Thursday, March 31, 2011

Mermaid Boy

This is what happens when Dad dresses the baby.

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Harper’s face is just too funny! He knows something isn’t right!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Some Boy

Landon, 2004

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Today as I was watching some incredibly cute video’s of little kids, I started thinking about the funny things my kids said and did when they were younger. Of course I have a long list of things since kids just can’t help but be funny, but one moment really stood out to me this afternoon.

When Landon was around 2 or 3 years old he was obsessed with my mother-in-laws lipstick. Every time we would see her he would ask if he could look at the things in her purse, but really his main goal was to find her lipstick case. He knew that her lipstick was hidden away in that little round box and it was only a matter of minutes before he’d have it out examining the shade she was wearing that day. His Mema never minded him playing with her purse or lipstick case, and occasionally he would even ask if he could try some on. On one such occasion, Mema told him that boys didn’t wear make up. Landon, being little more than a toddler wanted to know why. She told him that she didn’t know why exactly, but that lipstick was just for girls.

For some reason I chimed in and said, well, some boys wear lipstick, but it usually is just for girls.

After thinking for a minute he informed us all that he wanted to be “some boy” then!

He always was a funny kid, and I thought his comeback was pretty good considering how young he was! We all got a good laugh out of that one, and since he was happy to be “some boy” he held out hope that one day his Mema would let him wear some of her lipstick.

Mema never did change her mind, and now Landon only worries that she’ll leave lipstick on his cheek when she gives him a hello smooch.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Mah-Mah (layout)

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Yesterday morning I was changing Harper’s diaper and talking to him as usual when I asked him if he could say Ma Ma. He was concentrating on my lips, but then looked up to my eyes and said “Mah Mah”.

I nearly became a puddle on the floor.

He just melts me.

It’s Spring, Dammit

It’s freezing outside, but I swear someone said it was spring. IMG_5055

Just to show mother nature who’s the boss, I bought SPRING flowers to put on my tables.

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I sure told her.

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I mean, even Harper can see that it’s Spring.

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He can even smell it.

Suburban Pigeons

I thought pigeons were city birds. 

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I thought they walked around cities cleaning up all the food litter people left lying around. I guess I thought wrong because these two have been hanging around here for the past week or so. And, as close as we are to a few major cities, we are definitely in suburbia.

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I think they’re just sunning themselves, looking for a little peace and quiet, and stealing a little bird seed when the squirrels aren’t looking.

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I really wouldn’t mind them hanging around if they would just quit leaving their little poopies all over the deck railing.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Perfect Timing

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I was bored last week, so I brought out the camera and set the timer. I’m the official photo taker in my house, so I’m rarely in any pictures…but last week I guess I was in the mood. IMG_4990

I try not to go anywhere during the week so that he and I don’t spend too much $$.

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And so little H can keep his nap schedule. All you Mom’s know how important those nap times are!

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He sure is a character. He liked watching me run from the beeping camera over to him…he would get so excited because he just knew I was gonna get him!

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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Prom Dress 2011

Zoe’s going to prom with her boyfriend this May. She was pretty sure he was going to ask her, but we didn’t want to jump the gun and go dress shopping until he officially asked her because we realize not everyone cares to go to prom.

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But, he did finally ask her last weekend…so this weekend was all about dress shopping. I really didn’t have any ideas or expectations about what prom dress shopping would be like, but I’ll admit I was a bit worried about what we were going to find price wise and what kind of selection we’d have this late in the game. (Many girls bought their dresses in January!)

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As it turns out, we shouldn’t have worried because the most beautiful dress was waiting for her…we just had to find it. It’s funny because this dress isn’t anything like what she thought she wanted. She had tried on several dresses at 3 different stores before she tried this one, and she only tried this one after I insisted! Boy am I glad she listened!

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*I’ll be taking a zillion pictures on prom night, and that’s when you’ll get to see Zoe’s pretty face and how stunning she looks in this beauty!

