white trash bash

Now that I've posted about this year's Nerdy 30, I thought it would be a good idea to share where this themed birthday party thing started. Last year, for Caleb's birthday party, we threw a "White Trash Bash". The invitations were printed on crumpled velum and where thrown together with duct tape. They were awesome.

First of all, let me set the scene. We had mismatched sheets over all of our couches. Random decorations. Lawn flamingos at the front door and Christmas lights out back. To make it even better, it was a pot luck. We had toilet paper for napkkins and the things people brought fit the theme perfectly.

I was 9 months pregnant with Molly and my huge belly made my costume awesome. If she only knew.

We had horseshoes and root beer pong in the back yard to play.

Yes. That, my friends, is a Twinkie, Ding Dong and Zinger birthday cake. With a match for a candle.

A lot of friends came and had awesome costumes but we had one couple that came that stayed in character almost the whole time. When they rang the doorbell and I opened it, it literally took me a good 25 seconds to figure out who they were. Shout out to Keegan and Lindsey for the best costumes. (In the boys photos, Keegan is on the very left and in the girls photos, Lindsey is in the middle with the hat on.)

Everyone was such good sports about our mandatory dress up policy and it was so much fun!

We were so tired after the party but it was so worth it.

nerdy 30

Last year we started a tradition of having a themed party for Caleb's birthday. It is a fun time of year to dress up because it is close enough to Halloween that it doesn't seem as outrageous to ask a bunch of adults to dress up. This year we had a lot going on and considered not doing it but then I realized that 30 is a big birthday and I would always regret it if I didn't do something extra special to celebrate. We went with nerdy 30.

The party started at 7:30pm and he literally was standing in the bathroom with the shaver in hand at 7:28pm. He decided his costume needed a little extra oomph and his haircut did just the trick. To this day, people who didn't see him in person but only saw pictures just thought we spent a lot of money on a really great wig. 

The food was an array of different pies and they had signs in them with the pi sign. We had some really great decor. I have a good friend here who is a party queen and she not only designed the invitations and helped with the ideas but she had a lot of really great items that she let me borrow. I love these books!

 

We made a good looking couple. I would say that Caleb's haircut was definitely what made his costume and I was nothing without my headgear.

The periodic table "happy birthday" sign was a fun touch.

We gave prizes to the best dressed. In the bags there were things like calculators, post it notes, pencils, etc. They also each got a original, autographed school photo of Caleb.

Around the house there were photos of Caleb and there were trivia question for people to answer. The people that got the most questions right got prizes.

We forgot and took the group photo after a couple of the guests had left so this isn't everyone.

Now, here are the trivia questions. How many can you get right?

 In which sport did Caleb earn the title of “champion” in his community college days?

 Ping Pong, Golf, Backgammon or Bocce Ball?

In the sixth grade, Caleb joined and excelled in a specific school club. Which was it?

FFA, Chess Club, German Club, or Drama Club?

 

Caleb is quite the collector. He has collected all of the following things except...

Comic Cards, Coins, Pogs, or Postage Stamps?

 When Caleb got home from his mission, what was the first movie he didn’t even wait 24 hours to see?

Harry Potter, Lord of the Ring, Star War or Star Trek?

 

What is Caleb’s all-time favorite TV series?

X Files, Doctor Who, Firefly or Battlestar Galactica?

What is Caleb’s undergraduate degree in?

Organic Chemistry, Kinesiology, Biology or Physiology? 

Happy {NERDY 30} Birthday to Caleb!

molly has arrived!

I am really excited to share all about the birth day and how it has been with new, little Molly in our lives but this video will have to hold you over until I get to it! We are all home and doing so well. :)

the name game

We have decided that our Monday-night-family-night from now until the baby comes will be our time to talk to Kade about the baby coming and to get things ready for her to arrive. Last night, we began to pack our bag! It made me more excited for this little girl to get here. Around here, we just call her "little baby sister" but I guess that isn't going to work forever. Kade is so cute and is happy to tell us which room belongs to the baby. My mom and sister gave him a book about a big brother and a new baby and he requests to read it at naptime and bedtime! He must be getting excited too.

Here is the start to our hospital bag. We made sure to include a special big brother gift from the baby to Kade.

