Introducing JAE...Sip and See (picture heavy)

We had JAE's Sip and See last weekend. I am so tired today but so happy with the way everything turned out. 
I did about 80% DIY items and will share that in a different post. In the meantime, here's a recap from last Saturday/Sunday.

I remembered at the last minute that I didn't have a customized sign for JAE. This whole party was to introduce her to our family and friends so of course I had to have something. Well, my DIY self immediately sent J a word email attachment with the letters of her name in different colors. He printed them it out and brought them home with him. 
This is the final product. More on how I made it later. I made 3 signs like this and it came up to $2 total.

My company while I worked on the signs late on Friday evening. 

I think it turned out pretty nice. The frame on the far right was supposed to have a picture of JAE. It was a gift from J to me this past mother's day. However, the print I ordered did not arrive until Saturday afternoon. The picture has been put in and I really like it. 

Like I said, I did a ton of DIY for the party. Including doing all the cooking. I made some parboiled/baked chicken wings. It turned out so delicious! I had 4 people ask me for the recipe. I'll have to post that another time when I can fully take pictures/record of the process. It is fairly easy.

Also on the menu was some smokies. I just added BBQ sauce and Frank's hot to it then baked at 400 degrees for 35 minutes. 

The yummy chicken.

 

Utensil set up for the party.  Yes, that is JOE's palm print on the left. She made it for me for mother's day. On the far right is the plant we got from my mother in law for our 4th anniversary. I am glad to say it has survived this long. Woohoo!!!

We got a bounce house and this was such a hit with the kids! I used Groupon and scored an awesome deal for it. Yay for Groupon!

I made the cupcakes, the chocolate chip M & M cookies as well as the peanut butter cookies on Friday afternoon after my work day ended. Oh and JAE was strapped to me the entire time! She didn't want to be left alone and I needed to get it done so I had no other choice. 
It tasted delicious but OUCHIE!!! My poor back!!!

Cupcakes were also frosted with JAE strapped to me. Thank God for the baby bjorn!

The dessert table.

 This was supposed to be a onsie line but I forgot to pick up the onsies so I decided to make it a girl sock line. Hey, I'm all into improvising. I'm an IT Project Manager in real life and all my projects have to have contingency plans. This was mine :-).

J's co-worker gave us a fully stuffed pinata so. What an awesome gift. All the kids took turns having a go at it. But this pinata was special. It refused to crack! The fun part is that all the adults around were cheering on the kids.
Here's JOE taking a crack at it.

And then my niece tried. 

But it just wouldn't crack. Finally, an older kid tried but then only part of it fell off. My sister in law then hung it back up by its foot.

And more kids had a go at it. 

Still no dice! Talk about a hard nut to crack!

Finally, part of it opened up and an adult took it and split it open then shared the candy. It was too funny! I had a great time with this one :-).

And a couple of ladies who I met through this blog and are now real life friends were there. They really are awesome and I look forward to many years of celebrations with them.

 My very awesome brother and his wife drove 6-hours to come represent my family and celebrate JAE's arrival with us. It was so cool. The best part? JOE and her cousin C were inseparable! They are 4-months apart and just love each other to pieces. I love seeing them grow. 

In the midst of it all, I forgot to take a picture of the celebrant! :-(. The following day (yesterday), JAE was so tired. She got some good long naps. But before napping, she had to get some milk of course. Yup. She likes to feed herself. I wonder what she is pondering in this picture.

Last Saturday was World Jollof Rice day. Like my sister in law said "there's a day for everything now!" She's right! :-). I didn't make any jollof rice for the party because it would have taken too much time and energy but I decided to make some yesterday. This is what we're having for lunch this week and it is by far the best tasting jollof rice I have made to date. It is very flavorful. YUM!!!

And last but not the least is this picture of J & I. Yesterday, we celebrated our 8-year dateversary. I couldn't find a picture of our first date from 8-years ago. (I don't think we have one) but this was our first date out after we got married 4-years after our first date. We were so young!

We felt so blessed and honored by all the people who came and celebrated JAE's arrival with us. Up next, planning for JOE's birthday. She's been taking about it so much that now I feel like I must make it a fantastic time for her. Wish me luck!

It's a wrap!

This post was written last week Thursday but I forgot to post it. 
 
Whew! We made it through another week intact. It was a pretty hectic week for me and I am very thankful it is over. 

J and I often have busy weeks and this past week was no exception. However, when we had a couple of good weather evenings this weekend, I decided to let JOE and JAE enjoy the evening breeze and sunshine. I am so glad I did because it really made me appreciate the little things. 

JOE is growing up really fast. She is learning like a sponge and taking in everything from her environment. 

I love the way she sometimes looks at JOE like "are you for real?" It is so cute!

She definitely has different facial expressions. You can tell when she is trying to get something. In this picture, she is trying to get the phone from me. 

My baby @ 4 months can hold her own bottle. She loves to do it too. I think its cause she is afraid you'll try to take it away from her. She eats like a champ! No skipping meals for this little one.

Last week, I got home a little early in the middle of the week. JOE asked to go out for a ride and I obliged. Our neighbor had just given her a shirt cut out that looks like a superhero cape. She decided she was a superhero and was humming (trying to anyways) the Superman theme song while riding her "truck". Enjoy this short video I was able to record while carrying JAE.

After the ride, we went to the backyard so JOE could play with her sandbox. She wanted to build me a castle. Unfortunately, we hadn't had any rain and the sand was dry so she couldn't do much with it.So while she played, JAE and I took selfies :-).

JAE mastering her selfie face.

JOE is in search of something. Don't ask me what :-). She said she "found a clue!"

It was a rock by the way.

I just love this picture of JOE and JAE. JOE can get JAE laughing just by being there. I can see they'll be best of friends already.

Have a fabulously blessed week and remember to be kind to strangers!

Photo Dump Wednesday: Celebrating JAE

It's hump day!!! The weekend is almost here and I am pretty excited about it. 

We will be having a Sip and See for JAE this weekend. We are excited for her to meet our close friends who have not met her. We didn't do a baby shower since we already have a ton of girl stuff from JOE. But we wanted to still celebrate JAE's arrival so this is an opportunity to do so. 

I originally started pinning a ton of stuff on Pinterest but have not had a lot of time to do much so we're just going to make it a simple celebration with good food, fun activities for the kids and a chance to also welcome guests to our home. We didn't have a house warming when we moved 2 years ago so this is like an all in one celebration :-D.

Anyways, in celebration of the girl of the hour, here are some pictures of JAE.

Since we are going to be having guests over at our home, J and I decided to put up some of the pictures from our family photo session done earlier in the summer. Here are some of those pictures. 

I also updated the family picture wall. 

For the longest time, we've been meaning to add something to the wall above the fireplace. We finally got to do it this weekend. 

And while J worked to put things up, JAE watched him from the loveseat. Clearly, J was boring her from the looks of the picture below :-).

And where was JOE? Well, our very thoughtful neighbors kept JOE while we were able to hammer out a lot of this work. We definitely have THE BEST neighbors!

In our bedroom, we added a focal point to the wall facing our bed. 

And then I used groupon to get a few photo canvas made for hanging up around the house. I love that JAE is now officially on the walls of our home.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the photo session we did.

And here is one of my baby girl trying to crawl. She really is determined to be on the move!

And here is JOE gnawing on my finger. Oh the joys of a teething infant. She doesn't like the binky or soothie so basically, its either my freshly washed finger or her fingers. FUN.