Happy Birthday Tobyn!

I wrote a post on Tobyn's birthday about this past year, you can read that here.

Yesterday though, we celebrated his birthday with all our friends and family. 

All of my family lives at least 3 1/2 hours away, but that didn't stop them.

It was a wonderful day!

The theme was elephants, simple and adorable. 

I handmade everything with a some help from family, and all the food was made by my sister and her huge family. Seriously, they were like a catering team, all 6 of them helped in some way or another.  

And it turned out so beautiful!

The cake stand was one of my favorite pieces, did you know how expensive cake stands are??

I wasn't about to go broke for a cake stand I liked, so since the theme was elephants, I made a elephant "pedestal" like they use in the circus. I bought a $13 flower pot  from Lowe's, turned it upside down and painted it with some paint I already had for the party. Voilà!

I love all the details from the chevron napkins, to the paper straws. The napkins were from the  Oriental Trading Co. Straws, plates, cups and balloons were from the very affordable Birthday Direct.

You can't see them too well here, but these platters turned out so good.

Again, I wasn't going to pay $40 a platter. So I found four ( two small, two large) gorgeous pale blue plates on major sale at Kirkland's for $.78 a piece! (That's what I'm talking about!)

And then two candlesticks on sale at Hobby Lobby for $2 a piece. I painted those red. 

A little bit of hot glue and BANG. Perfection. 

Vintage Roasted Peanut Bags from The Sugar Diva, they had elephants on them. So cute!

Nutella Bruchetta is the bomb. Just as a side note, do yourself a favor and make this.

The platter they are sitting on, you can't see very well, but I just bought an out of season plastic platter at Hobby Lobby and painted grey, red and blue chevron, It turned out precious!

We love the Starbuck's coffees you can buy at the store, so I just collected the bottles for a few months for a "vintage milk bottle" counter. We offered cold milk, because with all those sweets, it was a must. 

Our "First Year" Window.

We used golf tees to sick balloons in the ground and lined the walkway all the way to the door!

Got this idea over at Life's Little Celebrations. I love it!

 And he obviously had a great time!
This "One" banner was made by me, it turned out so well and was super simple!

It was a wonderful day, but there were some things that worked and some that didn't. 

Things I wish we'd done but forgot.

I'm going to write a post about my First Birthday Party Tips in the near future, so keep a lookout!

Lyz

one year has passed.

My baby, he isn't a baby anymore. He's walking, jabbering, laughing. He has his favorite things, foods, people. 

He knows how to say "light" and "uh oh","hot", "dadda", "momma" ( sometimes). 

I have heard it a million times "Don't blink, you'll miss everything". 

I don't think I missed anything, I feel like I honestly can say I did my best to not take one moment, one stage, one developmental change for granted.

I photographed EVERYTHING this year.

But, I did blink, somehow it's a year later. And my sweet baby is 1 today.  

Happy Birthday Tobyn Iver, I hope we can bless you as much as you've blessed us.

We love you.

Lyz

photography by me.

DIY Wall Gallery

If you've kept up with us, you know we recently moved into our first house. Still a rental, but it's a house and probably 4 times larger than our last apartment. Which means... LOTS of wall space.

I have been trying to spend some creative time coming up with ways to cover these walls, in a way that we love but that is... to be honest.. dirt cheap.

Going out and buying designer art just isn't gonna happen for this one salary family.

So, I got creative.

I started collecting lots of picture frames, from yard sales and family. 

I probably paid a total of $5 for all of these frames.

I laid them all out on my patio and rearranged them around until I liked what I saw.

Then I went to Lowe's and picked up some of their Sample Paint.

I wish some had told me about this years ago. 

It's $2.98 for 8 oz. 

That's plenty for craft projects and perfect because you get to pick the exact shade.

I've been going nuts with it.

I used Sauna, Evergreen and Humboldt Earth from Valspar.

I painted them all different colors, keeping the like colored frames away from one another.

I then decided I wanted more than just pictures in this. 

I had been holding onto these 4 burlap canvases that I had for like a year.

I got them at Micheal's when they had them on sale for like $.25.

I then Googled "Good Four Letter Words" because I was that stumped about which word to choose.

"Home, Love, Live, Pray.. etc." 

I decided since it was by the door "Live" was a great reminder word to get out there and well.. "Live".

So I painted them on. No real strategy to that.

I also had that old key that was given to me, it had daisies on it originally but I decided to paint over it and hang it up here since I am always loosing keys. 

I also had two types of cloth I was given from a family member as well, I thought they would do well on this wall. They had some of the colors from the color scheme, but not all, so it was perfect from keeping it looking to "matchy matchy."

Then I threw it all on the wall, rearranging some as I went to make it work better.

The Photography in the frames is mine. It's pictures I've taken over the past three years that I always wanted to frame, finally I am. :)

Lyz

my perfect pumkin

We are horrible parents.

We put our child in a pumpkin.

But you know what?

He loved it!

He was perfectly happy in there.

I swear I could eat up his perfect little self.

Lyz

3 months of joy... free house cleaning printable.

My baby is getting so big.

I enjoy waking up every morning to his big smile.

He is such a morning boy. :)

I'm working on my cleaning skills, as far as keeping up with and taking care of a whole house.

It's a lot different than an apartment.

