Desmond turns the big 1!!!

On May 28th, Desmond turned 1 year old.  On June 28th, we had these pictures taken.  So, technically they're of Desmond turning 13 months, but its good enough for me.  Scarlett also tagged along and struck a few poses.  She was helping out by getting Desmond to look in certain directions and to smile.  These pictures were taken outside in 90 degree weather, 100% humidity, at noon.  So, that explains why some of them are of the kids having sweaty, splotchy faces.  Overall, I'm pretty impressed with how good they look under these circumstances.

 "Hey, Mommy, wanna go cruising?"

"I'll catch you later!" 

"Scarlett, did you want to come or not?"

This may be my favorite from the shoot. 

 I love this smile.  Desmond has always had such big, wide mouth smiles to go along with his easy going personality. 

Here's another.

I can't believe how big he looks in these pictures! 

I don't know who thought these tricycles were more fun, Scarlett or Desmond.

 "That's right everybody, I'm 1 now."

Scarlett took 18 months before swings were acceptable to her, but Desmond has always loved swings.   

Isn't she so precious looking in this picture?

She always wants to be pushed "higher"...

 and higher...!

Poor little guy was pretty tired.  I had to do jumping jacks and many other crazy antics to get him to smile or look in certain directions.  Obviously, in this shot I was unsuccessful.

 And in this shot.

 I more surprised him and less entertained him in this shot.

There's a smile! 

Now, he just looks annoyed. 

"Seriously, how long do I have to sit in this hot sun watching you act like a fool, Mom?"

We let him walk around, which he found more enjoyable. I love these.

I love this cute, pensive look. 

There's another big smile.  

 In this picture, Desmond had just completed some "dirt angels" while face down on the ground...hence why his mouth is covered in dirt.  Scarlett would never have done something like that at any point in her life...I feel certain of that.

One more dirty face picture for you to enjoy.  These are soo cute, too.  I really wish his face was clean.  I was trying believe me, but I needed more than wipes to scrape off this sticky mid-day dirt.

 "I wanna climb these, too!"

Scarlett "teaching" Desmond to climb.

We'll try it again in another few months.

We grabbed a few more of Scarlett. 

Going super fast down the slide

 She's got climbing in her blood...from her Daddy.

 This is very serious stuff.  Also, very nerve wracking to watch her climb to the top.

Finally, this little montage!  We love you Desmond!  Thanks for all of the smiles and baby giggles!

Desmond's thoughts on the Spray Park

"What is this magical place!?"

"I want to touch it!"

 "This is awesome!"

"Whoa, that was a lot of water!" 

"This is awesome again!" 

"I'm sure I can catch it if I try really, really hard." 

"Oh, look, another one!"

"Uh, oh.  Why isn't it working anymore?" 

"Hmmm, this one's not working either..." 

"Oh, wait, now it is." 

"Yeah, its definitely working now!" 

"I can't breathe! Are you just going to stand there taking pictures?!" 

"Hold on.  We're good now.  Don't worry about it. " 

"Let me take some pictures." 

 "No?  Alright, well, where can I go next then?"

 "Hey, now this thing is pretty cool!"

 "This side is pretty cool, too!"

"What's that?  Scarlett wants to leave?" 

"But...but...I don't want to leave..." 

Scarlett Turns 3 (Last Month)

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't post about Scarlett's birthday until all the Thank You cards went out.  The idea was that would make me hurry up and do the Thank You cards.  It didn't really work that way, I ended up just delaying both activities.  However, part 1 is finally done and now on to part 2...the blog post!  As I mentioned before, Scarlett's birthday theme was Rainbow Brite.  I'm fairly certain that I OD'd that child on Rainbow Brite to get her pumped for her party, because she has literally not watched it ONCE since.  The other reason might be because she got a ton of Disney Princess gifts and that hurled us head first into Princess Mania which is okay with me.  I'd rather watch a Disney movie all day, every day than one more single episode of Dora.  She doesn't watch Disney movies all day, every day, though...just for the record.

