olive’s 1st birthday!

my babe is a year old!!

so crazy how fast the last year has flown by.. it genuinely feels like maybe 6 or 7 months have passed... not 12! 

for livi's first birthday, I of course wanted to go all out. and we kind of did.

I chose an under the sea theme, but not a little mermaid or disney aspect, as you'll see.

The week and really night before the party was absolute chaos as Micah and I literally finished our deck 5 minutes before the party started. 

Here's a pic on the finished product:

It's hard to see, but the deck is 16x12 feet then steps down for a 12x9 foot section. We have big plans for our deck this summer, more details later!!

So back to the party...

The cake!

I followed a recipe I found online (kinda) for the crust and ideas for shaping of the cake. 

The link is here: http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2013/06/12/how-to-make-a-sandcastle-cake-tutorial/

Instead of a yellow cake I chose a white cake ... I like the flavoring better. ;)

The table decor was so fun and I hardly took ANY pictures! Fail.  :(  but here's what I got. 

Cups, plates, & forks - Zurchers

The gold platters I made. 

Gumballs & Container - Target 

Varied Straws - eBay 

The cake pop stand I bought at Walmart & spray painted it turquoise. 

My mom made like 50 cookies & I made 40 cake pops! And I might still have a giant one waiting to be "made" in my freezer. ;)

In my entry I decorated with a tulle banner and a chalkboard of Livi's first year stats. 

The family room (again, I sucked at taking pics) I did a fun tissue tassle with paper wheels and doilies. 

In the kitchen I did a paper banner over the windows & table and did more paper wheels. 

Also, it's tiny & hard to see, but the little banner on the right was a string of pics I did of Olive's "months go by" starting at newborn and up to her 1 year pic. I loved it so much that I decided to turn it into a tiny book after the party. 

I decorated her high chair with a tulle skirt that I turned into a tutu for Livi. 

Sorry for the craptastic pics!

And in between the pendant lights over the kitchen island I did mini tissue tassels. 

Also all around my house I put up "fun facts" about Livi. I printed them on a sandy looking glitter paper and stood them up on turquoise clothespins (I spray painted those too) and loved how they turned out too so I made a tiny book as well. 

The birthday girl herself sittin pretty in the dress and crown I made for her. I love how it all turned out! She's matchy matchy with her d'Olive (darling little doll my sister-in-law Cara made & named). 

We chose to do pizza & keep it simple for the meal. My awesome mother-in-law brought the salads, fruit platters, & even picked up the pizzas! Champion!

(I of course forgot to take a picture of ANY of the food so just pretend you see some amazing food here)

Oh I also made seahorse shaped ice cubes for the occasion. ;)

After eating & chitting the chat, we opened Olive's many gifts. This girl has some serious thank you notes to write. 

After all the toys and outfits were out of the bags, we stripped Livi down and cut the cake. 

Loves fire. Uh oh. 

Really unsure about all the people singing to her. 

Carefully destroying the cake. 

Getting tickled my her grandpa!

Once all the food was cleaned up, floors vacuumed, & guests had gone home, Micah & Livi passed out for much needed naps. I finally joined in the nap sesh after puttering around of course. 

On Sunday:

I had to do a quick little photo sesh with my little babe in her new pool & darling outfit from my sister-in-law Brittany. 

It was such a fun party, so good to see a lot of friends and family & just hang out & celebrate this darling little babe. 

Next birthday I plan on taking more pics. ;)

xoxo

Mandi

Memorial Day 2014

Micah and I have officially decided to make a Memorial Day Moab trip a yearly tradition. We come down to Moab at least 3 or 4 times a year anyway haha but in May it's perfect temperature and just tons to do!!

saturday

This trip has been a bit of a struggling experience... First, we packed up and left our house later than we planned on Saturday. Our sweet babe Olive slept in til 9am, which I loved.. But we were planning on her waking up at 7:30am, eating & going back down for her nap in the car around 9am. But we ended up having to do some last minute laundry (kill me), random menial tasks around the house (water plants, cook some food to bring for Liv..) and of course finish packing & getting ready. Blah! So we left our place at 1:00pm. 

Olive was ready with her Moab onesie!

The drive down was pretty uneventful. Micah drove, I hunted on Etsy & eBay for stuff for Olive's birthday party, Zoey tried to get into the front seat the whole time, & Olive just sort of hung out.

I thought she was asleep... Nope!

When we finally got to Moab we hit up the art festival that was going on. I found a fellow "big cartel" company called Green Stitches that makes darling hand seen dolls & stuffed animals. I bought some super cute earrings from them!

We headed back to the car with a hungry baby & I started to feed her while Micah started the car. Or tried to start the car. 

We had a dead battery. 

Awesome. 

Micah ran to grab someone to jump us (found a scary tough woman actually). We got the jeep running and headed to our hotel, not daring to turn off the car again. The battery is a little old so we just were going to have to grab a new one. 

