Well Be Right Back

Sorry for the absence but things happened a LOT quicker than expected.... We are moving!!! Our house sold in 4 days and we close on the 19th. Until then we will be packing, packing, packing!

Foodie Feature

Due to a CRAZY busy Sunday, I am just now getting around to posting. Weekly meal planning is very important to me. It allows me to do my grocery shopping all at once and make sure my family is eating well balanced meals. I also enjoy trying out new recipes. I try to cook three new recipes each week. One tip I have for trying out new recipes is to have a binder to store all the recipes you want to try. When you are reading through a magazine or online and see a recipe you would like to try you can simply store it in your "Recipe Binder". Then, when it is time to make your weekly meal plan you can flip through all your new recipes. Some will be good and some as I have found will be BAD!

Weekly Meal Plan for October 26 - November 1

10/26 - *Work Night* Leftovers/Sandwiches

10/27 - Family Dinner at my Grandmother's

10/28 - Cavatappi with Roasted Tomatoes, Tossed Salad (I was supposed to make this last week but realized when it was too late that the tomatoes had to roast for 3 hours - oops)

10/29 - Rosemary Grilled Chicken Breasts, Caramelized Onion-Potato Gratin, Roasted Green Beans

10/30 - Dinner with Friends

10/31 - Trick or Treat Dinner with Family

11/1 - Corn and Bacon Chowder, Cheddar Biscuits, Apple Slices

Featured Recipe:

Oven Fried Chicken Parmesan

This is a recipe that comes from Cooking Light. It is quick and absolutely delicious. Mark and Belle ate a full plate of this and the leftovers were fantastic as well.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

4 (6-oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (if your chicken breasts are thick pound them to 1/4 inch thickness)

2 Tablespoons olive oil, divided

Cooking spray

1/2 cup jarred tomato-basil pasta sauce

1/2 cup (2 oz) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

3/4 cup (3 oz) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Combine first 3 ingredients in a shallow dish; place egg whites in a bowl. Place panko in a shallow dish. Dredge one breast half in flour mixture. Dip in egg whites; dredge in panko. Repeat procedure with remaining chicken, flour mixture, egg and panko.

3. Heat 1 Tablespoon oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan; cook 2 minutes. Add remaining 1 Tablespoon oil. Turn chicken over; cook 2 minutes. Coat chicken with cooking spray; place pan in oven. Bake at 450 for 5 minutes. Turn chicken over; top each breast half with 2 Tablespoons sauce; 2 Tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano, and 3 Tablespoons mozzarella. Bake 6 minutes or until chicken is done.

(Yields 4 servings)

Be very careful when you are working with the chicken after the pan has been in the oven -- I burned myself twice.

I served this over whole-wheat spaghetti and a tossed light Caesar salad. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family did. Leave me comments if there are any recipes you want me to try out or feature.

Now go... and cook!

Home How-To: Chalk It Up

Today I am going to walk you through making your own chalkboard. These chalkboards are great to use as memo boards, calendars, meal plans, etc. around the home. They can be made as cheap or as expensive as you want.

Supplies Needed:
Frame, Mirror or Plywood
Chalkboard Paint (This can be found at a craft store and can be found in spray paint or tub form. The spray paint is always black or green and the tub form comes in lots of different colors.)
Painters Tape
Roller paintbrush (if using tub of paint)
Chalk
Exacto Knife or sharp edge

I found this frame on sale at Jo-Anns for 50% off. It was $25 with a discount.
If using a poster frame or mirror, the first step is to clean the glass with glass cleaner. If using plywood, sand it VERY smooth.

The second step is the tape your edges off using painter's tape.

Next, paint the first coat of paint on. It will look VERY thin and seem like it is not working "right". If using spray paint, follow directions on the can. Let this dry for 45 mins to an hour.

Paint as many coats of paint as needed until you are satisfied with the coverage. I found on my frame if I turned the printed paper over underneath the frame to make the background solid it looked MUCH better. I ended up doing 4 coats of paint and only used half a tub of colored chalkboard paint.

Once you are satisfied with the coverage of paint allow it to dry overnight. Next take an exacto knife or sharp edge and run it around the entire edge of your frame/mirror. Then remove the tape slowly. After the tape is removed, use the side of a piece of chalk to rub all over the chalkboard. This primes the chalkboard. Wipe all the chalk off and it is normal if some of the color of the paint is on your towel with the chalk - do not rub vigorously though.

