Welcome to Pear Tree Events

Ready or not, here I go. My event planning company, Pear Tree Events, is finally launching. The blog has been established and the website is under construction. Please add www.peartreeevents.blogspot.com and www.peartreeevents.net to your "Favorites" list. The website will mainly be for contact purposes but the blog is intended to be a resource to share events we've coordinated, feature local and small business owners, and inspire readers to create their own memorable and unique events.

Pear Tree's logo was created by the incredibly talented Jennifer Mauldin, out of Reno, Nevada. Jennifer currently only does some graphic design work "on the side" and claims she isn't interested in making it a full time endeavor (she is also a part time teacher with a full time day job) but I'm hoping that will change.

The Pear Tree website is being designed by another ridiculously talented up-and-comer, Andre Harris. Andre is graduating from UC Davis this month along with balancing an internship, a fraternity, and my constant barrage of emails including links to websites I am obsessed with. He is so sweet to humor me. Visit Andre's personal website at www.andreharrisjr.com.

If you know of (or if you are) a small business owner or if you know of a fantastic website, blog, product, idea, tutorial, photograph, anything pertaining to event planning, please share! You can email me at tegan.mauldin@peartreeevents.net or send me a comment on the blog. Thank you for the support of my family and friends, I couldn't have started this without you. Wish me luck!

Winner!

If you know me you know that I am lucky when it comes to winning contests. Tage was just saying last night how I haven't won anything in a while and lo-and-behold, this morning I happened across one of my daily blogs, Give Away Today, to discover that I won!

I get to choose from a nursing cover or two shirts from Andee Lew Clothing. I didn't think I was going to want or need a nursing cover, but after having to nurse Mason at CarMax in the women's restroom on Wednesday night I have changed my tune. Happy Friday to me! (And to you too. :)

Memorial Day

You'll see why I couldn't wait to post these pictures.

How cute is my kid? :)

We met Grandma Dee and Grandpa Jack at McKinley Park for a picnic, then headed over to Grandma Pete's for a BBQ.
Mason fell asleep on the blanket even with a park full of kids playing baseball near by.
Grandpa Flint caught a bunch of trout up at French Meadows over the weekend and Tage learned how to de-bone a fish. Not bad for his first time!

New Favorite Website

Today is my day off this week so Mason and I are at home hanging out. When Mase is home with Daddy they listen to a lot of music so I thought I'd follow suit. Somehow I found Pandora Internet Radio, typed in "Eric Hutchinson" and we've had it playing all day! The site automatically plays songs and artists along the same musical genre, so we've been listening to Jack Johnson, John Mayer, the Fray, and more that I also happen to love.
I have more to post, from Memorial Day weekend and Mason's 4 month update, but we left my camera at Grandma Pete's on Monday. I'll get it tomorrow and post out of order. The picture above was taken from my phone today to send to Tage at work. Thank goodness for the good tunes to occupy the two of us because my child refuses to sleep when he's home with Mom. Doesn't want to miss a moment... riiight...

More owls

Owl calling cards? Designed by one of my favorite printers? Lucky me! These would be perfect for handing out to other moms to set up play dates.
Could these owl return address labels be any cuter? My birthday is just around the corner, I might have to treat myself. :) Mason must have those personalized note cards below. All of these adorable creations are by Sarah + Abraham. Check out the blog here.

Heidi's Baby Shower

Last Sunday was Heidi's baby shower at The Peasant and the Pear in Danville. Roseanne selected the location and she couldn't have chosen a better locale. From the moment I arrived to begin setting up, the service was beyond expectations. The manager himself greeted me and offered two of the hostesses to help in any way. I would have had to make three trips to the car to retrieve all of these pom poms!The pom poms were made out of tissue paper using this Martha Stewart tutorial. While time consuming, they are very inexpensive and make a big impact. Heidi has planned parties for all of us and it was fun putting this one together in her honor.

Owls

I have a thing for owls lately. The new background only confirms it. Don't be surpised if you see this owl pennant pop up at a party near you!

Playing Blogger Catch Up

Last week on my day off Mason and I took a trip out to the bay area to visit Heather and the kids. Mase got to meet Heather, Chayse, and Camden for the first time. Camden (who is 2) kept telling Mason to, "Talk!" It was so cute. Chayse (4) was more interested in telling me all about his legos, his stuffed animals, and the neat place he gets to keep his shoes under the bed, than he was with Mason.

I'm sure you already know from previous posts, but Heather is ridiculously talented and made the ADORABLE onesie Mason is wearing in the picture above. I am so enamored by that clover that Mason has barely been out of that onesie since last week.

"You've got to be kidding me"

15 minutes before Mason and I had to leave for Grandma Dee's this morning we were hanging out, Mason on my lap, and playing before we had to spend the day apart. Usually the little stinker spits up all over me before I leave for work, but it's dry by the time I get there.

This morning he decided he needed relief out of the other end, and worked hard to get out a huge poop. No big deal with the new diapers right? So I thought.

I could smell it (which says a lot because my sense of smell is basically non existent) but I thought the breeze coming through the open bedroom windows aided the scent to my nose. Then I noticed Mason had some yellow stuff on his hand, and so did I. After a little more investigation I disovered that some poop had escaped from the diaper and gotten onto the blanket beneath him as well as the Boppy he was sitting on.

Downstairs we went, to grab a clean diaper out of the dryer.

Back upstairs, I laid Mason down on the floor to change him, and discovered THIS about my pants:

The were COVERED in yellow, seedy, baby poop. This picture doesn't even do it justice because it's from my phone. I had barely enough time to get him cleaned up and change into my skirt.

All I could think was, "You've got to be kidding me."

