Lucy's Birthday: Open House

This is the first of three birthday posts! There is too much to share for just one :) so we will share the love. 

To celebrate Lucy's birthday with friends we decided to have an open house the Saturday before her birthday so that people could come and go as they pleased and we could visit and share some yummy food (aka: cookies). We handed out most of the invitations at church, but mailed invites to grandparents (we knew they wouldn't be able to come, but wanted to send them one them anyway).  

 Brad helped with the invitations, I found one I liked online, and we he modified it using PhotoShop at church.  I was/am thrilled with how they turned out. :)

The morning of the open house, Lucy got to see her pom-pom garland for the first time:

 She loved it! :) One of the "new" things she is doing is putting her hand over her mouth (like she is shocked or bashful) when she is excited. It melted my heart when she did this new trick when she saw her banner for the first time. :) Mamma's hard work was ALL worth it.

I tried to manipulate Lucy's schedule for the day so she would be rested and cheerful for her party (since I scheduled it during the same time as her afternoon nap - good thinking). Thankfully it worked. I put Lu back down in her crib after she had her morning milk and she slept til 10!!! Success! I put her back down at noon and woke her up 5 minutes before party-time. :) Since she slept so well during the morning/early afternoon - I had time to decorate and get the house ready (and make up the last of the cookies).

 Not many changes outside, other than a balloon (thanks Carol!) and a fun colored rug.

I moved three dining room chairs into the front room, to add extra seating, and on the hall closet there - I added a fun activity for guests:

Pictures of Brad and I at 1 year - there was a pink marker hanging from the door knob and guests had fun voting. I won. By a land slide. 23-6! (and 4 of Brad's votes were from a 4 year old... hehehe) I thought, after the fact that it would have been fun to compare birth pictures AND 1 year pictures (Brad would have won the birth comparison contest), and some people suggested that a picture of Lucy would have been nice to help with the comparison too. (So if you choose to do this idea - there are the things I would/will change next time)

The dining room was cleared of chairs and decorated in "Lucy colors" (pink, grey, green and white).

The pom-pom banner up close - it turned out SO WELL! (A giveaway is coming soon that will help YOU, yes - YOU, make one of your own!)

The side of the refrigerator was turned into a gallery wall - showcasing Lucy's monthly pictures. This was a crowded area during the party - perhaps my 2nd favorite decoration (my 1st favorite is the pom-pom banner!) Both the banner and this picture display are still up - I don't want to EVER take them down. :) 

Lucy's quilt was the table runner of choice - all of the party colors are in it - and it provided a nice backdrop to cookies, veggies and dip and chips and dip. :) I shopped my house for the centerpiece - the apothecary jar came from the Master bedroom and the hollow yarn balls are left over from church's Easter brunch, they are mixed with a few twine balls. The lantern hasn't found a home here yet, but I have had it since High School and was happy to pull it out again. I've had the green cross for the same amount of time - but it usually lives in Lucy's room. :) (I love shopping my house! It is so inexpensive!)

Elephant sugar cookies were the star of the show. :) Some of the teenage boys who came to the party commented on how morbid it was for Lucy to be eating elephants when she loved them so much.... lol.... I thought that was funny. The elephant cookies made me happy, so I made them - not thinking about the implications. They tasted yummy yummy! 

The other side of the centerpiece. Baby Ellie and Edward, some of Lucy and I's favorite books (which just happened to match the party colors) and a cute little owl (no vignette is complete without at least ONE bird) I bought at Hob Lob earlier this year, he usually lives on a shelf (with the green cross) in Lucy's room. 

The buffet got some pretties too! It would be a shame to have left it out. 

No party, even if it is for a boy, is complete without flowers. Brad picked these ones out at Sams - such a good man - they opened up beautifully and smelled so good!

This side of the buffet was graced with thrift store finds - my white candle sticks and the pretty white bowl I found when my sister Becca visited earlier this year - paired with some candles (thanks Mom K!) and a few more yarn balls. :)

All I did in the living room was raise the screen, move some chairs, put out coasters (for guest's beverages) and put a special picture frame on the red trunk:

I love this frame. It helps you focus on Lucy's different facial expressions - I've stared at it for hours.

The birthday girl approved of the decorations! Yippee!

Lucy's "friends" started arriving and she had no problem with convincing them it was a good idea to share food with her. I think she ate 5 oreos! Oh well, you are only 1 once. :)

She tried ranch dip for the first time - loved it. 

It makes me so happy to see a bunch of people in my living room...

