Happy Birthday, Carter!

Yesterday, my precious nephew turned ONE! I can't believe he is already ONE! He has been such a JOY to watch grow up this past year, and I can't wait for many, many more!! He is my favorite little guy!!

To celebrate his first birthday, I wanted to make something really special for him. He lives in Austin, and none of his family lives close to him. (One set of grandparents and I live in Dallas, one aunt/uncle in Tulsa, another aunt/uncle in Chicago, an uncle in Tuscaloosa, and other set of grandparents in Birmingham.) He also has family members that have gone on before him that he won't get the chance to meet. Being a reader teacher, I decided I wanted to make him something that could help him learn his ABCs.... as well as his family members at the same time!

I looked on pinterest and found a bunch of ABC wooden blocks that people made with scrapbook paper. I liked the idea, but I wanted it to be more personal. So I did something similar...

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought 1 1/2 inch wooden blocks and a wooden box. I painted the blocks all different colors and put one letter on one side of each block. Then I put someone's name that corresponds with each letter.... so for example, the H block has "Aunt Heather" written on the opposite side. Then the remaining four sides have pictures of me! I printed the pictures on my computer and then mod podged them on to the blocks. (It was a LOT of pictures!!) I did this for every block. Some blocks don't represent a particular family member, but just have pictures of him with family members. I put numbers on those blocks so that he could learn numbers too. I then painted the box with family quotes and put the blocks inside! Below are pictures of the blocks! I am obsessed with how it turned out!

ABC Letters! (I made a Z.... I have no idea how it didnt end up in the picture!)

Numbers

Grandparents Names

Some of the pictures of his grandparents and great grandparents!

Aunts and Uncles

Some pictures of his aunts and uncles!

ALL the blocks!

Two of the quotes on the box!

What the box looks like when you open it!

After creating the blocks, I went on shutterfly and made this ABC book to go along with it! Each letter is again about a family member or something to do with him and it's filled with pictures! I also wrote a poem for each letter. Here is the link to the book! I love love love this book so much!

I love love love how this present turned out! It's so personal and I think it's something he will play with and read for a long time! Happy first birthday, Carter!

A Perfect Weekend!

This past weekend was the last weekend before summer vacation! And oh my, it was an absolutely perfect one!

Right after school on Friday, we had the 8th grade dance. I had been working for weeks on decorations, and I think it turned out pretty cute! We did a Hollywood theme, and I think the kids enjoyed it. It's always funny to watch your kids dancing around the lunchroom, so we had a good time!
                           
Friday night, I had some much needed friend time with Ian! I am so blessed by Ian's friendship! We went to dinner and then hung out at his house, chatted about life, and enjoyed some wine. It was the perfect end to a crazy busy week!
                             
Saturday I ran around all day running errands. Then that night, we threw a surprise dinner for Mary's birthday! She had no idea, and it was so fun! We ate at Mattito's in Uptown, ate some Gigi's cupcakes, and spent the whole dinner laughing our heads off. I swear, I have the best friends in the world.
                             
After dinner, Matthew and I headed to the movies to see "Now You See Me".... it was a really interesting movie! It had a lot of twists in it that I wasn't expecting. You have to pay attention to the entire thing, or else you get really lost. I'm not sure Matt enjoyed it... I caught him snoozing a few times! HA! But I think he was just really tired. At least that's what I'm going to tell myself. :)

On Sunday, I went to church. After the service, I headed to Matt's house. We then went to his parent's house to spend the afternoon with his family celebrating his dad's birthday. I really enjoyed my time there. It was a sweet time together! After lunch, we went back to his house and spent a lazy Sunday together. We watched a lot of Netflix, napped a little, and just hung out. Then we grabbed dinner and hung out some more. By the time I went home, I was exhausted. How is it possible to be exhausted when you didn't do anything all day? I don't know! Ha!

Overall, it was a perfect weekend. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Now it's time to spend this last week with my babies before I send them off to highschool! Summer is SO close, yall!!!

YOMDA

YOMDA! You Only Memorial Day Annually!

Oh my, I am so blessed with amazing friendships with incredible, Godly women! Six of my girlfriends and I headed down to San Antonio Friday morning for a little girls weekend!

We stopped at the Czech Stop on the way out of town. There is nothing like their Kolaches! It was a great way to kick off a great weekend! We later stopped in San Marcos on the way and did some outlet shopping! There is a VERA BRADLEY OUTLET there. OMG. If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with Vera! I went a little crazy in there! After shopping, we headed to San Antonio and got settled into our apartment... which was an old jail house. It was awesome!

Czech Stop!

Cali and I at dinner at Rosario's!

That night we went to dinner at Rosario's! The food was incredible! After that, we went to Target to pick up some stuff we left. I was asleep by 10:00 that night... party animal! The shopping must have really worn me out!

Saturday morning we headed to Guenther House for brunch. OHMYWORD. Can I just say... it was the most amazing meal of my life. And the coffee?? I've never tasted coffee that was so delicious.

It was amazing! After brunch, we went back to the hotel. Then we headed to the Alamo! I was so excited about seeing the Alamo. I taught Texas history two years ago and have wanted to go see it ever since! It was really neat to be there. After the Alamo, we went to the river walk and enjoyed margaritas at Rita's. They were delicious! After that, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant on the river walk, but I don't remember the name of it! Then we visited La Villiata and just enjoyed the beautiful evening by walking around San Antonio! We ended the night by getting ice cream. It was a fun day!

The gang at the Alamo!

The gang in La Villiata!

This man sang Mary "Happy Birthday" at HH!

Hanging out on the River Walk!

With Mary on the Riverwalk!

With Amy on the river walk!

This margarita was from Rita's and it was amazing!

Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel. Then we got ready and had lunch at Acenar! After that, we walked to the mexican market down the street. It was a really neat place, but the best part was stopping to get margaritas at a restaurant there... but I don't remember the name of it! I obviously had way too many margaritas this weekend! Ha! Then we went back to the hotel for naps. After naps, we got ready and headed to the river walk for a boat tour! I was so excited about the boat tour and it didn't disappoint! After the boat tour, we had dinner at The Republic of Texas, which is on the river walk. After that, we headed to Howl at the Moon, which is a piano bar downtown. We had so much fun there ringing in Mary's birthday!

At happy hour with Sarah!

Pictures from our River walk tour!

I painted my nails during nap time!

On the boat tour!

Margaritas with Mary!

Mary and I weren't very good at nap time. We took a bunch of ridiculous pictures instead!

With Amy at Happy hour!

With Sarah about to go on the boat tour!

Mary got a birthday dessert at dinner!

The Piano bar!

At happy hour with Mary!

No, I didn't pay for this to go on the board. I loved it being there though!

With Mary about to go on our boat tour!

Monday, we got up and headed home! Before we headed out of town, we stopped back at the Guenther House to get breakfast to go. We had some more of that delicious coffee, and I got an amazing (and huge) cinnamon roll to go! We then stopped in San Marcos to go back to the Vera store. (I'm obsessed. I bought the cutest suitcase for CHEAP!) We stopped in Waco for lunch at Newk's, and then it was back to Dallas!

Yea, I was only able to eat a fourth of this. Ha

I saved $200 on this thing!!

I spent the afternoon doing laundry and going grocery shopping. I even grilled out some hot dogs for myself! Then I met Matt for a movie. We saw Furious 6, and it was pretty good! My favorite part was holding his hand and ending my weekend with him, though. :)

This was definitely a memorial day for the history books! We had SO MUCH FUN! I am so blessed with the people in my life! They are all incredible!

(To see everyone's pictures from the weekend, go to instagram and look up #yomda)