Boot Scootin' Root tootin' 1st birthday celebration!

Aunt Laura and Aunt Ashley and Mommy with the Birthday boy! The cute banner behind us my mom made. It said "Happy Birthday Daniel" out of yellow bandanna print paper on a blue and brown border background, strung with leather, it turned out SO cute!

Mike and I love having big parties! Mike smoked boston butts all day that were cut up to make barbecue pork sandwiches, it turned out delicious! We also had fried okra (thank you dad for frying it in our big turkey fryer outside!) and macaroni and cheese (thank you Ashley for quadrupling the recipe!) Ashley and Laura also made yummy homemade salsa for the appetizer. We put out pretzel rods, twizzlers, and beef jerky in mason jars tied with raffia on the kids table for them to nibble on before dinner.

We had close friends and family over for the party. Pictured are our marriage mentors, George and Diane, my paternal grandparents, Pete and Arlene, and my parents, Doug and Kristin. All these people at this table are 100% Dutch (except my mom and Daniel). I made this table clothe by hot gluing a thick rope to the outside edge of the bandanna print fabric. Mom arranged all the flowers in mason jars with red, blue, and twine or raffia ribbon tied to the them. She picked some wild flowers out of our yard, off the side of Thomasville road and some were store bought. She did a great job. Each jar was placed on a colored (either red, green, turquoise, orange or yellow) bandanna print 8x8 piece of paper.

Aunt Ashley with little buckaroo outside on our NEW deck sitting on some bales of hay!

George and Diane hit it off with my grandparents, Daniel's great grandparents!

Mimi with Aunt Ashley, Aunt Laura, mommy and Daniel. I think Daniel was ready to eat!

Ashley made Daniel his own "smash" cake. Mike wanted this cake to have regular frosting (you will see in the other pictures that the big cake has fondant frosting). He wanted Daniel to be able to smear it all over his face and really get into it. Well, Daniel surprised us! I think a combination of factors played into the birthday cake let down. :( He had been fed ALOT prior to the cake, he was probably overwhelmed by all the people singing to him and staring at him, he was probably tired and he had never had a dessert before. So he looked at his cake, stuck one finger in the icing and tasted it, then he started crying. We tried to give him a bite of the cake and he took it out of his mouth and threw it on the floor. It's such a build up to the cake, but oh well, if he doesn't like sweets, that is a good thing, right? Oh, one more thing, I lost it during singing "Happy Birthday," I couldn't even choke out the words, I felt that BIG lump forming in my throat and then the tears started pouring, what a mess! My baby turned one, I made mostly through the day being ok, but the singing got me! ;)

Mimi and Papa with their first grandchild on our front porch. Mom and Dad got here Friday night after Daniel was already asleep, when I got him up on Saturday morning (which this is the first time I cried, by the way, about him turning 1), I took him outside to see Papa, who Mike had already put him to work! :) Daniel said, "Papa" very clearly!! We were both surprised and so excited that he said it! In my previous posts, you probably read about our backyard renovation and all the friends who so graciously gave their time and energy to help lay sod and build our deck. (It got finished Friday night about 10:30 and it looks FABULOUS!!!) But Mike still wasn't finished with his master plan for the backyard. He had my dad up early on Sat. morning to go get a truck load of mulch, then they worked on landscaping, mowing, blowing, edging, and cleaning. It looks great and is a VAST improvement over what it originally was!

Mom made this cute star wreath for the front door. It's kind of hard to see but inside the red bandanna star it says, "Daniel" in black with a "1" in brown polka dot paper.

This is our new (to us) kids table. I bought it used from my friend Stephanie (who is cleaning out her playroom for baby #3). It was originally from Wood U and had never been finished/painted. It had some coloring marks, pen, stickers on it that I sanded off (thanks for lending me your random orbit sander Brian!) I painted the legs, sides of table and chairs with navy blue high gloss spray paint and the top of the table I brushed on black chalkboard paint. I think it turned out really cute. Stephanie then found this cool chalk ink that comes in a pen. It washes off with a wet cloth and looks like you painted on the chalkboard paint.