...especially when they are visiting. :)

My sweet girl, and Oreo remains. :)

 

We opened a few gifts when friends were still at our house, but decided to wait on the majority of them. I would much rather people visit during a party than focus on one thing (opening gifts) for 20 minutes. Some people really wanted to see Lu open their gifts (a few of Lucy's little friends were SO excited to see Lu play with the toys they picked out for her) and she was all too happy to oblige. :) 

It was SUCH a fun afternoon. I forget how much I get an emotional high from having a TON of people over to my house (I'm weird, I know...). Plus my friend Misty helped clean up - so once we had an empty house, there wasn't that much to do! A great way to end a great afternoon. :) 

A big THANK YOU to all our friends who stopped by! We so enjoyed seeing you - thank you for coming and celebrating our Lucy's birthday with us. :) 

Where should we start?

There is SO much to catch you up on! This post will serve to pique your interest and keep you coming back for more! :) 

Chicago Trip:

Fixin' Up Friday Before #1: 

Fixin' Up Friday Before #2:

Lucy's Birthday Party Open House:

A visit from family:

A trip to the zoo:

1 year old:

Second try at the swimming pool, was it a success:

Birthday details, including cake smashing:

Having fun with new toys:

Please check back soon for (much) more details! :)

Fixin' Up Friday: The day I cut my carpet.

Note to husband self: When using spray insulation, cover the carpet beneath you.

  

Source 

Because this stuff will make your carpet look like this: 

 Do you see the yellow spot? Not the nicest decorating touch....

Solution? Well, if your carpet has a nice "pile" (which happens to be the technical term for how long the yarn of your carpet is - who knew?), like ours, just grab your favorite pair of scissors and attack snip away the top of each tuft.

After:

 Because of the lighting in this picture, you can still see a bit of the foam remains - but in person, it is not visible, unless you get down on your hands and knees. 

(If you do that at my house, I will think you are strange)

Warning, snipping your carpet will leave the surrounding area looking like this:

As an extra bonus: 

For those spots that go deeper into your carpet, may I suggest the-best-carpet-cleaner-in-existance?

 

Source

Folex Carpet Spot Remover. This stuff is amazing - it takes out coffee stains, animal "oopsies," and soda stains! I bought mine from Bed Bath and Beyond for about $8, but the container is huge - very worth it. :)

I feel a bit ashamed I only posted 3 times in May. I promise June will be better - mostly because I have a TON to catch you up on! 

The Second Time Around

There will be another post, probably next week, about our trip to Chicago and our anniversary - this post is going to be on a different topic. Can you guess what it is? Perhaps our Tweets from yesterday will help you figure it out... 

Twitter post from Brad yesterday morning: 

“3 years with my beautiful wife Sarah Joy Kidder, what a blessing she is to me, Lucy and Baby Kidder to be!!” 

Twitter post from Sarah yesterday morning: 

“Yet another anniversary I can’t be 100% alone with my hubbie - Lu will be with a sitter tonight but little one #2 will tag along :)”

(Did you get it?) 

WE ARE PREGNANT! :) 

Baby number 2 is due to arrive in December, around the 11th. Well, that date isn’t official, it’s what the internet thinks - we haven’t been to the dr yet, so I’ll update you if the date changes after our first visit. We are 12.5 weeks along.... 27.5 to go! :) 

As many of you know we used a group of midwives in Chicago for both pre/post natal care. I LOVED THEM. I wish I could move the whole group to Pampa so they could help me through this preganancy too, but that would cost a lot of money and just isn’t that realistic. So we are going a different route with this preganancy (after MUCH debate), we are going to be using an OBGYN in Pampa. I have heard great things about Dr. Jill Terry and I am excited to meet her soon. 

Here is a fun video that shows how our baby is growing and moving right now:

Side note: When Lucy and I watched this video for the first time, she had a HUGE smile on her face and looked up at me with a lot of excitement - melt. my. heart. (She has NO idea what is coming)

When we announced we were pregnant with Lucy, we answered some questions that we had been asked frequently so I decided to do the same here too. :) 

Were you trying? Yes. 

Do you want a boy or girl? We would be happy with ether! I think it would be fun if it was a girl, because Lucy could have a best friend growing up (I loved having a sister who was close in age to me!). I would also love it to be a boy - the pressure is on people! If we don’t have a boy, the Kidder name dies. That would be bad. And I don’t want that to happen, so I would love the baby to be a boy, but Brad has a feeling we are going to have a gaggle of girls. :) 

Are you going to find out the gender? Yep, I like to name the baby so that I can prepare for it’s arrival. We will need more clothes, even if this baby is a girl, since the season is completely opposite of when Lucy was born - winter instead of summer. 