What He Sees

Recently, Harper has decided that he likes to chew on his mirror. It’s funny because every once in awhile he’ll see himself and get completely still. IMG_4959

It makes me wonder if he has any idea that he’s looking at himself. I doubt it, but I do wonder what he thinks when he catches a glimpse of two little eyes looking back at him.

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Sometimes, when he has the mirror turned just right, he’ll see me in the mirror. That’s funny too, because he’ll look from the mirror to me and it seems like he’s making a connection…but again, I can’t be sure.

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Personally I like this one best because I’m pretty sure those are the cutest nose holes I’ve ever seen!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Taming the Locks

Harper’s hair just keeps growing and growing and I have no plans on cutting it.

I love the way it looks, but it can be seriously out of control some days. Yesterday it was particularly wild, so I decided to help him keep it out of his eyes:

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He didn’t seem to mind at all, but his dad sure didn’t like it!

Feeding the Jays

As I was coming down the stairs the other day, I glanced out the window and saw two blue jays and a squirrel eating seed off the ground below the bird feeders. I ran to get my camera, but by the time I got back one of the blue jays had taken off.

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I didn’t want to scare them off, so I ended up taking the pictures through the screen in the living room, which is why they aren’t so great. I wish I could get a better/closer picture of those birds because not only are they beautiful, they are gigantic! Seriously, when they fly down to get seed, all the smaller birds fly away…but apparently squirrels aren’t intimidated by them.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sweet 16 (Layout)

Guess what? I am all caught up on my kids’ birthday albums! I can’t believe it, but it’s true!

Here’s Zoe’s Sweet 16 layout:

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I have so many cute pictures of the kids from that trip, but I settled on just a few of the action shots because I really wanted this to be about Zoe. I love that picture I took of her when we went to breakfast at the Thunderbird Café, and decided on that one for the focus.

Instead of handwriting the journaling I went ahead and printed it directly to the white cardstock background, and I really like the way that looks. The banners at the top were made using a new stamp set I picked up from Hampton Arts. Banners are really popular right now in scrapbooking and this seemed like the perfect page to incorporate them.

The little flowers are a newish scrapbooking item, and they are called Puffies. They are felt and button stitched stickers, and when I saw them I knew I’d have to try them out. I like how they look and will definitely be going back to the store for a few more packages!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Fortress Update

Tony worked on the retainer wall pretty much all weekend. He finished building the bottom level, then we weeded the whole thing and added 25 bags of top soil. 25 bags to that little area and it still could have probably used more, but we’re going to mulch and that’ll fill the rest of it up.

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We’ve got lots of little plants in there, but the only thing flowering right now are the pansy’s and I’ve already forgotten what else is in there! Oops.

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Greenhouse Update

A few weeks ago, we decided to try to grow our own flowers using a little greenhouse we bought at Lowes. I’m pretty sure we jumped the gun a little on this project as it is still getting pretty darn cold at night here. But, we just couldn’t stand having all the supplies and not doing anything with them!

As far as I can tell, this little greenhouse is doing its job. During the day there is quite a bit of condensation on the plastic and it drips onto the deck pretty steadily all day long.

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Even with the chilly temperatures we are seeing some sprouts…and I’m just a little more excited about those babies than is normal. Why is it that gardening makes me feel like such an old lady?!

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Friday, March 18, 2011

The Boys and the Blankie

I’m pretty sure that of all of us, Harper finds Landon the most amusing.

Let’s Go Bowl

When Tony and I were at the scrapbook store the other day he spotted these bowling stickers (another thing I never would have looked for!). The pictures I took while at the bowling alley didn’t really match the colors in the stickers, so I just turned them all black and white, with the exception of the one of the kids, and used those colors as my starting point.

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I thought the stickers were graphic enough that the page didn’t really need any thing else. I feel like this page is much like something I would have done years ago when I started scrapbooking because it’s just paper, photos, and stickers…oh, and that very important corner rounder! Back when Creative Memories was running the scrapbooking show, they had everyone believing that the way to the best layouts was with rounded corners. I have to admit that of all my Creative Memories purchases, the corner rounder has probably been the most frequently used.

