She finally has a lovey!

I'll be honest, I never thought it was a big deal, but my child has never really been *attached* to certain items (besides my left boob, but hey, who wouldn't be? It's pretty fabulous) However, that all changed a few months ago, when Buggy and I were hanging with my friend B and her little girl R. R is a year older than Buggy, but Buggy's mature so she can hang with the older kids.

Anyway, R has this Pooh bear lovey blankey thingamajiggy. And she is obsessed with it. Like, homegirl won't put it down for a second. Buggy was intrigued with the PBLBT and held it for a moment, but was kind of ambivilent about the whole thing, honestly. But it occurred to me, as I watched R slip, fall, cry and subsequently be soothed by the PBLBT that, if Buggy were to get hurt in the future, she doesn't have a soothing item except for the left boob, and hey, I'm all about nursing in public but even I think it might be a smidge odd to plop the boob out for a comfort squeeze when my kids 3, ya know?

So, I set myself on a mission to find Buggy a lovey. We tried everything. A traditional blanket? No thanks. A sweet little bunny lovey blankey thingamajiggy? Meh, whatevs. A weird satin doll with no face? Uh, yeah right.

Nothing worked. Homegirl just wasn't feeling the lovey.

That is until a few weeks ago when she saw something in the playroom/sunroom at my parents' house and fell in love. She's completely attached to it, and plays with it on the floor, hugs and kisses it, and heck, even has to sleep with it.

What is this magical item, you ask?

A Big. Freakin. Plush. Wolf.

See?

Why, yes, it is bigger than she is. But, the kid loves it. I can't get it away from her.

I guess my quest is over. But dude, how the heck will I pack this thing when we go on vacation?

Trendy Treehouse: Shutter Love

 
A few of my friends recently aimed me in the direction of this awesome blog called The Trendy Treehouse. Every Tuesday, the host a contest called Shutter Love in which they give you a theme and you enter a picture that goes with the theme. It sounds like fun to me!

So I present you my very first Shutter Love entry. This week the theme is July 4th, and what better photo of mine that symbolizes July 4th, than my very own Buggy!

So here goes nothing.

My entry:

The beautiful Bugster rocking the red, white and blue. Happy Fourth!

Oh, and I should say that votes are counted by comments on their blog, and maybe mine, I'm not sure, so show Buggy some love! Comment and vote for her. :)

I'm thinking this is going to end up being a weekly thing for me. Because hey, I love photography, and I love contests. This is the best of both worlds!

Happy 4th of July!

I want to wish all my readers a happy and SAFE 4th of July. I hope everyone has a great time and stay safe. Remember all the people who have fought to defend our country and our freedom.

Birthday Bonanza! part 2

Last Saturday we had Buggy's first birthday party. It was a blast! We even got to have it in our new home. Now, mind you, we haven't moved in over there yet and there's still work to be done in the bedrooms and bathroom, however the living areas are complete. Thank the good Lord on that one people. I was going to be crushed if we didn't have her party there.

Anyway, I just got permission from my fabulous friend and photographer J. Halstead to post some of the pics she took from the party, so without further ado I present to you Buggy's First Birthday Party.


I made all the decorations for the party. We based the "theme" off of Buggy's party dress which was all polka dots in bright fun colors. So I made dots for everything. I made a super cute Happy Birthday banner out of coordinating dots and hung it on our "fireplace" in the living room where the party was held. Super cute, eh?

Then I made a banner with her month photos that I've taken. We started at a newborn photo and ended with her 1 year photos that I took a few weeks ago. I coordinated the colors of each dot to match the birthday banner. This was a big hit! Everyone loved looked at Buggy through the year.

And here's my Buggy before the party showing off her adorable dress, and the "theme" of the party.

We set up the dining room area as the food station. I had planned on making all the food for the party, but with starting up my own photography business and working on the house, well those plans kind of fell by the wayside. Publix however did a fantastic job! Ha!

Publix also made the birthday cake for the guests to match the theme (see the middle tier) and gave us a free smash cake for Buggy to dig in to.

Buggy had a BLAST opening her presents

But honestly, had more fun chowing down on her cake. The kid loved it! We put her in my old highchair from when I was a baby (the same for her cake smash on her actual birthday) and decorated it with matching balloons and polka dots in coordinating colors (I promise, I don't have a problem with coordinating haha)

then we let her go at it...

She even posed for a quick rare photo with mommy

Happy First Birthday Buggy! Mommy loves you!