One of my best friends in the universe is having a baby soon! Is it just me or is it baby season? I’m loving every minute of it and can’t wait to snuggle all of the sweet babies. I love her little guy already….you’d think I was the pregnant one judging by my excitement!
I hosted a shower for her a couple of weeks ago and had the best time. It was a perfect group of her friends who came from different parts of Kansas to shower Jenn and soon-to-be Baby Tuttle. She received some pretty awesome gifts that will definitely come in handy in a few months.
I only got a few snapshots of the day, but our smiles sum up the fun we had.
As I mentioned before, I had so much fun decorating for Charlotte’s first birthday party! I figure that this is probably the first and last party that I get to determine the theme, so I made sure to have a great time planning for it. I want to remember all that went in to that day, so I thought I’d document some of the details that went into making it so special.
I asked Eric’s Mom for photos of him when he was one. She sent me the sweetest snapshots! He was (and still is) such a cutie! I displayed both of our one year pictures for people to compare how Charlotte looks to us at the same age. I drew inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, Sugar Bee Crafts (who also happens lives close to us! holla), for these massive prints of Charlotte’s One Year photos. I had them printed at Office Max for a whopping $3.57. They’re 24×36 prints and I mounted them on insulation board from Hobby Lobby ($2.50 each). It was the easiest and fastest project ever, and I can’t believe how well they turned out. Everyone thought they were canvas prints. Several people commented on how expensive they must’ve been. They were shocked when I told them that they were in fact quite cheap! I’ll be putting them up on the walls of her playroom soon. I set out the Shutterfly photo books I’ve made for her over the year, as well as the scrapbook my Mom has made of her life thus far! She is such a crafty lady! For food, we did snacks and drinks. I found the cute chalkboard tags at TJ Maxx (top 5 favorite places to shop!). The kiddos at the party received party favors, which were coloring books, crayons and a little tag thanking them for coming to the party. My Mom made this amazing Happy Birthday bunting banner. It was the perfect “vintage chic” touch!Brandon was so nice to hang out with the birthday girl while I ran around making the final touches. It was even during the Nebraska game….and if you know anything about Brandon, you know that holding a fussy baby during the game was quite a sacrifice. That’s a super guy for ya! I printed Charlotte’s month-by-month photos and displayed them in a banner for everyone to see how much she’s grown and changed!
Finally, i needed an extra special way to thank everyone for being a part of Charley’s big day…and her first year as a whole. I created some amazing thank you cards at Treat, a branch of Shutterfly whom I adore and use on a monthly basis for photo printing and book making. I was super excited to give Treat’s cards a try, and of course loved them!
They’re beautiful, personalized, and super high quality. I see lots of fun card-making in the future!
This Mexican Lasagna is to die for! I’ve been seeing the recipe float around Pinterest for some time now and thought I should go ahead and try it. I tweaked it to make it my own, so I’ve included the recipe below, but it derived from this great recipe.
Personally, I love anything that can be prepped beforehand and popped in the oven when we’re ready for it. I work late one or two nights a week, so Eric gets Charlotte from daycare on those evenings. I decided to make this meal ahead of time so all he had to do was put it in the oven before I got home. It worked wonderfully and tasted great. It’s now on my list of go-meals during the week.
First, I made the chicken in the crockpot and shredded it when it was done. You can add seasoning to the chicken while it’s cooking, but it’s not necessary.
Then, mix the chicken, corn, black beans, sour cream, salsa and spices together.
Spray a glass baking dish with non-stick spray, and line it with overlapping corn tortillas.
Then, spread on a layer of the chicken mixture over the tortillas.
On top of that, add a layer of shredded cheese.
Follow it up with a second layer of overlapping tortillas and repeat the above two steps (just like you would with regular lasagna). The top layer should be a nice helping of shredded cheese.
And this is the end product!
I put foil over the top, with instructions for Eric to bake it the next night. Easy peasy!
As you can imagine, this was our best Christmas of all for one very special reason- miss Charlotte, of course! It really is so special to share the magic of the holiday with a baby. We are so grateful for a happy, healthy child!
We had lots of places to be and lots of people to meet this year…and our Christmas celebrations aren’t even over yet! Eric has a big family, so our festivities usually last for a few weeks. Charlotte is a lucky girl to have so many people who love her! We spent last weekend in Missouri with the Rinehart side. She met over 100 people in the 3 days we spent there! And boy was she was a trooper. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with both sides of my family. And we will see more of Eric’s side in January!
This is a very picture-heavy post, so prepare yourself.
Charley got to meet her all of her Rinehart side of the family. She is one of 16 GREAT grandchildren- Wow!
She even helped me wrap presents this year 🙂
Charlotte got to meet two very important ladies too; One is her Aunt Sally! She just returned to KS and is here to stay after being away for way too long for her Army duties. But boy, do we appreciate her service! Jaime and Sally are two of my best friends whom I’ve known since I was 4 years old. I feel SO lucky to still call them dear friends and to have them around to watch Charley grow up.
She also got to meet her Aunt Michaela and Uncle Dave! They live in San Fransisco and are visiting for the holiday. Michaela and I have been friends…since birth, so I was excited to introduce them to one another! It’s so hard to believe we’re at this stage of life. After 27 years, we’re really more like family, so it felt so special to have her meet our little one!
We spent Christmas Eve at our house this year…which was perfect. We went to Christmas Eve candlelight mass at our church. And as usual, it was amazing. I love our church so much!
The best present under the tree you ask??
Her new stocking cap is ADORABLE on her itty bitty head!
Just two of our favorite ornaments this year!
Meeting cousin Shannan at the Bradbury Christmas!
This is one of my favorite pictures from this Christmas! Just look at the delight on both of their faces 🙂
Four generations
Opening her stocking on Christmas morning Grandpa putting Charley down for her nap… This girl LOVES her exersaucer! Thanks to my good friend, Erin for letting us borrow it!
Mistletoes…Charlotte made this adorable art project at daycare! That’s another huge blessing we have to be thankful for this year- an AMAZING daycare. I thank God every day that I drop her off for helping me find such a great group of people to take care of our little girl. They love her and she loves being there! That makes going to work so much easier.
These adorable stockings were made by my good friend Kelsey’s Mom, Connie. So talented!! We love them!Just a bit of our house this holiday season
Eric got me this beautiful KitchenAid mixer! I was pretty shocked. I’ve always said that when I have a kitchen big enough to put it on the counter, I wanted one. I was definitely not expecting it this year though!! I’ve already used it several times, and I’m pretty much obsessed. Thanks, Eric!!! Eric took “no shave November” one month too long. He and a friend from work didn’t shave their beards until December 23! We had some fun in the trimming process. Who doesn’t love a mustache with twirlies at the end?
Howdy! Welcome to our little piece of the blogosphere! We are a couple of Jayhawkers who met, fell in love, and have a brand new little one! If you love all things cooking, entertaining, DIYing, and traveling then you came to the right place. Take a seat and stay a while!