Dinner with Friends

We had the pleasure of having the Knowles family spend the night with us. They are passing through from Indianapolis on their way to Houston. We decided to have a little dinner party since they were in town. Ben was on his way from the Dallas Cowboys game (boo), but we had Amanda for dinner!

Neil let me open my Christmas gift early so we could use it for the dinner party. I was and still am excited about my new Keurig!

Amanda was so much fun to have around while we cooked. She was like a food photographer! She took pictures of all of our cooking.

Leslie, Bennett, me, Neil, Amy, Amanda, and Emily

After dinner, everyone played with Bennett. He loved having Amanda push him around!

It was such a fun night. So glad everyone came over!

Birthday Party for Jesus

Our church had a big birthday party for Jesus today. I was so mad at myself because I left my camera battery on the charger at home. Casey took all of these picture for me! Thanks so much, Casey!!

The party was circus themed. It was a lot of fun with all types of games and crafts.

Bennett colored a little dove Christmas ornament.

He loved throwing the footballs through the wreath. He wanted to play the whole time.

He has an arm like Drew Brees!!

Bennett and Mason in their birthday crowns and cupcakes.

We even sang Silent Night and had a candle lighting. We thought this was a little crazy with 2 year olds. Bennett just wanted to blow his out. I think he was remembering his birthday from the week before. They ended up doing a good job with their candles.

Me and the boys

We all had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus!

Welcome to the World, Molly Caroline!

I had the privilege of visiting Miss Molly Caroline and her mommy, Merideth yesterday. Molly made her grand entrance around noon on 12/16/2010. She is so sweet and has the prettiest skin and hair. Merideth was up walking around and looking great after being in labor for 12 hours! I was impressed!

Me, Molly, and Merideth

Sweet baby girl! She was so good and looked so cute with all the ruffles around her.

Bennett's First Haircut

I knew it would come one day. Bennett's first haircut. It only took him 2 years to get his very first one! And we only took a tiny bit off the back so he didn't look like Joe Dirt. My son just does not need a rat tail.

Looks good Bennett!

Bennett's Birthday Party Invitation

I felt that Bennett's birthday party invite deserved a post of its own if for no other reason than I have been working on these things for 6 months and still didn't get what I envisioned. I finally just came to grips with the fact that is it a 2 year olds birthday party and people throw them away! The best idea ever came to me when Bennett received one of these for Valentine's Day this year. He loved it and I wanted to make his invitation a ball. I wanted the ball to be printed with the invitation details on it. Well, this was a lot harder to find than you might think.

So, I scoured the Internet for someone that might print on balls. I even called the 800 number of the manufacturer on one of the balls from Wal-Mart in those big wire vats of balls. No luck.

Jean from Cayenne Marketing and Painting with a Twist was such a huge help. She can print on anything! She is the best for any type of promotional product. Use her! She is awesome. She found these balls for me. When she sent me the proof of the ball...I thought it was perfect. Little did I know that it was going to be tiny. I was confused on the dimensions of the ball. I need to go back to middle school math. It was back to the drawing board after I received these.

After more searching, I decided to go with a more traditional paper invite. I wanted it to have the 3D effect with maybe using a spring to make it look like it was bouncing. No one could really get my vision...probably because my visions are unrealistic! This is what Erin came up with! She did a good job of making a ball and making it look like the balls were bouncing. I decided to send this invite with the actual ball in a big envelope. I thought it turned out to look pretty festive.

Here are all of the invites. It looks like a ton because of the balls. It's not because you have a limit at Gymboree.

Erin made the mailing label look so cute. It said "Bounced from: our address" and "Bouncing to: the guest!" I loved that she thought of that.

So all in all...they were cute. Some of the kids have already been playing with theirs! Next year, I am going low maintenance...maybe.

Bennett's 2nd Birthday!

Bennett had a wonderful birthday. We were up and at'em bright and early for all of his festivities. I wanted to make sure we were up so that he could have a special birthday breakfast before his party at 10am. We made pancakes and put candles in them. I like the idea of letting him blow out candles at every meal. I just want him to feel special all day long!

He was up at 7:30 and that's when the festivities began. We woke up Daddy and Aunt Becky. We had a cozy coupe ordered for Bennett and it was on its way to the house. We got home and it was already inside...Rebecca had gotten him one, too! So, we let her give him his first set of wheels. HE LOVES this thing!

Then, it was time to open a couple of things from Mommy and Daddy...one piece of wrapping paper at a time.

We had special birthday pancakes with candles. He loves blowing out the candles!

Gammy came over before the party to bring B some cute frog boots and a puppy dog.

Mom has a friend at work that makes these shirts...she got us all one that said "Bennett is 2!" Here is our family photo.

The party favor...it is just the regular Gymboree favor spruced up. I finally found picnik.com and added some text to a photo and printed them in wallet size for the tag. It says "Thank you for celebrating my 2nd birthday with me! I hope you had a ball!"

Sweet Max

Bennett and Maddie sliding together

It's like he knew that this party was just for him!

I love this picture of the dads!

Balls! yay!

Here's Bennett jumping off the"birthday candle!"

Jeff won Dad of the year for bringing his little girl to the party while Mom stayed home to cook. So sweet!

Me and my mom

Bennett loves going under the parachute.

The grandmothers

I re-used the banner from last year.

Me and my birthday boy

I also reused the party hat, but added a 2.

The #2 cake with balls bouncing and gymbo made by Alison Foreman.

Blow out your candles!

We were so excited that baby Caroline came to the party. She is only 4 1/2 months and so cute!

Caroline, Georgia, and Shep

This face is a sign of someone who had a lot of fun.

Thank you for my car, Aunt Becky!

We came home and had some birthday pizza for lunch. And we even got to blow out candles again!

Time to open presents before our nap. He loves all of his new toys!

We forgot to take a picture of all of us with our shirts on, so I used the self-timer for us!

After a much needed, not long enough nap, we headed to Annabella's birthday party at Sci-Port. Bennett had a good time with the liquid nitrogen. It is looking like a Sci-Port party will be in Bennett's future.

Happy 5th birthday, Annabella!

I like those muscles, Neil!

Way to go Amy!

Jennifer dropped this off later on in the evening. They gave Bennett this art easel! What a great gift. We spent hours on her easel as kids and she thought Bennett needed one! How sweet.