Recent stuff.

Thanks for the rain coat, Lolly. We needed it.

Helping dad study for the CISSP exam.

She can fit in the basket, along with one sippy cup, a doll, a bear and her snack bowl, that's enough to be considered a party in a basket.

Halloween

Sweet little lobster

My dad built and installed some shelves on our angled wall with the air return in the middle last spring, we have a lot of storage and a place to decorate. I really like making stuff for Halloween and being able to have a spot to display it. I made all the jars and bottles. I found the labels online and printed them off and just used Mod Podge to attach them to the container. Next year, I might add some temporary black fabric/gift wrap/wall paper to the back of the shelves.

Petey has a lobster costume too. She was tired and not wanting to pose.

Pinterest is my new addiction

Since the last post, I've joined the Pinterest community, which does suck up a good portion of my day, just a few minutes at a time. I have gotten some really good ideas and made a few things. The first, a chalkboard make out of a platter for the kitchen. I found the platter at a garage sale for $1 and my mom had the chalkboard paint that she had bought at a garage sale for $.25, pretty cheap project...I ended up just free handing the painting, since painters tape doesn't seem to actually work.

For my next trick, I bought a 3XL fushia t-shirt on clearance at Walmart for $3. I had bought Elle this striped tee for $1.75 at Target but it needed something girly...since everyone thinks she's a boy...not that it matters, she could be wearing a shirt that said "I'm a girl" and everyone would still ask me how old HE is....but back to the story....

Shirt before

Shirt after with added yo-yo's, and a matching headband.

And if this photo were rotated, you would see that it is ruffled scarf that I made out of the same shirt. So, for $3 we did pretty good. Watch for my next project!

First Birthday.

By Elle's first birthday, she started walking and had 8 teeth. I can't believe a year has passed so quickly. I remember thinking in just a few months, we'll be out of this stage of not sleeping but it seemed to drag on forever. Looking back, it all seemed to happen in a blink of the eye.

I'm the Birthday girl.

Cake by Aunt Jennifer (not one cake, but 2 cakes, on 2 separate weekends!)

Gifts and banner. I didn't like any I found in the stores...after all, anyone can buy one.

The dessert table. Complete with jelly beans, twizzlers, whoppers, lemon bars, cupcakes and brownie bites

And I'm already thinking about next year!

Summer!

Remy is very fun and entertaining.

HI!!

Elle's first time in the big pool. She really loved it and all the attention from the older cousins.

He's not too happy about sharing, but he deals with it. After all, she is calmer than Abby.

Happy 4th! Homemade ice cream at Lolly's house.

Feeding Remy puffs...this must be why he puts up with everything else she does to him.

Bathtime!















Yes, that is a bubble vomiting frog on the wall.















First time in the new pool.














Remy says "Oh, good, you guys got me a giant water bowl."




















Happy First Father's day!

Celebrating Everything

I read somewhere that it's a fun idea to celebrate everything. Pi day, sure, apple this year, maybe pumpkin next year. Geek Pride day was last week, which, we celebrate Geek Pride year round in our house. Here's some things we did last month:
















First, we started with the Royal Wedding, yeah, we both wore tiaras. What better way to remember it, and we had a great picture that was a lot of fun.

Then we celebrated Cinco de Mayo at Las Fajitas, no photos, but it did involve our "usual" plus what they consider to be a small margarita.

Then, they Kentucky Derby. I made mint juleps, which turned out a little less mint and a little less julep and more straight bourbon. At least it was just us and I didn't have anyone to impress with my mad bar-tending skills.















And for the Kentucky Derby, you have to have hat.


















Matt and I "bet" on the final race, which I think is called the Triple Crown. None of my horses even placed, Matt had 3 of the 4, wish we had money on that game.

Please forward my mail to our local Pottery Barn

I really want to live in Pottery Barn, like that pregnant girl lived at Walmart or Jimmy lived in the supermarket on Raising Hope last week. It's so organized, uncluttered, clean, cool and crisp. I love the look, all their stuff and most of the homes that are featured in their catalogs. Getting a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail is like getting the Christmas toy catalog as a child, I think I get just about as excited now as I did then. What will we order? Probably nothing, just the same as it was then, but I love looking. Now, I have found that I can get the look for much much less. There was a mirror that I wanted that was around $800, I found one similar to it at Hobby Lobby for $60 on sale.

Recently at Pottery Barn they were featuring their outdoor furniture. I think living in Arkansas and outdoor furniture has a lot of romance to it. We seem to have two seasons in NWA, winter and Hades, we do have a few days that are exceptions and classify as spring and fall, but not many. No need for much outdoor furniture, when Hades sets in usually in May, I will be scurrying from one air conditioned building to another, which is better than last summer, I waddled from one to another.

Remington for President.

I really don't have time to post anything, our house is an absolute wreck! My dad installed built in shelves in the living room yesterday, I just got out some summer clothes that are piled on top of the unmade bed, baby stuff is scattered all over the living room and I still need to get ready to leave to go to the vet this afternoon. But this is good.

I thought when I wasn't pregnant any longer the crazy dreams would go away. I THOUGHT, but I was wrong. Last night, I had a dream that I was certain that Remy could win the next Presidential election by write in vote. And his campaign was based entirely on finances. I can't believe that I don't remember the slogan...something about government overspending on budget plus all the government programs like welfare. Remington Yeager for president 2012...because career politicians don't seem to be working out.

Raising Hope

Matt and I love to watch Raising Hope on Fox. Every week, it seems that Elle has something just like Hope. Usually, it's an outfit, last night it was a plastic bowl. A few months ago, after we started noticing this, Matt says to me "I didn't think we were white trash." I'm fairly certain that we are not, but do annoying people know they are annoying?

Watch full episodes here.

A baby, a bunny and 2 baby chicks walk into a...

photo studio. Sure, everyone always posts the sweet, cute, perfect little photos that show how much talent that they have, but I think the real story is in the photos that no one sees. Here's ours, these are not edited, so they are not perfect. No animal was harmed during this process and everyone was returned safely across the street to the feed store.






The bunny seems to be praying "Lord, please get me away from this baby and let me get back to the feed store ALIVE."










This is my favorite. She sneaking up on those two unsuspecting little chicks. She looks so mischievous.











"Hmmm...you two again."












"You, come here."













Reach for it.










Soft bunny.












Ack!! (Seriously, the bunny was FINE!)
















Uh oh, mom took the bunny away.













I think we're ALL done here.

A trip to Grandma and Grandpa's

Here's what Elle and I did last week:














At home, Baby Curling



















Elle is finally crawling, but rolling is her preferred method of transportation, it's much more efficient.

















Inspecting the fireplace. And before anyone freaks out about her being over there, the pilot light is not lit and there's plexi-glass in front, not actual glass.















Doing some quality control on her Birthday present. They were on sale, so we bought them early.















Pictures with the flowers.















She learned the clap (and wave too, but I don't have a picture of that yet)

















I painted the shelves for the built-ins Dad built for our living room. Painting sucks.















I made some things for my Mom's bake sale....on the left, those are jars of chocolate dipped marshmellows with sprinkles, on the right, white chocolate covered popcorn and peanuts.
















They got Elle an wagon, so we walked over to GiGi's and picked some lilacs.
















She really like riding around in it.