Joint Baby + Bridal Shower

I've hosted quite a few showers with my friends by now. We pretty much have it down to a science.

They started out more simple, and still are, but have developed into encompassing more details. Small touches. Embellishments.Very put together.

And ya know what? I like it.

My husband recently asked me if I thought anyone really cared about or noticed the paper pinwheels, tagged toothpicks or paper embellishments I spend so much time to design, print, cut and make.

To be honest, I didn't know the answer to his question. I wasn't sure if anyone appreciated them as much as I do.

For a second, I felt deflated. Maybe my work has gone unnoticed all these times and it wasn't really worth it? I can't knock the hubby for thinking like this. He's a realist and well, a guy. He just doesn't get the power of details.

Regardless if any guests truly notice the details or pay attention to the time and effort I pour into these showers, it doesn't matter. It's something I'm passionate about and I frankly enjoy doing.

I get giddy about a simple theme for a party turning into a put together masterpiece where every place you look incorporates a detail that could very well get overlooked. But, when you look at the party as a whole, it stands out.

I'd say that was my goal for the joint baby and bridal shower I recently hosted. Say wah? Yep, two of my out-of-town besties have big things happening in their lives. One is headed down the aisle and the other is headed for chaos. Hah.

I have never hosted a combined baby and bridal shower, and to be honest, it was somewhat challenging. I had to find a happy medium to incorporate both baby and bridal, offering both guests a shower that was relevant to each of their exciting new chapters.

With the invitation being the first thing guests would see explaining the not-so-ordinary shower, it had to be spot on with the description without sounding generic. I was pretty proud of the rhyming I came up with to do just that.

Invites were gray and yellow with a Morrocan pattern. No real theme, just classy. 

Now for the fun stuff.

I'll start off with the sweets, because you all know that's what I think is most important.

Baby buggies and wedding cake sugar cookies adorned with the bride's soon-to-be last name initial.

 Ordered from Connie's Cookies

The bride took home a basket full of household goodies and the bride left with some baby girl gear. 

Everything matched the theme colors of course. 

We offered both a bridal and a baby-friendly drink. Lemonade and White Sangria.

The White Sangria was YUMMY.

Fresca + bottle of white wine + fruit for garish.

That's it. Easy peasy.

Kansas City was oh-so-lucky to have its millionth snowfall starting the night before the shower, and affected several people from not even being able to make it. 

Nevertheless, the 10:00 start time got bumped to Noon and we enjoyed Yogurt Parfaits, Breakfast Casserole Bites, and Assorted Mini Muffins.  

We were supposed to have French Toast bites as well, but that dish was a doozy and had to be thrown away. Everything can't go as planned, now can it?

Small touches and embellishments included decorative paper pinwheels (tutorial here), bride + baby toothpicks for the yogurt parfaits, food display tags, advice cards for the mom to be and bride to be (not pictured), and a few other things.

To spice up the mason jars below (right), I simply rolled up a piece of paper, stuck it inside the jar, and used as utensil holders. I also did this for Carson's 1st birthday party with football paper.

What a great shower!

If you're ever thinking of hosting a joint baby + bridal shower, it's doable. And fun! Congrats to my besties!

First of Many I Presume

Well hello! Did you forget about me?

The girl that only posts every great once in awhile and it's always about her kid or a baby shower she recently hosted. Hah.

I'm not in a hole or hiding, or even boycotting the ol' blog. I'm just busy.

Busy chasing a crazy toddler.
Busy at the place I spend more time than home.
Busy hosting yet another shower (I'm a pro at these I tell ya)
Busy watching the entire Friday Night Lights series and drooling over Tim Riggins.
And busy getting our very first ER trip outta the way.

Yep, my rambunctious all-boy of a child experienced his first trip to the emergency room.

I felt exactly like you would expect a first-time mother to feel when her child gets seriously hurt. Fear. Heartache. Sadness. Guilt.

My Friday afternoon quickly changed when I received a message from Carson's school telling me that he had taken a bad spill, cut his head, and that the paramedics were there. 

I won't ever forgot that day. Or the messages of them trying to reach me. The fear that went through my mind. The long drive from downtown to get to my hurt baby.

It was absolutely horrible.

We arrived at his school where they had stopped the bleeding. The paramedics were still there. He had stumbled while walking in from the playground and fell into a fence, where a bolt on the fence cut his head.

I'm so thankful they changed his shirt before we got there. Apparently, the head bleeds a lot. His shirt was scary. So thankful I didn't have to see him wearing that. I was already a mess.

We took him to the ER ourselves where he got three staples in his head. Staples!

His teachers were shocked how small the cut was considering how much his head was bleeding. Although this was several days after cleaning and healing.

He did great given that he had to be held down for the doctor to clean it and staple it. Our little trooper. We were proud.

