Wednesday Love: Dr Seuss

Hello all! We don't have Internet at our house right now, so I'm having to do my blogging at school and I kept forgetting to bring my camera to school...until today!

I absolutely love Dr. Seuss! I grew up reading his books, we spend a whole week dedicated to him at school, and when Lucas was born, we signed up for a Dr. Seuss book club. We get 3 books sent to us each month, so it's increased his collection and increased his love for books! He absolutely adores them and crawls to his room on his own to get them off the shelf! I love it:)

When it was time to start thinking about his first birthday theme, there was nothing else that came to mind; it had to be Dr. Seuss!

Today, I'll show you the Welcome signs, the Welcome table, and the treat bag table! Tomorrow, I'll show the food and Friday, I'll show party pics!! It would be way too many pictures to show in one day:) I have to break it up!

Pinterest helped me and so did Etsy!!!

Here's what you saw when you first walked up. A "Welcome" sign and many Dr. Seuss characters peeking around the door inviting you in.



Immediately to your right after you walked in, I had a Welcome table. It had a "Welcome" picture, the picture of the invitation, and a "guest book". I had a little card on the table asking everyone to sign his book..."Oh the Places You'll Go". I think it will be fun to look at that book someday and remember everyone who came to the party!









Here was the treat table. Each child had a bag with their name on it. They could get one of each thing.







Cookies (made by my mother-in-law)



Erasers



Red Fish, Blue Fish soap



Pencils



and Pins

12 Months: A Recap

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, LUCAS RIAL MAXSON!!!!!
BORN JANUARY 13, 2011, AT 6:48A. YOU WEIGHED 7 LBS AND WERE 20 IN LONG!!!!

I can't believe today is your birthday:) It's amazing! We made it! A whole year:) My, how you've grown and changed! It has been so fun to witness! I will write your 12 month letter next week after your party has come and gone! I will also post pictures of the party next week.

Today, I'm going to highlight my favorite pictures from your past 11 letters!!!!

1 Month - I can't even imagine you being this little! It feels like such a blur:) You're just so tiny and you fit right under my chin:) So precious!



2 Months - Your first smile caught on camera! You loved it when I'd rub your lips with your burpcloth and make a funny noise:) You've been smiling ear-to-ear ever since!



3 Months - On your little mat:) You really started getting a personality this month and it was so sweet! You loved being on that and you really started grasping at things!!



4 Months - Your first little mohawk and you absolutely started loving your baths! You would just kick and splash and laugh so much:)



5 Months - Your first baseball game! Sad to say it wasn't a Cardinals...just Miami High School! But, you will be going to a lot of those over the years, so we thought we'd better get you used to it;)



6 Months - Your doctor's appointment when you were sitting up and realizing the paper on the bed! You absolutely loved crinkling it up:)



7 Months - Your first haircut! Since then, you've had 6 more! Daddy does them now, but your hair grows so fast:)



8 Months - Meeting your little cousin, Colt, for the first time! I know he lives so far away, but I hope you have a relationship like I do with my cousins:) I know you will love him!



9 Months - You started crawling! It was just an army crawl at first, but it definitely got you around...sometimes in places you didn't want to be:)



10 Months - Your first Halloween and you pulled up for the first time! You were the cutest little moo cow ever:)



11 Months - You started drinking whole milk and we stopped giving you bottles! You've done amazing with the transition and you now eat all people food! You aren't picky at all:) You will eat anything we give you! Haha:)



12 Months - I took this today at breakfast:) We made you pancakes and you absolutely loved them!



Can't wait to see how you like your party and the cake:) I'm sure I will have lots of stories to tell next week! Hope you liked this walk down memory lane:) It didn't make me tear up at all!!! ;)

One Year Ago (Part 3)

***Disclaimer***
I'm pretty sure only women read this post and I'm pretty sure most of these women have had babies, so I'm not going to hold anything back!! If not, sorry!!!

When I felt this strange sensation and ran to the bathroom, I didn't know what was happening! A little trickle of water was coming out, but nothing like I'd imagined. I always thought when your water breaks, it just gushes all over the floor. This was not happening for me, so I didn't know what to think.

