Easter fun....

on your mark, get set.....

new additions to our family, cousin madison and zoe...

blaines belated basket

Well, I committed an Easter gaffe by not having Blaine's basket ready for him that morning. The basket itself was ready, but I did not put it out because I had to be at church early for choir. Big mistake! All of his teachers and friends kept asking him what he got for Easter and he looked at me as if to say..."What basket? What are they talking about?" He got it eventually, after church.......and a nap lol. We also went to an Egg Hunt that afternoon at his great-grandma's (Mema) house. He was more interested in the old fashioned water pump than the eggs with candy in them and even then, he had a great time!

some random designs...

Every now and then I get the bug....the fashion bug, that is. I don't find a lot of petite apparel out there that I like, so I design my own. Sure wish I knew how to sew...haha! Maybe some day I'll take a class (curse me for not taking home ec in high school!).

cottage charm....

Oh glorious, glorious!!! If I had an endless pile of money....I'd build my very own cottage and fill it with antique shop and garage sale finds~

in daddies shoes....

It started out with Blaine wanted to wear his dad's shirt. When I looked up again, he had put on his daddies shoes too. So cute!

helicopter mania....

lil helicopter

balloon helicopter...he was fascinated...

Blaine's been obsessed with helicopters lately, he even sleeps with one! Truth be told, I kind of encourage it :).

Can you believe that I have just finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Me, who loves everything science-fiction and fantasy, not having read it until now?!? Shocking. The Hobbit I'd read some years ago and loved. Having seen the movies first, I was afraid that I would walk away from this experience either hating the movies for not being more like the books or vice versa. You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!!! I'm sorry....I've just always wanted to say that, haha! Truthfully, I don't like one better than the other. The books are amazing in detail...the language is so rich, the characters are fascinating the storyline is imaginative. There is no, and I mean NO, way that everything in the book good be turned into a screenplay. The writers included what they could (without it being 40 hours long) in the motion picture and the result is awesome. I think JRR Tolkien would have been impressed. The costumes were great, the actors you believed and you know I loved the music. So what I'm really trying to say is that both the movie trilogy and the book trilogy are mind-boggling and inspired pieces of work that could stand on their own for the rest of all time!

(Do you think this was a little over the top? No? I didn't either!) :)

sophia....

blaine's curious...

mother and daughter

trying to wake up...

Michael's sister, Rebekah, had her baby last week. This weekend we drove up to see the family and they are all doing well....congratulations!

"gotta get every last kernel..."

"do you like sea food? see, food....get it? hahahaha"

love this face!

blaine turns 2!

totally unenthusiastic, not knowing it was cake!

he gets it now, lol....

m-ma (what he calls grandma), papa and blaine chilling out....

My baby boy turned into a toddler last week, how frightening......and wonderful......and sad. That was rather incoherent, but you know what I mean! But what made it really special was having mom and dad there. I didn't plan the party thinking they would be able to make it...but they did and what a nice surprise!! He got some pretty cool and crazy gifts including a Beta fish we named Gill. lol. Thank you all for the presents and warm wishes, Blaine is one lucky boy!!

mini vacation

Owie...Blaine fell at the park and busted his lip :(

a carousel ride (built in 1927!)

took time out to see the fort...

can you see the dolphin? it was amazing!

Blaine, Michael and I went to St. Augustine this weekend for a mini-vacation and we had such a good time! Blaine loved staying at the hotel. Maybe a little too much since he didn't want to sleep lol. It was beautiful too...couldn't have asked for more~

a parents worst nightmare....

That their son plays with dolls. Haha, this is Blaine's new favorite toy, Strawberry Shortcake. Notice her hair....he drags her around by it like a little cave man. I don't think daddy is too happy with this turn of events.

another day at the beach....

It was warm enough to be at the beach this weekend so we snatched at that opportunity! We had to leave earlier than planned when they started to do a bikini photo shoot, lol.

the greatest gift....

Blaine loves play-doh...or as he likes to call it..."the cool"

"Do I have to put it together myself, dad?"

"Are you sure I can open this? You're always telling me not to touch!"

Is love, would you not say? Spending time with your family, enjoying each others company is one of the best gifts of Christmas~ (again, I will post video of Blaine's first steps and his 2nd Christmas when I can figure out how to convert the vid files lol)

just another day at the beach....

"what? this isn't a nudist beach?"

daddy builds a sandcastle and blaine destroys it....

shell hunting...

"no thumb for you..."

'on the boardwalk, we'll be having fun'

Where else could you go to the beach in November, but Florida (and probably California)? We just wanted to spend the day together, outside of our home and into the fresh air. The weather was nice and we had a fun, fun, fun time!

lazy lounge lizard....

"There are just some days that I feel like doing nothing."

fall for it....

Autumn is my favorite season. The leaves changing color, the breeze and getting to use the fireplace....ahhhhh.

You know how a while back I would blog a quote that I liked? I'm baaaaaack (please do your best to adopt a sing-song voice when repeating this phrase in your mind). :) Here's a couple from the Dean Koontz Odd Thomas series that I like so much.

Odd Thomas' narrative; The flesh on the nape of my neck did the crawly thing that it does so well. Some say this is God's warning that the devil is near, but I've noticed I also experience it when someone serves me Brussels sprouts.

Odd Thomas' narrative on descending into the unknown; On a high number cable channel that I think is called CRAP THAT NOBODY ELSE WILL SHOW TV, I once saw an ancient movie serial about these adventurers who descend to the center of the earth and discover an underground civilization. It's an evil empire, of course.
The emperor resembles Ming the Merciless from those old Flash Gordon festivals of hokum, and he intends to make war on the surface world and take it over as soon as he develops the right death ray. Or when his immense fingernails grow long enough to be appropriate for the ruler of an entire planet, whichever comes first.
This underworld is populated by the usual thugs and knaves, but also by two or three kind of mutants, women in horned hats, and of course dinosaurs. This film masterwork was made decades before the invention of computer animation, and the dinosaurs were not even stop-motion clay models but iguanas. Rubber appliances were glued to the iguanas to make them appear scarier and more like dinosaurs, but they just looked like embarrassed iguanas.


Hahahaha. I've really fallen for Koontz' style. He can make me laugh, cry or pee my pants in fear. So, bummer for all of you out there that don't appreciate his genius, I will be posting some more of his literary tidbits in the future.

introducing.......popcorn!

this....this right here?

hmm, ok...i see what you mean....

it's delicious!

halloween....

a late-in-the-day wardrobe malfunction led to a costume change...from railroad engineer to santa clause (thank you jared and dee for sending the outfit, otherwise we would have had nothing at all, haha)

our fall festival was loads of fun thanks to a local blue grass band (they were excellent)

no one was willing to stuff their faces with pie, so to get the ball rolling...i signed up (eventually 5 guys decided to compete). i lost terribly but i'm glad i entered being the only woman EVER to do so, lol.

What a great time we had this Halloween! On Friday we stayed at home handing out candy to the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. On Saturday, we went to our ward's Fall Festival and Trunk-Or-Treat party. Blaine really got into the whole thing and was a lot of fun this year. Hope next year can live up to it, lol.

an unexpected gift....

applying proper etiquette techniques...blaine reads the note before tearing open the package

where to begin?

...making a catalog of 'said' gifts...

enjoying the fruits of his labor...

Some friends of ours sent us a surprise package filled with goodies (syrup lollipop, some strawberry preserves, cookie mix, yum!). They've always been so generous....so many thanks!!