1.

Brody turned ONE today and i can't believe we have already reached this milestone. he was stoked to have another smash cake that he just loved.



he also enjoyed the party decor as well. when i brought him down stairs in the morning and put him down, he went over and picked up his bat and came back over to me. it was so cute. he thought the pom-poms were a pinata. love him.



being one is a really big deal, and he sure was happy about it!



a family picture one year apart



happy birthday baby boy.
this year has been the best with you by my side.

i love u.

Fishy Fun Birthday Party...

this was the invite i designed for brody's "fishy" birthday party!



super cute birthday boy! brody's actual birth "date" is the 30th - but we figured with his birthday being over memorial day weekend it would be a good idea to do it the weekend before. it turned out great and we had so much fun!



just a few of our friends that i actually got pictures of... neal and kelli - kendall and ryan



statistics friends! tyson has some of the best classmates! we are so glad they are our friends and that they love brody so much!



heather and jayden and elisa and gwen



we played a couple of fun games!

we did "GO FISHING"...it was a huge hit with the kiddos. When they "fished" they caught a beach ball and some fishy stickers. They loved it!



ellie and amelia "fishing"...



and of course Brody LOVED it! So fun.



then we had a PINATA! A Pinata that Tyson and I made. Actually we should really give Tyson all the credit, I kinda directed him in what to do and he did it. I just made the fin and eye balls. Shoot, for our first time making one and doing it at 1 am...we think it turned out pretty great! and EVERYONE loved it! After all the kids took turns, the adults all took turns, it actually took quite a while to finally break the thing open. It was awesome!!



hitting the fishy...



and once again...of course Brody LOVED this game as well!



a cute shot of my little bear just waiting his turn to hit the Fishy Pianta again. Love him!



after games...it was CAKE TIME!



we love our brody bear



singing happy birthday...



here we go...



oh so yummy!! he loved every minute of it! he's totally our kid, and we know he takes after me...he LOVES frosting! Thata boy!



as far as decorations went...i made a bunch of fish from melted crayons that i hung all around...the picture isnt very good, but they turned out really cool. i'm a big fan!



i also made little cake stands for fish bowls to go on and we put real fishys in the bowls. it was magical! i was obsessed with how cool it looked. next to the fish bowls i had mason jars filled with white flowers. it looked really good.



cute stands with cute fish bowls!



BEST part about the Fish...everyone took a fish bowl home with them with some fishys! how fun, huh? EVERYONE loved that part! and I am happy everyone wanted to take one home with them. From what I hear ...a week later...most everyones fishys have died. What is it with gold fish? oh well. it was still fabulous!



Food! of course I was horrible at taking pictures of the food too. Opps. but it was tasty!

Our Lunch Menu consisted of:

*Make your own: Ham or Turkey Sandwhich on Potatoe Rolls

*Condiments consisted of : mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomatoe, cheese and pickles

*Pasta Salad

*Gold FISH crackers and Gold FISH preztels

*Peanut Butter and Rasberry Jam FISHY sandwhiches on White and Wheat bread (i used a fishy cookie cutter and cut out fishys and then made the sandwhiches, they were a huge hit!)

*Finding Nemo FISHY fruit snacks

*Fruit Kabobs with Marshallow Fluff/Cream Cheese dip (yummy!)



We also had a de-lish dessert table as well...



The Dessert Table Menu:

*Chocolate and Yellow Cupcakes with Butter Cream Frosting

*THE BEST Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

*One huge Candy Jar full of Swedish FISH and another Jar of Red Vines

* One bowl of Resses Peanut Butter Cups and another bowl of Almond Joys (i went with candy that had colors of our party, blue for the almond joys and orange for the reeses)

*Caramel Chocolate dipped Marshallow Pops

*And of course The Most Amazing BIRTHDAY cake

*I also had little baggies that everyone could fill up with candy to take home with them.

we also had a delightful spread of drinks to choose from as well...



i LOVE these labels that I made for the water bottles. and I mean hello! what party isnt complete without a label for the water bottles. ha. i guess they're like the new big thing at parties! i am so okay with that. just following the trend people! i love me a fun water bottle!



and of course the CAKE! It was SPECTACULAR! I designed it and the bakery ladies did such a great job at doing what I asked. It was a simple design, so I wasnt too afraid they would mess up. It turned out better than I imagined! and on top of how cute it looks, it TASTED even better! yum!



