffrey I bought all the baby food at the store and told myself that next baby I will make my own food!
So I did! Super easy I buy all my produce at Fresh and Easy great prices and great produce.
I add a little bit of water then blend in my magic bullet... and now I have baby food. (There are tons of recipes out there if you want to get fancy)
Storing the food got a little tricky so I bought Freshfoods™ Freezer Tray at Walmart for a few bucks to store the food in the freezer.
I would just defrost one cube at time or 2 depending on the day
I wanted to get glass baby food jars to re- heat or store in the fridge but I had to used all mine up for craft projects. So I decided to buy a few "random" food items just so the baby could try them.
I clean them and now ready to re-use
I noticed however that in the fridge I couldn't tell some foods apart like "green beans" vs "green peas" and Liberty was quite picky about what foods she liked so I came up with the idea of creating a mini Chalk board on the jar, that why I could write out what food it was and also the date.It work out great!
I used chalk board paint ( a couple of coats )
Let it dry
and good to go....
Making my own baby food and been so much cheaper and super easy!

Well worth it!

Update on my Brother

Hey, this is to update you on Corey's status. Yesterday he had a 90 day Care Plan, we talked about how he is doing on dialysis, his diet, blood pressure/medication changes and transplant.

Dialysis is going well. His attitude towards being on dialysis has dramatically improved, he is making the best of his time there and has even seen positive benefits other than feeling better. They spend every day he is there doing social interaction games, educating him on his situation, problem solving for current and future issues...

We talked about his blood pressure. He has mild hypertrophy in the heart wall and ventricular septum. They are rearranging the way he takes his meds for now and are looking at increasing his Amlodipine and Enalapril if he continues to have high blood pressure.

He has started epogen shots for his anemia, they do this during dialysis so he does not need to be poked. He is currently at 10.8 for his Hgb

He continues to eat a restricted diet. They are still monitoring his sodium, potassium and phosphorous. He is doing well and no binders are needed at this time.

They are continuing to monitor the risk of renal bone disease. He is on supplements and meds via catheter to control renal osteodystrophy.

Dr Johnson, the psychologist who evaluates all transplant kids talked about the possibility of revisiting ADD meds to help with his concentration at school. He is still sleeping during class and has a very short attention span. It is hard enough for him to do well with his illness, having ADD on top of that makes it almost impossible.

Corey's transplant was discussed. My dad was found to be a blood type match, we are now waiting to see how many antigen matches he has. From what they could tell, My dad and and older brother are very similar. This will more than likely disqualify one of them in the future if the other donates. Corey would build up antibodies to the same antigens if my dad and older brother are the same. I had expressed interest in being tested hopefully on Monday... We will wait to see if Im a candidate and what my antigen markers show. The next step will be determining the best choice for the transplant. This will be based on blood type, number of antigen matches,social issues (babies and jobs) health of donor and willingness to donate.
Please Continue to pray for wisdom in the doctors and that I could be match so Corey does not have to go the National Donor list.