1st Birthday!

Today I am sick and miserable with some sort of mutant awful cold! I should be at work but instead I am laying in bed listening to the sounds of my wonderful husband playing with Conrad this morning. I can hear Conrad's cheerful voice and he sure has a lot to say today! Since I'm bummed that I'm stuck here in bed I thought I'd take the opportunity to blog a little. (Sleep is not working out so well). This is also my preface with the hopes that you will ignore any typos/incoherent sentences on account of my illness!

To the real topic though: Conrad had his 1st birthday!! It's hard to believe how fast the time has flown. He has been the most amazing baby that a mom could have asked for. We prayed for the blessing of a child for so long and, little did we know, God was just taking His time forming this perfect son for us. He loves to play and is slowly becoming more and more independent. He is a natural born dancer and begins to dance the moment he hears a beat. He makes a sound of sheer delight when he sees his Chloe in the mornings. He has become a hugger which I just can't get enough of. Since the day he was born, Shawn and I have bragged endlessly about what a good baby he is and it's really true. We have just been so blessed with his amazing, sweet personality and easy going attitude.

To celebrate his birthday, we had a party here at the house. It was such a nice day and turned out to be beautiful weather (a nice surprise for November). I had so much fun planning the party and thinking about all the details. It all came together nicely and Conrad had a great time! The theme was aqua and red with some elephants. It all started with this cake I found on here on Pinterest that I loved. Isn't it just adorable?

A woman that I used to work with now stays home and has started a little cake business "Next Door Neighbor Cakes". I asked her to make a two-tiered cake similar to the one above and here it is:

Conrad loved the cake. We weren't sure how he would do or if he would even know he was supposed to eat it but he dove right in! He probably would have eaten the entire cake if we let him. 

I had a lot of fun making the decorations and food.  I made all of the decorations with the exception of the adorable mantle banner. It has pictures from each of his month birthdays. I think it is just the cutest and it matched everything perfectly. Thanks Etsy! I was pretty proud of my crafting skills for the other decorations. My favorite is the high chair banner I made.

Conrad had a fun time opening presents. We were blessed to have our families there to celebrate with us and   Conrad's godfather with his wife. They were all so generous and Conrad had a great time with all the wrapping and tissue paper! 

Since it was such a nice day out, we made sure to get outside and play a little bit. This was Conrad's favorite part of the party. He loves playing with his cousins!

And just a few more pictures because you can never have too many, right?

And, here is his last month birthday tie picture. 

Can you believe it!? I truly cannot. My big boy is already a year old and is now walking! He is quickly moving on to being a toddler (whether I'm ready for it or not). He is honestly becoming a little crazy with his new found independence but we have loved every stage getting here! Happy Birthday to my sweet baby boy!

Down on the Farm

Not the kind of farm you're thinking!  A pumpkin picking farm! Okay, yes, I know it's almost Christmas and I'm posting about Halloween but I'll try to catch up soon! Each year we like to go to the pumpkin patch and choose our own pumpkins. We usually like to go to Stuckey Farms. Last year we tried a different one and it just wasn't the same so this year we returned, and with baby in tow! Looking back at some pictures I came across this picture from last year. It's hard to believe how much has changed in just a year's time. 

We had the perfect day in October this year for going out to the patch. The weather was nice and warm (50s-60s) and sunny. It takes us about 45 minutes to get there but it's worth the drive. There's a little farm store that we like to go through when we first get there. It has pies, apples, baking mixes, and anything that can be canned. We took the wagon out the patch and Conrad loved it. He was a little unsure at some of the bumpy parts but was brave and loved looking around. 

 He loved the bins of little pumpkins. It's like he knew they were just his size. I'm sure he would have taken every one of them out if he could have because he loves emptying drawers, bins, baskets, you name it!

 He did a great job picking which pumpkins he liked. The thing he liked more than the actual pumpkins though were the vines he found on the ground. He would lift them above his head and then try to reattach them to the pumpkin. We had such a wonderful time as a family and ended the trip with a little apple cider slushy- YUM!