Let me tell you a story. We had a list of boy names once we were having a boy. It would be safe to say that Caleb is pretty good at vetoing names but his name contributions are are few and far between. (Not including his crazy name ideas that he thinks are hilarious but no {nice} parent would ever name their child.) 

It is crazy how before we were pregnant, we would talk about names and we would love them but when we were actually thinking about names for OUR baby that was coming into the world after we were pregnant, the names took on all new meanings as we imagined them for our child and realized that the name that we picked would be this person's name FOREVER! After a lot of work, we went into the hospital to have Kade narrowed down to 2 names on our list. 

Neither of them were Kade. 

When people would say things about how their experience was that they met their child and then they would know what their name should be, I would laugh. Seriously. I thought that was ridiculous. 

But, then it happened to me. AND Caleb. We went in knowing that we would name our baby boy Luke or Jackson. When we saw him, we both separately thought that he looked like a Kade. (WHAT?!) We had talked about that name before but it certainly didn't make the cut. Or so we thought. And, now, he is such a Kade to me!

So, here we are; on round two. I still hear a cute boy's name and think 'why isn't that on our list'?! And then I remember that we are trying to pick a GIRL'S name this time. 

We have a running list on our fridge next to some ultrasound pictures. I look at it every day but I can't decide what her name should be! We have 5 weeks {or less} left, so maybe I should at LEAST take off one name a week.

3D ultrasound pictures {to me} are a little... creepy.
Don't tell my kids I called them creepy.

So.. let's get this show on the road. I'm just curious.. I am going to share our list of names and you can tell me what your favorites are. We don't really care which ones you DON'T like-- because obviously we like all of them enough to have them on our list. 

Here we go with 10 names (in no particular order. on purpose.):

Camden

Morgan

Jordan

Leah

Cameron

Lucy

Molly

Brooke

Carly (or Carlie)

Avery

Feeling inspired by the debates? Practice voting here. 

Feeling SO over the debates? Vote for something fun here.

fly away

Did I already post this picture? Maybe. 

Is it worth posting again even if I did? I think so.

Our friend Keegan took this picture for us awhile ago.
Isn't he a good photographer!? 

He so captured the perfect moment!

I was just thinking about how being a mom is hard. Being a mom of a kid Kade's age: definitely hard. But being a mom in general is so wonderful. I love this kid. Some days I feel like I would pay that eagle to come back and take Kade for a few hours so that I can have a break but the truth is that after that few hours, no matter how productive I was, I would miss the little booger! His personality cracks me up and I really can't blame him for being hard  to deal with sometimes. He is at such a pivotal point in learning to communicate and that has to be so hard for him too! 

I love my job and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

pick me up

Okay, so I know that pictures of Kade are more fun but this happened over the summer and I thought it was so fun.

{By the way, I don't have a Twitter account so I can't really explain it to you but hopefully you get the picture.}

My friend Kizzy was tweeting back and forth with Kristen Bell and she sent this to her.

And Kristen said it was a compliment to her! I was so excited!

Even if she was just being nice, it was sweet of her! {If you don't know who Kristen Bell is.. she is an actress that people always tell me I look like.} 

Okay, okay. Back to Kade-blogging. :)

kade's favorite things = mama, dada and trucks

We are lucky to live only a couple hours away from our family in Tucson but we don't get down there enough! There are so many things that I don't want our family to miss.

It is amazing how often Kade changes, grows and learns. He says a lot of words now and he cracks me up when I see his little imagination run wild! He really loves to play with his trucks. He will play with them forever and talk all day about the different kinds of trucks he has. (Fire truck, dump truck, tow truck, dada's truck...) He does things like pretend he is talking on the phone and then says "bye bye" and hands the phone to me so that I can have a turn. He amazes me how fast he learns to do new things like play games on my phone... way faster than Caleb or I do!
{It is crazy to think of the technology he will have available when he is older! He will easily be the one teaching us how to do things!}

The other night, after we said our prayers together, he folded his arms and said his own prayer. It went something like this: "mama dada dada-uck (truck) mama dada" and then he unfolded his arms for his "amen". It was so cute! It is awesome (and a little scary) how much he learns just from watching us.
{At least we came before the truck in the prayer, right?}

Here are some pictures from the computer from when I was on Skype with Aunt Leah the other day. I am glad for the chance we have to stay in touch with family so closely with our phones and computers. 

 

More about Kade's new tricks and what he has been up to lately to come!