A First Birthday

over a year ago, i would receive a daily phone call around 10:00 every morning. for three months i would wait for the call from mam and pap asking if moses was still in his papoose. since my papaw really, truly wanted me to name the baby moses, i laughingly went along with the name when they called.the bedrest thing really had them upset so they had to check (sometimes twice a day) to make sure drew wasn't ready to come. mamaw insisted that i put the police/fire/ambulance service numbers in my phone in case i went into labor at home by myself. what a difference one year can make!



before i had drew i was so sure i would not be a good mom. i was certain i had no idea what to do. what if he got sick? what if he cried all the time? what if my baby was a boy? i didn't know how to take care of a boy!




well, i'm still not sure i'm as good a mom as i can be, i guess time will tell. i know i try my best to be everything drew needs....lately that has been the person who puts him down and steps away when he starts to throw a tantrum. as for my worry that he would get sick, we made 4 trips back to the hospital during drew's first 4 days home because of jaundice. (i know that's not technically "sick" by many standards, but to a new mom, it's sick.) drew did cry for the first 8 weeks nonstop...morning, noon and night. and, to my surprise, he was a boy, ha! i was certain it was going to be a girl....maybe because i wasn't sure what i was supposed to do with a boy. (and how the heck was i supposed to take care of a circumcision?!?!)




luckily, drew is resilient. we've made it almost a year and i am still stunned that we just celebrated my baby's first birthday. to tell the truth, i'm a little sad. i'm happy that i have such a happy, healthy baby, but i'm sad because i just can't believe a whole year has past.


we celebrated drew's birthday today though his birthday is actually the 18th. my family was able to come down and we all ate, opened presents, had cake, took pictures and laughed. drew got a "rock, roll and ride" tricycle from tim and i, books and clothes from mom and dad, clothes from gig and uncle, a car hauler/animal truck from rue and josh, a great uk outfit from abby, push cars from bob and kathy and an awesome time out bench with a parking meter "time-out" timer, (that one was hilarious) from mam and pap. mam also brought him a potty chair for future use....too bad we can't teach ruby to use it too.




we enjoyed our day so much and were so glad our family came out in the nasty, cold weather. :)
pre-party snack




drew & his papaw



drew & his mamaw

drew & momma

drew & aunt rue playing with new toys

on his new time-out bench....only mamaw would give this one!

drew & gigmaw

the cake didn't quite turn out the way i had pictured, ha! betty crocker does not live in this house.

getting ready for cake! all that practice blowing out candles and in the end, he tried to grab it instead of blowing it out....oh, well.

mamaw feeding him more ice cream.

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”

Tornado Alley!

Oh my, did I get myself into a mess tonight...As soon as Drew went to bed I decided it was time for me to start tackling my latest obsession: making Drew his 1st birthday cake, custom-style. Now, to most this would probably seem fairly simple however, I don't really enjoy cooking all that much. Actually, I just don't enjoy the cleaning up, the cooking isn't that bad. I can cook, my mamaw made certain of that, I just hate cleaning all the stuff up afterwards....and don't tell me you're supposed to clean as you go because that's a bunch of bull. I clean before, during and after and there's still a big mess.

So, back to my original thought....for the last few days I have been thinking a lot about Drew's upcoming birthday, (well, it's not until November but my OCD requires that I be well prepared), and trying to decide what kind of cake he will have. Since he loves dogs, I have decided to make a dog cake with cupcakes with dog themed shapes that are covered in that really cool, smooth icing professional decorators use. My friend Shannon also has her son's 1st birthday coming up (this Saturday) and she came to show me the cake she ordered for him yesterday. I didn't see it, but it is going to be a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed cake. I looked at the link of the lady's previous cake designs and was a bit overwhelmed. First, there's no way I can afford to purchase one of her custom cakes and second, I am really into doing special things for my first 1st birthday as a mommy.

(Here's a link to some pictures of similar cakes that are covered in fondant:

http://www.pinkcakebox.com/ )

Last night I came home and began researching these cakes and what I needed to do to begin my project. First, I had to find out what that fondant stuff was and where I could get it. Now, I could have taken the easy way out and ordered some, but it costs an arm and a leg and I wanted it now. Waiting 3-4 days for it to be delivered was not an option....again, OCD. So, after some searching, I found out how to make the fondant, yes, as in homemade. After going to Wal-Mart before picking Drew up today, I headed home and began getting my things ready. Now, my house is definitely lived in and is not the neatest with a baby, 2 dogs and a husband throwing things everywhere, but after I began my fondant making, this is what it looked like:

As the process went along, I began taking pictures of my work. Here is the fondant after I got it all kneaded and rolled out...

After separating and putting food coloring in half....

And finally, my kitchen after clean-up...ahhhh.

I have decided I would practice my cake making skills on Hayley and my dad this weekend. My dad is turning 50 next Sunday and Hayley will turn 19 this Sunday. We are having a big cookout and Mom and Dad's and she's having a cake made, etc., etc. I decided since I had an occassion, I would do a trial run. I am going to make cupcakes, ice them, then cover them with the green fondant. After that, I will attempt to make flowers to go on the top. Whether that comes together is a different story. When I get them done, I will post more pictures....maybe. We'll see how they look, then I'll decide if I would be too humiliated to post them!