Noe News is Good News

It's a....

I'm so behind!!! Not just on my blog but on life. I guess that's the life that I will live as a pregnant mom of 2 toddlers trying to put first things first. But I couldn't let this little piece of news slip by much longer...

Last weekend we had some family and a couple of my closest friends over and had a little gender reveal party and it was fun!!  Just the day before we had gone to get our 16 week ultrasound and the technician gave Adam a slip of paper with the gender of the baby. This kinda killed me because I knew he knew and I wanted to know but at the same time I wanted to wait for the big reveal.

To celebrate our recent return from New Mexico, we threw a Fiesta. Our plan was to hit a pinata for the reveal- the color of the candy being the give away. The day of the party was kind of crazy- and although I had most everything put together, I had a photo shoot in Versailles and ran into BAD TRAFFIC on the way home and was late to my own party. I finished up a few last details last minute and decided to forgo a lot of picture taking and just enjoy everyone and everything. But I did take a few pics with my phone earlier on in the day.

Ony of my very sweet and generous friends let me borrow her papel de picado (?) and I honestly think it made the party. It was PERFECT.

I made all the guests vote for whether or not they thought the baby was a boy or girl. My guess from the beginning was a girl- so much so that I actually bought a really really cute girl quilt on sale even before I got pregnant. I just knew our next one would be a girl and I was afraid the quilt would sell out!

If the guest thought it was going to be a boy, I made them wear a fake mustache. So funny!! I tried one on later just for fun and realized they did not smell that good though. Felt so bad then. But no one wore theirs that long anyway! But it was fun.



I made some easy taco soup in the crock pot and a friend brought some delicious home made salsa. I tried to get authentic with most of the stuff besides that... I got Jarrito sodas which are so bad for you and I actually never drink soda, but they were so pretty! I also got some Mexican hot chocolate (has a hint of cinnamon flavor- yummy!!) and served it with Churros made at a local Mexican bakery. Those were heavenly I must say.

I really feel a little sad that I didn't take more pictures of the festivities but truth be told the lighting was pretty much non-exsistent anyway so they would have turned out horrible. The pinata was fun- I ended up breaking it a little and a few pieces of PINK candy fell out! I was so excited- but of course I knew :) I would totally recommend this gender reveal party stuff to anyone. It's so special to find out at the same time as those you love the most!! (except for my husband who tops that list... gosh that was hard but he loved every minute of knowing something I didn't know!)

If you had your guess, were you right??

Oh- and by the way we do already have a name and I don't mind revealing it :) It's Lyla Jane!

And as far as an update of the pregnancy goes, I am feeling so great now. The first trimester was definitely the roughest of my 3 pregnancies- with carpel tunnel and sciatica hitting me REALLY early, lots of sleepless nights and terrible nausea. Thankfully I was feeling better right before our trip to New Mexico but as soon as I returned I started getting TERRIBLE migraine headaches. I've never had these before and now I totally feel for those who suffer from these on a regular basis. They were debilitating. I couldn't do a thing because the lights and noise got to me so bad and I couldn't move without a wave of pain. I tried Tylenol and called the nurse who said she would be happy to call in some Loratab. But I wanted to avoid that so I searched for other remedies- and a few people told me CAFFEINE. It was a lifesaver. One bottle of Ale-8 did the trick. LIke I said earlier, I don't usually drink soda or even caffeine, but for medicinal purposes I was willing. Now I feel 100% better and just like I should during my second trimester!

What do I do now?

Kids are at my in-laws and I am home "de-stressing".  Usually when I send my kids off it's because I have a photo shoot or something else pressing to do... but this time I feel like I'm cheating. I told myself I wasn't going to do anything, at least for today, that could be considered stress inducing. No work, no cleaning, no worrying about anything. So I get to do what I want today. Funny that I find myself in front of the computer. It could partly be the fact that Adam is home and he is in the office working so I wanted his company. But I also think it hints at what I *think* makes me happy, and it makes me laugh. Can anyone guess what I am doing online right now? It's an awful obsession... looking at cute valentines day stuff, cute kids clothes and rooms. I promise I won't be on long... and that I will take some time to read a favorite magazine or start a book. Or even watch a movie that I want to watch.