The cake stand is made from real horse shoes (that I bought at the Tractor Supply Store), that a friend's husband welded for us. Thank you Ryan!! It turned out perfect! The bottom layer of the cake is supposed to look like blue jeans (kind of hard to see in this pic), middle layer like a bandanna, and top layer like a cow print. Clara, a friend from work (she actually makes cakes with her dad, they have made several of her siblings wedding cakes) gave me the recipe and tips on how to make fondant out of marsh mellows that tastes better than plain old yucky fondant. Underneath the fondant was a layer of cream cheese frosting used as the glue to hold the fondant in place. You know me, I got the the cake mixes B1G1 free a while back (bottom was yellow butter cake, middle was chocolate w/ choco frosting under fondant, top was white cake). It helped that I made a practice cake 2 weeks ago, I learned from some of my mistakes what to do differently for the real deal.

Mommy and Daddy with our little cowboy. We are so thankful the Lord blessed us with Daniel after 4 years of desiring to be parents! He is such a gift! I pray that I remember that he is not my own, he belongs to the Lord. We are learning that parenting is a wonderful, challenging, sacrificial, humbling journey and apart from God's grace, we can't do it on our own! Thank you to ALL our friends and family who prayed with and for us for this little boy! We love you all and feel immensely blessed beyond measure at the outpouring of your love and prayers!!

We LOVE you Daniel! Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Pulling Up

Daniel is going to what I think is THE BEST childcare place! His teachers are SO loving, Mrs Vickery and Mrs. Holly care for him like I would. (Sometimes, I think they even do a better job than me!) Vickery made this cute crown for Daniel for his birthday! Isn't that sweet! She also sends home a full account of his day including what time he had his diaper changed, what he ate for snack and lunch, what songs they sang, and their prayer for the day based on scripture. She is even teaching him the children's shorter cathechism. The first question is "Who made you?" the answer, "God made you." The next question, "What else did God make?" Answer: "God made all things." We have been working on this at home too. I wish all children who had to be in childcare had something this good! It makes it easier for me to leave him and go to work knowing he is SO well cared for! These pictures aren't that clear, but last week just seemed like a week of firsts for Daniel. He started pulling up and almost cruising around the coffee table on Thur, Oct. 1. He also started putting his face in the water when he takes a bath. He thinks it's funny! :) I've been trying to get him to blow bubbles when he does it, but for now, he just wants to drink the bath water. Oh well! Ha ha!

Daniel's 1st haircut

Mike has been begging me for weeks (probably more like months) to cut Daniel's hair. I just didn't want him to have a haircut until he was one. I don't even have a good reason, although I did want him to keep looking like a baby not a grown up little boy, so finally, on Thur. night, Oct 1st, I succombed to the pressure and gave in. Stephanie gave me some pointers and so I trimmed some hair in the front, so it won't hang in his eyes anymore, and I trimmed his "ear bangs" :). I must say he was quite cooperative, it is a little nerveracking to have sharp scissors close to a moving target. A few snips and we were done!

Before After!

This is the shirt I made on sewing night Tues. Sep 29th, for Daniel to wear on his 1st birthday. It was my first time making an applique shirt and I followed Darby'shttp://http://www.flythroughourwindow.com/2008/08/appliques-101-without-an-embroidery-machine/ tutorial on how to do it. My friend Alicia was here with me and also walked me through the steps.

This is a "pillow case" type dress made without the pillow case for Aubrey, she was born 2 days before Daniel (I actually took care of her and her sweet mom Julie in the hospital the day before I delivered Daniel). The blue fabric is named Lily Pond (I forget who makes it), and the border and bows are Amy Butler fabric.

