Cock-a-doodle doo, Garrett is two!

Garrett loves animals, especially horses. Everything needs to be a horsey. I decided to throw him a "Barnyard Bash" with all the fun barn animals and especially horses. We were so blessed to have 30 of our family and friends to help celebrate Garrett's birthday. It was the best party I have ever thrown. It was very fun, relaxed and stress free. My sweet mother came over the day before to help me prep all the food for the party. She was such a tremendous help, I got almost all of the food prepped & that evening Eric and I cleaned, then decorated. The morning of, all I had to do was plate everything and make the drinks.

The party started at 10am, so I opted to do 3 rounds of food instead of having it all at the same time, which really was a great idea & cut down on the stress of needing everything ready at the same time. I had a veggie tray, fruit tray & chips n' dip for the apps. Pigs n' a blanket, Bar-B-Que beef sandwhiches, turkey tortilla roll-ups and peanut butter and jelly roll-ups were the main course with sides of cowboy beans and pasta salad.

I put bandannas on the pitchers to "cowboy" them up!

I was really happy with all of the decorations I found. These party hats are adorable. The favor bags consisted of a little 10-page coloring book that matched the bag, a barn animal, a whistle, cowboy type stickers, and a fun dip :)

This was the centerpiece for the table so the kids could play with it.

We had 3 activities for the kids to do, this bean bag toss game pictured above. Balloons w/ animal face stickers (pig, cow & chicken) for the kids to blow up and decorate. The balloons were a HUGE hit, I forgot to take a picture but the kids decorated and played w/ them for at least 20 minutes. The third activity was planting seeds like a farmer. We got little clay pots, soil & flower seeds for them to plant and take home. They really enjoyed this and it was a nice touch that went along with the theme.

Here's Garrett eating lunch with his cousins, Lemon & Sparrowe. He was so happy, this was probably the best day of his life :)

Here's my best-friend's girls, Reagan & Mati playing in the tunnels. Unfortunately this is one of the only pictures I got of the backyard ambiance. It looked so good & the kids were super excited about it. We has hay bales out for them to play on, a picnic blanket, a slide, a child sized 4-wheeler, tunnels, etc.

So here is the main event, the cake! I was so pleased with the way it all came out, not to mention it tasted delicious. The red barn cake was chocolate & the animal cupcakes were white cake, both with cream cheese frosting. I had 8 cupcakes of each animal, pigs, sheep & chicks. I used mini-marshmallows for the sheep and I food colored coconut for the chicks. I am so glad I made it myself, I almost bought one at the store because I was afraid I would mess it up.

Garrett loved everyone singing to him, he's such a ham! One of the kids blew out the candles for him, so I had to relight them quickly so he could do it himself, we have been practicing.

We got Garrett his first tricycle. It is Mickey Mouse and it plays music sings songs, lights up, just perfect for Garrett.

Yee Haw! My parents got him this horse. Oh my goodness was he thrilled. He bounced forever.

But, his favorite gift of the day was this skateboard & helmet. He has been asking me for a skateboard since he was 18 mo. & a helmet since about 21 mo. He played with it all afternoon, we couldn't get him to go outside with us, and he went to bed an hour late.

We had such a fabulous day w/ all the people who love us and our son. It was a great day & I feel truly blessed.

Garrett's 1st Birthday!

This is a little late, I took a week off from using the computer. I've been so busy that I needed a break.

We celebrated Garrett's birthday on Saturday, May 9th, at our house. All of our closest family and friends came over. It was such a fun day! Since Garrett loves water so much, I decided to have a water party. I bought him a water table & the most adorable baby pool that you hook up to the hose and it has little sprinklers that shoot out.

Since the AZ sun is so bright and hot, my smart husband Eric, set up our camping gazebo so the kids wouldn't get sunburned. Inside the gazebo on the right is Garrett standing up playing at the water table. To the left is the pool with Quincy (Candida's baby) and Tyler (Christina's baby). Quincy absolutely loved the little pool and was swimming around like a fish. Tyler was a bit unsure about the pool and got out pretty quickly.

Ezra loved helping Garrett play in the water table. He thought it was pretty great :)

Grandma Zalot (my mom) is helping Garrett play with the sprinklers in the pool. He was so funny, he kept trying to grab the shooting water.


This picture is a little fuzzy because it is taken through the gazebo, but I thought Garrett looked so old.

Garrett is so happy to help rip open his presents. He got so many cute new outfits, books & some really great toys. He had the best time of his life. He never stopped smiling the whole day!


A family pic, we didn't get too many, we were so busy with the festivities.


This picture is hilarious. So I put the cake out in front of him and he just looked at me not knowing what to do. I stabbed it with a spoon to get him going and he ate the spoon a bit, then he decided to touch the cake. He didn't like the way it felt but he wanted to eat it, so he decided to just dig in with his face! He was eating it like a dog, we all were cracking up. Eric took some great video of it I can't wait to watch it over and over each year :) . It was such a happy day for all of us, my baby is now a toddler, look out world!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yup it happened, yesterday I turned 30 (yuck)! I will quickly get over myself and focus on the positive :) I had such a wonderful day filled will love, family, friends & blessings.

I awoke to a kiss and a present from my husband... a gift certificate for a massage and eyebrow wax, YES! He already had the coffee brewing and eggs awaiting. Then we had a nice lunch planned. Eric met Garrett and I at Red Robin, where I had a coupon for a FREE Gourmet Burger from their B-day Club & a coupon to get a FREE Cold Stone Creamery ice cream next door. Since Eric met me from work he was in his uniform, as our lunch was ending our waitress came over to tell us that a couple had paid for our meal! Then the couple came over and told Eric "Thank you," for his service. What a blessing to us!

Here is Garrett, enjoying his very first taste of ice cream at Red Robin! They also gave him a balloon, which turned into hours of fun.

Later that night, my parents came over to babysit Garrett so that Eric could take me out to dinner. When we got to the restaurant, Buca di Beppo, all of my friends were sitting at the table! My sweet husband had been planning a surprise party for me for weeks! He even had a special pink cake made for me ! That really helped the whole 30 yr. depression (lol) go away :) It was a great night.

What an amazing and thoughtful man God placed in my life to set all of this up for me. I am truly blessed!