Have fun and be creative with what you put on your chalkboard.

Lastly, hang it in the place that it will be of most use to you. We use our chalkboard for reminders and a weekly bible verse, so we hung it on the stairs going to the garage.

Please comment if you have any questions or problems making your own. I can't wait to see you all posting pictures of your own chalkboards. Please feel free to comment as well if you have any suggestions for Home How-To!

Now Go....And CREATE!

I'm Baaaaaaack!

So after a much needed blogging silence. I am back and better than ever. I am going to take a new direction with my blog. I will feature great activity ideas to do with your children, wonderful recipes to cook with your children, etc. I want to create a community where we as mothers can encourage each other and help fill our days with things that enrich our children's lives.

The schedule will look something like this:

Sunday: Weekly Meal-Plan/Recipe of the Week
Tuesday: Activity Ideas
Thursday: Home How-To

I will mix in some other things here and there. I hope this is something that you enjoy and get ideas. Please submit feedback at any point and let me know if there are particular topics or ideas you want me to cover.

To start things off I am going to talk about planned activities with toddlers. In our house we encourage free play because I think that it fosters the development of a child's imagination. I love watching Belle slowly learn to play "pretend" because I can remember all the many adventures I took myself on. Belle goes to "school" on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I make a plan for activities on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Although I plan for those days sometimes things change and we don't do them those days or save things for Saturday with daddy. The best advice I can give is to not over plan and try to do too many activities at once. It is very important to remember the attention span and skill level of your child.

Last week our activities centered around apples. I try to adapt Belle's activities to supplement her school curriculum. They do so many fun things about fall so we are riding that theme out in our house. Last week we read a book called Under the Apple Tree. It is a very simple story about all the things that you can do/see under the apple tree. We then had an Apple Hunt where I hid two red and two green apples and we went hunting for them around the house. This activity incorporated counting and colors. Very simple but very entertaining for an almost two year old.

Another activity we enjoyed was an Apple Investigation. We took one of the red apples and one of the green apples and looked and felt the differences between the two. We talked about the color differences and texture differences. I then cut them into half where you could see the seeds and core. This allowed us to see what the inside of the apple looked like. I then cut the green and red apple into slices so we could smell and taste the differences between the red and green apples. This helped with learning about senses and differences. It also made for a great snack activity.

We are going to follow up this week with another book about apples. We are going to do Apple Stamping where you cut an apple in half and use them as stamps with paint. Belle and I also plan to make some Apple Chips for a snack activity. I will post some pictures at the end of the week.

I hope these ideas have inspired you. I love sitting down on Sunday and planning out some fun learning for the week. Another great resource is Productive Parenting. It is a website that will send you a daily age-appropriate activity email.

Stay Tuned:
Friday's Home How-To: Make Your Own Chalkboard.
P.S. I did lose the 10 lbs.!!

Motivation by Humiliation Update - Week One

Week one which consisted of May 1-May 8 was definitely a success. I stuck with my diet and only had a few slip ups here and there. The key thing I found was to increase my water intake (I dropped all soft drinks) and eat filler foods. Some of my favorites of the week are 1 cup of chopped strawberries stirred with 1 packet of Splenda with sugar and topped with a small dollop of cool whip. This was a perfect after dinner snack for only 2 points. Subway is definitely my go to place if I want to eat out. There are great choices and they have a decent selection of baked chips. I also loved eating a snack of caramel mini rice cakes and a green apple. It was only 2 points and like eating a caramel apple. Unfortunately I am not able to cook many of my Relish! meals because even their "lower calorie" meals are not as low-cal as I need.

Exercise-wise I was able to do the Shred-It everyday. I have a love/hate relationship with this workout. It is very intense and there are no breaks - the hate part. I love though that when I get overwhelmed I only think to myself how many circuits are left and that I can do anything for 20 mins! I really recommend this workout for moms because it is easy to fit those 20 minutes into your day. I am also trying to take Belle out for a 20-30 minute walk every day.

The official weigh-in from as of May 8: 2 lbs lost, and I am in a weight bracket that I have not seen in over two and a half years!

