Birthday "party" recap

So I had the most epic first birthday party ever planned for Little Dude.  I had hired a DJ and invited basically everyone we know to come over for some fun and food.  I was so excited to have hubby home, celebrate my one-year old, and thought that it would be the first big event for my social circle since we started locking ourselves away for COVID.  

Unfortunately precautions still need to be followed, cases in the Hampton Roads area are on the rise because no one wants to follow the rules, and the Navy has issued very strict guidance about what the sailors are allowed to do (Basically go to work, home, and grocery store) so we had to put the kabash on Little Dudes super extra birthday party....But I wasn't about to let a little thing like a global pandemic stop me from celebrating my baby.  

For starters my mom has had a flight booked to come visit for Little Dude's first birthday for MONTHS, so obviously she is here.   Which is great because I feel kind of bad that she doesn't get to see Little Dude more often.  

We planned to start the day in true first birthday fashion - with a crib full of balloons - but I had to delay that to nap time because Little Dude decides to give me a birthday present and slept through the night for the first time! I woke up about to bust so getting milk out had to take priority over balloons in the crib.  

Then we had a yummy lunch of barbecue and a friend of mine came over to take pictures of our little family and of Little Dude's smash cake experience.   I started to order a smash cake from a bakery but once I realized how simple the cake I wanted was (white icing, lots of sprinkles) I decided to try my hand at making it myself.   The end results were great.   

Little Dudes Godmothers daughter has the same birthday and turned 7 and the other friend who cames’ daughter turned 7 last week so I made each of them a special cupcake to match the smash cake.  

So happy first birthday Little Dude, and we will have an epic party next year hopefully instead.  (These pictures were all taken by me, not my friend - her pictures are way better!) 

So confusing

So I started doing some research last night trying to figure out the best place to start putting together a household binder.  I thought I would be able to find some cute fun printables that I would like that I could use but as many of the bloggers who had printables available for download stated...One size does not fit all...So instead I'm going to work on creating my own in the coming weeks I am by no means a design artist so I'm sure they won't be the cutest things in the world but for now I'm going for functionality over fun so wish me luck.

What are some things you think I should include in my binder?

The Power of a Praying Wife

For my first focus of the Lenten season I am reading The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian.  My intention is to read one chapter per day, so today I will be reading chapter 4.   I am very impressed by Stormie's straightforward approach and the way she speaks straight to the reader, be they the wife of a devout Christian or of an Atheist.   I find myself relating to a lot of the points she makes (who hasn't prayed for their husband to change and start putting his socks in the laundry basket on his own, or spoken to him out of anger instead of love?) and am going to make a concentrated effort to pray for him in the right way and let God bless our marriage in the way he intends for it to be blessed.   I'm really excited to finish the book and may even read ahead.

Here is an image of the book cover/link to it on Amazon if you are interested:


There is also an edition specifically for military wives, be they the wives of AD service members or service members themselves which is available for free through many military chaplains.

St Patricks Day, deployment style

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

So apparently my hubby had fun on St Patricks Day. Before he left we bought this stupid hat at WalMart and he claimed he would wear it all day. I rolled my eyes but it was only $3 so I bought it for him expecting him to forget it was even in his rack or leave it at home. Yesterday I got this picture from him. Apparently he really did wear it all day Sorry for the poor quality, since his name showed and some other guys were in it i had to open it in paint brush from my work computer to edit slightly don’t want to be posting peoples pics on my blog without their permission!