Mom invited me to a pumpkin painting class at her church this week and it was SO MUCH FUN. And easy, man you guys this was so easy! In fact Chris and I are going to paint another one this weekend at home!

You can see you will need a pumpkin, a disposable cup, about 4-5 craft paints and then a pan. You can use a cake cooling rack inside the pan to help the paint drip!

All you do is put 2 whole bottles of the main color in a cup first to fill it about 1/2 way. Then add 3-4 additional colors ….squirt around the cup (like picture) then you literally pour like you see my Mom doing! This will take about 2 days to dry and it will continue to drip and change which is the fun part! You can start at the top again and do a second pour to add more paint or you can do what I did, leave it and let the pumpkin show. These turned out so good and no one was alike which was the fun part! This weekend I think we are going to do a “shades of blue” pumpkin for our living room!

I will say getting these home were hard, hence me strapping Mom in with both our pumpkins….. he had laughs and best part this was a quick little project so I was home for bedtime with my boys! Let me know if you do this project, I would love to see yours!!!

I am SO lucky to get to work part time from home for my friend Allison at Brown Egg Bakery. I work early in the mornings (like 5am) while Chris and Everett watch the news, here and there throughout the day and then when Chris gets home. I work on the weekends when Chris is here to watch over Everett. So I love that I can spread my hours out across 7 days. And these days life in general is SO expensive so we have absolutely toyed with the idea of me getting a full time job but with as expensive as daycare is, I would have to make a substantial amount over the daycare amount for it to make being away from Everett worthwhile. It’s honestly a struggle that is on our minds constantly, juggling finances and our family life. My life may be completely different than say 5+ years ago in so many ways but in other ways my life is full of so much love.

It’s funny, part of me is killing the Stay at Home Mom life and it is something I couldn’t love more. But of course there are days it pushes me to the edge. No one is perfect and some days I don’t have as much patience as I would like, or days I think Everett deserves better than me. ya know? It’s weird, having this “job” where literal 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is required and so many days I SUCK at it but you will never get fired. I think it’s also hard because this may not be the case everywhere but here in Oklahoma I am an “old Mom”. My best friend is (gasp) a grandmother. A very, young one but I do not have a friend that is in the same Mom life as I am in now. Not that I have anytime for friends but it would be nice to have someone in the same boat as me?!> Who knows. These are the ramblings of a stay at home Mom. I think another thing that is tough is when you are on a spend no money track I feel a little trapped at home with E. I mean come on, anytime you leave the house it costs… literally! LOL. Today I was like I should take E to the Fair, see animals and eat some food but GOOD LORD do you know how expensive the Fair is? How is everyone going? LOL

I digress…..

I LOVE being able to comfort him when he needs me, see all his little milestones, listen to him sing which is something he loves and have afternoon dance parties with him in his room… to rap of course. I think when days are the hardest (grocery, clean, laundry, cook, clean, again) even I need to remind myself that is it ok to not be perfect. He looks at me the same whether I haven’t showered in days or if I brushed my hair! Babies are great that way!

Currently E has like 5 teeth coming in which are so hard on him plus he now has a complete mind of his own. We love seeing his personality develop but that also means he knows what he wants and what he doesn’t. I swear babies man. I saw this meme that said how to deal with a 1 year old tantrum…. you can’t, just scream with them! That is truth! LOL

How about we start backwards with Everetts FIRST Birthday party?! We knew since he was born that we wanted to do a Big E Smalls theme. SO talk about a year in the making! I got so lucky because apparently that theme is REALLY popular right now and Etsy is FULLLLLL of cheap and easy ideas!

I am so proud of all the little details… the ball pit was the BEST thing we ever did! AND totally cheap you guys! We used Tiny Tots Fun Zone and the venue was this awesome multi-use space in Norman Ivy Lane Studios! And oh YA….. we had a hot dog vendor set up! I didn’t want to worry about making food and when you add up pizza this was cheaper and such a cool vibe! You can find him on Facebook, Split top dogs! The smash cake I made from scratch myself, I really wanted to do that for him. And then LUCKY LUCKY me….. my boss lady is Brown Egg Bakery and she so so graciously offered to make Everett’s party cake! How lucky!

I used super fun print at home printables and did a memory box that he will open when he turns 18!

Our boy had the best time and yes we played hip hop tunes…. he loves music, every night after we do jammies we have a 3 minute dance party! He also LOVES sweets just like his parents, so he loved digging into this cake!

You guys raising a baby isn’t easy and I loose my patience more than I like but I really feel so lucky to be his Mom. It’s like a higher power knew he was going to be mine and that is how my life worked out. I mean getting pregnant and having a baby at 40, insane….. but I am so lucky I have Chris who is the best partner and Dad and I mean you guys… look at this boy we made. He could not be any sillier or cuter and you know that is true!

Happy First Birthday Everett! We love you so much

Hello again! I am back….. sadly, the original Okie a la mode is gone. I have NO clue why, how or where and it breaks my heart. SO many years of my life, my musings, recipes and memories but it has somehow disappeared into the great yonder!

So I am back with this simple made my me format, who knows I might upgrade or I might just leave it at this! For the past year there has been so many firsts with Everett that I have wanted to share with you, days when I needed an outlet or just crazy pieces of my life I have missed sharing with you all. SO again, I am back!

I want to always talk about fashion, my home, recipes and what not but this time mostly I want to be a completely REAL and honest voice for Moms out there. New moms, old moms (me), tired moms, moms who are killing it and all those in between. I have ALWAY prided myself in being honest in my blog and that will not change now. I feel like I have changed SOOO much in the past 3 years, I it’s a lot to unpack and I look forward to taking you all with me. I can’t promise I will have regular posts I have a crazy 13 month old that I have to keep up with. A house to clean, pets to love and a job to maintain…… but I will do my best!

I have missed you guys!

N