What a Beautiful day it was! We had a "FIN"tastic time! Over all it was the BEST 1st Birthday Party, I've ever been too!
We Love our Birthday Boy!!



winding down, ready to go home! THANKS again to everyone who came and made Brody's Party so Special!

THE END.

Party Time

more to come from Brody's 1st Birthday Party.

i was busy being hostess so i only took a few pics.

once i receive some more from others, i will post.

thanks for all who came and made it so special.

one thing i know for sure...

...this moment changed me forever.
i am eternally grateful.

happy mother's day!
{my first of many}

i love you mom.
you taugh me all i know.

Zoom Zoom...

Have a Happy Weekend!

it was a first...

a first hair cut for the brody bear! last week we took brody to finally get his lovely locks chopped off. we were getting a little tired of people mistaking him for a girl, and mostly tired of some people who will go unmentioned that kept nagging us to get his hair cut, that was getting old. you know who you are!! haha.

I will admit I was totally putting it off. Seriously for like oh, I dunno a month and a half, everyday we would talk about, 'okay, today is the day we will go get it cut.' ha. but it never happened. I never thought I would be so sentimental about HAIR. I was DREADING brody getting his hair cut. I loved it. And I still do! but it was just so cute to me. but the day finally came and he did great! he loved every moment of it! he was so cute and such a good boy. Of course!
the place we took him to was so cute and they did a great job!

here is a play by play...


last shot of the lovely locks of hair


let's get this started...


let me see that...


chop...chop...chop...


just chill'in in my fire truck...


so good looking...


all done!

oh boy! doesn't he look like a big boy! he's darling! and I don't even think he knew he was getting his hair cut, he was so into driving that fire truck. we were seriously laughing the entire time. he did so good! they even used the buzzer thing around his neck and ears and it didn't even phase him. he's amazing! and looks even more adorable than before. i will admit, I kinda miss his long hair, but he just looks so dang good and he hasn't been told he looks like a girl since. ha!

Good Job Brody on your very first Hair Cut!

Eleven...

last weekend, we indeed celebrated the little brody bears 11 month birthday! 11 months! wow. it is seriously so mind boggling to me the developments that take place in just ONE year. I say it all the time, but it's so true. time FLIES on by. and I can honestly say that we have LOVED every moment thus far. we've definitely lucked out with one super awesome little guy. brody is so full of zest and spunk. he loves to give hugs and kisses. he is so full of life and he is so adventurous and super active. he still loves being outside as much as possible. he loves going on walks and of course riding his car all around. he loves going to the zoo, and the park and enjoys playing/climbing on the jungle gym and going in the swings. he cruzes along the furniture and take an occasional 2-3 steps and then procceds to crawl. he's a talker and says 'mama' and 'dada' all the time. LOVES to climb the stairs in our house at least 20-30 times a day, maybe even more, we tend to lose count. he loves music and us singing. he especially loves it when we sing, 'patty cake' and 'do as i'm doing'. his laugh is still the most contagious thing ever! it makes me smile just thinking about it. he loves it when we read to him and he still loves to snuggle. he loves to clap and wave to people and he always seems to attract the college girls whenever we are out shopping or when we are on campus. pretty sure he is a lady killer. he's such a flirt and it's so dang cute. i mean, he is pretty dreamy don't ya think? come on...look at the EYES. They are gorgeous and he gets told he is 'beautiful' all the time. he also gets told that he should be a 'Gerber' baby. I have to agree. Am I starting to brag? um, YES! it's my blog and I will blog brag if I want to you. We adore brody to the moon and back again. But isn't that how it should be? I surly think so. but wow...11 months. i'm not gonna lie...the brody bear has his moments of the cranks, but hello? don't we all at some point or another? but they are far and few between, we did get really lucky with a super easy kid. and i think he lucked out with some pretty sweet parents. Oh how we love you Mr. Bear and we know you love us just as much. i love that you are 11 months old...and just about to hit that one year mark. what a celebration that will be. we love you.

life is sweet.

