ringing in the new year with friends

Our good friends, the Armours, came to celebrate new year's eve with us. Since we knew it would be a late night, we decided to have a sleepover party! It was Lyla's first time ever having anyone spend the night in her room with her. Needless to say, she was beyond excited about the sleepover with Sophie. After Travis read them a story and they said their prayers, he walked out of the dark room. He heard Lyla chattering away as usual and Sophie whispering, "Shhhhhh. Lyla, shhhhhhhhhhh". After that, they did great all night long. They didn't get up and we didn't hear a peep from them for the rest of the night.

I am sure that Lyla would like to extend a sleepover invitation to any other little friends! It was so much fun.

feeling inspired

I recently found these images on the restoration hardware baby & child website. I fell in love with so many of the rooms from their gallery...here's just a sample:

I am totally using the idea of framing multiple sheets of music for cody's room. I also love the neutral palette of all the rooms. It's so beautiful and soothing.

Dreaming of a room for twins! Although I would be incredibly overwhelmed, I think it would be so wonderful to have twins...one boy and one girl of course.

I love chandeliers in general, but they look even more dramatic in front of mirrors and I noticed that RH does this a lot in their gallery. Love!

The generous heart of my 3-year-old

Last night was Awards Night at AWANA. AWANA is a church program for kids that meets once a week. They break into separate age groups and they have different activities based on their group. Lyla is a "Cubbie" which is for the preschoolers. She has a short bible verse to memorize each week and she usually does a great job with memorizing and reciting. I invited my parents along for the awards ceremony because Lyla was going to be rewarded for preparedness and knowing her bible verses. What they do is give kids tickets whenever they get special recognition throughout the quarter. The tickets go into a can and names are drawn out at awards night. So, Lyla had two tickets in the can.

The night started with fun worship music for the kids (the pic above shows Lyla clapping along to one of the songs in her cute little Cubbies vest). Then they taught a message about transformation and how we are changed when we accept Jesus into our hearts. They wrapped it up with the big drawing and handing out the prizes. Lyla's name was called and she got a princess wand with inter-changeable jewels. She was pretty excited about it and waved it around proudly. This was not the type of event where every kid in the room walked out with a prize. A handful of kids didn't get anything. It was so sad! One little girl was crying and pointing at Lyla's wand. She said, "I always wanted that!" with tears rolling down her red cheeks. I was holding Lyla in my arms outside and explained to her that sometimes it's better to give than to receive and that sometimes God will bless us even more when we choose to bless others. Now, Lyla is a typical 3 year old...what I mean is that she is supremely selfish. I expected her to clutch her new toy to her chest and guard it fiercely. But, to my surprise, she said, "I am going to give my prize to that poor little girl". So I put her down and she walked over to the girl and gave her the wand! That little girl could not have had a bigger smile on her face! She sprinted toward her mom, exclaiming, "MOM, that little girl BLESSED me with this gift!". I was so proud of Lyla for giving up her toy to make someone else happy. It is so sweet to see God working in the hearts of little ones.

cody's baker's dozen birthday party

It was my dad's idea to celebrate cody's birthday at the 13 month mark to make up for the catastrophe that happened on his actual birthday. I loved the idea of doing a baker's dozen birthday and I am happy to report that it was a success! This is a picture of his golden butter cake. Those are blueberry yogurt pretzels from henry's next to the cake: I made this felt banner for his highchair:
Travis called this a "shrine" to cody. This picture is actually from his december party. I decided the shrine was a little over the top, so I decided not to do it this time.
This picture is also from last month. That's why you can see the Christmas decorations. I came up with this idea of tissue balls and balloons everywhere because Cody's favorite word is "ball". He loved the green, blue, and orange balls all over the place. Thanks to Trav for executing my vision!
During the party, cody cruised around the house doing his own thing. Of course, one-year-olds don't really get what all the fuss is about on their birthday. He loved all the food though! He is always eating or on the go or a combination of the two. It's hard to get a good picture of him. Here he is in his ADORABLE onesie made by my very talented friend, Kata. She has a shop called mukibaba on etsy. She and her sister sell cute magnets, bookmarks, mug cozies, earrings, and (soon to come) custom baby clothes!
A picture of the festivities. We were so blessed that many of our friends were able to come. It was a wonderful time.
Cody's first few bites of cake. (Notice no shrine). I think that the cake eating is definitely the highlight of the 1st birthday party. I try to make it even more special by not giving them cake before their birthday, so their 1st party is literally their first taste of this scrumptious dessert.
And this was the end of the sweet celebration of Cody. Happy Birthday to my sweet, cuddly, and headstrong son. You bring a lot of laughter and joy into our home. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for you!