Of course all Mason could do, laying there looking up at me, was smile that gorgeous gummy grin he has in the morning and giggle.

UPDATE: Here are better pictures from my camera, so you can REALLY see the damage (as well as the unassuming culprit.)

Before and After: Clothes Shopping

Before: I don't really need a new pair of jeans, but they're on sale...
After: Mason doesn't really need another outfit, but it's just so cute!

Before: Will this shirt show beer stains?
After: Will this shirt show spit up stains?

Before: Not trying anything on because I know my body.
After: Trying EVERYTHING on twice because I have no clue whose body I now have.

Before: Dry clean only.
After: Can I get away with wearing this one more time before I have to wash it?

Before: I want a swimsuit that shows off my stomach.
After: I want a swimsuit that hides my stomach, my hips, my thighs, my ankles...

BumGenius 3.0

BumGenius is right! This week we are transitioning from disposable to cloth diapers. These are not your mom's cloth diapers. No safety pins. No folding. Just super effective, good for the environment quality. Last week Mason had blow out diapers while wearing disposables in the care of Team Grandma 3 days in a row. Over the weekend with Mom and Dad... blow outs contained! (Side note: this time last year I had only heard the term "blow out" in reference to car tires.) The diapers are a bit bulky right now but he will grow into them. They have been incredibly easy to care for and wash, and the microfiber inserts can hold an ENTIRE night's worth of pee-- we're talking 10 hours here people. (Refer back to the Before and After: Excitement post and consider that not long ago that last comment would have help absolutely zero meaning to me.)

Happy Mothers Day!

Mommy DOES rule! Thank you to Melanie for that adorable onesie. It made me smile to dress Mason in it today. Of course, having learned from my St. Patrick's Day experience, I did have a back up outfit just in case. My first Mothers Day began with my favorite thing, waking up with Tage and Mason and getting to be lazy in bed making faces and smiling at each other.

Mason and I walked to church with Grandma Dee and Grandpa Jack. I was given this gift of See's chocolates for being the mother in the congregation that service who had been a mother the least amount of time. The fact that we were at the early service-- where walkers out number strollers 10 to 1 was in my favor. Tage made breakfast and the two boys took naps while I relaxed and caught up on nearly 3 weeks worth of emails. It was silent in the house for at least 2 and a half hours. Ahhh...

Turns out the back up outfit wasn't necessary (thanks to the cloth diapers-- more to come on that later!) I still had to show it off though. Ever since Heather's post on reverse applique I have been wanting to try it and this was the perfect excuse. Although it's not my best work, it was cute nonetheless. The onesie was too small to use my sewing machine on so I ended up having to hand stitch the design. Some mothers might spend an extra half hour cleaning up the house, some might just take a nap. Me? I take that half hour and use it to craft something.

Isn't he too young to be making that face when I kiss him?

Our final stop of the day, Grandma Pete's house, to visit her after her surgery. Mason was in a playful mood and had a great time staring at Grandma's colorful blouse.

It was a perfect Mothers Day. Thank you so much for all of the calls, text, cards, and wishes. I am so loved!

Saturday Smile

You can't tell, but the smile is on the other end of the camera. How sweet are my boys?

Impressions-- They're here!

Remember this post nearly three months ago? The finished product arrived last week and is hanging in Mason's room. I should put his foot up to that print now and see how much bigger those monster feet have already gotten!

Back by Popular Demand

Okay not really, but back nonetheless. First let me thank Tage for being so incredibly helpful and supportive the last two weeks, even when I was (to put it very nicely) not so nice during a very stressful and emotional time. Second, let me explain the last of Tage's posts.

My brother, Jared, has a thing for the English language, spelling, and grammar. It drives him nuts when something is misspelled, a word is used incorrectly, or there is missing punctuation. Tage, on the other hand (as you may have noticed from his posts), is not quite the stickler for those details. When Jared was young he was afraid of kittens (oh, what I wouldn't give to have the picture of him clutching one of our grandma's tiny kittens surrounded by a sea of thick wool blanket). He was also afraid of turkeys (I believe he was chased by some one time.) As a little tribute to Jared, Tage searched for a picture of a kitten and a turkey and that photo is what he found. Leave it to Tage to write that hilarious comment on it though.

Now that that has been explained, here was the real reason for my post tonight. Tage started work today! I didn't want to say anything sooner so as not to jinx it, but he is working for a property management company in Folsom. It is not his dream job, but it's something. Mason is in the hands of Team Grandma, comprised of my mom "Sony", Tage's mom "Grandma Dee", and Deanna "Nanna" during the week now and has done well so far. He was a little mad at me today when I got home but during bath time warmed up again. We are trying to keep things as routine as possible.

Tage did an amazing job with Mason during these last two weeks and has gotten to know his coos and cues very well. They have definitely bonded. Saturday morning while cleaning the house I discovered Tage's secret to surviving the long days with Mason, and it is made of silicone.

There are ear plugs in the window sill in the kitchen.

There are ear plugs at the head of the bed (only one here, Tage threw the other one at me and it got lost in the covers somewhere. Ewww.)

There are ear plugs next to the rocking chair.

There are even ear plugs in the office downstairs.

Whatever it takes, right?

Dear Jared

i TauT mY KiTTen To Speil butt Al he Wantd 2 du was fiGHt this TurnKey

Saturday Smile

Saturday mornings we usually have the opportunity to lay around in bed and be lazy. This morning Mason was up and wanting to play at 5am but we coaxed him with some snuggling to at least lay there quietly until 6:30am. Then it was play time... and picture time!

You have to have at least one cute naked baby picture, right?Mason and Tage were both good sports.