Out of this world birthday

So Paxton's birthday is next Tuesday but we are having his party on Sunday. Even though it is much more low key this year I still wanted to go with a theme. Anyone who knows Paxton knows how crazy over the planets he is. He knows those planets better than anything. He can tell you which planet is the hottest, which one is the biggest, which one is the farthest away from the sun, anything. So since I really only have a small window of time to do "themed" birthday parties I figured I would go with a space theme this year. We are going to Paxton's gymnastics studio for the party and I just keep thinking to myself, "while they are jumping on the trampoline, they can be pretending they are jumping on the moon"! I'm not doing too much in terms of decorations this year but I thought I would put together what I have used as inspiration for his party.

This is the design for his invitation. I bought it off of etsy. You can find it here.

These are the decorations I would have used if we were doing the party at my house. But since we only have an hour in the party room I figured we didn't need to go crazy on decorations this year. But if you like them, you can find them here.

Paxton's cake inspirations:

I just love everything about this space themed birthday party.

and I will be making these for snacks.

A little present for Paxton. Some new artwork for his bedroom. Which, by the way, has no theme at all.

You can find this print on Etsy here.

So that's where all my inspiration came from. Hope you like it. More importantly, I hope Paxton likes it!

Oh the Hair!!!!!

I recently started creating a photo album for Paxton online with "My publisher". This is one of those sites where you can design and create photo albums online and then they will print them and mail a copy off to you. I recently saw "my publisher" on www.ashleyannphotography.com - one of the awesome blogs I follow, and I was inspired to start one for Paxton. I think it would be great for him to have a book that he can look through and where I don't have to worry about him ruining the pictures. I of course also print and keep pictures for him in an album but those pictures are sacred so therefore he cannot spend long afternoons looking through this album. Long story short, I saw, got inspired and started going through his pictures. You may be wondering where I'm going with this and now I will get to that. As I was going through Paxton's pictures, I realized this kid has had some crazy hair experiences. He was born with tonnes then lost a whole lot of it, where he went through a funny looking phase and he now has gone back to the lots of hair phase! So much so, I'm contemplating taking him for his first hair cut. My husband thinks I'm crazy, he doesn't understand that I must make a big deal about Paxton's first hair cut. He thinks I should just get out some scissors and snip away! HECK NO! First of all I would probably screw it up and then Paxton would be back to the crazy hair phase. And you know I'm going to need to have the camera out documenting every single second of that first hair cut experience. So with that said, the first hair cut is coming soon but until then (I'm waiting for his 1st birthday photoshoot coming in March) lets look down memory lane at some of Paxton's great hair days!


xoxo

Rie

9 days old - Lots of beautiful fluffy hair



31/2 months old - As you can see it has totally lightened up and it's getting much thinner
BUT WAIT...

the best one is next




5 months - Oh how I love you! Look at those big blue eyes smiling at me! He wore a lot of hats at this stage.

And then it started to come back...




6 months - monkey chomping on a monkey! But look his beautiful fluffy hair is back

And now it is back with a vengance


My little lovely 9 1/2 months old! and yes those are some nice pearly whites you see! And he has four coming in at the top!

Welcome to my wonderful world of motherhood.

Eight weeks ago I gave birth to this beautiful baby boy. We named him Paxton Bennett Denis and we couldn't believe how cute he was. I counted one day, and my husband Patrick said, "he is sooo cute", thirty times! And he is so cute. It has been so amazing to watch the changes he has made. Not only physically but his personality is starting to come out. The best part of my day is when Paxton gives me a smile! He only started smiling last week and every day the smiles get bigger and more genuine. I LOVE THEM!
The second best part of my day is when he is sleeping so soundly. It is then that I get to cook and find new things to cook. Tonight it is pasta with artichoke hearts, peppers, mushrooms and onions. It is my go to dish for the summer. It is a super easy recipe that anyone can make. The best part about it is it is so light and tasty. You cannot overdue it on the peppers and the artichokes give it a nice tang.

Ingredients:
1/2 bag of penne pasta
1 green pepper sliced
1 red pepper sliced
2 cups of sliced button mushrooms
1 orange pepper sliced
1 medium red onion sliced
1 jar of artichoke hearts marinated in oil chopped
2 tbsp of olive oil
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste.

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions
2. While pasta is cooking, saute onions, peppers, artichokes and mushrooms in olive oil until soft. (Watch the cooking carefully you don't want the peppers to become mushy.)
3. Once pasta is cooked drain and stir in butter and Parmesan cheese.
4. Add vegetables with all the juices in the pan. Stir to mix!
5. At this point you may want to add salt and pepper and sprinkle a little more Parmesan on top.

You could add chicken, I have before and it is still very delicious. Just brown the chicken before you add the vegetables to the saute pan. Make sure also to season the chicken with some salt and pepper and if you like, garlic powder.

My mom used to make a version of this pasta but when I asked for the recipe she didn't have it anymore so I adapted it to my liking. It literally takes 15 minutes to make and it is de-lish! It is sure to be made over and over again in this house.