Happy Friday

It's...FINALLY FRIDAY! I thought we'd never make it...ughh, what a week!

Birthday pics coming tonight I promise....

A Birthday Party for a Princess...

Happy Monday! I will not be posting any Not Me's today because there is something much more important I need to blog about - a little princess I know had a birthday party!

Don't ya just love it when everything goes as planned? That is exactly how I would describe Avery's party. IT WAS GREAT. And even though she probably won't remember it, we will always have the memories and always tell her about how much fun her first princess party was! I had my moments where I felt like in some way Avery's party wouldn't be as fun as other 1 year old's since it would just be a small party at our house (RSV rules, remember?). Bubble girl said at least 8 times, "She's having a birthday party, with NO kids!!!" And we did. And it was fabulous! Avery was good for the most part. Around present time she was a little tired so da-da and I helped her out, but for the most part she was a perfect princess. I had a blast decorating and planning and watching it all turn out exactly as I hoped. And guess what? The DVD I worked so hard on finally worked! After a very long, sincere prayer I popped it in the DVD player and there it was! Annnndd, I had just enough time to burn all of the guests a DVD and wrap it with curling ribbon for a perfect little keepsake favor. They loved it! Avery enjoyed Chick fil A chicken nuggets & fries for lunch and of course....CAKE for dessert. Her daddy even let her drink sweet tea! And the pictures will tell the rest of the story...Enjoy! And, once again I need to apologize b/c there are like 50 of them. Thanks to my mom - she did a mini photo shoot before the party with Avery and they turned out great! For the record, she took 138 pictures, plus the ones I took, so here is the 'condensed' version of Avery's 1st Birthday Party in PICTURES!

The cake turned out PERFECT!

I think the theme was very clear, don't you? :)

No party is complete without a customized banner!

The gifts...before the guests arrived! :)

Thanks to nonna for making the streamer look so cute!

The gifts...after the guests arrived!

Family Photo

Did I mention this cake was worth EVERY PENNY!

She even included a princess cookie for Avery too!

OMG I'm sooo tired I promise I just uploaded over 50 pics to Blogger and now they're GONE! I will have to finish tomorrow :( I will leave you with one beautiful pic of the princess:

Busy, busy

Well what a busy week I've had...amazingly I seem to be getting everything done that I planned! And Avery's big birthday bash is fast approaching. Today I'm meeting with Early Steps to decide if Avery is still eligible for the program. I'm not too sure what I think about that. On one hand, if she is eligible I will be grateful for the continued PT and early interventionist. On the other, if they decide she is completely normal, that would be exciting as well! So, we will see...

I made an amazingly wonderful DVD slideshow, complete with music, and it was GREAT (I cried watching it) but I popped it in my DVD player and it wouldn't work. So, I figured I'd try again but my wonderful husband had gotten on the phone with Dell (yes, still problems, after the new hard drive with my NEW laptop...ugh!) and apparently Charlie is blaming it on Dell, but the slideshow that was saved to the computer won't play. So I'm trying to decide if it is worth spending more hours putting it together and getting it to play. I had also decided to make a lot of copies of the DVD and pass them out with a note as party favors (since most of our guests will be adults, I doubt they'll appreciate a cheap princess wand, hehe!) So, if anyone has an idea of why it didn't work I would LOVE to know - it worked on the computer fine, but not on the DVD player. I am using Phillips DVD RW.

Also - thanks to Dewana for teaching my crazy self how to get the header bigger!

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

1. I did not make a 'Things to Do' list for every day this week with at least 20+ things on each day. I did not explain to my husband that he will be taking at least 25% of this list every day.

2. Today in a frantic rush around Walmart (a 30 min. lunch break goes realllly fast in Walmart) I certainly did not steal an old lady's buggy. I did not walk around the store chatting away with my hubby on my cell phone and look down and realize I had not purchased any yarn or Vagisil. I did not realize that my purse was in my buggy...which was lost. I did not have to retrace my steps, again in a frantic rush, to the other side of the store, where a sweet old lady stood, bewildered, buttermilk in hand and with my lovely buggy right beside her. This sweet old lady did not tell me she stayed there (for at least 10 minutes) waiting because she didn't want someone to steal my purse. I did not walk towards the cash register, with the correct buggy, laughing out loud at myself. I definitely was not 10 minutes late back from lunch.

3. I did not return to work, run to the bathroom and then deliver the mail. I absolutely did not visit all 7 floors and walk by all 600 employees with my zipper down. I would never do that!

4. And there certainly are not 2 boxes of mail left hidden under my desk at work. That would be a privacy violation. I am the privacy audit police so I would never break my own rules when necessary. Never.

5. I am not about to SHOOT my dog (yeah, yeah call PETA, maybe they'll come get him for God's sake!) who has been barking nonstop for at least an hour. I am not wishing I had ear plugs, knowing that if I did have them I couldn't wear them - #1 I can't stand things in my ears and #2 - Hello! I have to hear sweet Gracie if she were to wake up! Why don't they make a pill to shut dogs up? I should take a bottle of Ambien out there. Ughhhhhhhhhhhh!

6. It did not snow in my backyard. No, it really didn't people...I live in the South! Instead, the same dog ripped a pillow (that Charlie insisted he needed) to shreds. There are not thousands of feather covering a backyard w/ a dog yelping away. Maybe he's barking at all the feathers? I know my neighbors must love me...

7. I am not about to stay up wayyyyyy past my bedtime to create a DVD slideshow of pictures of Avery since she was born to play at her birthday that is not THIS WEEKEND!!! Can you tell I'm not very excited about it?