Anyway, her party was fabulous and all of the moms were so complimentary and helpful and we had such a good time.  The weather at the park that day was beautiful and Scarlett had a blast.

First things first, the cupcakes!  They turned about pretty great I think.  We just laid them out in a row to emphasize the rainbow effect.  These adorable cupcakes took a LOT of time...a shocking amount of time, really.

Here's the extra big and extra awesome rainbow cupcake we made for Scarlett.  She licked every morsel of frosting off that cupcake, but didn't take a bite of the actual cake part.  I ended up throwing the whole thing away.  Oh, well, she didn't need the extra sugar anyway.

I bought chicken nuggets and pizza from Dominoes for everyone to eat, but I did throw in these rainbow fruit skewers as well.  They were also a hit.

Here is the more attractive of the two food tables all laid out with 15 little kids eying all of those cupcakes, waiting for their chance to dig in!

Here's a close up of Scarlett and her cupcake.  She really was happier than she looks in this picture.  I must have just told her that she couldn't eat it yet or something else equally as traumatizing.

Here's the gift table and the bubble solution for the kids.  Notice the Rainbow Brite picture.  That way no one mistook this for any ordinary rainbow party.  We had a bubble machine going most of the time, too.  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures, but the kids LOVED it.  Toddlers and bubbles really do go hand in hand.

Here's the family picture minus Desmond.  He gets really fussy when he misses his naps, so I left him at home with a babysitter.  Hopefully, he won't be scarred for life because of it.  We brought home some huge rainbow mylar balloons and he got hours of entertainment and laughter out of them.  So, I figure we're good!

This one is just too cute not to put on the blog.

After her nap and beginning the process of opening all her presents.  She got more presents on her birthday than she did on Christmas!

Here she is wearing wings she got for her birthday while looking at pictures of Wes's side of the family that his mom sent her.  She'd point at each person and say, "Who dat?  Who dat?  Who dat, Mommy?"  She'd be a huge hit in New Orleans during football season.

Desmond...eying the rainbow balloon thinking, "What in the world...?"

Desmond...laughing at the rainbow balloon thinking, "What is this colorful, amazing, floating sensation?!"

Scarlett also got a bike which makes her so happy.  I can't believe how fast she picked it up!  She can whiz all over the neighborhood on it.  Luckily, she got that Rapunzel doll for her birthday, so she has a barbie doll to ride on her new bike's handlebars.

Well, that about wraps up her birthday events.  She is such a bright shining light in our lives.  I love her so much and her adorable mannerisms and inquisitive personality.  I wish all of our friends and family far away could know her as well as we do and frequently see in person what a sweet and loving girl she is.  Hopefully, our family blog gives you some insight.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Scarlett!  We love you!

Thrifting Again for Scarlett's Room

Wes went out of town for two weeks at the beginning of this month.  To help me through this time, my gracious mom came and hung out for one week of it.  There has been a list forming for a year of things i wanted to get done, but haven't because I was pregnant or had a new born.  With Desmond at 11 months and my mom to help me, we seriously attacked the list.  Here is a small sampling of what we got done.

I bought this nightstand and this twin bed at thrift stores.  Here is what they looked like when I bought them.  Its the small one in the middle with the drawer and the finish all scratched off the top.  Also, take notice of the twin bed frame in the back.  I redid that one too.  Unfortunately, I only have this one picture we took of everything at once.

 So, I sanded it down before re-staining the top and painting the sides.

It took a lot of work, but I didn't take pictures of the process so here is the final product!

The bed that was in the top picture was brown and I really wanted it white for Scarlett's room.  I debated for a while on how to do it and after searching online, I decided to just spray paint it.  So, my mom and I spent about three days sanding and spray painting.  It turned out really great.  I love the finished product.  Here's the bed with the nightstand and Scarlett's super cute new quilt!  She is so excited about her big girl bed.  She makes it all by herself every day when she wakes up in the morning and after her nap.

We also planted flowers in the front and backyard.  They make me so happy!

It felt nice to get some of these bigger projects done!