Pittsburgh Half Marathon...

It's true...I did it! And it was AWESOME!!! This was my first Half Marathon and it definitely won't be my last. Yesterday morning I woke early and headed downtown to where the Pittsburgh Marathon and Half Marathon Race was taking place. There were 16,000 people running and it was crazy! the streets of Pittsburgh were filled with runners. The race started at 7:30 am and it was a warm 72 degrees. The gun went off to start the race...and I was off. And I felt great! I was so excited and so filled with adrenaline. It started to rain and then it started to pour and it down poured for almost the entire race. nothing like splish splashing for 13.1 miles. It was still so much fun. I did pick this race because it said it was "surprising flat and fast". Fast, yes, Flat? Um, WRONG! I never knew Pittsburgh was so Hilly. We had some seriously major inclines and I was not prepared for them, Columbus Ohio is FLAT. But I totally endured it and my thighs and butt burned, but it was totally worth it. I ran on the North Shore of Pittsburgh past Heinz Field, PNC Park and the new Rivers Casino. I also crossed each of the three rivers in Pittsburgh and raced through the South Side before crossing the Smithfield Street Bridge and continued back through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh to the finish line near the Convention Center. Pittsburgh is known as the 'City of Bridges' and I ran over 5 of them. It was so cool! I felt great at the finish line too. And I feel really good today, besides my thighs feel like I did 1,000 lunges yesterday. ha. those darn hills! I finished the race in 2 hours and 23 minutes. I am really happy with my time, those darn hills slowed me down, but I still feel like I did a really great job. Out of the 16,000 runners, there were 5,000 Marathoners and then obviously let's do the math together...11,000 half marathoners. Out of 11,000 runners I placed 4,700th. I think that rocks! And I think I will totally do this race again before we move from Columbus and hopefully, now that I know there are some killer inclines, I will be more prepared and can do even better. But really, without a doubt, the greatest part of the race was coming through the finish line and finding Tyson and Brody waiting for me all proud and happy for me. It warms my heart and soul. I love that they supported me through all my training and then came to cheer me on. I am very loved!

And of course without further a'do...here are pictures from my race and our quick weekend trip in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania...

I did it! My very First Half Marathon. I was so happy and soaking wet and when I mean wet, when we got back to the hotel room I had to wring out my clothes in the tub they were so water logged from the rain and I am sure sweat too. lovely, huh?

My biggest fans! Love them!

showing off my metal and my "personalized" bib with my name on it. That's right I signed up early enough for this race...all the way back to the first week in November of last year, that I got to have a "personalized" bib. let's ohhhhh....aweeeeee. I know. the early bird gets the worm people. I just happened to get lucky.

after I stretched for a bit and ate a quick treat (which consisted of a bagel, gatorade, a banana and a smiley face sugar cookie...which you totally wanted to know that, didn't you?), we headed into the Health and Fitness Expo at the convention center to go buy a couple of t-shirts. We hit up the Nike booth and we saw that they had this huge wall put up with all the runners names on it.

don't you worry...I found my name.

Seriously my race was the bomb. I keep reliving it in my mind, and it was wonderful! HOORAY!

Okay enough about my race... did you know that Pittsburgh is only 3 hours from Columbus. It was just like a little hop, skip and jump and viola we were there. We left Friday afternoon after Tyson's class and got there around 4ish. We checked into our hotel room and then headed down to the Health and Fitness Expo to go pick up my runners packet, race shirt and bib #. When we got to the convention center we were greeted with this...

before I could get my packet, I had to look up my bib # on a computer that they had set up or look on the honker huge board they had of all 16,000 runners names and bib #'s...but don't you worry...

because that's right...i found myself. and you want to know the coolest part...well i think it's pretty cool...I was the ONLY Crowther. halla! The one and only! just sayin.

