Leighton's 1st Birthday

Birthday Girl

Yesterday we celebrated Leighton's first birthday.  Tomorrow is her actual birthday, and I am also planning on writing a little blog about our first year with our precious girl.  However, this blog is all about the party!!!   Her party turned out better than I could have ever expected.  I'm not judging this by how Pinterest-worthy it was, because then I would have to say it was a bit lacking. But my expectations were exceeded based on how much fun Leighton had.  This girl LOVED all the attention, all the sugar, all the friends she got to play with, and definitely all the presents.  I barely saw her the whole time!  She was crawling around everywhere playing and having so much fun.  I just keep thinking of yesterday and it still puts a smile on my face and a warmth in my heart.

Even a small party like Leighton's took some time to plan and organize.  If you'd like to know how I set it all up and how it turned out, read on below.  You'll notice a common theme in all of my decisions: for my own sanity, I tried to keep things as simple and easy as possible.  

As history becomes our future

I am so excited to be starting our family blog off with a fun little surprise.  So you can either scroll to the bottom and get the spoiler or start from the top and go through the journey...

Over the past few years Paul has:

• graduated with his B.S. in Secondary Education from Grace
• taught fours years of Social Studies at Millard North
• become certified in teaching IB and AP classes 
• got an article published in the Chronicles of Oklahoma
• presented at the Missouri Valley History Conference
• received a grant from the Nebraska Historical Society to research
• graduated with his M.A. in History from UNO
• read more books/articles/blogs/anything with words involving history/religion/sports than I can count
• applied to and received offers from several PhD History programs 

First of all, thank you for indulging in my shameless bragging.  I am so proud of my husband, and not afraid to say it!  Second of all, did you catch the theme?  Paul is very interested in history.  Very.  Interested.  Millard North has been such a great provision for our family.  Paul has made great friends, been given great opportunities, and provided well for our family.  But ultimately, he would like to be in a position where he could read, write, and research and get paid.  So that means it is time to move on.

What does this mean for our family?