Updates and Big News!

I haven't been on the blogging block for a while now and boy has a lot happened in the last couple of months! I'm going to start blogging more frequently because this is my personal journal and I know I'll miss not capturing our lives when I'm looking back in a few years! And I've missed y'all! Are you still out there!? :)

For the big news {no I am not pregnant!} - Joe officially accepted a job in September! He will finish residency at the end of June and his offer is two-fold. We will move to Little Rock, Arkansas {gulp} in June for a one year fellowship and then we will permanently move to Kansas City the following June. We are sort of going to be gypsies for the next year and a half! His fellowship will be in Pediatric Anesthesiology for Arkansas Children's Hospital. I have never been to Little Rock! I think Arkansas is beautiful but I am so nervous about leaving and starting fresh somewhere. And selling our house and finding a new place to live and finding someone to cut my hair. You know, the important things! This is such a good opportunity for Joe and I think it's going to be an adventure for our little family. So I'm 99% excited and 1% scared! Hah!

We went to Disney World about a month ago and I CAN'T wait to show you the pictures. I loved it so much and there is seriously nothing like taking your own baby to Disney for the first time. It was magical!!

I turned 29 two days ago! I had such a good birthday and I'm so lucky to have had so many girlfriends plan fun things to do with me (and Joe too!)!! I can remember a few years ago I really prayed and prayed because I really wanted to meet some new friends and get close with more girls in my life. That can be so hard at this age because I felt like everyone had kind of established their permanent friendships and having moved for residency and not working in town made it even harder. Anyway, all that to say that I have been so blessed to have so many good girlfriends to celebrate with this year!

So there, you're all caught up now!

Happy Friday!

Disney

I'm not sure if you noticed, but there is a new little ticker in my sidebar ---> :)
We are going to Disney next month!

I have been in full preperation and research mode! I found out that you can get a set of free customized maps for all the Disney parks from here. I went though and had it highlight all the rides and activities that we could do with a 1.5 year old. We got them in the mail today and they are really nice quality! I think they will make a great little souvenir for Landon's memory box when we are finished with them.

I also ordered him a couple personalized shirts from Etsy. I think they turned out so cute!

I actually stumbled upon a bunch of women's Disney shirts at Wal-mart for $5! I was going to get a "family" set of custom shirts like the one above but Joe nixed that idea. Hah!!

To make the set complete I also got a pair of personalized mouse ears. Every kid needs mouse ears! I love these and I'm going to keep them on the hutch in his room after we get back. Plus, they have a chin strap. Love that! :)

I can't wait!!

Brunch & Craft Playdate

On Monday I hosted a playdate for some of the other doctor's wives here in town. I love hanging out with them because they understand the long hours and other facets of the job (to do a fellowship or not?), most of them are away from their families too, and we just always seem to have a lot in common. And most of them have small children!!

I had everyone over for brunch and to do a little craft and then just play. This is the easiest brunch set up and I think it looks so much nicer than it should given the amount of time I spent getting it ready! I love easy with high impact!!

 The night before I just made three batches of muffins - they are store bought! I popped them in the oven over and over until they were done and while I was cleaning and getting everything else done. I got four kinds of fruit and cut them into bite sized pieces. I even used my heart cookie cutter to make heart shaped watermelon. It didn't take long at all and it looked so cute! I made a simple fruit dip to put with them. I had everything done and ready to go the night before except the ham and potato casserole. I call these "dump and bake" because there's no measuring required and I just mix everything right in the pan it bakes in! {recipe below} I think this recipe is probably awful for you but it's always a crowd pleaser like most fattening things! 

I used one of my chalkboard platters in an easel to show which muffin flavor was in each wrapper. 

I decided to do a hand-tracing craft, based on this picture I saw on Pinterest. I wanted something that didn't involve glue/glitter/small items because I didn't know if I had it in me to clean that kind of mess up from a lot of kids! Hah! I could never be a kindergarten teacher!

 I picked out some scrapbooking paper from Michael's and we let the kids trace their hand and then frame them in little frames I got from the Dollar Tree. Some kids even colored on theirs too. I thought they turned out so cute! I traced my hand and then layered Landon's hand over it and put it on the mantle.

I really love having people over and I especially love when I can do it without feeling like I have to spend hours cooking and cleaning and getting everything together!

Simple Fruit Dip:
1 regular jar of Marshmallow Fluff
1 regular box of cream cheese (at room temp)
Blend both ingredients together until smooth. Serve chilled.

Ham & Potato Casserole:
1 package frozen hash browns
1 2c package sharp cheddar, reserve some for topping
1/2 package diced ham
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 large container sour cream
1 stick butter, melted
Mix everything together in large baking dish coated with Pam. Add cheese to top. Bake @ 360 for 45-60 minutes.

Happy play-dating! :)

Deals

I wanted to share with you a couple sites that I have been OBSESSED with lately. I have gotten so many cute things for a steal and maybe you already know about these - and if so, are you as crazy for them as I am???

Both of these are deal sites where they feature a new deal every day, kind of like Groupon. I love that set-up because it gives you something to look forward to every day! Hah!

I found out about Very Jane from a friend of mine over the summer and it is one of my favorite emails to get every single morning. I don't work for them and I don't get any benefits to telling you about this or getting you to sign up! But I really think I have gotten some cute stuff and I wanted to share it with you!!

I remember wanting this J. Crew bubble necklace about two years ago so so so bad. I think it was around $150 and I even said I was going to use some of my Christmas money for one and I just never did. That is so much money for a necklace and I usually think quantity over quality for jewelry. :) Very Jane had a "replica" of it for $15 about two months ago. Oh my gosh, I about died when I saw it. I got it in the mail and I have worn it so much and gotten so many compliments on it. It's heavy and well made and I just love it. And turquoise is my favorite color and it just makes me so happy to wear it!