How far apart will Lucy and the new baby be? They will be 18 months apart, close enough to be best buds who have to be reminded that “sharing is fun!” 

What names are you thinking about? Remember when “you” asked (well, maybe we just answered...) this question when we were expecting Lucy? We said, “We are keeping it a secret!” but then we spilled the beans? Well, we decided to tell you the name after we find out the gender this time, we aren’t even going to try to keep the news to ourselves because we know we can’t keep a secret.  

Are you feeling ok? YES! I am so blessed (again) to not be feeling morning sickness! I have been tired, but not as tired as I remember being with Lucy (probably because I am not working two jobs and finishing up school at the same time).

Any questions I have missed? Please let me know and I would be happy to answer

We have been thinking a lot recently about how we are reacting to this pregnancy in relation to how we reacted to to the first one. It is strange being pregnant with your second child. It may not be this way for everyone, but in my experience (so far) I have noticed I am not as “on top” of reading the day-to-day updates on what is happening with Little One #2, I still read the weekly updates and marvel at how God has designed life to begin but this pregnancy isn’t on my mind as much as the first one was. This isn’t because I am not excited - I am THRILLED - I have a baby to care for and duties around the house and at church that need to get done. And it is the second time we have done this, so there isn’t as much mystery as there was the first time around. Does that make sense?

So, that is our exciting news! :) We will keep you updated, as best we can. :) 

Michigan Trip

We recently took a trip to Michigan to visit family. It was all around a great trip: the drive to and from MI went smoothly (with the exception of a flat tire on the way home), Lucy traveled SO well (better than Brad and I did!) and we got to visit with a lot of family and friends we don't get to see very often anymore. 

Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Visiting Grandma's Classroom

Mom Kidder teaches kindergarten to two different classes - she has over 50 students total, that she sees week to week! (She is amazing.... how she keeps her sanity - I have no idea.) In the above picture, Lucy is playing with Grandma's microphone - such cool technology. 

 Lucy ate up all the attention - all the kids knew who "baby Lucy" was the moment she walked in. Grandma makes sure to share any new pictures with her classes. :)

 The kids were rolling a ball to Lu, and she would pick it up and "throw" it back - too cute. :)

Amy's Graduation

 The reason we went up to MI was because, after 4 years of hard work, Amy was graduating!

 Proud parents :)

 Lucy was so excited for her Aunt- so much so, that she clapped for the first time during the ceremony. :) 

 Lucy also loved the red tassel. :)

 The kids and grandkid :)

 COLLAGE GRADUATE!

 "I did it!" 

(We have a picture of Brad like this in his cap and gown)

 Amy with the Grandmas - Grandma Buning and Grandma Kidder 

 The whole clan :) 

 Amy receiving her "Lamp." Each graduate at Kuyper receives a wooden candle holder with a light candle - the holder is made of 5+ different types of wood from around the world - the "lamp" symobolizes that graduates are to go and be lights through out the world. It was a neat part of the ceremony. :) 

Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa

 Lucy loved spending time with her grandma, reading was a favorite activity. :) 

 

 Grandpa even got to babysit Lucy one evening! When I texted him asking if everything was going ok, he sent me this adorable poem: 

 

Milk and Cheerios were ate, 

Having great fun but it was gettin' late,

My alone time with Lucy was had,

Reminding what fun to be a dad,

Nothing more needs to be said,

Cause sweet little Lulu has gone to bed.

(Seriously! Made. Me. Cry.)

A Quick Remodel

Our trip to Michigan was different this time, because all of our friends there are "grown up" and have full time jobs and mom and dad had to work all day - leaving us at home. This was nice, because Lucy could take good naps during the day and be rested to spend time with people in the evenings and we got to have a little fun remodeling Amy's room. :)

 

 Not before, but during. I forgot to take a before picture..... (Bad Sarah!) But you can see the color of the walls - blue - and a bit of the carpet. 

 Here is another shot of the carpet - you can't tell from this picture as well, but it needed to be replaced. :) So we found a solution that worked well. Bringing Amy's room from Jr/Sr High Student to Post College Graduate. :)

 After :) We painted the room a nice dark grey - called Flannel Suit from Ace.

 And we replaced the flooring with hardwood laminate from Lumber Liquidators. (Love that place)

So as you can see - it was a fantastic trip! :) From start to finish.

Have you traveled lately?