Here is the bad news though... I have come down with the stomach virus that Belle had. I have been sick sick sick. There are no problems with sticking to my diet with the virus as I really don't want to eat more than crackers and broth. The problem is that I can't exercise or I will truly pass-out. Once I get my energy/strength back I plan to return to the exercise routine. I am praying hard that I have experienced the worst of it today with the 101.5 fever and other unpleasantness. I have to give major love to my husband who came home early from work and has taken care of Belle so that I can recuperate. He tried so hard to make my mother's day special even though I was sick. I think we are going to have a re-do mother's day this coming Sunday.

Sick Little Girl

Unfortunately, sweet Belle has come down with the stomach virus again. Tuesday night we were up all hours with her sick and we went into the doctor on Wednesday. Thankfully she has held down little bits of food since last night. The hard thing is I need her to fill back up on those fluids and drink, drink, drink. She thinks this idea is less than stellar and we have a major meltdown anytime the idea of fluids is presented. If any of you have tips they would be greatly appreciated. We have already tried Popsicles, Gatorade, pedialyte, juice, ice chips, feeding with a syringe, etc. As soon as she wakes from her nap we are going to try getting a juice slushy from Sonic.
Please pray that we can get her to drink and she will be on the mend quickly. We are supposed to leave on Saturday to spend Mother's Day in St. Simon's but I don't see that happening right now. I am trying to be positive but I get down so easily when I see her hurting and so lethargic. I guess it is the nurse in me that has an innate desire to make it "all better".
Stay tuned as an update from my Motivation by Humiliation will come tomorrow or Saturday!

Beginning a New Phase

I took an unannounced break from blogging the last few weeks to realign my priorities. There is so much that I need to blog about, but I really appreciated the time off. Over the next few weeks I will hopefully get caught up.

That being said I am starting a new phase in my life. Over the past 15 months I have taken a lot of the focus off of taking care of myself. I don't think this is a bad thing because I have a well-adjusted, bright, beautiful little girl who received my focus (and still will). Now it is time to focus on me a little. I have finally reached a point where I am at my "pre-pregnancy" weight. That's great, right? Not really, see I was actually overweight before I got pregnant, and now it is time to buckle down and do something about it. Is my problem dieting? No. Is my problem exercise? No. My problem is motivation. Once I commit to something I am pretty likely to follow it through. The problem for me is being motivated to make the commitment. Yeah, I don't like the way I look in the mirror, but I could live with it if I had to. Now comes the tricky part....

Let me introduce you to "Motivation by Humiliation". I have taken a lovely picture of how I currently look in a sports bra and shorts. It is not awful, but definitely not what you want to show your friends. I have been planning for the last week my plan of action. I am committing to losing at least 10 pounds by August 31. If I do not lose this weight by that date I will post said picture on my blog for 24hrs. Thus the humiliation part.

I know what you are saying, "10 pounds is nothing", but when you have a medical condition that makes it difficult to lose weight it is HARD. If I achieve the 10 pounds prior to my goal date I will set a new goal weight and goal date. My short-term goal is 10 pounds and my long-term goal is 25 pounds. I will achieve this by a combination of weight-watchers points and calorie counting. I will be starting my first 30 days with Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred-It. After that I will add in pilates, strength training, kick boxing, and core workouts. I am printing copies of my before picture to post on my mirror, fridge, pantry, and car. This will keep from snacking throughout the day and ordering unhealthy drive-thru.

What do I need from you? I need encouragement galore. Being insecure about your body sucks and being unmotivated just makes a vicious cycle. If any of you want to join in feel free and we can encourage one another. If you have tips that worked for you please share.

I am so excited about this and about being confident in the way I look .... eventually. I did my first day of the Shred-It today. I was surprised that I actually made it through it (even if I felt like I was going to pass out for the hour after)!

Mark's Graduation Trip: Part One

Sorry for the delay in blog posts lately. Between being out of town, being sick, and getting back in the swing of things, blogging has fallen pretty low on the list.

Belle before boarding the plane to London.

The flight to London was....interesting. I think I can sum it up in this statement: when we took off no molar was present, when we landed the right molar had broken through the skin. Get the picture? It was not. pretty. She screamed and screamed. She finally fell asleep towards the end of the flight, and about 45 minutes after she fell asleep they turned on the lights for breakfast. NICE. I think I might have asked Mark at some point if we could take a boat back!

