We're engaged! AND oh by the way, our child is 1-ish!

Don't let the title fool you, folks!  We are indeed engaged (for the long-term since we're actually married) and the babe is almost 1.  So, what's up with the post title then?

This weekend, I have officially decided to pretend that Mr. Man and I are engaged again, AND that we're celebrating The Babe's 1-ish birthday!  Have no fear, though, there is a purpose to these pretend late and early celebrations.

The purpose is solely for ahhh-mazing photography reasons.  And for house decorating reasons (of course!).  Both things that I love!  Also, remember the gallery wall I posted about way before WTH took place (please note that WTH is the time period Well-before Tornado Hit)?  Well, soon enough our "engagement" pictures and Emme's first birthday pictures will be gracing this wall!  Stay tuned for that!

So, let's get down to the nitty-gritty of this new "project".  First and foremost, we are so fortunate to have the amazingly talented Julia Wade take our pictures.  If there was one word I could use to describe Julia and her art, it would be graceful.  For reals, look it up.  She is so down to earth, full of life, and I can't think of another person or photographer I'd rather spend a Saturday morning sunrise with!  So, thanks in advance, Julia, for agreeing to spend your Saturday morning with us, too!  We're super excited because we never had engagement pictures taken, and we also want to capture some good family memories before The Babe turns 1 in late July.

In preparation for tomorrow, I've been annoying spending lots of time talking to Mr. Man about what he's going to wear, what time we all need to be up, and how happy we need to be when we get there!   :)  Besides all that talking I've been doing, I've also been prepping by coordinating outfits, repairing an old high chair and baking cupcakes.  How domestic of me, huh?!

Let's start with the work on the high chair.  Since I'm an obsessive planner, I've been thinking for years about how I wanted to take pictures of my babies in the same high chair I sat in at my first birthday party.  This is truly one of my favorite pictures from my childhood...  SOOO happy to be eating cake.

My first birthday in THE high chair!
Look at that chocolate cake!

This chair has seen almost 30 years of storage in my mom's attic and plenty of pieces of chocolate cake, so let's just say it needed some work.  The caning in the bottom was cracked and would have surely been uncomfortable for The Babe.  So, I took it off and put a new piece of wood in the bottom.  Here's what the chair looked like when I got it.

The chair straight out of storage!

Removing the caning in the bottom -
favorite tools were a small straight screwdriver, pliers and a hammer.

This is the piece of "wood" I used to cover up the bottom.
It's an inexpensive wooden plate from Michael's.
Please note this was a QUICK fix.  If I ever get around to it,
I'm going to upholster some "real" wood and secure it more
permanently to the chair.  Someday...

This is the sort-of finished chair!
I screwed the plate onto the chair and then painted the plate.
The finishing touch was a good scrub with
Murphy's Oil Soap (that would make my momma really proud!).

After fixing the chair, I moved onto the cupcakes.  I knew I wanted The Babe to have a completely unhealthy cake for her 1st birthday pictures.  I think it's pretty obvious from my picture above that I got to indulge in some chocolate-on-chocolate cakeage, so that's what The Babe gets, too!

The child loves peanut butter and I'm quite certain she won't turn chocolate down (thanks to my mom feeding her brownies last weekend), so I made her peanut butter chocolate cupcakes.  The peanut butter is secretly tucked inside the cupcake, so she'll be thrilled with the surprise!  Not to mention this will be her breakfast!  I should get some major Mom points for this one, right??  I'm also secretly hoping she'll get a little surge of energy so she can make it through the last bit of the session with Miss Julia!

Here's how the cupcakes went down and a link to the recipe, if you want more details.

First, I had to do some math.  Heaven help me.
We didn't need the temptation
of having 24 cupcakes around the house (the original recipe size),
so we figured out the new recipe for only 6.
I married a math major for a reason....  I hate it.

Getting prepped with my recipe conversions,
the original mixing / baking directions and
 the cutest little cupcake papers!

The top secret peanut butter balls for the inside of the cupcakes!

The wet ingredients...sour cream, milk and vanilla!

The dry ingredient volcano....cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder.

Getting ready to bake.  You just sandwich the peanut butter
 surprises between the cupcake batter!

I haven't made the icing for the cupcakes yet, and I don't want to spoil the yummy-ness of the final products before we have the pro pictures taken tomorrow....  So, that's it for now on the cupcakes, folks! Mr. Man, get ready to ice these bad boys when you get home!

So, that's quite enough of all our pre-photography session prep work!  I know I'm a bit crazy, but hey...engagements and first birthdays only happen once in our lifetimes, right?  ;)  Why not be crazy!  Even if the celebrations are a little late...or a little early.   Besides, it has been a tough few months around here, and it's high time we do something for ourselves (like splurging on amazing photos we'll cherish for a lifetime).

Hope you have a fabulous weekend, too, and SPLURGE AWAY!

***And just have to throw this out there...I totally haven't been perk'd for mentioning the fabulous Julia Wade on my blog.  I just happen to like her, and her wicked photography skills.  :)