The Official MLB | Mommy's Little Blog

Thank you Emily for nominating my blog for the Liebster Award! Emily is a high school friend that blogs about her 2 adorable children, Lily and Jack. Check out her blog, Life {Im}perfected and be sure to follow her! Her blog captures the baby milestones and shares all the joys of being a mommy of two!

To be nominated for the Liebster Award you have to have less than 200 followers. Well, that was easy for me. ;) As a nominee I have to fulfill the following requirements,

· Link back to the blog that nominated you.

· Nominate 5-11 new blogs with fewer than 200 followers.

· Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator.

· Share 11 random facts about yourself.

· Create 11 questions for your nominees.

· Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them.

I would like to nominate the following blogs,
My Attempt at Motherhood
My Busy B's

Molly Jean Photography | The Prettiest Details
JoAnna Robbins Photography
From Poppin' Bottles to Makin' Bottles
Life {Im}perfected

Questions from Emily:
1. What is your job? SAHM? Work outside the home?

I work as a Recreation Coordinator at Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks. I love my job and the people I work with! Sports have always been a part of my life, and as awful as it is that being a stay at home mommy is not in my cards, I am happy that I get to do something I love.

2. What is your favorite childhood memory?

Playing competitive softball and traveling every weekend when I was younger and also our family vacations to Sunset Beach, NC with our close family friends. I love the beach and going with our friends was always so much fun. Now that most of my friends all have kids, I would love to start a tradition like this with all of them.

3. If you could eat lunch with one person (dead or alive) who would it be?

Without a doubt, Ellen. Seriously, who doesn't love Ellen DeGeneres?

4. What was your favorite subject in school?

P.E. – yup, I was that kid…recess and P.E. were always the highlight of my day.

5. What is your biggest fear for your child/children?

Good question....I would say that when you become a mommy this instinct of being a protector automatically sinks in. I guess my biggest fear is that one day I will not be my child's protector anymore.

6. Why did you start blogging?

I look at my blog as a way to capture Nolan’s milestones (scrapbook) and share as many pictures as I would like with my family and close friends, without having to blow up facebook on the daily. My best friend, Andrea (Aun), started her blog with her first daughter and now is a mommy of 2 and still capturing all the wonderful joys of being a mommy in her blog. She inspired me to do the same. Additionally, I have quite a bit of out of state family that wants to be able to see Nolan grow. Blogging not only captures the milestones, but shares them with my family, friends and anyone else that wants to read about them! :)

7. What is your earliest memory?

Oh my, my sister gets so mad at me because she tells me I don’t remember my childhood. I remember some stuff, but not every detail that she does. If you show me pictures, I can remember, but otherwise I would say that I have memories dating back as early as Kindergarten?

8. Where is your favorite place to shop?

Target. I spend far too much money at Target. The best thing I ever did was getting the Target red card, it links right up to your debit account. I have no idea why I waited so long to save 5%. Is it sad that I can’t remember the last time I went to the mall?

9. What is one food you wished you liked, but just don't?

Fish, so good for you, but I just can’t bring myself to like the taste. Maybe one day…

10. What is your favorite thing about yourself?

My favorite thing about me is where I am at in my life. I am married to the love of my life, Ryan. I have a beautiful, healthy baby boy, Nolan and let’s not forget our furry four-legged son, Chuggy. I have a house over my head, a good job and am happy with the way my life has shaped out thus far. I look forward to what our future holds.

11. What was the one fashion mistake you made (you know you have one-- leggings? Uggs? Bleached jeans? Teased hair?)?

I don’t know why but jncos pop into my mind. In middle school I thought they were cool, probably for too long.

Random facts about me:

I am left handed.
I have some OCD – Setting my alarm clock at night is about a 10 minute process.
My sister, brother and I were all adopted. I do not have any desire to meet my biological "parents". (Anyone that knows me, knows I refer to them as my “sperm donor” and “fetus carrier”) My parents are James and Cheryl Grubb. They made me, me.
My favorite food is lasagna.
My DVR is full with Ellen, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Dance Moms and The Kardasians!
Baltimore sports fan: Orioles & Ravens.
The highlight of my collegiate softball career was throwing a perfect game.
The amount of concerts I have been to in my lifetime can fit onto 1 hand.
My husband and I are visiting a new baseball stadium for every wedding anniversary.
I have never broken any bones. (Praying I didn't jinx myself!)
I have a 1 year old, and he seriously stole my heart the minute he was born. I love being a mom.