I got up to leave our bedroom and go to my bathroom and Nick woke up. I told him I needed to change clothes and he asked me if I had wet my pants again;) Haha! You women that have been pregnant know that any little thing can make you wet your pants. This had happened to me on occasion:) Anyway, I told him I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure. He of course sat up quickly and started asking me questions. I changed clothes and got back into bed telling him I wanted to wait and see if it happened again. As soon as I got in bed, it happened again, so I rushed to the bathroom again!

At this point, I told Nick to go ahead and call the doctor to see what I should do. He called and asked the nurse if when your water breaks, can it just trickle? She said (from what I could tell hearing only Nick's side of it), "tell her to drink a glass of water and see if the baby moves". He was half-asleep and I was trickling a little more now and having a mild pain every 8 minutes, so I knew I didn't just need to pee. I was also concerned because she was asking if he was moving and I thought he was, but I couldn't really tell. She said, "if you think he's moving, you have a little time to get your things together, but go ahead and come on in and we'll check you out. If you don't feel him moving, you need to come right now". So, we were pretty freaked out!!!

I went ahead and changed clothes again because I was leaking pretty good at this point, put on a little mascara because I'm scary without it, and straightened my hair just a tad because I had taken a shower the night before and if I just blow-dry it and get in bed, it's wild!

We left the house at 1:30p. It had been an hour and a half since I first felt a trickle. We called our parents and told them to hang tight and we'd call again once we got to the hospital. My contractions were about 7 minutes apart by the time we got to Joplin (about 30 minutes away) and I was soaked through AGAIN!!!! As soon as I walked in, I passed the test and they told me I was definitely in labor! They checked me and I was dialated to a 4 1/2. We called our parents and told them to come on!!!

Then started the epidural ordeal. My nurse told me I could go ahead and get my epidural, but I wasn't hurting too bad, so I told her we could wait. FAMOUS LAST WORDS!!! She told me we'd just get my IV started and get the fluid emptied and we would see how I felt after that. Well, it took about 45 minutes and two nurses to get my IV in because they blew three veins! By this time, I was hurting! I was dialted to a 6 and my contractions were every 4-5 minutes! I needed that epidural. It didn't take long to empty the fluid and get my epidural going and by this time, it was about 4p and I was dialated to a 7!!!! My mom finally walked in, so I felt much better after that:)



I had a couple of hours of just relaxing and talking to family and being checked a million times and laying on my side to make everything was "thinned out". At 6a, they checked me and I was a 10...it was time!!!!

At 6:13a (I know because my mom took a picture of the computer) is when I started pushing and my little man came at 6:48a!!!! It was only 35 minutes, but it was hard, I threw up, and it was tiring!!! It was such a relief when he was finally here! I teared up and just couldn't believe what had just happened! The most amazing moment of my life:) He was 7 lbs and 20 in long! He had dark hair (which completely threw me off; I thought the whole time he'd be blonde)







What a time we've had since that moment! Laughs, tears, trying times, rewarding times, peaceful times, crazy times; but moment after moment filled with love and joy! I absolutely love being a mom, but not just any mom...Lucas' mom! It is the best job I've ever had!



Tomorrow I will highlight some of my favorite pictures from the past year!!!!!!!

One Year Ago (Part 2)

Sorry, for those that I kept hanging yesterday! Haha:) I didn't even know that many people read this thing;)

***Disclaimer***
I know Lucas' birthday is not til Friday this year, but in my mind, I remember the days. He was born on a Thursday, so when I talk about one year ago, tomorrow I will recount his birth story, but I know it's not his actual birthday? Does that make sense?? I wish his birthday was always on a Thursday because that's what I remember!!

Haha:)

Anyway, one year ago today I went to work as usual. I can't tell you anything exciting that happened at work that day, but I remember doing a lot of lesson planning. I had an aide that had been here with me three years, so she knew my routine. She would be in charge of my class during my maternity leave, so I didn't have to do a whole lot to get her ready. I had to write down my passwords and my sources for lesson plans and a few strange reminders, but other than that I knew she'd be fine, so I didn't have to do a whole lot. However, I did a lot of it that day.