We arrived in London on Monday morning, and after a short rest we headed out for a picnic in Green Park. The weather was gorgeous and Belle soaked it all in. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the park and over to Buckingham palace. We ate dinner that evening at a French restaurant in the Shepherd's Market area.

On Tuesday, we took the Underground to the British Museum and spent the day enjoying the different exhibits. I recommend this for people travelling with children. It is stroller friendly and free! We ate lunch there at the museum and then brought Belle back to the hotel for a nap. We ate dinner that night with my parents at a tapas restaurant that we had been to before. It was very interesting eating out in London because you rarely see anyone out to eat with their children; however, we found all of the places and people to be very accommodating and receptive of tired Americans with a wild 14 month old.

Wednesday, Mark's parents took a day trip, so we met up with my parents to tour Kensington Palace. We got to see some of Diana's dresses and the state rooms in the palace. The views of Hyde Park from the palace were absolutely gorgeous. We ate lunch at The Orangery where we discovered Belle's love for three bean salad (I mean the girl was turning up her nose at her chicken for the bean salad). Mark and I then split from my parents and walked the entire length of Hyde Park only stopping in at Harrods along the way. We ate dinner that night at a wonderful Italian restaurant named Prezzo. It was so exciting because it was incredibly kid friendly, and the staff doted on Belle all night.

Thursday morning, Belle and I went on a bus tour with my parents while Mark relaxed before graduation. It was the perfect way to spend the morning since the rest of the day was bound to be pretty hectic.

Belle listening intently to Pops' headphone on the bus. It was so cute because when they stopped talking she would hand it back to us.

Mark and I before the ceremony.


The procession and seating of Princess Anne.

Mark bowing before Princess Anne.

It was so neat to see a gradation ceremony in a different country. There were a total of 700 graduates that walked that day representing 70 countries. Lets just say there were some "interesting" names called. I was so proud of Mark for this HUGE accomplishment. After the ceremony we went to a reception that Mark's specific program put together. We met this cute couple from Switzerland, and the wife actually did foreign exchange in Lithia Springs, GA. It is definitely a small world. We went to dinner that night to celebrate. We met back up with my parents who had been watching Belle (adventuring in Notting Hill), as well as, a girl that Mark's family knew in Louisiana whose boyfriend she was visiting lives in London. After dinner we hurried back to the hotel to pack to.... leave for Paris in the morning.

Long Time No Post

Time has flown by, and here I sit the night before we leave for London. I think the two best words to describe how I am feeling are: excited and nervous. I am so excited to spend the next week in London, one of my favorite cities. I am also thrilled to adventure in Paris (France that is for all you TX folk :) ). I am nervous beyond words for flying 8 hours and multiple time changes with a 14-month old. I think the key thing is not letting her realize I am nervous. I really wanted to pack some new "surprise" toys to keep her entertained on the flight. Unfortunately she is at such a hard age where the majority of age appropriate toys light up and sing delightful silly songs.

Oh well, since my last post I have had so many things to share with my blog friends, but the looming need to pack/organize has taken the majority of my time.

Some things that are recently going on with Miss B....

*She loves to point out all her facial features... nose, ears, hair, teeth, mouth.... we are still working on eyes as she confuses them with ears. She also loves to show you how she "smells" with her nose and "blinks" with her eyes.

*She daily imitates many phrases and words. They sound like nothing but you can tell that she is trying to say some of the same things we do. She has a HUGE stuffed ladybug we have named "Big Red". We tell her to say "Hi" to Big Red, and she says "Iiiiiiiii Bid Ded". She is trying and it is fun to see her verbal skills expand beyond the 1,000s of "What's Thats?" she asks daily.

*In public she is so shy and quiet, and at home she is silly and into everything. She can also throw a pretty good tantrum.

*She got accepted to a Mother's Day Out at a church near our house. I think this will be wonderful for her to have more social interaction and come out of her shell a little bit. We don't have many young kids in the neighborhood, and our church is far away so we often don't even chance it with the lovely 400 traffic on Wednesdays. I really think being around children more than just Sundays will be so beneficial for her.

*She is officially a walker, or at least walking more than crawling. It is still a mummy walk but she is SO proud of herself. We are so proud of her too!

There is so much I could say about this sweet little toddler, but I know you all might get bored. Once I get back and blog about our trip I plan on sharing with you all some awesome home organization helpers I have been using lately.