I Don't really feel like taking a nap, which is something a lot of people would recommend, I'm sure, but I went to bed at 9pm last night. That's SOOOO early for me and I ended up waking again at 3am to my side hurting again, my lymph nodes swollen and my back tingling. I got my iPad out and starting reading about shingles and came to the conclusion that I never had a pulled muscle. I think it was all shingles to start with. I read that sometimes the pain, depending on where it is, can be mistaken for pulled muscles or even heart attacks. It would explain why it was so so tender to the touch when Adam tried to massage it out. It would also explain why it is starting to tingle again. Everything I read started bothering me and I couldn't go back to sleep so I woke Adam up and he gave me a blessing. I seriously love that man. He was able to calm me down and help me feel better. I was then able to go back to sleep and wake up at 7:30am- which I consider sleeping in.

It's actually nice to start thinking about Valentines Day. I love the holiday that celebrates love and I love the combination of red and pink. Wanna see what has been making me happy today- and helping me de-stress?

The following bedding and clothes from Room Seven- a clothing line I stumbled on this morning. CUTE.

 



Martha Stewart

 









From here and there- can't remember where.

I started an anti-viral today that is supposed to help with the pain and hopefully heal things sooner. But that's another story in itself... we've had a little bit of bad luck with our new insurance coverage. Like, it doesn't exist. No stress today so I won't talk about it right now. I'd rather look at pretty things!

Tangled

I don't think I have ever been more in love with a movie! And I am DEAD SERIOUS! I loved everything about it. Adam has kind of been making fun of me because I have been kind of obsessed with it, but it was just magical. You can laugh at me if you want!

Anyway, it's got me inspired on all sorts of levels. The artist they used for Rapunzel's room was absolutely amazing! (her name is Claire Keane, by the way, and is daughter to another Disney artist Glen Keane) I love her work.

Below is the concept drawing for Rapunzel's room.



I am especially in love with her Armoire- and went to great lengths to get this picture (which I paused on my ipad from a video I was watching then did a screen shot)



It's going to be one of my first projects this year to do something similar on a new dresser for Joselyn. Distressed with little paintings of cute clothes on it. Don't you love it? Or is it just me?

Oh and you don't even want to get me started on the plans I have for a Tangled PARTY!! I'm thinking maybe when they release it on DVD? Whenever that will be... I can't wait. Even Joselyn keeps on asking if we can go see it again!

 

 

Joselyn's Birthday Party- a preview!

I say preview because my friend Stacie took lots of pictures and I am sure they are much better than mine... so I will get those soon and do a big post of Joselyn's party! But here's a little preview of the adorable tea party! The girls had so much fun and I did too! Thanks to everyone who came and to those of you who helped me too! And a special thanks to my mom- who helped me a ton even though it was her actual birthday today. I love her so so much!!

Cute little Halloween Party

My friend Hillery just threw the cutest Halloween party this morning! You know me- all about the details- so I was in love with every little thing especially the food! Landen and Joselyn had so much fun with all the kids running around! Seriously loving that my kids have had so many fun things to do this fall!

Hillery had a cookie decorating table all set up with halloween shaped cookies and lots of toppings. It was a hit!











Joann was so cute and precise with her cookie decorating it was so cute!




I don't know if I will ever get a picture of LAnden with his hood on... he's such a cute little lion but he hates the hood!!








Then there were the clever games... Ghost busters and Pin the nose on the witch!!





My cute friend Melanie made this shirt herself! SOOO cute and clever!!
THis girl is soo talented! And if the shirt doesn't give it away, she is pregnant and almost due. I just think it's a little hard to tell.


At one point we found a bunch of the kids huddled together in a corner playing... I love that my kids have made some cute friends!


What a great party. Thanks Hillery!

Overboard? Maybe a little...

When I first got married, I would spend all my free time away from Adam looking at weddings and parties on blogs... some may say I was a little obsessed, but planning parties is one of my favorite things to do (next to photography) and I love looking for inspiration. I usually start thinking about my kids' next birthday party the minute their previous one has ended, and Joselyn's coming birthday party was no exception. With the party coming up in 2 weeks I've been hard at work planning every last little detail for the perfect little paper doll tea party! I obviously don't want to give away all the details I've been planning because I want it to be a surprise for the guests, but I just finished the invitations and wanted to show them off! I'm so into all the little details so many of you may think I went overboard... but I don't mind. It's something I love to do! So planning little details meets my love of photography... and I took pictures of every little separate invitation. Laugh all you want! Even though I know they weren't perfect, a lot of time and effort went into this!