I ordered monogram pillows for Joe and I for $30 total {bottom right of the picture but also - how cute is the his and hers version???}. I think I'm going to put them on our bed. I'll show you a picture of it all made up with them soon!

I got a Kate Spade "replica" necklace that I just love, I think it was around $15 too. I love chunky necklaces because I think it can make a really simple shirt have a ton of character. I thought the red might be cute around Christmas time? I think it's hard to find cute red jewelry!

I also LOVE a site called GroopDealz. {I am so type-A and I hate when companies misspell words on purpose in their business name.. but I quickly got over that when I saw the cute stuff here!}

Yesterday I got these chalkboard clips I'm going to use to label food at parties or even supplies when I host our monthly craft night. I got 15 clips for $11 shipped. I can not believe it!

 They have had so many cute curtains and pillows cheaper than I've ever seen! And I got a pair of earrings and a matching necklace set here a couple weeks ago (far left).

Have you heard about these sites?

Happy Friday!! :)

First Day of MDO

Last Friday was a BIG day around here. Landon had his very first day of Mother's Day Out {or Tot's Day In as they call it here :)} I was an emotional wreck the entire morning and drive over. Hah!

I absolutely knew with my entire mama heart that he would scream and cry when I had to hand him over to the teacher. And if I made it out of the building I knew they would call me an hour later to come get him because he was so upset. I went through all these scenarios with the teacher and asked her how they'd handle him if he was too upset to participate. I was ready. I didn't even make any plans for my time off!

Well.

He went right to his teacher, Lisa. She is so sweet! He even watched me walk out of his classroom door. Watched me walk out! And I waited around the corner a while to listen for a scream. But there was none. And I didn't get a call either. Four hours and no call. It was so glorious!! Why didn't I do this sooner??

I hope I'm not the only one who experiences this kind of anxiety when they send their kids to "school"!! I loved having a few hours to get some things done and by all accounts Landon loved playing with the other kids for a while! :)

Happy school days!

Kansas City

It has been the most crazy summer! We have been living temporarily in Kansas City for the past five weeks for Joe to work at one of the hospitals here for a rotation. We are living in a teeny tiny corporate apartment that has a parking garage and a balcony and noisy neighbors {what a change from life in Wichita!}. We have a friend watching our house in Wichita and our mail is being held and we are having our lawn mowed by our neighbor. It's like being on a very extended vacation!!

I am loving it!

The first couple weeks we had swimming lessons every day. Swimming lessons with my child has always been one of my "envision yourself with kids" things that I have always, always looked forward to! I just kept thinking to myself that last summer I spent every single day inside because I was either huge pregnant or I had a newborn and now here we are taking swim lessons. It cracked me up because they had the kids try to practice kicking, going under water and even trying to climb out of the pool by themselves! It was really neat that they challenged the kids so much!

carousel at the mall

We have also had a lot of play dates with all of our Kansas City friends and I am hoping to squeeze in some more things before we go home.

We have a big park right by our apartment. We are also within walking distance to the Country Club Plaza and I have eaten at The Cheesecake Factory..well.. I won't tell you how many times. ;-)

blurry 4th of July

It's been such a fun summer so far. I don't think I want to leave! Well.. maybe I do want to sleep in my own bed again..

Landon's First Birthday {Sherlock Holmes Birthday Party}

I am so late in telling you about Landon's first birthday! If you know me in real life at all you know I had been planning his party for months ~ I love party planning and celebrating my little man! I wanted to pick a theme that wasn't too popular so I could really be creative with it. Joe and I both love London - we love the food, the people, the layout of the city, the double decker buses, royalty.. you name it! So I decided to play off that and go for a vintage Sherlock Holmes type party.

We had my friend Sarah {who is seriously a genius} design box invitations for us. She designed the invitation so that the details of the party were in a small font and we mailed a magnifying glass in the box for people to read the invitations with. We got so many compliments on the invitations! I am so sad to say that I didn't get our photographer to get a picture of the invitation all assembled but here is the design. I seriously loved it!

My sister helped us rent a clubhouse in Kansas City for the party. We are here for the summer and our families are here so it was perfect. Plus, I didn't have to get my house all clean for lots of guests. That was a big advantage to renting a room! Sarah also designed banners, bottle labels and signs for the party. Everything was in old fashioned plaids and red and white houndstooth prints.

We catered fish and chips from a local pub and my friend Trish helped us get food baskets to put it in. It was really authentic to London and I loved that. We found newspaper liners for the chips from World Market. I really wanted to serve old fashioned Coke out of the glass bottles so we found some at Wal-Mart of all places! I ordered mustache straws from Etsy. They were a huge HIT the entire party!!

 Landon's cake was done by Sprinkled with Sugar of Kansas City. It looked good and tasted even better. I was so impressed that it even had fingerprints all around the sides and bottom. She nailed the theme perfectly! I ordered his first birthday bib from Etsy too. I am going to keep it in his memory box. :)

 I made little goodie bags for the kids with a notepad for "detective" notes and a crayon shaped mustache I ordered from Etsy. I thought they turned out so cute!

 My friend Audrey came and took professional pictures during the party for us. That was the BEST decision because I could really be "in the moment" and I didn't have to worry about keeping my camera with me to document everything. She takes better pictures than I could ever do and she captured so many moments that I didn't even see on the day of the party!

We had such a fun party! The best part was having everyone we love in the same room at the same time to help us celebrate our little guy.

Happy Birthday Landon!!!!