by the time we were done getting my stuff and checking out the expo, the little brody bear was ready for a nap, so he snoozed in the car while we drove around and checked out Pittsburgh. It's a lot like Columbus besides it's super hilly. have i mentioned that yet? yup, it's got HILLS lots of them! ha. It's a really pretty city and the surrounding area neighborhoods are really pretty too. The rest of friday night consisted of shopping at Target and hanging out in the hotel room...

here are two cute pics of Brody. Showing off his mad balancing skills and then hanging out on the bed after his bath (which by the way I brought Colorox Bleach tub cleaner with me and cleaned the tub nice and clean before putting him in the hotel tub. germs gross me out. if you ever take a bath in a hotel tub, don't ever tell me. that's just sick. ha.) anywhos... brody is cute. end of story.

Saturday morning we got up and headed down to the "Strip District", where there is a way fun farmers market. It was kinda like Pikes Market in Seattle meets Canal Street in NYC. It was super fun. We loved it.

things got even more fun when we went and ate breakfast at Pamela's in the "Strip District"...thanks to my friend Carlee for telling us to go and eat there. It was SO GOOD! it was a TRIPLE YUM!

after walking all around and checking things out and eating the little bear was ready to crash and crash he did. he decided to sleep for 3.5 hours. so I napped too. lovely. By the time he woke up it was almost 4. So we got Brody fed and we were ready to take off and see some more of Pittsburgh.

Our first stop was up to Mt. Washington where they have a way old, still working cable car that will take you up and down the mountain. It's called the "Incline". The view from the top is AMAZING giving you a fantastic view of all of Pittsburgh and of all the Bridges that connect to the city. I don't even know how many Bridges there are. But there are a ton. It was seriously a beautiful view and the weather was great too! and don't mind brody's face in the our family shot, he thought the people taking our photo were weird. ha. he really was happy.

after the "Incline" we drove across town over to supposably one of the "best" ice cream places in Pittsburgh. So said the internet. and this ice cream place just happened to be next to the University of Pittsburgh. by the way...the campus is beautiful! and the ice cream was TASTY! The ice cream place was called 'Dave and Andy's'. And it really was good. We LOVE ice cream and it was a two thumbs up for us. Pretty sure Brody agreed as well. He was digging the cookies and cream.

after ice cream, we knew Brody was ready to PLAY! So we conveniently found a park next to campus called Schenley Park. It was perfect and had a super rad play ground that Brody LOVED! He was so happy! Isn't he just the cutest kid ever! I just want to gobbled him up. LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM!!!

um, what's that you say? Brody is riding on his car? You betcha he is! Like we'd leave home without it? We toodled all around the park on some fun paths and he just soaked it all up. He was so giddy. The best part of riding his car, we pulled him around the hotel, down the hallways, in the elevator, people thought it was great. He's such a cutie!!!

After the park we headed back to our Hotel and ordered in dinner.... my PRE-RACE DINNER. Out of anything I could choose for my "PRE-RACE" meal...where do you think I got it from? If you get this right, you should give yourself a big high-five! Of course out of anything, I choose the Cheesecake Factory. And I got the oh so tasty Carmel Chicken (so good, thanks Jamie!) and Tyson got the Orange Chicken. in case you were wondering. Anywhos, it was fabulous!

and what's even more fun after eating a tasty meal...the POOL of course! Brody is a little fish. Perhaps even a fish bear. whatev. we all know I like to use animals for names. just deal with it. We had a great time playing in the pool and the best part, we had the whole pool to ourselves. that was nice. Brody loved it!

and well...after the pool it was bath time and then bed time. And then I woke up Sunday morning...and well you can scroll back up to the top if you forgot what happened.

And that concludes our trip to Pittsburgh. It was so much fun and super quick. We didn't even do everything on our "to-do" list, so I am sure we will go back again. Pittsburgh was really fun. Thanks to friends for all the fun suggestions on things to do. We had a great time.

After the race, we headed back to the hotel room and packed everything up and we headed back home to Columbus...