Jonah's 1st Birthday Party - Invitations, Decorations, and Food

For Jonah's first birthday, we decided to host a baseball-themed party with just our extended family in our new home. We had the party on the Saturday before his actual birthday, which was on a Thursday.

For invitations, I created these adorable baseball cards using a free app on my phone.

However, I am terrible at actually getting things in the mail, so I ended up just handing the cards out at the party for guests to take home. (And invited everyone by word of mouth or text.)

I set up a "Snack Bar" in the breakfast nook with nachos, hot dogs, peanuts, cracker jacks, and popcorn.

Obviously, this was taken before the food was served

I set up the desserts on the island in the kitchen (and ended up moving the peanuts and cracker jacks over there, too).

Smash cake by our dear friend, Mrs. Kim

I created a little cake smashing station of sorts in the dining room (which turned out to be a bit useless, but more on that later...)

Most of my ideas and decorations came from Pinterest and Etsy. It was a wonderful party and a great day, which I will go into more detail about in my next post!

We're back!

Hello again! Darren recently mentioned to me that he missed reading my blog updates. Since I have a little more free time these days, I thought I would start posting again.

We've gone through some major changes since my last update, including building and moving into a new house, and adding a new baby to the family! I plan to do individual posts to catch up on the past few years, so for now, here are a few recent pictures of the family.

Jonah Robert Norris joined our family on February 12, 2014

Dakoda and Sarah Kate love their baby brother!

Darren and his boys

Love my babies!

Picking pumpkins

Before the kids Christmas program at school

Jonah Robert Norris

In June 2013, we got the surprise of our lives when we discovered that we were expecting another baby. After the initial shock wore off, we were very excited. We toyed with the idea of waiting until the birth to find out the gender...but who am I kidding - I am not that patient! We found out early on that we were expecting another baby boy! 

My pregnancy was not an easy one. I was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 35 weeks and put on bed rest with twice weekly visits to my OB for ultrasounds, non-stress tests, and lab work. On February 12, 2014, I woke up with a terrible headache. My blood pressure was quite high, even after I took my medication, so my doctor decided that we had waited long enough and it was time to deliver. I called Darren and told him to leave work because it was baby day!

We arrived at the hospital around 2 pm and the labor and delivery team was ready and waiting for us. My doctor was in a hurry because they were calling for a snow storm, and it had already begun to fall. In less than an hour, I was being wheeled into the operating room, and Jonah Robert was born via repeat c-section at 3:40 pm. Right away I heard his sweet little cry, followed by my doctor saying, "Oh my gosh, he's huge!" She had been worried about his size since I was only 37 weeks, but he was a whopping 8 lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long! We are so happy and thankful to have him in our family!

Welcome to the world and to our family, Jonah Robert Norris!

Christmas Card 2010

Thank you everyone for your votes and input! I took all of your opinions into account and I think I found a happy medium that combined my favorite elements from each card. Here is the finished product, and our official 2010 Christmas card!

Family Wall Red Christmas Card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

One of my favorite things about Christmas-time is receiving cards from friends and family. And my absolute favorite cards to receive are ones with photos! It is so fun to see how everyone's family is growing and changing each year. If you have never considered doing a photo card, this is a great year to start!

For the past two years, I have ordered my Christmas cards from Shutterfly. They have a wide variety of designs and options to choose from. For example, you can choose to use anywhere from one photo, to five or six photos on your card! You can also choose between flat or folded cards, whether to print them on cardstock or photo paper, and whether you prefer a glossy or matte finish. You also have three different size options -- 5x7, 4x8, or 5x5. But my favorite thing of all about this site is that they have an option to fit every budget!

Last year I just could not make up my mind on which design I liked best. I knew that I wanted a 5x7 card, and I knew what color combination I wanted, but I just couldn't decide between these two, very different designs.

So what do you think I did?

I ordered some of each, of course! :)

This year I am once again torn, but I don't want to order two different designs again. I strained my brain way too much agonizing over which recipient got which card.

So I would like to enlist your help in choosing between these two.

Here is option number 1.

And option number 2!

Leave me a comment and let me know which of this year's options you like best! And be sure to head on over to check out all of the beautiful and affordable card and invitation designs that Shutterfly has to offer!

Oh, and if you are still looking for a great Christmas gift, check out another of my favorite Shutterfly products, their customizable photo calendar!

Oakdale Homecoming, Date Night, and Prayers Needed!

Friday night we attended the Oakdale High School homecoming game. Though the game did not end as we wanted it to - they fought hard, but ultimately lost to Sunbright - the kids had a great time. Dakoda was very into the game and spent most of the night standing at the fence with his Papaw. He always wants to be as close to the action as possible! Sarah Kate was not very interested in what was happening on the field, but she had a lot of fun watching the cheerleaders and playing with some other little girls that were there, Taylor Smith, Rhylan Hicks and Neve Adkisson. I wasn't able to get any pictures of Dakoda, but here are a few of Sarah Kate and her friends. They were playing "ring around the rosie."

On Saturday, Darren's parents cooked a big country breakfast, with biscuits and gravy, bacon, fried potatoes and eggs. It was so yummy! Then we came home and watched the UT game while the kids napped. After the game, Darren went outside to mow the lawn while the kids and I played together. Then we took the kids to spend the night with their grandparents while we had a date night. We used our movie tickets that I bought a couple of weeks ago and went to see "My Soul to Take" in real 3D. (Not my choice, if you were wondering!) Here is a picture of Darren and I in our 3D glasses. It was taken with my phone, so the quality isn't great.

While we were in the movie, we got a phone call from my mom with some very bad news. My grandfather and his girlfriend were in a very bad car accident near Huntsville, AL on Saturday morning. His girlfriend did not make it and my grandfather was badly injured. He sustained a head injury, broken rib, broken arm, broken sternum and his back was broken in two places. As of today, he is still in ICU at Huntsville Hospital and has not yet regained consciousness. We are very hopeful that he is going to pull through, but only the Lord knows his plan. Please keep him and my family in your prayers during this difficult time. We very much appreciate it.

Wordless Wednesday