I try to keep it clean and have it clean for when Jonathan gets home, because he deserves that, but I'm not perfect.

I tell you what, Pinterest has been such a lifesavor. I am also learning and improving to cook. Pinterest is my go-to for everything.

Here is a link to a free printable that has really helped me out with getting my cleaning and housekeeping under control:

Weekly Cleaning Free Printable Calendar

Also here is the link to my Organization Pinterest board, follow if you'd like ;)
Pinterest Organization Board

Lyz

getting to know this "mommy" person that I am.

It's been a while since I've blogged. I've been getting my bearings on being a mom. 

If that ever happens? 

I had some rough spots at first. 

Engorgement issues, 

small case of Mastitis, twice. 

Really yucky baby blues.

But really, other than that, this whole mommy thing I think I can do.

Tobyn is such a perfect baby.

 I'm slightly bias, but he only cries when he has a reason to.

And he lets us sleep a pretty fair amount.

I think we were blessed super huge on this one.

We recently moved from the town we lived in, where Jonathan and I met, where it all began. 

That was hard, but we moved into a house, so no worrying about keeping up neighbors in an apartment with a crying baby. Super awesome. 

We are close to family, his family.

 Even farther from mine now, which is difficult.

  Going to see them is a huge ordeal and very stressful. Tobyn is NOT a "ride the baby around in the car to get him to stop crying" kind of baby. He hates the car. 

Trying to think about my future, my families future.

 I want to go back to school, I know I need to do it now. Or so I'm told I will never go back. I'm seeing what I can do. 

   My issue I'm having right now, as far as mommy business, is balancing being a mom and being myself. I'm still trying to understand that I, myself, am a mom now. 

They are not two people, but one that have to coincide with one another. 

It's like I sometimes have an issue taking off the mommy hat and putting on the Lyndsey hat when needed or necessary. I'm trying not to loose myself entirely.  

Did anyone else have this issue? What helped you?

Lyz

one month already?

When did this happen?? He's growing leaps and bounds!

looks so much like his daddy, I wonder if he's mine ;)

sent from heaven.

A Little Man is On His Way!

My sweet Meemaw on the right, and a few of my nieces and nephews.

 I love this picture so much!

 Here are just a few pictures from our baby shower.

Had such a wonderful time! It was truly amazing! All of our friends and family were such blessings and gave more than we could even have imagined!

It was a "Little Man" Theme, which turned out so cute! Now we just really can't wait to meet him!

Lyz

Things that make me realize I'm pregnant

• I've completely lost all train of thought, all the time. Words that I've been spelling my whole life? Yeah, can't remember how to spell them randomly. I will also stop in mid sentence of a conversation because I have no idea what I was saying. This is pretty annoying.
• I now grunt like a pig when I am getting out of the car, a chair, or bed. Boyfriend thinks this is hilarious? 
• All my old dresses are now my new shirts.
• I cry, and tear up at stupid, stupid commercials.
• When washing the dishes, my belly gets a bath.
• When eating anything, my belly part of my shirt gets a taste as well.
• You are always hotter than everyone (wouldn't it be nice if I meant in sense of appearance?) Not only do you grunt like a pig now, but you sweat like one.
• Everyone at the gym looks at you funny, like, really confused as to why you are there. It doesn't make sense to me.
• Even after I eat half of a pizza and all the crazy bread, I'm still going to be hungry in 30 minutes.
• Climbing the stairs to our apartment is one of my biggest accomplishments every single day now. 
• One minute Jonathan and I will be joking on each other and the next minute I'm crying. Why? Who knows.
• Naps are a gift from heaven and in my top 3 most valued time of the day.
• Cuddling now includes a body pillow, it gets more love than he does.
• I will sit in Tobyn's nursery for hours, just folding clothes or listening to music. It's one of the most relaxing things in the world.

Being past 30 weeks is a seriously new excitement. Just 9 more weeks to go!


Lyz

Savvy?

Just some shots of our Savannah trip.

It was so refreshing.

Ate way too much and walked until I thought this child was going to fall out of me.

Really enjoyed spending time with my darlin'. :)

Lyz

dabbling.

I'm 23 weeks, still trying to enjoy the "energy spurt" I was told I'd get before I get ginormous.

 But unlike this time last year, where I was spending most of my time in college classes and hanging around the campus in all my adorable outfits that all fit me oh so correctly, I feel I have barely anything to fit into to still look like myself.

 I learned quickly that most maternity clothes are not very supportive of looking like a we actually took the time to get ready. I got really depressed there for a while because of how everything fit. But recently, I've started dabbling more.

 Above, I have on a dress, yes a dress. It came to about mid thigh right when I bought it, and I think between my learning "what you can and can't dry in the dryer" stage and my bump, it's now hereby being dubbed a shirt.

Over it I just have a simple, lightweight cardigan from Old Navy.

Paired with a skinny, light leather belt I have had forever.

My jeans are from Motherhood Maternity, really the only maternity items I would buy (except for a few adorable shirts I happen to find.) I actually like the full panel belly, it last the whole pregnancy and I feel like it gives you more breathing room. 

And then of course, my moccasins.

It has been spring all winter here in the south east, so I haven't had the chance to layer like I really love to in the winter. Breaks my heart, really.