When I got home, I remember feeling a little bit of pain, but nothing too crazy. I just remember thinking "I think I'm done with this. I wish I didn't have 12 more days before his due date". I wasn't overly uncomfortable (except for at night), but I just remember feeling "done". We had a normal dinner that night and we decided to deep clean the bathrooms and the kitchen that night, too. Don't ask me why? After we did that, Nick decided to take a picture of my bare belly. I hadn't taken any pictures during the whole pregnancy, because I just don't particularly care for those pictures, but Nick wanted one. I will never show this picture to anyone, k?!

At 10p as we got into bed, he said "Since you did all your packing yesterday, I'll do a little of mine right now". I don't know why he thought it necessary at 10p, but he threw a few things into a bag. He finally fell asleep at 11:30p, but I wasn't tired.

Right at midnight, I felt a strange sensation and jumped up to run to the bathroom!!!

One Year Ago

***Edit***
Go check out Whitney's giveaway!!!!


One year ago, Wyandotte didn't have school. It was a random Tuesdsay (January 11, 2011). It hadn't snowed a ton and no other schools were out, but we were. I didn't complain...I got to sleep in and clean house and I decided to pack my bag and Lucas'. He wasn't coming for another two weeks, but I decided to take advantage of the day off. I got all his clothes cleaned that weren't already, got the boppy and the carseat ready, made lists of papers we needed to bring to the hospital, made lists of people we needed to call, etc. I got a lot done!

That night I went to a basketball game in one of Nick's shirts that was too little;) I saw some of our family that we hadn't seen in awhile and just enjoyed being out of the house!

I took my "Week 38" picture that evening and went to bed. Nothing too out of the ordinary:)

Wednesday Love

Wednesday Love: Christmas Break

Since I had a two-week Christmas break, I took a two-week break from blogging too:) But, now I'm back on schedule!!!

I love Christmas break for many reasons. These are some of the main ones.

I love it because I got to spend every minute of every day with my two boys. It was wonderful to plan our days around OUR schedule and not a work schedule. It was nice to eat every meal together. It was nice to lounge in our jammies all day if we wanted:) Which we certainly did on occasion! My moments with these two pass so quickly; it was so nice to not miss out on a single one!



I love it because I was able to see my family for extended periods of time. We got to see our parents, our siblings (except Josh, Jana and baby Colt), our aunts, uncles, and cousins (not all, sadly enough) and spend a good amount of time with them:) We weren't rushed to get from one place to another and we got to laugh with them and introduce some of them to Lucas, which was so much fun!



I love it because I got to see what Christmas is like through a child's eyes! Everytime we would turn the tree lights on; everytime we would get a bell out of his Advent calendar; everytime we would sing a Christmas song; everytime we would read "The Night Before Christmas"; everytime we would read the Nativity story; everytime we would unwrap a gift with him; the look on his face was priceless! I know this will get more and more exciting as the years go on, but it was wonderful! The pure joy and innocence and just him taking it all in was almost too much for this new mommy to handle!!



I love that I got to see my girlfriends (except Erin; missed you!) and eat lunch with them! We got to hear exciting news and share in each other's heartaches too. I love these girls and I'll cherish every lunch I get to spend with them!



I love how I got to treat my home as the haven it is. I was able to keep it clean, keep the laundry done and keep hot meals on the table; without rushing home after school and trying to do it all! We got to organize and rearrange and enjoy our space!



I love that we got to spend a lot of time teaching Lucas. He's getting so big and we don't want to miss out on any milestone! We switched to whole milk; we were there through his first cold; we were there to practice standing and walking; we were there to practice saying words and learn silly hand motions; we were there.



And I love that I have a job that gives me breaks such as these. I love teaching and I love my students, bu it's hard work and it's frustrating at times, and we are rewarded with breaks! That's definitely not my most favorite part of the job, but it sure makes it a lot easier:)

Wednesday Love

Oh I was doing so good! But here I am finally on my break and I'm late again;) oh well!!

My love this week is:
Brown Paper Packages Tied up With String

That's how I wrapped my Christmas presents this year!








I bought brown paper in the "postal" section at wal-mart and jute to tie it up with.

I was really happy with the way they turned out. So simple! I also tied them all different ways.

Here are a few examples









And I already showed you the homemade tags. Now I'm ready for everyone to tear into them:)

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