Party Rockin'

Two reasons for the blog title:

1.  Funny school story (or at least I think it's funny... sometimes teachers are in their own little funny world):  One of my dear, sweet, resourceful, creative, honest students tried to pull a fast one on my colleague last week.  He showed up to his sociology class about 25 minutes late with a tardy note from "me"  It said: "Mr. Henry, please excuse ______ (will leave guilty party nameless), he was party rockin in my classroom.  Thanks, Mrs. Dolan.  I am pretty sure Mr. Henry couldn't even try to hide his laughter.  When he came to my room to tell me about it we both had a very good giggle about it (if ________ ever finds out we laughed about it, I will deny I ever said this).  I quickly sent him a text and said: "Mr. __________, first of all when have I ever used the term "party rockin" as I am not a member or groupie of the singing sensation LMFAO and second, you must be terrible at forging my signature because Mr. Henry is not an idiot and figured it out right away."   When I received the apology text later that evening I am 100% sure his mother was the driving force of the sorry text.  When I tell people I just meet that I teach high schoolers, they lean their head to the side, nod their heads and say "Wow, I just don't know how you do it!"  I think in my head "I just don't know how I couldn't do it", my students are soooo sooooo soooo funny.  

2.  There have been lots of things/people to celebrate lately:

• M's cruising furniture
• I wiggled, tugged, pulled myself into some pre-baby jeans...keep updating those blogs!
• Colors Day is looonngg gone
• My parents are back from Australia
• Andrew has a new position at work that he seems to really enjoy
• We have a fabulous new popsicle maker that not only makes pops for Little Man but delicious adult pops as well, I see a new addition to fall tailgating

and...we have attended lots of birthday parties.

Jollie Ollie and his Smiley Face First Birthday 

Ollie's momma, Jessica, had such a fun theme (and perfectly fitting for Oliver) for the party with great decor, food and activities.  We had a great time.

 I swear we could never buy Miller another toy in his life, as long as he could have a lifetime supply of balloons.  

 The adorable birthday boy.  The pic is blurry but he's sooooo cute it doesn't even matter.  All these funny boys (and of course our fabulously girly Ava) are such busy bodies now, it's hard to get them to pose for a pic.  We all knew this was coming...

 Laughing that we are sitting with someone's future kindergarten class, best wishes to that teacher.

 Black and yellow icing is a must for smash cake fabulousness!

Getting the scrub down, look at that face!! Love!!

Bennett's First B-Day Bash

Two weeks later, it was time for the next one year celebration: of Bubbly Bennett.  His momma threw a perfectly themed "B" party.  Sarah and Jared, we had the best time! 

 Birthday boy Bennett, again on the move but I had to get my squeezes in on him.  We love you Bennett!

 Excited to celebrate!

Having a ball in the ball pit...cheesy pun intended.

 Brooks was taking a little rest from all the festivities

 Asked the boys to turn around and smile for me...of course M wouldn't mind his momma but Knox was camera ready and even pushed up on Miller's shoulder so he was visible, so cute!

Bennett absolutely loved his cake!

Lyla's Hello Kitty 3rd Birthday

When I type 3rd birthday, I think the Nyquil (haven't felt my best in a couple days now) must be taking over because there is no way this girl can be three... but it's true, Baby Lyla is now three and she is so funny I have bruises from falling out of my chair at her one-liners.

 I swear he is thinking "I am about to tear this party up!"

 How many pictures can one mother take?! 

 Practicing our walking skills with Em

 He's starting to like the idea of no longer being on all fours but I still think we have a month or so before he takes off.

 Taking a break in the crooked house so I can take his picture for the 85th time...it's the curls and toothy grin.

 KB teaching M how to use sidewalk chalk

 Yes, yes, Brooke and I got our typical 2 hours of sleep the night before the party but I have to say between our hand-dipped marshmallows, kool-aid dyed popcorn, cotton candy puffs and decor, I was pretty proud of us.

 The birthday family with Hello Kitty! I thought Miller would be terrified but didn't think that he is so used to the bulldog mascots it wouldn't even faze him.  He crawled right up to Hello Kitty, pulled at her dress, giggled and hit her on the head, such a boy!

 Lyla sang with us then blew out her candles.

There are so many great minis in our lives that deserve celebrating.  For as little as they might be, they bring super-sized happiness to our family.  

Hope everyone has a great week!  Think of me as the wheels on the spirit bus go round and round all the way to Cabot for the state basketball tournament. Jealous of my transportation?! 

 Go Bulldogs!