For Halloween, I decided I had to make Conrad's costume. With this being his first Halloween, him being my only child, and me claiming to be a master seamstress it seemed like that was the only choice. Well, I'm glad I did but, wow, it was a lot of work. I decided on an owl after looking for some inspiration on pinterest. 

 We went to my sister's neighborhood to go Trick-or-Treating with the girls. They all looked adorable together. It was nice to spend time with them, as always, and to see them dressed up. We only went to a few houses since it was freezing and I felt neglectful since he couldn't really wear a coat with his outfit.

As you can see here Trick-or-Treating is not really intended for babies anyway as he tries to stuff a wrapped Reese's in his mouth!

 Afterward, we went home and passed out candy at our own house while Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Josh came over to play and see his costume. He was amazing and kept the entire outfit on the whole time! I thought for sure those wings would be off and the hat would be destroyed. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out and of course Conrad made the cutest owl I've ever seen :)

Fall is in the air...

So much has happened since my last post the I don't even know where to begin! We are officially into fall now and enjoying the beautiful colors that come with it. The weather has definitely been colder than we hoped for but we're enjoying the nice days that we do get. Looking back at our pictures, I came across this one from August:

I can't believe I didn't already share about the Race Across Hamilton County! It was one of the coolest experiences Shawn and I have had in a long time (okay, ever)! It is based on the reality show "The Amazing Race" which we love to watch. I could go on talking about it for days but in short it was a 12 hr day of fun challenges at 5 different parks throughout the county. Some the challenges were physical, some were mental, luckily only one was eating! 40 teams of two participated (couples, parents, friends, etc) of all different ages. We placed 20th overall which we were happy with. It was an awesome day to just spend time together doing something so unique. We were exhausted by the end of the day (and the next day too). We met some other nice couples throughout the race and hope to see them again next year (we will be back)! We also turned out the be celebrities and were featured in the local paper and the Indianapolis Star. I am so thankful to have such a fun husband that thought this was as great as I did and made such a wonderful teammate!

We've also celebrated several birthdays. September is the month of birthdays around here! Most notably, Shawn had a birthday which we celebrated by having a nice date night to his favorite, Sapporo's. I made a cake which I was pretty proud of the decorating. We celebrated with cake and ice cream after our date with his family who were nice enough to watch the baby (not that we had a twist their arms)! 

Conrad has also had a few month "birthdays" go by. One of the things I look forward to every month is to take his new month picture with his tie sticker. Now that he is so mobile it is becoming more and more of a challenge but I am always able to get one good shot. He is so smiley and fun that it's hard not to like the silly ones too. Here are how many of them turn out:

 He just cracks me up! But in the end (after about 20 bloopers) we get some sweet ones too!

I mean seriously! Just look at that smile! Doesn't he just melt your heart? Also if you look closely, you can see that we have our first (and now second) tooth! 

Some of the things that I love most about fall are the foods! I actually love to eat pumpkin year round but eat even more during the fall. Apples also fall into that category. We recently had a photo shoot at an apple orchard in Danville. We got some really great pictures! The weather was perfect and Conrad was so cooperative and adorable! We are still waiting on those picture to come but I was able to take one in the orchard that I just love.

Since we were there, we went through their little shop and bought a few things (also a favorite fall activity). One of the things we got was a half peck of Jonalicious apples. This apparently is a hybrid of Jonathan and Red Delicious apples. I wasn't sure if I wanted to make apple pie, apple sauce, or apple butter. Then, I came across this recipe on Pinterest and decided on apple butter. Well I'm glad I did because it is delicious! It took a surprising amount of work. Mostly the peeling is what really took up time and I've decided I need one of those counter-top peelers that just spin the apple.

You know how when you are watching just about any cooking show they like to talk about how important consistent knife cuts are? Well, it turns out that luckily it doesn't matter much when making apple butter in the crock pot but I could still hear Tom Colicchio and Anne Burrell in my head as I compared these pieces.

I just threw the apples in the crock pot with the spices overnight and wow did it smell amazing! In the morning I blended them in the blender for just a few seconds and voila, perfect apple butter! We had it on English muffins and even Conrad tried some and liked it! I think next time I will try pumpkin butter.