Cars Birthday

I was going through old files today and found a ton of pictures that I never posted!! So I will start with Will's 2nd Birthday Party. We did "Cars" since that is his all time favorite thing ever. I found most of these ideas on Pinterest and just tweaked them to add our own touch. Here was the set up:

I had the idea to make the food labels on black paper with neon markers to make it look like all the signs in the movie. It turned out really cute. I also came up with most of the ideas for the food:

Flo's V8 cafe- V8 Juice

Sarge's Surplus Hut- Plates, Knives, Forks etc.

Piston Cup Trophy- Gold Cups

Fillmore's Organic Fuel- Veggie Cups

Cozy Cone- Ice cream Cones

Luigi's Casa Dela Tires- Doughnuts

Ramone's Art Shop (not pictured)- Puzzles that the kids could color, tattoos

Saw this Sprinkle Cake on Pinterest and just loved it. I hate baking... so I thought it was kind of a pain in the buns... but it turned out really cute. William loves, loves, LOVES the birthday song:

Yet another Pinterest find... you can't really see the actual pictures, but his 2 year old pictures were taken by Papa's old cars and his mustang. Pretty cute. We also made a "road" that lead guests from the driveway into the kitchen. I will need to find those pictures. I made him a "Cars" banner too. 

 William really enjoyed his party. Thanks to all the family that showed up, spent time with us and spoiled William with gifts! He is one lucky boy. Happy Birthday my little man!

On his birthday we took him to City Creek Mall and shopped at the Disney store and ate at the Cheesecake Factory. We had a great time spoiling our boy. 

Here's to 2013!

I hate wishing my life away... but, I am glad that 2012 is over. I can honestly say that was the hardest year of my whole life. I just want it behind me. So here is to 2013 being a better year!!

We started off the year by spending some time as a family at the aquarium. William had a blast! His favorites were the otters, the penguins, the jellyfish and the reef. He even touched a stingray, starfish and a baby shark! It was fun to go as a family and see William enjoy the fish. (I didn't take any pictures because of course the camera was full and I didn't know it!)

In other William news... I have found so many great ideas for his room, the playroom (in progress soon) and just all sorts of kid things on PInterest. I have seen these rain gutter bookshelves a million times and just LOVE the idea. So this is the space we had to work with in his room:

And thanks to Scott for all his cutting and posting... here are the infamous rain gutter book shelves! I absolutely love them and so does William. This is his favorite spot. He loves grabbing all the books off the shelves and sitting in his cars chair (that he got for Christmas from Grammy & Pop Pop) and reading. I seriously find him in here all the time just taking it easy. So whoever thought this up and posted it all over Pinterest: THANK YOU!!

1 year

I can't believe that my baby is 1 year old... where does the time go!??? Honestly! I have been planning and preparing for this party for a few months now and I am glad I did! There were so many cute details and good food! I better get all the Special THANKS out there right now because I couldn't have done this party without all the help I received! Thanks Aunt Bri and Kylee!! You girls always help me so much and I don't know what I would do without you. I love you!! Thanks to my Mom and Mother-in-Law for bringing so much food and tables and chairs and EVERYTHING. Thank you Kim for decorating William's smash cake. It was perfect!! Thanks to my man for letting me go a little crazy on everything and for helping out with all the grilling, setting up, and watching the baby while we do it all! Thank you to everyone who showed up and brought gifts!! You are all seriously the BEST!

My Best Friends:

Without further adieu... the Birthday BOY!!! MY Sock Monkey!! :)

I made him lots of decorations for the festivities. Here is his Sock Monkey wreath. I found this online and copied a blog (that I have failed to find the link to since I did this so long ago.... whoops). And thanks to Aunt Colleen for the PERFECT Sock Monkey to complete the wreath. He is holding a sign that says "William".

I wish I could take credit for this adorable sign... but alas I can not. I found this on Etsy. And how adorable is it??? Added the perfect touch to our party.

The girls and I put this together for everyone to see how much William has changed over the last year. We did one picture from the day he was born and one picture for every month until his 12 month pictures. We put little sock monkeys and the month on each picture. Everyone loved to see all his pictures!

We also made these center pieces for the tables. I bought some tall red cups, filled them with rocks, and used skewer sticks to tie the balloons to. I had to search every Target in the area to find matching baby Sock Monkeys for this. But it was worth it.

Here is his gift table... he is not spoiled at all!! ;) Again- thank you to everyone who brought him a gift. He is SO loved!!

Here is the smash cake. My sister-in-law Kim is SUPER talented at decorating cakes. So she was nice enough to drive down from Idaho to join us at the party and to decorate Will's cake. I think it turned out just perfect!!

Here are the cupcakes that we made as well! I saw these on Pinterest (of course!! I see EVERYTHING on Pinterest). How stinkin' cute are they!? I know they are not sock monkey... but they were still super cute and soooo yummy. I did NOT follow the recipe from Pinterest... we made our own cupcakes and I used my Sister-in-Laws recipe for the chocolate frosting. We just borrowed the instructions for decorating them on Pinterest. One word of advice if you ever want to make these for a party or gathering: Make them the night BEFORE. That way the vanilla wafers are soft. They were SOOOO much better the day after the party, cause we made them the morning of the party. I wish I would have known that!

He was so excited to see his cake and he was all smiles while everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. He really likes being the center of attention :)

He knew to dig right in!! He seriously ate tons of his cake. I should have stopped him sooner because he had a tummy ache that night. I just felt bad spoiling his fun. Look at how much he enjoyed that cake!

We had a big BBQ that included:
Hot Dogs &  Hamburgers from Snyder's in Salt Lake (The BEST!!)
Lots of Salads, Jello, Fruit, Chips and Lemon Water that the family all brought (Thanks Guys!!)


For Dessert we had:
Monkey Cupcakes (Shown Above)
Tres Leches Cake (that I made. I found a recipe online and it is to DIE for)
Strawberry Dream Cake (found on AllRecipes.com)
Banana Flavored Creamies
Chocolate Dipped Frozen Bananas (from Target)


Here are my favorite 12 month pictures of him (We went to the University Mall again. I really like that place).

He is the best baby I could ever ask for. He is so sweet, smart and fun! Thanks again to everyone who helped out and attended William's First Birthday! Love you Will!! Happy Birthday!!!

The 4th

Here are the best boys in the WHOLE world.... Aren't they so handsome in their matching Captain America gear??? Love it!!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Independence Day! I love this country and the people who sacrifice so much to protect us. We are so blessed to live in this beautiful land.