paislee turns 1

matt and i obviously do not have kids.  we haven't really decided on that aspect of our lives.  currently we both agree we do not want them - at least for now.  especially while he's in the process of starting his own practice.. i would much rather try to have babies knowing we could afford them.

so, for now, we are raising our animals as our children.  we are those people.  calling ourselves mommy and daddy and our babies son and daughter.  it's a lil sickening but it's our family.

aren't we just the cutest wittle family.

our baby girl, paislee turned one on friday.  and so we did what any normal human being does when their baby turns one - we made cupcakes and took portraits.

growing up my mom would take me to jc penneys every year around my birthday and have my birthday pictures taken.  she'd buy a few and distribute them to grandparents and hang them around the house.  we would have family parties and then friend parties. (i was a tad spoiled being the youngest and only girl)  and lets just take a moment to admit that paislee is just as spoiled as i was.

so, i really wanted to have a party and get our family and friends and their pups together.  but matt said that was a little too over the top.  and so to compromise i decided i'd make some pup cakes for our puppy friends and have a few friends over that understand my obsession w my poodle.  you know, other dog moms.

i found a recipe on pinterest that was puppy friendly.  it's basically peanut butter and bananas.  no added sugar.  the recipe made 18 regular size cupcakes.  and for the frosting i doubled what she said to do to make sure all 18 cupcakes got icing.  i didn't do a fancy swirl - just simply pat it down on top of the cupcake with a little extra in the middle for the dog bone to rest on.

the recipe was very simple and they turned out great! paislee loved them and i got many pictures/videos from our puppy friends devouring them.  i even tried a bite since all of the ingredients are human friendly as well and they weren't bad at all!

i gave away most of them but still have a few left that i put in the refrigerator until we're ready to serve them to paislee or give them to a different pup.  but i think they were quite successful for celebrating a pup's birthday and may possibly make them again in the future to celebrate her day.

i exchanged these boxes of cupcakes at our monthly favs swap and the girls brought presents for paislee as well as their normal fav to swap.  she received a fuzzy jacket and a toy.  my mom got her some puppy treats and bows.  matt and i got her some star wars toys and wet food to be served as her birthday meal since we typically just feed her her normal dog food.  she was the happiest of birthday girls.

on saturday, the weather was nicer so we decided to do her pictures.  matt has this old wagon from when he was little that we're currently using as decoration on our front porch.  we wheeled it to the backyard in front of the wooden fence and have 2 mums placed inside.  we put paislee in one of her fashionable tutus and stuck her down in the wagon.  for the most part, she is a fabulous model but it did take a few times of her jumping in and out of the wagon before we could get a few good shots.

here are some of the pictures i took of her.  the family portraits were taken by me too.  i used my nikon dslr camera and a tripod and a clicker i purchased from amazon.  i think paislee's birthday pictures turned out great - the family portraits are a little rough.  lou is too big of a boy to hold properly for pictures.. haha.

i'm such a crazy, proud dog mom of one year old yorkipoo!