He showed no signs of a concussion, but we had to wake him up every two hours that night just to make sure. Boy, were we excited about that.

By the time we were discharged, he was trying to climb the medical equipment and wanted to push anything with wheels. Chairs, medical carts, fluid bag rollers. You can take a guess how the waking up every two hours went.

But after a few days, our boy was back to normal.

Making my house a mess. Cutting new teeth. Taking more spills. The bookcase jumped right into his forehead and caused a line bruise.

AND, that couch ran after him at Landon's birthday party last Saturday and broke open the scab. He just so happened to fall right on his wound, creating a goose egg under the staples.

Raising a boy is an adventure I tell ya. 

What staples ma?

The staples were removed this week (10 days after). Only a minute of crying.

I'm absolutely positive this trip won't be the last. I wish it was, but I'm realistic. I'm raising a rough-housing, adventurous boy who likes to push the limits.

Of course he is fine, but I can say with confidence that the feeling you get when you know your baby is hurt, well...it's unforgettable. Gut wrenching, scary and awful.

Now Carson, please stop falling and hitting your head. I've had enough adventures with you to give me at least a couple months grace period.

Mama needs a break.

Little Man Mustache Baby Shower

I recently helped host a baby shower for a great friend and her special little man that will make his debut in June. I revealed the invite here.

We utilized her nursery colors of navy and green and aimed for bright and fun with a touch of manly.

When designing the invite, I liked the idea of using the ever-so-trendy chevron pattern, but I feared its girlish nature might overpower the boyish feel I was going for.

So I incorporated the stache to get the combo of yin and yang I desired.

A Little Man Mustache themed baby shower 

We wanted to keep things simple, yet cohesive, so we served sweet treats only and incorporated the invite design throughout.

The spread included:

Mini Fruit pizzas (sugar cookies + cream cheese frosting + fruit = easy peasy)

Blondies (box mix from Trader Joe's topped with their Cookie Butter. To. Die. For)

Rice Krispie Treats topped with blue sprinkles

Cake Balls

Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

The blue punch was a hit. Guests were raving about the Blue Raspberry Punch.

So they asked, and we embarrassingly told them what it was.

1 2-Liter of Sprite

1 pkg. of Blue Raspberry Kool-Aid (Or flavor of your choice)

Ice, as desired

I'm not kidding...it's that easy. Everyone can drink the Kool-Aid.

Mason Jars, Wal-Mart

Green Paper Straws, Amazon

Cut-Out Mustaches were printed on cardstock, cut out and hot glued to each straw

We used the family last name, "Baby Casey" for the banner and cupcake toppers, and also included the invite tagline of "a little man is on the way" for some additional cupcake toppers.

Cupcake Toppers were printed on cardstock, cut out and hot glued to toothpicks. 

Onesies that matched the theme colors hung on the fireplace and added a few mementos for the mom-to-be to take home. A skull and cross bones onesie was a must.

Baby Casey won't be a Chi Omega, but he might date one:). We like to start the brainwashing early!

Just like these little handsome men. They've already heard all about it.

Gifts were light as this out-of-town mama had to fly back to San Antonio! Hope you enjoyed gift cards, books and knick knacks Megan:).

A great shower surrounded by great friends!

Sometimes, Being a Parent Bites

Parenting is hard work.

Definitely the hardest thing I have ever experienced in my 29-year lifetime.

Parenting scares you, surprises you, humbles you, challenges you, makes you a better person, and sometimes forces you to do things you don't want to do.

I had to be a parent last week. 

By putting my foot down and doing something about the biting that was happening at school.

I wasn't keeping track of the incidents at first because I assumed it would get better. And sometimes, it seemed Carson may be provoking the behavior. 

I kept telling myself, biting is a normal occurrence amongst kids. All kids do it. Carson could be the biter some day. That poor kid, he doesn't understand. Those poor parents. I bet they feel awful.

Before I knew it, Carson was getting bit a lot. I'm talking excessive. For a couple weeks, it was almost every day.

So, I started to be more assertive with my questions. I expressed my concerns to the teachers and the school. I heard, The child does bite other children, but Carson gets bit the most. We are aware of the situation and are working with the child. 

I bit my tongue as my child continued to get bit. Carson's the main target...his teacher would say. I hoped and hoped it would get better. It's just a phase, this will pass is what I told myself.

Honestly, maybe it would have passed. I still don't know the answer. Maybe this much biting is completely normal for kids. Is it?

If I had to guess, he probably got bit 15-20 times. The most recent bites were the worst and non-provoked by C. Some of them occurred when they weren't even playing together and the child came up and simply bit him. One on his back stayed around for a week and another on his knee made mama cringe.

Imagine chomp marks on your child's body as if they were a snack. I hated it.

