Daynen's 1st Birthday Party!

Drum-Roll puh-leez...

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Look who turned ONE!

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And here are the long-awaited pics from

Dayne's 1st Birthday Party

last Saturday!

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(It just took me this long to download, edit and post them!

To say there were a LOT of pictures is an understatement!

Here are just a "few"!)

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Welcome to the wild and crazy PAR-Tay!

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Just a small little gathering, by our usual scale, with 75 of our closest friends & family!
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Thanks to all of Dayne's adoring fans who came to wish him well on his special day!

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We had GREAT grub...

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Fabulous entertainment...

including Jeremy, our highly-popular (look at that line!) and INCREDIBLE Balloon Guy...

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No... seriously... A-MAZ-ing balloons!

(This 3 1/2 foot Clown was bigger than the Birthday Boy!)

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...and for all 40 kids!
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He also tells jokes...

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does Magic...

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and juggles...

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with FIRE!

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The kids thought it was awesome... even the big ones!

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And what Party is complete without a Pinata?
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...and Cake & Ice Cream?

(Thanks again Suz, Mauri & Cheryl for serving it up!)

(And Cupcakes for the kiddies...)

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The Birthday Boy got his own little Cake...

(This was actually post-party, because we ran out of time!)

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and "walked away" with a pretty good stash of LOOT...

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including this HOT set of "Wheels" from Mom & Dad...

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which turned out to be popular with his friends! (Look at Sela's face! :)

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He was spoiled-rotten, for sure!

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The Bounce-House we set up Downstairs was a hit...

(...Thanks again to the generous Jane!)

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especially with the Big Kids...

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and Dayne-o's 2 Big Brothers!

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who actually ended up sleeping in it!

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Thanks again to everyone who came and enjoyed the evening at our "Crib"!

We all had a great time and most importantly, so did the Birthday Boy!

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After all... You only turn 1 once! :)

GW Canvases...

I've been in major Home Improvement Project mode for the last couple of weeks...

Should we call it nesting? I don't know, but I am just hoping to keep up the momentum!

So this was my big accomplishment today...

I FINALLY ordered my OWN set of Gallery Wrapped Canvases

from the Headshots I took of my boys just before Christmas!

(Sad that it has taken me this long... the curse of being a Photographer...)

These are my new FAVE thing to shoot in the Studio and they turn out sooo cool!

I love to shoot them Low-Key (like these, dark clothing on a dark background) and then desaturate them in Photoshop, adding a nice rich Sepia-tone color balance with a little bit of Hand-tinting... Mmm-wah!

If you've never seen a Gallery-Wrap, this is how they work...

The Portraits are printed on Canvas Giclee Paper (which is like a canvas fabric)

and then Matt builds a cutom-stretcher-frame for me and we actually "gallery-wrap" the photos around it, stapling the Canvas to the back, where you can't see it.

The finished Portrait hangs frame-less right on the wall, sort of like a shadow-box...

very cool, very simple, very contemporary.

(So what you see within the pinstripe area appears on the "face" of the Canvas and the outer edge wraps around the sides of the wooden frame... that's why the border looks so wide... the photo frames itself!) The extra white canvas around the very outer edge is just where we staple the canvas to the back of the frame. We cover this strip and the staples with felt, attach a couple of screw eyes, wire it for hanging... and wah-lah! Over-sized joy!)

I am soooo excited!

It always takes me way longer to get around to ordering and retouching my own stuff,

but I always love having them done! I can't wait to get them back, wrap them, and hang them up!

I will take a photo of the finished project once it is up on my wall this weekend!

Daynen's 1 Year WELL-Child Check-up...

How WONDERFUL it was to take this sweet boy in for his

1 Year WELL-Child Check-up today!

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He's had MORE than his fair share of Doctor visits due to sickness and surgery,

(not to mention last week's ER fiasco...), so we were glad to have him there happy and healthy!

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He weighed in at a lean 21 1/2 pounds...

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(That's down a whole pound and a half since his surgery a few weeks ago,

but not to worry... it's probably just due to his increase in activity,

now that he's crawling more and trying to walk...)

and measured nearly 31 inches tall.

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(that's the smallest of his brothers at this age.)

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Then Dr. Johnson got out his good ol' friend the Ear-Flashlight thingy...

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and gave us the best news...

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No sign of fluid... and no more Ear Infections!

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Yea! His tubes are working!

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We were so excited we stopped by Dad's work to tell him the great news in person...

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and Dayne got a ride on the Fork-Lift with Daddy to celebrate!

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Dayne's First ER Visit...

Just thought we'd give you a peek at our 7 Hour ER Adventure this afternoon...

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It all started during my afternoon round of Spring Cleaning...

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I found a bottle of Floor Cleaner that someone had mistakenly put away in the Upstairs Cleaning Closet. (It belongs in the Main Floor Cleaning Closet because I use it on the Hardwood Floor of our Front Entry.) I set it in a basket of things I was collecting at the top of the stairs and planning to put away on my next trip downstairs.

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Big Mistake.

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A half an hour later

(after my casual, obligatory phone call to Poison Control ended with an urgent warning),

we were met at the doors of the ER and quickly escorted to the front of the triage line.

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Daynen was given an IV (the WORST part of the whole thing!) and a 9 ounce bottle of charcoal to drink. Thick, black, disgusting CHARCOAL!

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Of course, he did not like it at all, but we were told the alternative was an intibation(?) tube straight to his stomach, so I had to beg and force him to drink it.

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(This smile is only because Kaden is a great photographer and can be a really funny distraction.)

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Fast forward several LONG, EXHAUSTING, HOURS full of blood tests and toxicity reports...

(Peek-a-boo around the corner of the Hospital Bed only lasted so long...

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And then he was ready to get OUT of there!)

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Sure, he flirted at the Nurses and smiled at the Doctors...

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(so proud to finally get that DANG bracelet off!)...

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even smiled for his Chest X-Ray... which he thought it was a camera...

(Hee Hee! I guess I have him well-trained!)

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but let me assure you, this busy, curious boy was NOT happy to be cooped up, bored, un-napped, un-fed, poked and prodded...

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I couldn't blame him! After a few hours, I started feeling a little irrational myself!

(Thanks to my dear and FAB-u-lous friend, Cheryl, who brought us reinforcements in the form of a sandwich and some warm milk for a bottle! Sooo appreciated! We were both starving!)

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Moral:

ALWAYS keep your cleaning solutions up HIGH out of reach...

(really, every single second!)

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Trust us, the anecdote is NO FUN!