BIRTHDAY PICTURE OVERLOAD

  

Just a few lot of my favorite birthday pictures. The bridge ones didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, due in large part to the fact that I forgot to bring the camera... of all the things to forget when you head out to take a picture. Guess that's what they call mom brain... or just ridiculous. Anyway, thank goodness for iphones. Better than nothin'.

A few pics from her party coming soon... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday to my sweet baby girl! The past year has flown by so incredibly fast. There have been so many sweet, special and happy times, and just as many frustrating, difficult and scary times... and every single one of them has been worth it (even the ones at 2am). I feel so lucky to be your momma and I look forward to seeing what our future holds. You are everything I could ever want in a daughter and my very favorite girl in the world!

You are so very loved!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Bowser Photo Bomb:

Shirt & Jeans: Forever 21, Sweater: Ross, Boots: Target, Necklace: Old/Don't Remember

Today at 9:29pm marks the official start of Fall! Cue the "Yipeee!"s and "Yahoooo!"s. Good thing, because our pumpkin collection is also complete. Too bad Northern Texas either didn't receive or ignored the memo... the sweater and boots didn't last long. 

Only 3 more days until our sweet baby girl turns 1! I'm still working on wrapping my head around that fact that I even have a daughter, so it just doesn't seem possible that she could already be a whole year old! Most of the time I just feel like I'm on auto-pilot, going through the motions and taking care of things, and her. But when I stop to actually think about it, I'm still totally baffled by the whole thing. It's incredibly surreal and incredibly cool, and I kinda love it.

FREE WRITE FRIDAY

Shirt: Forever 21, Bandeau: Kohls,  Sunnies: Altar'd State, Pants: Old Navy, Shoes: Converse

I don’t have anything in particular to write about today, so I thought a little alliteration with “Free Write Friday” might inspire something grand. Or at least something.

Random thought #1: I think I was trying to look tough or something in that first picture. Maybe I was channeling my inner bad-ass through the big chain necklace.

Random thought #2: My brother-in-law and his wife and daughter are coming over this afternoon. You know what that means, right? DESSERT! Better go check my Pinterest board for something delicious to bake. (Although, it’s not as if I actually need an excuse to bake something. Sugar addiction, remember?)

Random thought #3: I’m currently debating the pros and cons of going ahead with my plan to use my brother-in-law’s carpet cleaner on our wool area rugs even though I just did some research on it, and apparently it’s not recommended… I think the words “shrinkage” and “bleeding” and “mildew” were thrown around a bit… But baby spit up and other various liquids all over rugs tends to make them look rather unattractive, so I’m wondering if a little bleeding and shrinkage might not still be an improvement. Oh, tis a fascinating life I lead.

And now Adelaide has woken up from her nap crying. Not a good sign. Guess I better peace out. Happy Friday!

P.S. I have no earthly idea what the heck is going on with the formatting of this post, but I'm sick of trying to fix it... so it's just gonna have to stay all screwy. 

FINGER PAINTING/BODY PAINTING/SNACK TIME

Finger painting with yogurt… more like body painting/sitting in paint. Either way, Adelaide quite enjoyed herself. I learned a couple of things about yogurt painting, should anyone like to know:

1. The wetness of the yogurt will quickly make the paper disintegrate, and if you've got a baby with a taste for paper like we do, you're going to have some especially tasty paper on your hands.

2. Don’t leave Dad in charge while you run in to get a towel for when she’s done, because she will immediately move and end up sitting smack dab in the middle of the paint, and he’ll just watch her do it. And when you inquire as to why he let her sit in the paint, he’ll say "Because I didn't want to touch her”.  Silly, silly Daddy.

3. You really don't even need to bother bring anything outside to clean her up with, because she'll just need to go in the tub when she’s done.

*Sidenote* The way she dove right in has me feeling pretty excited about her first cake experience next week... I used to think smash cakes were totally disgusting. All that oohing and ahhing over a baby making a complete and utter mess out of what was once a perfectly edible cake? It was totally lost on me. But like so many other things, now that it's my own kid, it's gone from disgusting to ah-doooooorable.

Anyway, here's where I found the idea for yogurt painting, via Pinterest of course. I just mixed a little Kool-Aid powder into the yogurt (it didn't take much to get really vibrant colors). Also, I let it sit out for a little bit so it wouldn't be so cold. Bing-bang-boom, entertained baby. Just like that.

MY FREAKING-OUT-MOM MOMENT

Shirt: Busted Tees, Skirt, Belt & Shoes: Forever 21, Bad Hair: c/o Texas humidity

First, two things about these pictures:

1. My hair and I are not on speaking terms these days. I don't know if that horrible haircut I got somehow made my hair more susceptible to humidity or if the humidity just has it out for me over the past few days, but it's a sad, sad state of affairs around here with the hair lately. Down... up... doesn't matter. It's devious and wily and doesn't care how many products I layer on that claim to fight frizz. 