So, I guess they were right!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Sharing an Apple with Momma

Yesterday, Harper and I shared an apple at lunchtime.

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He wasn’t too sure about it at first.

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But after a couple of tastes, you couldn’t have pried it out of those little hands.

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I’m pretty sure he enjoyed it way more than I did!

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Building the Fortress

One of the many outdoor projects we have going on right now is building a retainer wall around the front of the house. When we moved in there were a couple gigantic, overgrown bushes right outside our front door, and Tony and I couldn’t get rid of them fast enough. In the picture below you can see how overgrown everything was, but the bushes I’m referring to are the ones on the right.

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Tony got all the bushes pulled out last fall, but it got cold pretty quickly and all worked stopped…until this past weekend that is.

Here are some progression shots.

As you can see, the bushes on the right and left side of the door have been removed. The dark green one in the middle on the left side of the photo is still there, but it’s just dormant right now so you can’t really see it in the bottom picture. I think it’s some kind of Japanese maple, but I’m not sure. We were having some water leak into the basement from the spout pouring straight down the wall of the house, so as you can see, we added a rain barrel to the front garden area. It kind of looks like a terracotta pot, and we can add flowers to the top of it to make it look a little nicer…and I think I’ll probably put some Pansy’s in there this weekend. We also removed the black screen door, and I’m much happier with it just being white, but I really need to patch the holes that were left and paint it.

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Here is the retaining wall (fortress) from the front and side views:

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You can just barely see that little stick like thing in the center of the rounded part, but that is a Yoshino Flowering Cherry tree that we picked up at Lowes this weekend. It’s just a baby, but I’m hoping it will grow to be like the one we left at our old house.

Here’s what they look like when they are grown and blooming in the spring:

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So, so pretty! I’m hoping the weather is going to be nice this weekend so that we can get that wall finished. It’s so much work, but I think we are almost there and then the real fun begins! Planting flowers!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Seeing Green

It’s chilly here today. It’s only 48 degree’s outside and it definitely feels 48. But, as I was taking all the photo’s off of my memory card this morning, I was reminded of how nice our weekend was, and what we have to look forward to in the next month or so.

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My  mom gave me a bunch of potted plants before she moved down to South Carolina. This one has been sitting outside my garage all winter, and the other day when I walked by, I noticed a little green hiding among the brown branches. I made a mental note to get out there this weekend and yank all that dead crap out of there…and boy does it look better!

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Can you see Harpers hair shadow on the pot? Ha! That boy and his hair!

This is what Harper did while Tony and I worked on the yard:

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All he needs is a hat to keep that pesky sun out of his eyes and a piece of ice to chew on and he’s a happy boy. He probably sat out there in that seat for a good 30 minutes just watching Tony and I work…such a good little baby.

Monday, March 14, 2011

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

More about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

It took me quite awhile to get into this book, not only because it has a very slow beginning, but also because I just don't have a lot of reading time these days. Initially I didn't think I was going to like it, and I had seen it many times and decided against buying it myself, but Tony had heard that it was a good one and he ended up buying it for me. I'm so glad he did!

I don't want to give away any of the story, but if you do decide to read it, make sure you get a good 3-4 chapters in before you decide to quit on it...I promise it's worth it!

Switching Boys

We had some beautiful weather this weekend. I believe it got into the 60’s but I wouldn’t really know for sure because I was out in it all weekend and never stopped to check what the temp actually was!

I promised Landon that I’d take him over to the field by the pool to practice baseball, and he asked me every hour on the hour beginning at 8 am when we were going. Finally, after doing 4 million other things I promised myself I’d do, we headed over to the field.

Tony didn’t want to be left out, so he decided to take Harper on a walk while we were tossing the ball back and forth. When he came our way, he and I switched boys…and I got a few pictures of them playing ball.

Pop Fly

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Got it!

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Tony being Tony

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Landon talking to dad

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And, I also got a few of Harper enjoying his time outside in his stroller.

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Zoe was out walking the dog, and I would have gotten a few pictures of her too, but she was mad at us, so I spared her…this time.

April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...