My biggest fear was that Carson was going to turn into a biter. One of these times, he'd retaliate and bite back.

I asked his pediatrician. He confirmed that the children needed to be separated. I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear him say that. No Krista, you're not crazy. This isn't ok.

So that next day, I grew a pair and asked for the children to be separated.

The school was accommodating and moved the child to another room, although, I do feel they should have approached me first with how much it happened.

While I'm extremely happy that Carson won't get bit anymore, I feel for the biter. I feel for the other kids he might bite. I feel for everyone involved, honestly.

I know this is all just part of parenting, but it's hard not to question your judgement, your opinions, your parenting.

Did I do the right thing? Should I have waited longer? How would you have handled it?

TOP | cookie butter from TJs = dangerously worth it | uncle bri and maddie | makeshift shape sorter

MIDDLE | cousins | potbelly | special visitor at the office on a sunday

BOTTOM | my boys and their bed head | forward facing...dad breaking the rules | date night + im 29

Invitations: Owl Baby Shower and Sprinkle Shower

I recently received my first request for an invitation project from a totally unexpected person (friend of Brian's from high school).

I was completely shocked and honored when she reached out to me via facebook. I had a ton of fun designing, printing and fulfilling two invites for showers she was hosting.

Her first shower called for an Owl theme, where she requested natural colors and a vintage feel.

I think the owl sketch graphic made this invite, but I equally love the dot background. I also love tea-length invites. Of course, we continued the theme to the envelopes and spiced up the address labels.

 Ivory #10 envelopes with a side enclosure.

The second invitation was for a "Sprinkle Shower." I didn't know what this was before she told me, but I guess they are fairly popular. She gave me free reign of the design, so I kept it simple, yet fun and cheery. I love that the dots mimic a "sprinkle."

5x7 Invitations placed in teal envelopes from Hobby Lobby

Lately

It's official, I've turned into a once-a-weekish blog poster.

No longer are the days of having hours upon hours to blog, read other blogs, watch reality TV, or run a simple errand without rushing. Most days I feel like I am running around like a crazy person.

Life of a mom. Of only one kid. I'm pretty terrified of what it will be like when we have more kids someday. Yikes.

I thought I would be able to crank out some blog posts in the midst of these record-breaking snow storms (12 inches last Thursday, 8 more today and counting) and being stuck at home, but a rambunctious toddler made other plans for my day.

Luckily, I really enjoy his company.

We're stuck inside again today, and are still rockin' our pj's. Not Christmas ones like last week, but pj's nonetheless.

Lately, we've been dealing with some toddler troubles. Teething, those damn molars, pink eye, daycare kids share everything, more biting incidents, it seriously keeps me up at night, and tantrums, watch out - my kid will scream...over nothing.

But today, I'm not talking about my kid issues. I'm relishing over our recent trip to the zoo.

We took advantage of the beautiful warmer weather a few weekends ago and the family pass Gammy gifted to us for Christmas. The best part? Gammy, Don and Big Nana came to KC to join us for the day!

I've been to the zoo once before, but only for a couple hours. C was only 8 months old, and it was a hot summer day when your make-up literally melts off your face.

This time was different. We covered more ground. The Kansas City zoo is pretty spread out, right?

The zoo now has two polar bears, not just one. They were pretty entertaining.

Last time we went to the zoo, we visited Australia. This time, we headed for Africa.

At times, we were unsure how much Carson could see or if he really enjoyed it, but he was pretty chill the entire day. 

I'll take a content toddler in a stroller any day and call it a win!

He was very uneasy about his first carousel ride, but warmed up to it once it started moving. He gave his fan club lots of smiles who were waving and smiling from the sidelines.

Funny story that happened towards the tail end of our zoo visit. We stopped at the polar bear exhibit one last time before exiting the park. As Brian was holding up Carson to see the bears through the glass, he felt something wet seep through the sleeve of his shirt. Sure enough, big boy's diaper had leaked.

So I took him to the bathroom to get changed and made the executive decision to not put his extremely wet jeans back on. I mean, who wants to sit in their own pee? Now, wouldn't you think a responsible mother would have an extra pair of pants in the diaper bag?

I didn't. Mom of the year I tell ya.

So I did the next best thing I could think of and wrapped a thin receiving blanket around his legs in the stroller. Well, Big Boy just thought it was absolutely hysterical to keep kicking the blanket off and exposing his skivvies to everyone.

He would kick it off. And laugh. I would put it back on. Now repeat that process about 27 times as I'm trying to find my family and leave the zoo.

It was pretty funny. But I received some stares. Why yes, I like to bring my kid in public with no pants on.

Pants or not, the Zoo was a success! We're looking forward to going back in the spring and visiting the penguin exhibit coming fall 2013.

I seriously love Kansas City. There is always something new and exciting happening.