Custom Cozy Coupe

Who says you have to wait until your child turns 16 to give them a car?

Remember the PINK Cozy Coupe parked in our garage?

Tomm took it apart and gave it a new custom paint job. 

Letting the paint dry.

Ready to paint the seat....

Custom interior.  Haha

Gone are the eyeballs and smiley face... Now it's shiny and ready for burnouts.  It looks great!

He LOVES his car! If he's not inside it; he's pushing it or opening and closing the door.

Look how exited he is!

What a big boy!

Wink wink.

Turning the key.

Whoa! There's a hole in the bottom.  Haha

 I just melted all over the floor when I saw him making this for Little T.  He really put a lot of thought and time into this project.  He is such a doting father! I'm so proud :)

Stomp Stomp!

Spoiler Alert! I took this adorable video of Tom walking around... he just happens to be in his Halloween costume.   I wanted to see how well it was fitting him and I also wanted to see if he was comfortable enough in it to walk around.  I'm sure we'll get lots more cute pictures of him on Halloween.  I think he makes a very handsome dragon/dinosaur.  Don't you?

Tom started walking at 1 year.  He'd been pulling up and cruising since he was about 9 1/2 months.  Since we have tile flooring, we wanted to be so careful with him taking those steps.  I had areas of the house blocked off with floor mats so that we could put him down and let him cruise along.  But after awhile he seemed to be unhappy and bored quickly when I'd set him down to play.  Finally, I decided to take everything down and just let him be adventurous.  IT WORKED!  Over this past month he has gotten so much sturdier and he is even trying to RUN (my nerves!) already.  He just needed SPACE to get his footing.

This video is so precious and candid... his tail is a little large to walk with, but it sure cushions the falls :)

Haha!

A Man And A Project

Big Tomm loves a project and I love that he loves projects because it usually means some cool invention that makes our life more comfortable .  Since we bought this house, I have heard him talk about how cool an outdoor kitchen would be.  So over the 4th of July weekend, he remodeled our grill into an outdoor kitchen (Yes, I'm just now posting about it).

Before the remodel:

From the left.

From the right.

The process:

Testing the water line.

Rigging the pipe for the propane.

Randy supervising and patrolling the patio.

All framed and ready for stone.

(Safety first! Fire extinguisher on site)

Blanche ready to assist in any way.

I LOVE how the stacked stone looks! 

He did such a great job.   Now it's ready for granite. 

That hose is really stiff and hard so Tomm had to find a way to hook it to the grill in a tight space.   Nice thinking!!

All finished with the granite counter top.

Me, paying a visit.

What a success! 

It made him feel so good to have done this and have it come out so beautiful.

An artsy shot of the sink.  haha

Junior Turns 1

 The big day finally came! Little T's birthday was on August 23rd.  We had a nice family party at home and had some of our neighbors over for cake and icecream that night.  I made a little cow cake for him to smash but I guess it wasn't little enough because he just stared at it not sure what to do with it.  Haha.  We let him open some gifts which was very fun for him to tear and crackle the paper.  I know he probably won't remember this birthday but I still wanted it to be special.  

 I also planned a party/playdate for that Saturday the 27th, so that all his little baby friends could come over and have some fun.  After all the planning and obsessing the party was a complete success.   The theme of the party was Old MacDonald/ John Deere.  Everything looked and turned out soooo cute! We had about 6 other baby BOYS over with their Mommies.  It being a Saturday, most the other Dad's were off of work so they could come too.  I had originally planned it to be a pool party. Not everyone wanted to get in the water, so we just played inside... I had a huge blowup pool filled with toys and balls, set it up inside the house so that the kids could play around in it.  They all LOVED it in there, I'm so glad I thought of that! It was so nice to hang out with some other parents and their adorable babies for a few hours. I think everyone had a really great time!

The invitation. 

 This was my first project on Photoshop.  I had a lot of fun making it :)   

Birthday boy clad in JD! He actually smiles for the camera now.  Haha

The food:) I had baby puffs, fruit bars and squeezers and crackers out so the little ones could have snacks.  I ended up baking pizzas for all the adults later on.  

The favors... I made a little horsey for each baby guest.  

The other side.  It had a squeaker and a rattle inside so they could make some noise with it too.

What a cute picture of us! I love how Little T is smiling too. 

In the ball pool.

Everyone getting situated and exploring these NEW toys.

Micheal

Grace and little Gregory

Max.  Tom and him occasionally love to sit on eachother's laps

Aiden.

Tara, Gabriel and little Alexander.

Wagon rides

Bouncy bouncy

Fresh out of the pool.

Tom's favorite game of throwing balls overboard.

CAKE time!

Tom's own personal smash cake... a little smaller than the cow cake.

The big cake... I made the decorations out of fondant.  It came out so adorable! 

My little neighbors decorated these cupcakes for the party.  How cute!

Time to get dirty...

Just the finger tips...

squish squish

clap clap...

... and it's in the hair... haha!

Some finally made it to his mouth.

Enough fun for now.

Somebody wash me!

Time to share the love!

Yum yum!

Happy Birthday to you!

 The whole group of us... and all the babies are looking... Success!

Afterparty... washing the cake out of his hair.  haha

Fresh as a daisy! Standing in a basket of toys.

One of his gifts.  He'll look so handsome!

More basket standing.

Playing with the grinder on his new Home Depot work bench.

So focused!

Concentrating hard...

Big Tomm organizing all the tools that came with it.  Of coarse he knew what everything was and where it went.

Little T is just still working on that grinder.  Haha!

Distracted by a pair of pliers.

Ohhhh! A new cars tent.

Everyone likes the new tent.

Climbing out.

Easy does it...

Now, right back in.

8/23/2011

We spent the morning at Gymboree.  Here are some cute pictures of Tom playing around.

Us with Miss Jaime and Miss Amanda

Later that night...

The cow smash cake.  It is just precious!

A great pic of Sr ans Jr

Having fun with Rich.

He just looked at it the whole time.  I gave him a few bites and he liked the taste. mm mmm

I can't believe he's 1!

It's crazy where cake can end up.

Tom playing with Michael and Sal.

The racetrack was a big hit for everyone.

Some cute pictures of Little T opening his gifts...

This is such a happy and exiting time for me but it also hurts a little too.... I just know that I can never go back in time with my little boy.  For our family, this last year has been so rich with joy and meaning and growth.  I absolutely love being a mom and being at home with Tom is such a blessing! I love him so much! Sniff sniff.