Aurora's First Thanksgiving (a little late)

Whew! The big birthday party is over and it was a success! I thought about doing a quick little update with some pictures and a fuller post later but then I realized there was no Thanksgiving post! Figured I'd fix that little boo boo first, so here you go!
We went over to my roommate/bestie's family's house for Thanksgiving and I took a short break from party planning. Didn't get too many pictures and lots came out blurry from some reason but here's a couple.

Aurora's Thanksgiving outfit!

Playing in her favorite bin of big dog toys.

First time in this booster seat, came in handy later!!

First Thanksgiving turkey!!

A little after dinner snooping!

That's all I've got for now. I'm still in post party haze so my brain is mush at the moment. Time for some much needed worry free sleep. I promise I'll be back super soon with the birthday party update! I have a ton of pictures to go through and maybe I'll even get a short video up!! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday XVIII - (Grapes and banana curls!)

Birthday party INSANITY!!!!!

Aurora's 1st birthday party is this Sunday! Her actual birthday isn't until the 30th but Sunday is more convenient and we're going to do something special on her actual birthday, just the two of us... three if Auntie Poo wants to join. I've been really internet absent because planning this party has taken over my life! Haha... I know it'll be fun and memorable but I almost can't wait for it to be over already!
We don't have a ton of money but I've scrimped and saved where I could and I'm hand-making the majority of the decorations and preparing all of the food myself. I also rarely have company over and I've been in home-improvement overdrive. I'm burning the birthday candle at both ends!
Lot's to be done still but I'm taking a night off from the madness. I've decided that I have earned an hour or so on the internerd and a night of trashy TV.. though I may sneak in a small sewing project. I can't wait to show you guys everything I put together... I'm super excited about it! The only thing I'm willing to give away is that it's a woodland/forest theme. Here's the invites:

Hope everyone is doing well! I can't wait to wind down and catch up on all of your posts! I'll also try to sneak in my Wordless Wednesday and a Thanksgiving update amid the chaos.

Wordless Wednesday XVII - (Who's this kid and did she eat my little baby??)

I know I've been slacking a bit lately... I'm in the middle of full-on first birthday party planning madness at the moment... More on that a little bit later tonight if I can find a few spare minutes. 

In the meantime, to make it up to you, here are THREE pictures for this weeks Wordless Wednesday!

Notice that it even says Bean on the front?!

She finally figured out her horse-y!

Ok, seriously... who is this big girl? Where did the baby go??

The Liebster Blog Award!

This weekend I received my first official blog award from Emilee over at Momma Made It!

Apparently it's an award for up and coming bloggers, usually with 200 followers or less...
(an extra thanks for bending the rules for me, Emilee!!) 

Here are the rules it came with:

1.  Copy and paste the award on your blog

2.  Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you

3.  Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

4.  Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

It actually took me a little longer than I thought it would to post this because narrowing it down to just 5 blogs proved to be much harder than I thought! 

Here's who I came up with, I hope you'll stop by and show them a little love! 

1.  http://www.smallkucing.com/    Lots of posts about her family and awesome Malaysian food plus she's a great bloggy-friend to have!

2.  http://spanishpinaynanay.blogspot.com/  More good food!! Good humor, interesting posts and always something nice to say!

3.  http://www.justbyliving.com/  Ok, this is where I bend the rules. But I know and love this mama in real life... good luck not wanting to steal her little dude. He rules.

4.  http://www.thehipsterdad.com/ Slightly less of a rule break on this one... ^That mama up there^ this is her husband's Daddy (that's right, daddy) Blog that he runs with a friend. This proud papa and genuinely awesome dad is like family to me and I'm lucky to know him (and his lady!)

5.  http://ladyteeiabodesigns.blogspot.com/  Super sweet and amazingly crafty! Haven't known this mama for long but I love stopping by to see what she's up to!

So there you have it, stop by and check them out, I promise you won't be disappointed! Ooh... and go visit Emilee and thank her for me!! 

In other news, there won't be an 'Our Weekend' post this week. It was my birthday so there was lots of celebrating and recovering... but, unfortunately, no pictures! Hope everyone else had as great of a weekend!!

Aura's 1st Halloween! Here's some photos!

At the Halloween store doing some last minute shopping!

I made Aurora's first Halloween costume for a neighborhood party we were supposed to attend on Saturday... however, due to the crazy snow/ice/rain/general yuckiness, it was cancelled!! I was really bummed but we settled for trick or treating at the mall on Monday. By trick or treating, I really mean just walking around and collecting compliments haha. Still too young for candy! I wish I got some better pictures but Aura was particularly mobile that day and most of the pictures are so blurry she looks like a real ghost!

See? She was on the move!! Here's the few good pictures that I got:

Scary face?

Happy Halloween!!!