Getting Ready

So this past week or so and this coming up week I am getting ready.  Not only for Sam's 1st birthday party, but also for my baby girl turning the day after.  I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that she is growing up so fast and getting so big.  I will get over it though...

Here I am 4 days until the party and all I can think of is that there are things to do but none of which I can really accomplish today.  You know, the list of things like make cupcakes/cakes, pack everything up, get food ready, get balloons inflated.  My mantra throughout this whole process has been, "I'm only doing this once, I'm only doing this once."  After this one, we're doing small parties at home where we don't invite the WHOLE extended family.

After the party this weekend I will be sure to post what I know will be hundreds of pictures ;-) 

Family Reunion

This past weekend we got to go to a family reunion in Sand Flat, Texas.  If you don't know where that is...neither do I!  My mom, Sam and I packed up in the car early in the morning and started down and eventually (after getting lost thanks to a wrong fork in the road) arrived.  Most of these people I had never met or are so distantly related to me that I was a little overwhelmed with names and geneology.  It was nice though and on a beautiful family ranch in a gorgeous ranch house.  The food was good and of course Sam loved playing with all of her new friends.  I did get a pic of her trying to get a kiss from another baby.  After a few hours though, Sam was so sleepy and so was I knowing that I had such a long drive back.  We packed back up in the car and snapped a few more pictures on our way out of the ranch.

New Venture

So recently I have started a new business with Initials, Inc.  I am so incredibly excited about this and can't wait to start sharing this with other people!

Here's my starter kit that I got in the mail:

It's a business that specializes in personalized gifts and we offer SO MANY cute products.  I can do parties at your home, work, school, the park, you name it and we can probably do it!  I can also do online/catalog parties as well.

Here's my website if you'd like more information as well as an online catalog. 

http://www.myinitials-inc.com/AshleyNichols

If you'd like to be one of the first shows that I do, please let me know!

Thanks!

11 Months

Since I've failed recently at keeping up my blog, it's time to play catch up!  On June 3rd, Sam turned 11 months.  She has been so busy lately and keeping me on my toes!

She's learned to walk and she talks back when you tell her no.  She's not really saying much other da, dada, ugh, etc.

She's a good sleeper and a good eater.  I couldn't really ask for much more :-)  I take her almost everywhere with me and she seems to love it and meeting new people.

This month I joined a fitness bootcamp and she goes to the park with me twice a week and plays with Grandpa Steve while I get my butt kicked by a trainer.

Renaissance Festival

I remember going to Scarborough Renaissance Festival when I was younger and it was always so much fun!  People dressed up and acting so differently.  It was always like walking into another world.

Last year Morgan, Blake and I went and I was MISERABLE!!  I should also mention that it was in the high 90's and I was pregnant.  Not a good combo!  So, this year we decided to give it another try and to take Sam with us.  We went pretty early as to avoid the larger crowd and also to try and beat the heat.  It was really humid but bearable.  I will go ahead and say that this year was much better.

First thing we did was warn Sam that if she misbehaved she would go straight to the stocks.

We did a round of the whole place first to get our bearing straight and figure out what we wanted to do.  We got several offers for our "midget" or "small human".  After reassuring them that they would want to give her back in a few hours they subsided.

Next, we went to the Birds of Prey show.  I always love these types of shows and watching the beautiful birds.  We were fine most of the time but the poor guy running the show kept asking us to keep our "small animal" very still so that the birds wouldn't try to attack her.  This was NOT working for poor Samantha but she did pretty well.  We finally found one way that she was happy and relatively still:

We eventually found some lunch and we all enjoyed loaded baked potatoes.  Morgan and I had sweet potatoes, fully loaded with cheese, sour cream, bacon and broccoli.  This was a combo that I'd never had before and I wasn't to sure about it at first but it turned out to be pretty good.  Blake had a regular potato with the same fixins.

Next was the amazing turtle races.  We watched these last year as well and the guy that does them is hillarious!  We even spotted a pirate in the audience :-)

The turtles are in the middle circle "getting psyched up"

Spot the pirate!

Turtle Man!

He can fly!

And they're off!

After walking around a while longer we eventually had decided that it was time to go.  It was getting crowded and the sun had finally come out and zapped all of us.  Before we left however, we had to get an Italian Ice.  These are SO good!  It's half of an orange topped with the yummy desert.  We got strawberry and Sam loved it:

This place is THE place to go if you like to "people watch" like we do.  People dressed as elves, wenches, queens and kings, fairies, pirates and we even saw a ninja.  We probably won't go next year as nothing really changes from year to year.  This is definitely something we will take Sam to again when she's a little older.

Which Invite?

Time for another party planning post!  I really need to make a decision on an invite very soon so I am once again coming to my readers for your opinion :-)





Here are the options:

#1

from mlarson17 on Etsy

#2

from seasidepapercompany on Etsy

#3

from uprint4less on Etsy

10 Months!

I can't believe she's getting so big and so close to being 1! I love watching her grow and change in front of me and she's done a lot of that lately.

Lately she has really started babbling a lot and it's adorable, of course :-)  She is still refusing to walk even though we all know she is capable of it, although she will stand by herself.  She has a fear of falling and hurting herself it seems.

After a brief boycott on naps she has gotten much better (knock on wood!) and will even put herself to sleep in her crib if I put her in there still awake.  We're still doing 2 naps a day and if we don't or have to skip one for some reason, it makes for a VERY long day!

Her little personality comes out more and more everyday.  She is very stubborn and if I remove her from something that she knows she is not supposed to play with she will let me know her disapproval with a shrill yell and look at me with that look that lets me know she knew what she was doing.  If I tell her "No" she will snap back at me with a "UH!" and point back at me.  I can't for the life of me figure out where this came from...

For this month's pictures she was REFUSING to sit still long enough for me to get my few snapshots so I ended up bribing her with my lens cap and then having to try again when her daddy got home so he could entertain her while I snapped away.