2. That last picture was me trying to show off my sweet kicks. I expect Free People will be sending me these shoes to model for them any day now, being that I do it sooo well and all. I mean, why pay real models lots of money when you've got an amateur style blogger such as myself who can do such a bang-up job?

On to the next...

Things were going just great for us this morning. Jordan was home until 10:00 so we got to have breakfast together and play for a while. Adelaide and I went to story time at the library, and afterwards we decided to cruise past Winco to see if they had pumpkins. They did! Five boxes (though nearly empty… is there a shortage this year or something that I haven’t heard about yet?), and they were under $5 each, which was $2 less per pumpkin than the ones we found at Kroger yesterday. They weren’t the pumpkins of my dreams (don’t you dream about pumpkins?), but based on the price and the sad supply we’ve been seeing this year, we decided to snatch up the best two we could find. You know, to hold us over til those perfect ones appear.

Anyway, we checked out and were happily be-bopping to the car, debating whether or not we should try to cruise past Lowe’s and/or Home Depot as well to scout for pumpkins, feelin’ reeeeaaaal good, until…

---Guesses on what terrible event transpired next should be made now---

I go to take Adelaide out of the buggy when mid-lift she jolts to a stop and cries a bit. Hmmm… confused mom face and head scratching here… what could her leg possibly be stuck on? Upon further inspection I find that her leg is stuck between 2 of the bars to the right of the foot hole in the buggy. You know, the one’s that are placed about 2 inches apart to insure nothing gets stuck in  them? Yep, her leg is in it, about 2 inches above her ankle, pudging out on both sides of the bars.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod. What am I going to dooooo???

I immediately look up to see if the firetruck belonging to the firemen who are doing their shopping inside is still there. Do I scream for them? Tell them to come quick and bring their axe? I momentarily calmed down just enough to assess the situation a little further before going there. Yep, it’s stuck. Not moving and definitely wider than the bars. How the heck did she get it in there???

Now I don’t know how accurate my memory of the situation is, but I was able to get it out by squeezing on her leg to scoot it to the ankle, then turn her foot sideways to get it out. She fussed a little while I did it, and all in all it was probably a 1-2 minute ordeal. I don’t know if my freaked-out mom adrenalin got us out of what could’ve been a really bad situation or if it really wasn’t as bad as I remember it…. no it was… I swear to you, it was stuck. Like really stuck. 

Anyway, she made it out unscathed, and the firemen were able to finish their grocery shopping uninterrupted.

I’m really not looking forward to the next dozen times I’m sure I’ll have to deal with something like that. Not one bit.

WE DID IT UP RIGHT

The weather turned cooler as promised (50's Saturday morning?!?!) and it was great. I'd say it was the best weekend we've had in a year. What is it about the weather that's so powerful?

We started it off by soaking up the crisp morning  relaxing in the adirondack with a sweet hat (Adelaide) and sipping coffee (me and Jordan), had a dutch baby pancake for breakfast (thank you Martha Bakes on PBS) and opening windows in the house. It would be really hard for me to rank my favorite "fall things", but opening the windows, especially at night, would definitely be at the top of the list.

We found pumpkins at Whole Foods and the one empty spot was just begging to be made a photo op. Of course we didn't buy one because there was no price posted. And only a fool would buy anything from Whole Foods without knowing the price before hand. A fool or a millionaire. I always wonder what those people who have their carts full, who clearly do the majority of their grocery shopping at Whole Foods do for a living. Apple CEO? Whole Foods Exec? Anyway, that's neither here nor there. (Thought I'd throw that in for some good Texas flair.)

We finished off the day at the Celina Balloon Festival which consisted of a petting zoo, a carousel ride, corn dogs and funnel cakes (oooooh the funnel cake... is there anything more delicious?), and "glowing" hot air balloons with my brother and sister-in-law and their daughter. I'd say it was the most fun thing we've done with Adelaide yet. I'm so glad that she's finally getting old enough for us to not only be able to take her to these kinds of things, but for her to actually enjoy it too!

We rounded off the weekend on Sunday with Adelaide's very first bike ride in her new seat and helmet. I was very pleasantly surprised by her relatively few attempts to get her helmet off. Just gotta keep movin'.

Great weather, great weekend, great memories. Now if that cooler weather could just stick around instead of being replaced with humid 80 degree days that hate my hair after only 2 short days, that'd be just great.

I CAN BARELY CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT

Cold front numero uno has officially gone through North Texas! And number two will be on its way soon! Eeeee! I am so excited! Excited doesn't even begin to cover it actually, let me go Google some synonyms. Berightback.

I am delighted, thrilled, elated, euphoric, blissfully happy! Yes, that's a much better representation of my current state.