Ok, so like I said, the party is going to be a vintage paper doll tea party. So I stole the paper-doll invite idea from Martha Stewart. I added my extra little touch with contrasting ribbon around the waist to keep them together.





I then packaged up some tea cookies in little brown boxes and used doillies, pretty tape I got at Michaels for $1 and some pretty yarn to make them look sweet :)

If you can't tell, I am SOOOO excited for the birthday party! YAY :)

Suzanne and Drew's Wedding

I'm a little overwhelmed! There is so much I need to write about on this blog and time is going by WAY too fast for me! I promise to take some time to catch up over the weekend... but I definitely wanted to blog about Suzanne and Drew's wedding.

I am so happy that Suzanne found someone so incredible wonderful for her. Drew is such an amazing guy and has brought out the absolute best in Suzanne- and she was already quite an amazing person too! When I first met Drew a few years ago, I just had a feeling she was going to marry him. I even told Suzanne that. But of course things happen and time separated them for a while. But like Adam and me, they found their way back to each other and in the end, well, they got married of course :) I was thrilled to be a part of planning the wedding with Cindy, Adam's cousin. We looked at a lot of venues for the wedding/reception including the Barry Mansion in Frankfort... but in the end decided to go with the church cultural hall. When I got married that was not an option... I just never thought you could make a cultural hall beautiful enough for a reception. But I was up for this challenge and took it on.

Suzanne's colors were A deep purple and silver. And since she loves butterflies so much, we incorporated that as well. Cindy was to do all the flowers and food, so I took on making the gym look nice. (although Cindy did help with that too!) We bought lots and lots of tulle (it was pretty cheap, actually) and I spend night after night cutting out butterflies and making tissue paper pom poms. I also made the programs, menu cards and some slideshows to show at the reception. In addition to all that I was a bridesmaid... AND the photographer too. So it was a pretty crazy day, but I made sure to enjoy myself. I was so impressed with Suzanne... although there were a few should-have-been-stressful moments, Suzanne kept her cool and stayed happy and calm. I am so happy for her!

We were seriously cutting it close during their pictures. We didn't have much time... but it's hard to take a bad picture of these two so we got lots of great ones!

Here are some of the details... the cake, made by Cindy, the programs I designed and printed, Suzanne's ADORABLE shoes, and the guest book, also made by me using pictures from their Engagement photo shoot. In the back of the guest book there are various questions such as "Why are Drew and Suzanne so good together?" and "Give Suzanne and Drew and idea for Date Night"

 

The guestbook cover:
 

Some of the pages:












Some more details... the wreaths for the door... one with an S and one with a D, the welcome/guest book table, the receptions tables with menu cards. Cindy did a great job with the food... it was DELICIOUS! Chicken Marsala, garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. It was a hit! And it was all served by her amazing friends. Everyone felt like they were at a fancy restaurant!



Here's the gym... these pictures were taken before the tables were set, but it gives you an idea of what it looked like! I've gotta thank my friend Sarah Lassen for helping me out with some pictures too. She's awesome.




 


And in case you are wondering, yes, getting all that tulle up there was NOT easy. Thank goodness Drew was not afraid of heights and was willing to stay up until almost 1am (the morning of his wedding) to help my get it up. Never a complaint, always smiling. I told you he was a great guy!

I wish I would have gotten more pictures of Joselyn in the beautiful flower girl dress my mom made! You can see part of it in the big group Picture (of course Joselyn is front and center and had to be next to the "princess") and then again above being twirled by Drew's Nephew Landen. (his name is even spelled exactly the same as my little boy- cool huh?) She originally had a purple sash tied in a ribbon up front pinned by a butterfly brooch. But when it came time for the reception she wanted it off. 

I'll leave you with the slideshows I put together for the reception:

Suzanne and Drew from Marissa Noe on Vimeo.

Suzanne and Drew's Engagement Slideshow from Marissa Noe on Vimeo.

Ok, so now that THAT is over, I guess I need to start planning Joselyn and Landen's birthday parties! This is too much fun!