Birthday weekend, backyard overhall, and sewing night

My middle sis, Ashley invited us to the beach for her birthday weekend on Sept. 18th. We rented the same beach house Mike and I and his parents stayed in back in April. Cute little house off of 30A! Friday night was just family and we had delicious hamburgers with Brie cheese inside and caramelized apples on top, yum! Sat. we all rented bikes, we were able to find one to rent with a baby seat on the back and had the best time riding around Watercolor and Seaside! We ended our bike trip back at Seaside to listen to live caribean style music in the outdoor ampitheatre, it was just the best day!! Daniel did really well in his little seat with his helmet. He fell asleep in the seat, poor baby! Sat. night, my parents kept Daniel while we went out with some of Ashley and lil' sis Laura's friends, we ended up a Baytowne Warf and had a really fun night! This picture cracks me up! The fam, boy band/ghetto style! LOL!!

Daniel's first tasting of a red sauce dish, baked ziti, I think he liked it folks!!

So we have several projects going on at our house right now. Back on the first weekend in Sept, while I was away, Mike rented a tiller and tilled up our backyard. The grass was gone in some places, thanks to Campbell and shade plus we had originally gotten grass not meant to be grown in shade. Mike has been sick of our backyard for basically the past 2 yrs and so with Daniel's birthday party quickly approaching at our house, we made a deal. The party could be here if we could get new sod. So I agreed. We have the most wonderful friends by the way! The next weekend, Sept. 12, I (luckily) had to work, and Mike recruited a bunch of our friends to come help lay sod. (No pictures b/c I was not here to take them and by the time I texted Mike to ask him to take some of the process, they were finished!) He said they layed it all (4 palates) in under 2 hours! So when I got home from work that night, we had a new backyard full of green grass! It looked great! Well, that project turned into building a deck (he had originally wanted to lay a stone patio, but that turned out to be too expensive). Our friend Buckley volunteered to help build it. For the last two weeks, we have had multiple friends coming over on the weekend and evenings after work to help us build our deck. My picture doesn't do justice to all these wonderful guys (and their awesome wives for sharing their husbands with us!!) Thank you, thank you Buckley, Brian, Jimmy, Jonathan, Greg, Boyd, Jarrod!!!

Lastly, I have really enjoyed working on some sewing projects and many of my friends are interested in sewing and are quite good seamstresses! I'm glad it's not a dying art, at least in my circle of friends, it seems to be gaining interest! I'm so thankful for my mother teaching me how to sew!! (She if very skilled, studied it in college, made her wedding dress and lots of our clothes growing up) Some people had already left by the time I pulled out my camera, but we had the BEST time! We used to all play Bunco together but I think this is better, we still get to talk, eat, and now we are getting projects done, how fun!! Pictured above is Meredith, Kristin, Stephanie, Alicia, and Suzanne. (Crystal, L.A., and Krista had already left). If you are reading this and want to come, let me know, even if you don't sew! Krista came to just hang out and she brought a bottle of wine, thanks girl!

Free Chick-Fil-A and a dress

This is the "pillow case" dress I made this week without a pillow case, just fabric. My friend, Ashley asked me to make one for her daughter's first birthday. It is the first one I have sold. So if you know of anyone who would like to buy a dress from me, let me know and we can work something out! They make great birthday and Christmas gifts! She is going to have a green "C" embroidered on the upper center of this dress for sweet Caroline. Daddy and Daniel had a FUN day on Monday, Labor Day. I worked, so daddy was in charge! He managed to make delicious bar-b-que ribs and provide mac and cheese and baked beans for the tailgate prior to the first FSU home game. He also took Daniel to Chick-fil-A for a free chicken sandwich for lunch. He said Daniel did great at the tailgate, he wore the backpack (we used it on our trip on hikes) and Daniel was content to hangout on Mike's back with his sippy cup. Our good friend Brooke took Daniel and her son, Wyatt home when the guys walked over to the stadium right before the game and I picked Daniel up on my way home from work. It worked out well.

This picture was taken at Chick-Fil-A and you can see it on their website here.

Tour De South Vol. 3 (Aug25-Aug29)

Tuesday we drove from Nashville to Banner Elk, NC, the longest leg of our trip. We did take a break for lunch at the Bass Pro Shop on our way. :) Nani and Pa were eagerly awaiting our arrival and were bursting at the seams to lay their eyes on their youngest grandson and shower him with hugs and kisses! The weather was wonderful in the mountains of N.C., and after a yummy dinner Nani had waiting for us, we took a walk to a park behind their house. It was Daniel's first time to go down a slide (he went down in daddy's lap), not sure how he felt about that. Nani gave Daniel this cloth version of the book, Are You My Mother?, I love cloth books for him!