So come on people, I know you all have plenty of things that you didn't do this week. Time to spill em!

Does anyone know why...

...my header looks like this?

I made it at scrapblog.com and then copied and pasted the HTML code into an HTML gadget box and dragged and dropped it right under the Nav Bar. I want it to be bigger and not have the arrows on the bottom. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Birthday Fun...

So...Avery's birthday was a lot of fun. Small fun, but still fun! On days like that I wish we could go somewhere really cool or that we had family in town, but Avery was happy with her cupcake and the pizza her daddy insisted on letting her try. YES I SAID PIZZA. I made the HUGE mistake of asking Charlie to accompany us to her 12 month well visit. And Dr. Khanfar made a HUGE mistake when he uttered the words, "She may eat whatever you eat now." Immediately I interrupted, "Suuurrrre...except for dairy, eggs, nuts, strawberries, and things we aren't too sure about, right?" He politely smlied and replied, "No ma'am, she can eat anything except for something she may choke on like popcorn or nuts." So there was no telling Charlie that pizza was not acceptable. The result? No, she did not choke. I did not have to do the Heimlich. BUT (and this is a big but) I might as well return my handy dandy food processor - yes, this past weekend I ventured into the world of baby food making! But after pepperoni pizza on her birthday - she is NOT having it. She gagged on the peas, when Charlie tried the green beans he had to trick her by holding a sippy to her mouth and then sneaking the spoon in until she threw a complete fit. She is doing okay with squash, and still happy with the sweet potatoes. So, I've decided she'll have to live on sweet potatoes and the occasional squash and pizza, lol, which means she'll turn totally orange for that photo session with Jami. Oh joy. Can you PhotoShop an orange baby back to white? Hmmm....

Also, I went a little overboard with pictures on her birthday - but I figured what the heck, it is her 1ST BIRTHDAY. So, I'm going to attempt to upload over 35 to this blog, which I believe will be a record for me , although nothing close to Stormie's mom :) Just wait until her party...I may need to buy a new memory card!

Opening her first present of the day...

Her very own Pink New Balance Tennis Shoes!

Of course, the box was a much better gift than the actual shoes!

I couldn't believe how big she looked in her new kicks... We learned this trick from Campbell...she is actually kind've leaning against the bed....

"Am I cool with this fly jacket and these awesome shoes, or what?"

And off she goes!

Cupcakes! Guess which one is mommy's?

Party hats are delicious!And Birthday Cards are too!

A birthday gift from Ms. Chastity...a cute outfit complete w/ capris!

Lots of goodies...

The best family pic I could get, holding the camera myself and a baby who was tired of taking pictures!

Opening presents with daddy...

A onesie I made for her photo shoot to wear w/ her tutu

And sparkling shoes for her party dress

It was bedtime by the time I remembered these and she was not in a posing mood!

Happy Birthday little Princess

Well today is the day! Last year at this time mom and I were probably on our way to the gestational diabetes counseling. I kept trying to convince everyone I was not at risk for having a big baby...she was only in the 35th percentile! But everyone insisted I had to go. So we sat and waited and then talked and talked about what I could and could not eat and what exercise I needed to start and how to take my blood sugar. Then off to Applebees...and most of you know the rest of the story. Then from Applebees to that life saving sonogram. I keep thinking of the what ifs. The sonogram fell on MLK day and I had scheduled the day off of work to go. If I had remembered on MLK day we get our regular pay plus time and a half I would've rescheduled it. The sonogram itself was $150 and I was trying to talk myself out of spending that much just for another sonogram. But God works in mysterious ways and somehow we made it there that day. Just in the knick of time. There was reverse bloodflow in the placenta and Avery hadn't grown at all since the last sonogram, 1 month earlier. She measured only 27 wks, but I was 31 weeks pregnant. After much tears and chaos and an emergency c-section, Avery Grace arrived at 4:32pm that afternoon weighing 2lbs 2oz. That day was filled with so many fears...what if she didn't make it...what if something was terribly wrong with her...so many what ifs. And we find ourselves a year later, with a perfect little girl (who, by the way, stood alone yesterday for the first time!) Who could've ever imagined how fun and miraculous and exciting and amazing this year was going to be. Happy Birthday Avery. We love you more than you can ever imagine. You are truly the most miraculous gift I have every been given. Looking at you makes me understand exactly what I was meant to do... be a good mommy to you! I love you, love you, love you.

Pics to come later...off to Dr. Khanfar for a 12 month well baby visit...even her daddy is coming this time :) Then I have to go to work (boo!) and after that there will be cupcakes and presents and pictures galore!

Come out, come out whoever you are!

Avery received two gifts in the mail today. One was a pair of pink New Balance Tennis Shoes that I ordered for her and the other was a pearl bracelet. It is beautiful! And, as you will see, Avery LOVES it! There's just one thing...there was no card so I have no idea who it's from. So, if you sent Avery this beautiful keepsake from Little Girls Pearls, please let me know so I can send you a thank you note! It was so sweet and thoughtful and it is just beautiful. She's also gotten a few other adorable things in the mail and I will be posting all about those sometime this week.

Tomorrow is Avery's birthday. WOW! A year ago today we were putting the crib together with my dad who had just made it to town on Sunday night (before Monday, the 21st when we had Avery). How time flies! We are going to go get her a cupcake to taste and let her open a gift or two and then to Dr. Khanfar - yikes I know! Just a well baby visit though so it shouldn't be too bad.