Eleven Months Old

I feel like I always start these month birthday posts with, "Can you believe it? Lucy is --- months old! Man! Time flies." lol, so continuing on in tradition....

Another month has flown by! Lucy is now 11 months old, one short month away from her first birthday! I can hardly believe our little girl is getting SO big! Brad said the other day, "I feel like at any moment, our baby will be gone forever." I feel the same way.

This months accomplishments:

• Laughing of her own accord, with out prompting from Mom or Dad
• Lucy has started pointing - it all started at the furnature store when we were shopping for couches, we were both FED UP with the choices and we looked at Lucy and asked her "What should we do?" She smiled and pointed (at a VERY expensive couch) and although we did not take her suggestion, she lightened the mood a bit. :) She loves pointing at her dad when he points at her - it is really cute.
• Lu clapped for the fist time! This happened at Amy's graduation. I keep saying she is saving all her important milestones for her aunts - she waved bye bye to my sister Becca when she was leaving and she clapped for her Aunt Amy. :) 
• She has become much more conversational, babbling at you when you ask her questions or "copying" words - I am convinced she said "cat" the other day, but she hasn't repeated it.... She sometimes will say "ta" ("thank you"), "da" ("yes" - I am convinced she is Russian) or "hi" (self explanatory) and she has finally started to say "mama" :) (Much to my delight, although she still calls me "dada" sometimes). We are not 100% positive these words are intentional yet, but they do happen to slip out at the right time every now and then.
• Our little girl has begun to show great enjoyment over some foods - she will say "Mmmmmmm" really loud after having a taste of snow cone, yogurt or anything sweet. :)
• Walking sideways - Lucy can go from one side of the couch/hearth to the other on her narrow little feet. :)
• Attitude - well, we all knew it was coming. Lucy has begun to show her defiance. If she is told no, sometimes (not all the time) she will throw a little fit, making a "mean" face (see picture below) and even trying to bite or hit. Yikes...... Well, we have heard stories from our parents about how we were when we were young, I guess we are getting what we deserve. But there are other times we tell Lu, "No, you need to focus on something else." and she will! The happiness we feel when she is obedient far outweighs the frustration we feel when she is not. Welcome to parenthood.... 

Here are some outtakes from our photo shoot last Saturday: 
 

The horizontal one on the bottom is my favorite. It captures her so well. :) (Remember you can always click the image to see it larger)

Well, we will be back next month to introduce our ONE year old! AUGHHHH

Fixin' Up Friday: New Couch!

Before: 

 We bought these couches right before we got married, for (what we thought was) a good deal. Sadly, time has not been kind to our sofa, the love seat is still in great shape (maybe because we usually use the sofa?). We even tried to repair the broken sofa a few months ago, we turned it over, took off the black fabric and stared in disbelief. Long story short - the couch was made VERY poorly, we added a new 2x4 hoping to prolong the life of our seat, and it worked for about three months. This last week however, enough was enough. We had to get a new couch. 

Before continuing the story, let me illustrate for you the condition of the sofa:

 Boards were coming out :( 

 The back was snapped in two, curving the supports :( 

 There were poky things coming out of the back :(

 That's not what a couch is supposed to look like....:( 

We have been looking for new couches for a few months, we have been to every furniture store in Amarillo, most of them twice, and we were having a really hard time finding something we liked. Here was our mental check list: 

• Quality construction - we want this thing to last 7+ years not 3
• No skirt, clean lines on the bottom
• Couch/Love Seat or Sectional - we went back and forth
• Not too modern (straight lines) but something that looks comfortable
• Fabric, no leather, our thinking was that leather (the shades we liked) would be too dark in our room because of the brick wall.

We ended up finding a sectional that we liked, but we weren't too sure about construction, the cushions felt a bit soft. And as we wandering the store, we saw the same sectional in LEATHER, since we really really liked the shape of this sectional, Brad went and sat down in the leather version and exclaimed, "Wow this feels much more sturdy" - and he was right. I was convinced that LEATHER would be okay in the room after being 1) given permission to repaint the room a lighter color if I felt it was too dark, 2) told I could buy pillows/fabric for the couch (it didn't come with pillows) in a lighter color to lighten it up, and 3) informed about the durability and easy-maintenance of LEATHER. I was hooked,

And you want to know the best part?

It was a floor model and was thus discounted $1000!!!!!

Yes, please! So with out further ado, here is our new couch.

After:

 250 inches of comfortable goodness. :) 

It fits in our room perfectly, like it was made specifically for us. :) 

We are undecided on the color of the room yet, but I'm sure you will know if I decide to change anything. :)