Wednesday, Pa made delicious blueberry (that they picked) pancakes for us and then we started out on our fun day of adventures. For lunch, we stopped at Hamptons Grist Mill, every time Mike and I go to visit his parents, we have to get a bar-b-que sandwich from this place, it's half general store and half restaurant. (See those cute camo crocs on Daniel? Later in the week, he had them on, we had the windows rolled down, and when we stopped, he only had one on, he must have kicked one off and it flew out the window! Ha Ha!)

Our next stop was to drive to the top of Grandfather Mountain, a privately owned mountain (it seems like a state park). The weather was perfect, we could see for miles!

On Grandfather mountain, there is a small zoo, they have bears, cougars, otters, an eagle, and deer. Daniel liked looking at the bears, I think he was even trying to say the word, it came out "ba".

Then we took a drive on the Blue Ridge parkway and took a hike down to the Cascade Waterfall. It was an easy hike and the end was well worth it!

There were two falls, this was at the lower part of the Cascade Water fall.

Leaving the waterfalls, we came across this beautiful grassy null with some old buildings on it and a BEAUTIFUL tree, its leaves were already starting to change. We let Daniel get down and crawl around, the grass was so soft, he loved the freedom after being in the backpack or car seat for so long. It was just an extremely picturesque spot!!

Wednesday night we did a little shopping at an outlet mall and then had a delicious meal at the Blowing Rock Cafe in Blowing Rock, NC. We celebrated mom and dad Dasher's 48th wedding anniversary, wow, 48 years, congratulations!! We packed a lot into one day, Daniel was a little trooper, and we were pooped by the time our heads hit the pillow that night!

Thursday, we were sad to leave Nani and Pa but drove south to a cabin in the mountains of Georgia, that my mom's cousin graciously let us stay in. The cabin is in the Chattahoochee National Forest, in the Lake Winfield Scott State Park. I grew up going on vacations with my family to this cabin and have many fond memories from our time there. I used to dream of bringing my future husband there and that dream came true on our trip. Thank you Susan and Rick for letting us use your cabin! On Friday, we packed a picnic lunch and ventured down to Lake Winfield Scott. We ate our lunch under a huge covered pavilion with a stone fireplace at one end, Mike got to go fishing and caught a small fish on his first cast! After lunch, we drove down the mountain (this is when Daniel's shoe flew out the window, ha!) visited an overlook on the Appalachian trail, and then continued on to a cute town, Dahlonaga.

Friday morning on the porch, a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee and read a book!

We ate dinner outside on the back porch of this restaurant in Dahlonaga, delicious food, great service, and not overpriced. We stayed in the cabin again Friday night and Mike got to fish again in the morning while Daniel napped and I got packed up. Saturday, we drove an hour and a half to our favorite outlet mall in Dawsonville, GA. We got to go to the Pottery Barn Outlet and some other stores before we drove to my cousin's house. We were so excited to get to stay with Jaime and Kevin. They have a 15month old daughter, Kaitlin (so I guess she and Daniel are 2nd cousins). I wish my picture had turned out, but when we first got to their house, Kaitlin gave Daniel a kiss, then he returned he affection with a headbut which sent her into tears. :( They were having a wedding shower for my cousin, Keith (Kevin's brother) and fiance, Kamron. So there were a ton of people there and lots of good food. We got to visit with my Aunt Karen and cousin Kyle as well. It was a great party and we were so happy we got to be there, and SO happy for Keith and Kamron! We are looking forward to their wedding in November on their family farm north of Atlanta. I even volunteered to help Jaime with the flowers for the wedding, it sounds like fun! We can't wait to go back, I love that Daniel has a little cousin his age to play with!

Daniel had a BLAST playing with Kaitlin!! Thank you Jaime and Kevin for letting us stay with you! We had a wonderful vacation and were sad to see it come to an end, I guess that is a sign of a good time!