First we have to get in love...

Maggie LOVES brides and weddings, like many young girls, but I think she's even more into it because I do wedding flowers and I love weddings, too. So we talk about it more than most people, I think. Anyway, in one of our conversations about weddings we started talking about who she would marry and I said, "I think it's really good to marry someone who's your best friend." She took that to heart and a few days later decided she needed to marry Caleb, one of her best friends. She told me she wanted to ask him to marry her and so, being the modern girl I am, I told her to go for it (and I also added that she would need to wait until she grows up to get married). Last week after my Bible study she told me that she had in fact asked him to marry her and he said yes! But there was just one problem. He told her that first they needed to get in love. But the good news is that once they get in love and get married they can have kids and maybe even a dog. Maggie told me (with total excitement and acting as if it's going to be next week), "I really hope we can get a dog!"
So now Maggie is telling people that she and Caleb just need to grow up and get in love, and then they're going to get married! If only it were that easy...

Finn is one! (Part II)

All right, so here are the actual people photos! I'll start with a photo of two grandmas loving their grandson.
Here's another cute one with the birthday boy and Mimi.
This one is really similar but he looked so cute I can't help but post it:

We got to enjoy our new deck for the party:
Finn was pretty interested in his cupcake right away. He looked at it for 1.5 seconds, then picked it up and dove right into it. I didn't do anything special for his cupcake (i.e. low-protein) as it fit into his diet as is. Actually, this will show you how I've loosened up with raising two kids: for Maggie's first birthday cake she actually ate a bran muffin with low-sugar homemade whipped cream because I was really trying to be healthy with her. Finn got a regular (homemade) chocolate cupcake with regular (homemade) buttercream! Sorry, Maggie! I love how excited she is watching him eat it.
He got pretty messy, as everyone was hoping:After we got him cleaned up from the cupcake fun it was time to open presents!
But he really wasn't that interested in presents; he preferred playing with everyone (especially his Uncle Chris). (Man, if someone was making that face at me trying to get me to walk over, I'd do it!)
asdf Finn received this cute shirt from his Aunt Erin and her family, which happened to be the same shirt Finn's cousin Jack was wearing at the party, which explains why I look so excited about the shirt. They'll be cute when they match.
And one of my favorite presents of the night was from some of our best friends, the Duprees, who made this artwork for his wall. Isn't it adorable?!
Now, I'm having trouble with blogger so I may be adding more photos later...check back and see! (PS- Thanks Benton for taking all the great photos!)

Finn is one!

When I started thinking about Finn's first birthday party (when he was like 4 months old - I know I have a problem) I quickly decided to do a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" themed party. I immediately had an idea for the invitation. I thought it would be cool to have the invitation look like a single circle when you first see it, but then it expands to be the caterpillar's whole body. It was pretty easy and I think it turned out very cute (if I do say so myself!).
Here it is after it's been stretched out:
Then I made a banner out of fun foam that looked pretty much like the invite except larger:
Then I thought it would be fun to serve a lot of the food that's mentioned in the book. It was a good idea because he eats so many things in the book that I had lots of options. Plus, because of the way we eat and Finn's special diet I wanted to serve a vegetarian meal so I just cut out the sausage, hot dog, etc. that the caterpillar eats. In case you're not familiar with the story on the first day the little caterpillar eats through one apple. On the second day he eats through two oranges, and so on, until the sixth day he eats through a crazy amount of food like a cupcake, a piece of pizza, an ice cream cone, a pickle, etc. Then he gets a stomach ache so on the last day he eats through one nice green leaf. So I served most of these foods and had a salad to represent the nice, green leaf. (Plus I had a few extras like pb&j's shaped like butterflies for the kids, a pasta salad, and my friend Molly's delicious spinach artichoke dip.)
Here is my interpretation of Eric Carle's artwork for the book:
It was so much fun to plan, very simple, and relatively inexpensive. I made all of the decorations and most of the food (along with my mother-in-law who worked like a dog helping me, and my mom who made this fun cake below). I love having birthday parties for my kids (sometimes I say it's the reason I had kids!) because I love the chance to be creative without using a lot of money. There are definitely fancier parties out there but I think our parties are just perfect for us!
I wanted to "set the scene" with photos of the decorations and food first, and in a few days I'll post photos with actual people in them (like...the birthday boy!).

Finn IVA update

About a week ago I got an e-mail from Finn's wonderful nutritionist saying that based on his current blood tests he is actually too low in luceine (the amino acid he can't process) and so they want us to increase his protein. Previously he was getting about 7-8 grams of protein a day (not including his special formula) and now he gets 17 grams a day!!!! I can't believe it's gone up that much so quickly. Three to four of those protein grams come from the fact that he's weaned and not getting any protein through breastfeeding, but still, isn't that a huge jump?! We're actually having to figure out how to get that much protein in him every day and are giving him cow's milk twice a day, which is something I never even thought he could have.

His protocol right now (in case you were interested) is that he takes 3 bottles of about 4 oz each of his special formula every day, and with each bottle he gets two supplements that help him process the luceine in what he eats. We also have to track every single thing he eats so that we know exactly how much protein he's getting a day. This sounds a little tricky and was pretty overwhelming at first b/c not only did I have to write it down, but I had to look up every food to see how much protein was in it. Now, however, we have discovered that there's an App for our iPhones that will track it for us! Technology really is amazing and that has simplified my life a ton!

Bananas are pretty much his favorite food right now and we're pretty sure he's starting to say "banana"!

Dollhouse (exterior)

All right, here are the last of the dollhouse photos for now (at least until we get some furniture; I may have to show that off).
Here it is from the front. I'm sorry but I have to point out all the tedious details that made me want to kill someone while working on it. First of all, not only did I have to individually glue on a million shake shingles, there are "regular" shakes and "fancy" shakes. As a side note, I think the word "fancy" is a really funny word unless it's being used by little girls. Have you ever noticed that the Cracker Barrel Menu says everything is fancy, like "fancy, Grade A eggs"? It's Cracker Barrel, how fancy can it be?! So the "fancy" shakes have rounded bottoms and go on the triangular sections. Then, please notice that there are about a million pieces of trim that had to be cut out, trimmed, sanded, and painted (I did two different colors of trim but I'll take the blame for that choice). The porch (as well as the entire first floor) has tiny strips of hardwood floor, and I've already shown you the insanity of the brick along the foundation. Also, the windows all either swing or slide open. One of them has already broken. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a construction worker after all.
And yes, that is a giant, orange Easter egg inside the top left window. What else would there be in a dollhouse?
Here's just another photo to show another side. The top window swings and the bottom window slides.
All right, I think the dollhouse has been sufficiently covered now!