Is it normal to be this excited about weather changes? I think yes. At least at the end of a Texas summer.

Along with slightly cooler temps, the front this morning brought a nice little rain shower. And since we haven't had many nice, calm rainshowers during the day for Adelaide to experience, I took her out to explore. She had quite the good time splashing her hands in the puddles, checking out the downspout and trying to drink the water from the puddles on the deck. Yes, trying to drink water off of the ground... babies. I actually had quite a good time too. Playing in the rain is one of those things that I romanticize in my head. Jordan does not share my enthusiasm for such things. But I don't need him for that anymore, cause Adelaide was more than willing to accompany me. Once we got inside, the 80's called me asking for their frizz back. Only downside though, and I'm more than willing to take it. 

On another, equally exciting note: The first pumpkins of the year have officially been spotted at Wal-Mart! Unfortunately it was Jordan who I sent on the scouting trip, so I didn't get to judge for myself how good they were, but according to him they didn't have those good long stems. So, I'm going to try to slow my roll and wait for the perfect ones (patience isn't my strong suit)... surely everyone else can't be far behind with the pumpkin supply. Right??? Pleeeeease tell me I'm right.

NEXT PINTEREST SEARCH: OFFICE ORGAINZATION

Top, Shorts & Shoes: Forever 21, Sweater: Wal-Mart, Necklace: JC Penny, Watch: Target

I think I look around Jordan's office/my craft room daily and think about how loudly it is screaming for attention. I hear it screaming "Come do something about these piles of papers, the material stuffed up and overflowing out of drawers, the half finished projects covering the tabletop, the camping supplies spilling out of the closet!" But then I give a quick look to the left and right... nobody noticed that I noticed?... then ears are plugged and "la, la, la, la" until it quits screaming... or until I close the door and pretend to forget. 

Maybe one day I will share with you the humiliating state that that room is in. But not until I have an after picture with everything looking pristine and organized to go with it. 

WALKIN'

How was your weekend? Ours was about half good. Jordan spent most of Saturday in bed... looks like he got hit with the virus Adelaide and I had after all, though milder, luckily. Also, we battled with quite a few fussy spells, thank you molars. But, we did manage to get out and enjoy the semi-decent (though humid) weather on Sunday with a walk on a local trail and a quick visit to the park. Reeeeally hope that cold front that's supposed to come through by the end of the week doesn't disappoint!

CONFESSIONS OF A SUGAR ADDICT

Top: Forever 21, Shorts: Forever 21 (cut-off jeans), Shoes: Ross

So, one night I was loading the dishwasher when I saw that 9 out of Adelaide's 10 bottles were dirty. That means it's time to run the dishwasher, right? But upon further inspection, I found that the bottom rack was woefully under-full. Conundrum eh? Not really, I mean there's an obvious solution: Eat a bowl of frosted flakes for dessert. Duh. Cause if I do that, then hubs will too and that means 2 more bowls and 2 more spoons in the dishwasher, which will just tip the scales to full enough to run. And you thought I would have to wait, or even worse.... hand wash bottles (oh, the horror!). Oh no, give me a problem and a little sugar to throw at it, and I'll find a solution. 

But really, isn't eating a bowl of cereal a great solution most of the time? 



P.S. The back of this shirt is cool, it buttons up. However, I couldn't show you that, because I only used my flat-iron to get the wrinkles out of the front, leaving the back of my shirt disgracefully wrinkled. (Which you can just start to see if you look close enough. So don't.)

P.P.S. My poor bangs are having to spend most of their time restrained by multiple bobby pins. Poor things seem to like getting hack jobs.

PLEASE EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO PAT MYSELF ON THE BACK SOME MORE

*Note the zipper modeling, cause them babies work!

You guys, I made some fall pillows for our porch rockers. And I'm not just talking any old, stuffed and then sewn shut pillows like the days of yore. Oh no my friends. These pillows have zippers. ZIPPERS I TELL YOU! This was my first ever attempt at sewing a zipper and as you can probably tell, I am supremely satisfied with myself. Should I just go ahead and accept the Housewife/SAHM of the Year award now? This would also be the appropriate time for you lucky ones with my phone number to text me and tell me how utterly impressed you are with my sewing skillzzz. (Now if I just pre-wash my fabric next time, so that the pillowcase won't shrink and be too small to put back over the pillow stuffing after the first wash...)

Now I just need to go drag out my tub of fall decorations and we'll be in business. And to all you naysayers who insist it's too early and hot for fall decorations, I say: "Too early-shmearly". So now what? What rebuttal could you possibly have for that?

P.S. If you're wondering why I suddenly look like I should be in line at the DMV to get my learner's permit, it's because I got a $15 hack job done on my hair (bangs are particularly bad) last week. I don't think I'll ever learn.