thursday night thoughts.

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*  I watched the season finale of "Flipping Out" (on Bravo) and cried hysterically for over 30 minutes.  That hasn't happened since I saw Gran Torino.  I think sometimes you really just need a good cry.

*  There are some new things on my horizon that I am really excited about.  I have really been looking for another creative outlet and I'm super happy to have found one.

*  Amelia pulled herself up last night on her baby gate, then stood there for about 25 minutes squealing, and laughing and being so proud of herself.  She is so big.  I no longer have a baby, I have big girl.

*  Today I went through my Bloglovin' reader and deleted over 50 blogs.  It's sad to say but a lot of the blogs that I loved at one time feel like they are only full of sponsored posts and product reviews and nothing relevant to me anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I am super happy for them and the fact that they are making crazy money off of their blog and getting free goods, but I miss reading the "real" stuff.

*  We went to Bass Pro Shop last night to get Amelia's photo taken with Santa.  It's free and the set-up is way prettier than the one at the mall that costs $40 to do.  It was cute and I love that I have this photo of her first Santa.  She wore the sweetest vintage red velvet dress.  

*  I have absolutely no idea what I am getting anyone for Christmas.  I have no ideas at all.  I even created one of those Secret boards on Pinterest, haven't pinned a single thing to it.

*  Did you know that Paul McCartney wrote "Blackbird" when he heard about all of the crazy things happening with the Civil Rights movement here in the United States in the 60's.  "I wrote it in the '60s, when the civil rights movement was at its height," he said. "I liked to think of a blackbird as being a kind of symbol for a black woman."

When he told us about it at the concert, it made my heart swell with love for this man. Now every time I hear the song, I feel a whole new meaning behind it and I cry every time.  If you know me, you know I would have been a total civil rights activist in the 60's.  It's something I am super passionate about.

*  Did you see the moon tonight?  Oh my goodness.

Alright, I need to get back to  a little project over here.  I just needed to get some thoughts out of my head, and onto my computer screen :)

Thank you!

xo

janel

little pins.

Ummm...how did I go without blogging for so long?  Seriously, my hands itch to hit my keyboard so I can blog now :)

Are you ready for another edition of "Little Pins?"  Your little dose of all things adorable for your little ones.

Here we go!

1.  The light switch stickers are a MUST have for Amelia's room.  They have officially been added to her Christmas list.

2.  I adore this Holiday Gift Guide for little boys and can't wait for them to post the girl one!  Most of these items are pretty gender neutral anyway :)

3.  How sweet is this idea?  A little night time journal for your child to draw in each night, where they can illustrate the best part of their day!  I love this and I can't wait to be able to put something like this into action.

4.  I am SOOOO excited about this and can not wait to get one for Amelia!

Sophie & Lili has collaborated with Misha Lulu!!  Eeek!  Amelia has so many of their dresses and I think it will be so cute to get her one of these dolls with the matching dress!!

Amelia has this dress already and I love that the little doll also come as a little brown skin girl!!  (see it in the top right hand corner?)  If anyone is looking to get my girl a Christmas present...this is it :)

5.  And speaking of cute, and adorable dolls...Blabla is now doing cloth dolls!  What a fresh little spin on their classic knit dolls. love love love

Seriously, these are the days that I wish money grew on trees :)  In the meantime, I will continue to window shop online and dream about all of this cuteness.

Happy browsing.

xo

janel

Christmas Jammies

So, it took me about three weeks to find the PERFECT Christmas jammies for Amelia.  I wanted something classic, character-less, and something that reminded me of my childhood.  I wanted them to be cozy and sweet and Christmas-y.  After many google searches, etsy searches, and phone calls to malls, I found the  perfect little set.  It's by Laura Dare, and Im pretty sure if I could go back in time and see my sister and I's matching sets, they would be by Laura Dare too because they are just like I remember.

My amazingly talented friend, Jodie, at Fresh Art Photography, also knows the importance of the Christmas Jammies and designed a mini-session catered exactly for it!  Adam and I save our allowance for a couple of months because we knew we wanted her to document Amelia in her first pair of Christmas jammies :)

We also hoped for a perfect photo for our Christmas card this year too.

Mission Accomplished.

Here are some of the photos from our little mini-session...

and the Christmas Card shot...

This girl gets cuter and cuter every single day.  There are seriously times where I am just looking at her and I can't even comprehend how blessed I am to be her mom.

She is a joy beyond joys.

A huge thank you to Jodie, for again, capturing the Amelia in the perfect way.

xo

janel

Amelia's Gotcha Day Celebration

We decided to through Amelia a BIG "Gotcha Day" celebration for her adoption finalization.  Im not sure how much, if any, of this party Amelia will remember but we mainly wanted to have it as a thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout her adoption process.  It was kind of a thank you party I guess.

The theme was "It's Legit!"