If you are on facebook I will try to put up some pics while on our travels and maybe sneak a few into blogger too!

Stomach Virus, 2009

We have been sick at our house... real sick. After Mark and I were fully ready for church on Sunday we went to wake Belle up to get her ready. Unfortunately we discovered she had thrown up in her sleep. We then dealt with the stomach yuckies with Miss Belle all Sunday night, Monday night and into Tuesday. I came down with the virus on Tuesday. My doctor called in some Phenergan for me. Unfortunately it knocked me out and Belle was up yet again sick that night -- poor Mark. He kept asking me to come help and I tried but I could barely walk a straight line. I had completely forgotten that Phenergan has a really strong effect on me.

Since Belle was still up sick as can be Tuesday night (and we had been on the phone with our doctor's office and the on-call nurse at the hospital Monday night) we took her into the doctor. Her weight was already down to 17 lbs. 15 oz. from 18lbs 8 oz at 12 months. They put her on some Zofran and basically gave us a few hours to get a wet diaper out of her before they admitted her to Children's. At this point, Mark and I were so sick that we didn't know if we had the fight left in us to get Belle to take fluids. Luckily she had her wet diaper and the Zofran allowed her to keep fluids down. We definitely spent the whole day feeding her liquids out of a syringe.

As of today we are all on the mend (knock on wood). Belle is still pretty reluctant to take liquids but we are working very hard on it. She is eating a little bit of solid foods like toast and applesauce to get her tummy back to normal. I have loved having a cuddly little girl, but I miss her sweet, funny disposition.

If all else fails, I guess the stomach virus is one way to lose that last 5 pounds of pregnancy weight I have been keeping around. Thank you for all your prayers this week. They were definitely appreciated.

And then there were four!

I am excited to announce that Belle's fourth cousin has arrived!

Hudson James Reiboldt

made his debut at 3:23 am on February 18

he weighs 7 pounds even and is 21 inches long.

He is absolutely precious and a mini version of my father in law. We are so thankful for a safe arrival and that mom and baby are doing well.

Our Valentine's Weekend

What a great weekend! It started with getting to come home early from work on Friday (thanks Bonnelle)! It was so sweet coming up the stares and see Belle so surprised to see me. She was absolutely ecstatic, and that was worth taking four hours off of my shift. Normally I get home around midnight when Belle has already been asleep for a good while. It was nice to be able to be home with the family and get her all ready for bed.

On Saturday, we woke up and Mark got us Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuits for breakfast. I gave Belle part of my biscuit and as a true Southern girl it was love a first...bite. We then played for a good bit and got ready for the day.

Belle looked precious in her Valentine's sweater and red patent mary janes.

Belle and her daddy.

Mark watched Belle that afternoon so that my mom and I could go see Confessions of a Shopaholic. We had read each of the four books and were anticipating this movie. Usually movies based on a book aren't nearly as good as the book, but this movie did not disappoint. We laughed and laughed. After the movie, we took in a little shopping at the Avenue Forsyth. I discovered a favorite store: Francesca's Collection. I have always looked at their website and loved there clothes and affordable prices. The store was even better, and I picked up a cute outfit for this spring (just need some shoes to match)!

Belle got a new talking tea set for her Valentine's present.

The picture says it all.... she LOVED it!

We usually play it low key on Valentine's Day. We ordered pizza and I made salads with homemade Caesar dressing. We kicked back and watched a movie after Belle went to sleep, and just enjoyed a nice relaxing evening. Last night, Mark and I went to a nice dinner at Killer Creek. We like to celebrate Valentine's Day a few days before or after because all the restaurant hustle bustle is not my style. It was nice to dress up and eat a nice filet with Bearnaise sauce. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend with my two loves!

I just had to share this picture of Belle and Mark a few weeks ago before church. I loved her outfit that day, and she truly looked like a toddler.

Say Hello to My Little Friend

I would like to introduce you all to a wonderful discovery. A blog that I love to read told me all about Relish!. It is a menu-planning service that is inexpensive and incredibly helpful. Every week you get to pick 5 out of 10 meals and one dessert. You also choose how many servings you need, and then it prints out the recipes and grocery list. I am in love with it and plan on doing a weekly/monthly review of the foods I have made.

There are even freezer menus for foods you can make ahead of time and have on hand for meals on hectic nights. Please go check out www.relishrelish.com .