The Importance of Blog Updating

Back in January, on my first day back to school, I was listening to a riveting professional development training on teacher evals (the flow chart of this eval looked like Hilary Clinton's health care plan from the 90s) when I received a comical text from my friend Lauren. She asked me if I wanted to be her exercise buddy for 5 am workouts. I am 99% sure I laughed out loud but no one heard it over the dull roar of the trash whispering the teachers were doing about the lady in front grinning ear to ear about failing every teacher on earth. Lauren knows I am not a morning person and I know she isn't either but as Miller was approaching his first birthday I could feel the absurdity of still claiming baby weight. So...I sent her a text back and said I'd give it a shot. Fast forward to the end of February and we just left the gym. I'm not saying we are 5 times a weekers but we go at least a couple times each week and it really makes my day start out great. I'm mainly on the eliptical which is the whole point of this blog post, the importance of updating your blog. This is when I do my best blog stalking and when I look at the machine screen 30 minutes may have passed without me even looking up. But...if y'all aren't updating then I have nothing to read and the workout is a drag so if you don't mind, please keep those blogs current, you can count it as charity work:) Three or four sidenotes: My friend Lauren is about 26 weeks preg and still kicking tail in the gym, pretty awesome and inspiring! I went to Body Attack on Tuesday. It's ridiculous and I pretty much can't breathe the entire time. I stepped out early because I'm pretty sure the room was spinning and honestly it was about time to go anyways. I was waiting on the couch for Lauren when one of the instructors came up to me to give me a pep talk. I can't really remember what she said but the message was pretty clear "keep trying chubster, you will eventually survive the class." Will never be showing my face in that class again. If you are on an eliptical row with like 85 machines and they are all empty but your's, why must someone come get on the one next to you?! Dude, don't you know gym etiquette?! I prefer you don't listen to me sing into my earbuds. And of course I have to post a pic of this sweet face. He is getting so big and starting to act so big. The other day I went to kiss his precious face. He put up his hand to me and said "no no momma"...ugh, I thought I had a couple more years until that started, dang it. Goodness he is cute though!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Miller's Little Man Party

Yay!!  The pics are here and as always Chris Stinson wowed us with all the happy moments and sweet faces he captured.  The first couple of pics are not his, but from my high tech camera on my iPhone.


Prepare yourself, this post is very picture heavy, but I just couldn't narrow it down. It would probably be better to divide the post into two but who has time for that when you have a ridiculous Pinterest Valentine Wreath that needs finishing.


Here are the invites while we were putting them together.  Brooke, of course, came up with this fabulous idea!  If you ever need some nice ties and want to spend literally a $1, head on over to Goodwill.  We couldn't believe how many designer ties there were (as well as some pretty unfortunate ties that were hard to imagine anyone wearing).  It was so much fun picking each necktie for the party attendees' invite.  

I have a real obsession with all things houndstooth so the liner was a no-brainer.

Party Pictures Compliments of Chris Stinson Photography

The Fingerstache Tattoo Station

The Photo Booth is Open

Cake by Shelby Lynn Cake Shoppe

Favor Table with Wolly Willy for the boys & Hair-Do Harriet for the girls (will always be one of my favorite toys, classic).

Love this face ... and her beard too.

My Little Man: The Birthday Boy

Rocking a fingerstache

The names of the different mustache styles were hysterical: the professor, the crybaby, makeout bandit, 8th grade bully (just a few stray hairs at different lengths, ha), rich uncle... the list goes on and on in hilarity.

Please notice the pink stache on Matthew's momma

Playing with the boys

1st Grade Buddies

 Love that pouty face

Looking at our baby boys, just hard to believe they are one year old.  Seems like yesterday we were both enjoying extended stays at Willow Creek.  My dear Sarah was there at midnight with her mom the night we were admitted.  PTL for my family and besties.

The Dolan Three

Oh our sweet Jolly Ollie!  We can't wait to celebrate your birthday this weekend!!

The Petersons, thanks for opening your home for the party venue!! Shea is wearing one of my favorite shirts.  Cheers to our Miller!

Sweet Claire Baby

Some of my dear students attended, they love their little bulldog so much.  The boys did not want to do the photo booth... I bribed them with some bonus points.

Love, love, love them in the bottom corner of the frame!!

My Girls! (we were missing a couple)

 Playing with the Uncs: Matt & Jake

I could just kiss those cheeks forever!

These two LLOOVVEE each other.

Porter Mills: getting so big, so fast!!

Our beautiful niece Liv

The Dolan Trio: These cousins are so funny together!  Miller watches Graham's every move.  I can only imagine the mischief these two will get into through the years.  Olivia, it will be your job to keep them in line!

Brooksy with his daddy

Bennett the Ladies Man with his Poppy

They look so grown!!

Knox & Karrie: Could he be any cuter?! 

Love these ladies!!

Ava & Bennett: Like I said that sweet boy is a ladies man...he has stolen the baby girl hearts as well as our hearts!

Ahh!!

Ava and Bennett's Mimi: Those eyes are beyond beautiful!

Daddy feeding M some Chik-fil-a

Eyelashes, eyelashes, eyelashes

I am the luckiest momma in the world

I wouldn't say Miller was cake crazy.

I teared up no less than 85 times that day.  When we all sang him Happy Birthday my heart swelled tenfold. 

He was so reserved, he never really dug in or made a mess.

The many faces of the birthday boy:

At some point I had gone across the room to visit with some friends, I heard Chris call my name and when I turned around I witnessed the little prince being fed by all his girlfriends.  Lyla was feeding him handfuls of icing and then would lick anything he didn't eat. Priceless!  KB and the others joined in the fun.  Shortly after, the sugar rush turned into a sugar crash.  

Be Still My Heart

It seems Olivia came into our lives yesterday, then I blinked and she is 10.  She is becoming such an amazingly beautiful young lady.

My Bulldogs

M's necktie birthday banner

The day was perfect, I could not have wished it to be any other way (except our parents not being able to attend due to travel and surgery).  Miller's first birthday was filled with love and laughter shared by his baby besties and our family and friends.  Thank you all for celebrating Miller's first birthday with us.  

Andrew and I have always considered ourselves a family unit and with the addition of Miller, our hearts are full to the brim with love for the little family we have.  

We are blessed...so very blessed!

Lots of love,

Ali