The invitations were AMAZING, a sweet new Instagram friend did the designing and I was blown away.  (Again, another separate post just for the invites will happen).

There were over 85 people who came to celebrate with Amelia.  It was such a special night for all of us.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot of photos of the night.  I think everyone was having too much fun visiting with each other to even think about snapping photos. 

I DIY'd all of the decorations with neon office supplies :) This was super cheap way to make things cute and part of our neon theme. 

I used garage sale stickers on the cups and plates ($1 for a pack of like 500).

 I used neon tape from Target's Kid Made Modern line to add words and designs all over the wall.  We even had a special little hashtag for social media photo posting so that I could easily find everyone's pictures :)  

I cut up neon computer labels for the printer into triangles and stuck them all over our plain white tablecloths.  The 3-D triangles were made out of printer paper by my sister's high school art students.

The little buntings and banners that were everywhere were cut from post-it notes.  

The little flags on the paper straws were from post it notes as well :)  Easy Peasy decorating my friends.

We rented a photobooth for the occasion so that Amelia would have photos of all of the guests who came to celebrate with her.  We had a photo booth at our wedding and loved it, but we didn't think that it would be affordable for a party.  I did a ton of researching and emailing and found the most amazing photo booth company ever.  This company, 2 Chics and a Photobooth, is AMAZING.  I highly recommend them for any event.  Their prices are more than reasonable for what they are offering and they are wonderful people to work with.  I instantly fell in love with them.  I will use them for every party I have in the future for sure.

Here are just a couple of the photos from the night.  Each session prints out two strips, one for you to keep and one to place in Amelia's guest book where they can write a message next to it!

Poor Amelia was probably seeing spots for a few days after that night :)  Everyone wanted pictures with the guest of honor :)

Another little bonus that we had for the party was a cupcake truck!!  We loved going to Food Truck Fridays this summer and loved the idea of a food trucks.  I was looking at the website of our favorite cupcake truck, The Sweet Divine, and noticed that they did private parties as well!

Plus, they won Cupcake Wars  :)

Anyway, again, a few emails with their sweet sweet owner, it was a done deal.  Again, the price for what you are getting is soooo affordable and fun.  It's something totally unique and it was a hit at the party.  The owners are absolutely adorable and their cupcakes are beyond amazing.  

Amelia's Christmas List

This little one wants for nothing.  We have been blessed with an abundance of toys, clothes, and books, and all of the necessities a little girl could need.  This is just a small little list I have put together of things Amelia would like for Christmas (she told me).  Her daddy wanted a wish list of things to purchase from, and here it is :)

1 Wooden Instagram Camera Toy

 2 This adorable rainbow cushion for her crib so she has something to lean against when she is playing

 3 Customizable Pen Pal kit for Amelia so she can send cute packages to her cousins

 4  I love this shirt so much.  It reminds of me of "Blackbird" and everything that that song stands for

 5  And these little onesies are just amazing and essential :)

What are some things you like for a Baby's first Christmas?

xo

janel

It's Legit!

 

 November 17 was National Adoption Day.  It was also the day that our adoption of Amelia was finalized.  Since our 6 month wait period was over in November this year, we were super blessed to have our finalization land on National Adoption Day.  In Missouri, the Family Court opens on a Saturday and does all of the November adoptions on this day. It was AMAZING!!!

There were 34 children who were adopted in St. Louis this day, including our Amelia.

The whole thing was more like an event.  There were refreshments catered, a photo booth, free gifts, mascots from all of the sports teams, the media was there, and so much more.  It was a blast. Our St. Louis friends and family came to witness the whole thing and Adam's sister, Rachel, flew down for the day to represent our Massachusetts family (what a blessing!!).

At 10:20 we were called into a little courtroom where we were sworn in.  I answered a ton of questions, and then Adam had to just say that he agreed with everything that I said.  Our (adorable) social worker gave a statement, and the judge pronounced us FAMILY FOREVER!!

Amelia clapped her hands, smiled and laughed the entire hearing. It was awesome. The judge swears she has never seen a happier baby :) She also said she can tell Amelia is somebody special (we already knew this of course).

Afterwards, they gave a huge bag full of presents for Amelia.  It was amazing.  There is a sweet little necklace in their with charms all about adoption, free books, toys, a sweet little teddy bear and a ton of other things.

As a family, we all went and celebrated with a special lunch.

I had a custom doll made for Amelia, with an outfit that matched the outfit she wore at court.  It was from the cutest etsy shop, The Cinnamon Bears.  We gave it to her right before she went into the court room.  Of course we didn't get any photos of it but it's her special keepsake from the day to remind her of her special little "Gotcha Day."

Thank you again, all of you, for sharing in our little adoption journey.  We are already planning for adoption number 2 but we HAVE to get a bigger house first.  This one bedroom condo just won't cut it with another baby :)

I'll be back later with a post all about Amelia's "Gotcha Day" party :) It was awesome.

xo

janel