Look Who's Walking Now

Belle has been taking a few steps here and there since right before her birthday. The other night we were hanging out in the kitchen, and while I was waiting on dinner to cook we practiced walking. She did AWESOME! She took ten steps in a row about 8-10 times. She was so proud of herself. We grabbed the camera and taped little bits. Sorry for the quality, I was much more excited about her walking than film quality!

Please don't worry. She did not hit the camera at the end of that video. She loves to dive into our laps.

On a side note, Belle is a bit under the weather. I won't get into details but her poor bottom is in bad shape. It is sort of a viscous circle around here as the runs cause the diaper rash and the runs make the diaper rash hurt worse. She sobs for diaper changes because her bottom hurts so bad. At one point I was sobbing too. I just feel so bad for her. We are on a diet of all bland foods and pedialyte. We slathered that sweet bottom up before bed, and I am praying for her to not be hurting so bad tomorrow.

Birthday Party Number Two

This party was the BIG one, the one that I had been planning for months. I don't know why but I get excited about this kind of stuff. Months ago I had decided on the theme of cupcakes. Whenever something "cupcake" caught my eye (that was affordable) I stockpiled it in a birthday box. I found tons of cute stickers, ideas, papers, etc. We had about 30 close family and friends over for lunch at my parents after church Sunday, the 18th. It was such a fun group of people, and I wanted to be able to honor their participation in Belle's first year of life. Each and every one of them played an important role in getting to this day. They were all there for us while we were trying to get pregnant, through Belle's early arrival, offering comfort during Belle's colic, and sharing with us in the joy if watching our beautiful, sweet girl blossom into the one-year old she is today.

We had a lunch that consisted of turkey and cornbread sandwiches with jalapeno jelly, ham and homemade yeast rolls with honey mustard, pimento cheese on wheat sandwich squares, potato salad, fruit salad, tea, pink lemonade punch, and lots of yummy desserts. I wish I had gotten a picture of the spread of food, but it was a true "southern" luncheon.

Picture of the dessert table. We had little bowls full of different pink candies. I saw many little and big hands sneaking some throughout the day!

Milk chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing.

I had planned on making cookie bouquets for each person to take home a cookie on a stick. This idea failed miserably, so some Lofthouse cookies made great party favors at last minute. Wrapped in cellophane with pink grosgrain ribbon and a sweet thank you note sticker on the back made them a fun treat for all to take home.


The CAKE! It was sour cream pound cake with buttercream icing. The top of the cupcake and the dots are out of pink fondant accented with pearl dust.

The next two pictures are of the flower decorations I made to spruce up some of the tables in the basement.

Every month we have taken a picture of Belle with her Rageddy Ann doll. I printed them out (via Wolf Camera) and made a cute hanging banner for the mantel to show how much Belle has grown the last year. This was my easiest and favorite project. I am thinking of taking the ribbon off and having it framed for her room.

Just a little more cake smashing.... unless you haven't seen enough. We have really created quite the icing junkie. She LOVES it.

Look at that sweet girls face while opening presents. This is her new surprise/excited face. She makes it especially for bubbles!
This party was so much fun to plan. We had such a fun day and wouldn't have changed one thing about the day. I don't even want to start thinking about birthday number two.

Birthday Party Number One

We decided to have two birthday parties for Miss Belle. We had the grandparents and great grandparents over on her actual birthday for spaghetti and cake smashing. It was really nice to have something low key before the BIG party. We have a Bailey Boys outlet store near the beach house in St. Simon's, and I had been really wanting their birthday outfit. Mark's mom bought it for Belle for Christmas. It was too cute on her and I think big enough to maybe fit her next year as well.

Baby girl dressed up in her birthday outfit.

SO happy it is her birthday!

Very first spaghetti dinner.

Needless to say she loved it. She actually ate it double-fisted.

Nothing like an orange face and hands - too cute.

The aftermath

First smash cake.

It definitely took her a little while to decide if she wanted to eat this. Once she got a taste of the icing she went wild.

The funny thing was that while she loved and I mean loved the icing, she would spit out the cake.

I guess I have created an icing junkie.

She decided she was over it at this point, and proceeded to run laps around our living room stopping only to dance at her laugh and learn table.

Up next... The BIG birthday party!