DIY Cake Smash

I'm a little behind in posting but last weekend was Kayleigh's birthday party! The weekend prior my friend and I started the day with garage sales then finished with a cake smash for Kayleigh! If you google cake smashes it seems like it can be very difficult and overwhelming to get those perfect shots but it actually isn't that hard! For the location I temporally rearranged the living room so we could set up on a wall that gets great natural light. Then I used blue painter's tape to tape up a plain white twin size sheet.

 

The candy decorations were actually the genius idea of my friend. She picked up some styrofoam balls, small cake boards and tissue paper. We just wrapped the styrofoam balls and cake boards in the tissue paper and Viola! Instant candy!

 

For the cake we just used a small 8 inch cake pan, cream cheese icing and blue and yellow sprinkles (they looked green when mixed). I actually wanted rainbow sprinkles but last minute I realized I completely forgot to buy some so we made due with what we had.

Here is a side by side comparison to show what my straight-out-of-the-camera photos looked like. This is one of the reasons I love shooting in RAW. I just opened it up in Lightroom and edited the exposure and sharpness a bit, then used Photoshop to get lighten the wrinkles in the sheet. I also used the Coffee Shop action, Lustrous Pop, to brighten the colors a bit.

Kayleigh wasn't much into eating the cake. When we first set her down, she was all like "Uh... you are letting me make a mess... Are you sure? I'm not going to get in trouble?"

We eventually had to help her along and soon she was squishing cake between her hands. 

Little chubby baby hands covered in cake. Is there anything more precious? 

All the preparation and set up and we were all done in less than 15 minutes. Kay had a ton of fun, even if she didn't care to eat the cake.

One year of weekly photos

I did it. I did one whole year of weekly photos! It wasn't an easy feat and I will say there were weeks I was a few days later but I managed to take one photo a week for a whole year. It's great to be able to watch Kayleigh grow all over again! (If you can't watch the video you can also check out the photos by clicking on the "Weekly Photos" tab above.) (I will admit on the final photos you see I ended up cheating a bit and had to use photos from the previous week due to corruption files that I didn't find out about until months later.)

Happy Birthday, Kayleigh!

Kayleigh,

Today is your birthday. You are one year old. I know it's cliche but I feel like just yesterday I was holding you in my arms for the first time. One second I was holding a brand new baby in my arms, then I blinked and you were walking and talking.

It hasn't been easy, though. Parenthood has many peaks and valleys. There was much to learn, many sleepless nights and many tears - some yours and some mine. But there were so many more joyous moments! The first time you smiled at me I melted - the same smile now that still melts my heart no matter how big of a fit you just threw. I celebrated the first time you rolled over, the first time you crawled and almost started bawling when you took your first step. You are growing so fast and I don't want to miss a moment of it!

You already have us wrapped around your finger and you don't even know it.

I pray that you grow brave and strong, like your daddy. I pray that you can see the joy in every dark spot, like your mama. Most of all I pray that you never be afraid to be you.

I love you for forever and a half.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Today marks my first official Mothers' Day!

Although technically I was a mother last year, Kayleigh didn't decide to come until two days later. Everyone was telling me that I would have her on Mothers' Day but I was stubborn and didn't want to. That night I went home and felt sick all night - little did I know that was a precursor for going into labor! (Some women feel sick 1-2 days prior)

(please ignore my messy hair - it was super hot!)

I am so blessed to be able to be a mother!

Kayleigh's birthday is Wednesday so I will have plenty of birthday stuff to post! Yesterday my friend came over and helped me set up a cake smash photo shoot so I will post those as soon as I am finished editing all the photos!

Happy (belated) Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter! We spent the day at my Grandparent's house where Kayleigh had a blast playing with all the other children!

 

Of course the Easter Egg hunt was a blast! Kay had so much fun finding the eggs (although she did have some help)

Wordless Wednesday

St. Louis Zoo Trip & Easter Egg Hunt

I haven't really had too much to post about lately (I never did get around to posting about our vacation to Florida in February...) but with Kayleigh's birthday coming up next month I will have some birthday planning posts. Can you believe she is 11 months old today?!

The weather picked up temporarily here in St. Louis last week (back to the 40's today. boo.) so we took advantage and had a day trip to the St. Louis Zoo with some friends!

Of course, Kayleigh LOVES the goats (she always has since we went to Eckert's last year)

Miss Sass had to walk on her own most of the day. She hasn't stopped walked since she took her first steps back in March.

Watching the Otters

We took a train ride around the whole Zoo which was very entertaining

Smooches with her new friend

At the end of the day she passed right out in her stroller.

Saturday we went to an Easter Celebration at a friend's church. They had tons of games for the kids but since Kay is so young we didn't participate in any of them. We did get her face painted, however!

Then there was the Easter egg hunt!

They gave you a map and a riddle to solve to find where your next egg was. Kayleigh wasn't too good at figuring out the clues but she quickly figured out how to get the eggs out of the bags!

 

She had to have an egg in each hand for the rest of the night (she also likes to bring them with us when we go anywhere, too)