As Micah started unpacking our things at the hotel, I hung out with Liv in the car & Zo. 

And we realized the hotel didn't have a crib for Livi. 

Awesome. 

So we hurried over to Alco (the most random local store ever. Love that place.) and actually found a pack n play. We also bought a new forward facing car seat for Olive kinda impromptu. But it was super cheap and exactly the kind we needed. 

Because it was already 8:00pm (Olive's bed time) and we hadn't even eaten dinner, we decided to grab some food to go. We stopped at 'Los something' on Main Street. It used to be Cabo Grill but just recently changed & mexican food sounded pretty good. Micah ordered some chicken tostadas & I got a beef taco with chicken quesadilla. way yummy! I wish I had gotten more tacos!  :(

Zoey couldn't handle being in the backseat any longer. Big baby. 

Tired face! Zo is already stoked about Moab. 

sunday

The next morning we hit up the local Moab LDS church for a quick sesh. Then we changed, had lunch, & went to Tusher Tunnel. It's a jeeping trail that takes you to a tiny little hike that ends with a really cool tunnel (what?! no way) and has a beautiful outcropping and view of the area.

That tongue!

After jeeping around a little longer, we headed back into town. A super popular little stop is this massive sand hill.. like hugely tall & steep that people are always trying to reach the top. We pulled in, wanting to give Livi a little break from the carseat and to see if she'd crawl around in the sand.

Big fat nope. 

She hated it haha poor thing. She was also tired and starving so it definitely wasn't a great tine to experiment. Olive did try to eat the sand though! 

We left to get real food for our sad little babe & went to our favorite restaurant in Moab, Zax. We bumped into some friends and ended up eating dinner with them, getting to catch up with their lives while we stuffed our faces with pizza. mmmmm so good!

Once we were done, Olive was pretty much exhausted, so we headed back to our hotel and crashed.

monday

That morning we went to our favorite breakfast joint, Moab Diner. It's a 1950's style diner and they have amazing breakfasts. Big pancakes  crispy bacon, really yummy waffles... it's the best. 

Once we had sufficiently stuffed our faces, we piled into the jeep again and went south of town to Hunter Canyon. It's a really scenic dog friendly hike that Micah and I have yet to actually finish. Our first attempt was when I was pregnant & felt like I was going to go into labor (HA! I wish) so we had to bail early, and our second was with all of our little nieces & nephews so we didn't make it very far.

Today we were hellbent on seeing the end!

But first we needed some pics of Olive's and my matchy matchy headbands!

       { available at www.minimamaco.com } 

gecko #1

Zoey is a freakin fish when we go on hikes and LOVES any excuse to jump into puddles or little rivers. Today was no exception.

oh my ovaries

sweet gecko #2

poppin a squat hahaha

THE END!! 

It was actually really pretty. The hike ended with a small waterfall coming off a massive rock wall that was curved to give a lot of shade. It was a bit rocky and technical to get to the very end so if you bring kiddos maybe stop just short of the end. It was hard! But worth it for the shade and nice cool mist that lightly sprinkled us as we had a snack.

Zoey wanted to keep going!

After our hike, we shook the sand from our shoes, changed Livi into some non-sweaty clothes, & piled into the jeep. With a quick stop at the Mav to grab some goodies, we fueled up and left the trail.

On our way out of town we stopped by Moyo, the newest and actually, the ONLY frozen yogurt place in Moab. It is the "weigh and pay" style that Micah loves because he can act like a little kid and pile as many sprinkles, gummy bears, and M&M's in his bowl and feel like he's justified in paying $4 for it.

Til next time!!

xoxo

Mandi

Mother's Day 2014

So much happened around Mother's Day, it was kinda intense!

The prep right before was my website launch. Which I officially opened on Mother's Day and had a fantastic opener week ps! Nothing gives me more joy than to create, especially creating something that will be loved and worn and shown off. 

Micah spoiled me oh-so much. He got me a beautiful succulent plant for our kitchen table, a massage to Massage Envy, and a few less-romantic items like camping lights, a hanging rack for our laundry room & hooks for our mud room. 

That day Micah took care of Olive in every sense and didn't let me change her diaper once. We typically have about a 50/50 split on who changes her, feeds her etc. when he isn't working, so it was a pleasant surprise to not have to do any of that. Although, I weirdly missed not doing those menial things with her.

I am obsessed with my daughter.  :O

We headed up to Midway again for dinner at the Russell cabin. 

Livi was sporting some new creations

What's dinner without some group selfies as my niece Cat said we needed...

I'm so lucky to be blessed with this in-law family. My nieces and nephews are so much fun and so ready to love and invite you into their lives, it's contagious. I love their honesty and their unabashed excitement over things and just their eagerness to try new things or do something silly. I wish I could bottle up their excitement!

xoxo

Mandi