Questions for my nominees:

Why did you start blogging?
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do with the money/buy?
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Winter, spring, summer or fall and why?
If you had to describe your life as a movie, what movie would it be?
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
If you could visit any country in the world, where would you go?
What did you do for your 21st birthday?
What store is your favorite place to shop?
If you could meet one person (dead or alive) and spend the entire day with them, who would it be and what would you do?
What embarrasses you?

Mommy & Nolie

Life {Im}perfected

I love modge podge.

Well, aside from Nolan being miserable, I think he had a great birthday party. My poor baby had his 1 year checkup on Wednesday and since then he has not been himself. On Wednesday, we also (made the mistake of) starting the transition to whole milk. Between the 4 shots, his 2 top teeth coming in and the milk change, Nolan was a constipated, cranky little boy and I was one sad mama. Nolan never reacted to any of his shots. After his 1 year appointment he had a fever for 2 days. L I also wish I would have waited 1 more week before we started the milk transition, but I really had no idea that Nolie would get so blocked up. I won’t go into details on that, but we are still working on the transition and I am hoping his belly adjusts soon. As for his teeth, I feel like it is rapid fire. The top 2 have broken through, but now it looks like there are ridges on the sides of his bottom 2 teeth. I really hope that everyone who attended Nolan’s birthday party knows that he really is a happy little boy. It has been the saddest week seeing him so miserable. I miss my happy baby.

For Nolan’s first birthday I was most excited for his smash cake. I wanted to do something special so with the help of my sister, I attempted to make it myself. The only reason Nolan even touched his smash cake was because he arm hit it as he was crying reaching for me to get him out of the chair. He did taste it and seemed to like it, but I guess when you have an awful belly ache the last thing you want to do is play with cake.

Nolan’s cake was 4 tiny layers of colorful fun! I did a red, yellow, green and blue layer to match the UNO theme. The cake had white icing and I did a matching sprinkle border.

Nolan’s high chair was my $10 score thanks to Auntie Kim finding it through her teacher connection. I spray painted the chair bright yellow. I made a ribbon trim to go around the tray and hot glued an Uno card in the center.

I made a banner out of Nolan’s monthly photos and using my cricut I made it read “Nolan is Uno”

Nolan wore a shirt made by Aunt Aunnie and Uncle Anth. It said UNO on the front and had Nol’s name on the back with a number 1!

We bought 99 cent picture frames from IKEA! They came in red, green blue and white. I painted the white ones yellow. The frames were double sided so I filled them with pictures of Nolan throughout the year and placed them on the picnic tables.

The party favors were old jars of baby food. I painted the tops of the jars different colors and hot glued an uno card to the top. Then I filled the jars with M&M’s and popped a “Thank you! Love, Nolan” sticker on each jar. I also had a little goodie bag to go with the jars.

These are the pictures you get when you tell your husband to make sure to take pictures of everything ...

We kept it simple with food. I placed chips and salsa on the tables. We ordered pizzas from our favorite place, Philly’s Best and then we had fruit, veggies, my sister’s addicting-ly amazing spinach dip and chocolate covered marshmallows. Aunt Lainy and I dipped the marshmallows in matching white chocolate and then covered them in matching sprinkles. I bought the flower holder green foam blocks from the dollar store and wrapped them in black tissue paper. Then I poked the marshmallows through to have a holder.

I almost forgot the invitations I made him,

Although Nolan was not too happy at his party, it was still an absolutely wonderful day celebrating our little munchkin’s first year. I still can’t believe we have a 1 year old.

Thank you so much to everyone for your help with making his party so wonderful. I appreciate everyone that came, celebrated and has been a part of Nolan’s first year. We love you all so much!

A million more party pictures: