What a Battle Wound!

Well...not so much a "battle wound" as little "tiff scrape"! Connor had a little swelling and bruising but overall, I was very impressed with how resilient he was. He got the sweetest little blanket from Children's - the one he is covered up with here - and it was just perfect for a groggy little nephew. When we walked in we gave hugs and kisses and Connor wiggled his little fingers and said in a sleepy sweet voice "Hi Baby Joe". He sure does love his little cousin!

Connor got lots of new "pets" while in the hospital - Coffee Beans and Daisy were two of them - and we brought him a electronic kit with all kinds of circuits and switches. It makes 100 different projects and he really dug it!

Look at these two...they are holding hands! What sweet brothers! And really darn cute too.

Tammy said Connor worked on his electronic kit for a long time when he got home. There is one project with a switch and fan, when you turn it off the fan flies off and Connor really gets a kick out of that! His sweet little head is healing well and he seems to be feeling great. I know it was good to get home, too. It was a rough time for awhile there but everyone made it through. Hugs and kisses, Nephew Connor...here's some of my favorite memories and pictures of you.

Monkey in the Mirror

I caught Baby Joseph looking in his play mirror the other day. And while I wanted to play with these fun pictures in Photoshop first, I decided to play later and post anything fun afterward if it materializes. First and foremost I gotta feed the need for Baby Joseph addicts. Ahh, who am I kidding? The need I gotta feed is mine! My precious wants to play with that other baby so bad! He just can't quite get to him. He reaches for everything these days. It's really neat to check him out doing that. He really digs his toys that hang overhead on his play mat. I remember the first time I saw him reach up and stroke his hanging animals. I remember the times after that when it looked like he was almost doing it as a comfort - his little hands would just be softly petting them. Then other times he would be swatting wildly and screeching happily! I love those silly screeches!

My baby had his four month check up on Wednesday. Oy vey! Someone give me some bricks to stop him from growing! This was a good checkup though. He really showed off for Dr. Straughn (best pediatrician ever and father to twin boys!) by cooing and giggling the whole time. Except for the immunization part...eesh, what a way to break a mom's heart. Four shots. We survived!

We talked a little about when to try rice cereal. Joseph seems just fine with milk for now though. Just when we get one thing mastered, it's time to start a new thing. They grow and learn so ding-a-dang-darn fast! Slow down, clown!

I like Dr. Straughn because he wears bow ties. And real ones - not the clip on kind! I think Joseph will really like him as his doctor for all the years ahead of us. Joseph weighed in at 14 pounds and 4 ounces, and 24.5 inches long. We thought he had a big head, but it measured in the 25th percentile.

Here is a funny story for you: The other morning I was changing Joseph's diaper. It was just an innocent diaper change...nothing exciting was expected. You'd think that I'd learned by now, but nooooo. It was like slow motion. He started to pee. It flew into the air, it splashed everywhere. More pee splashed on the forehead and rolled into his eyes. My hand flew to cover "it", my other hand reached for a cloth and just when I thought the worst was over - it was a perfect little arc - right. into. his. mouth. OH. MY. GOSH. I was mortified. I screeched. His poor little face scrunched up in a tight little wad and he had this expression - that the only way to describe it is it looked like someone who had drank their own pee. I recovered and finished the damned diaper change and took my poor baby to go have some milk. Anything to wash out the little pee drinker's mouth. He coughed the whole way into the kitchen! It wasn't a horrible choking cough, but a funny kinda whiny "what the heck?" kind of cough. Or more like "what the HELL?" My poor baby! I hope this was the first and last time THAT happens!

Ta-ta for now! Big slobbery, slimy kisses to all! Especially to that good looking baby in the mirror.

Baby Joe

Little Couch Licker

Joseph is always licking things - in true baby fashion. If anything is within inches of his little mouth: mouth open - stick out tongue! The couch is by far the funniest thing he licks. His little nose gets all smooshed up against the cushion and he puts his whole face into it! So now we lovingly call him "couch licker".

Joseph and Daddy Smile

Daddy is so good at making Baby Joe smile! A little Buzzy Bee song, a little Bouncy-Bouncy, and our Pumpkin Head is one happy camper!

Baby's First Polo

The Birthday Boy

Today is Josh's birthday. And for those of you who want to know, this is why I love him:
My husband has loved me and been my best friend for almost a decade now. I think our relationship a delicate balance of dependency and independence. It's a perfect symbiosis. You'll never find someone more devoted to those he loves. You'll never find someone who works as hard as he does...and for every hat he wears he gives it one hundred and fifty nine percent. Josh is the ultimate person to create wonderful memories with and has given me more than a lifetime of them already. One of them turns four months next week.

One day after the other we live, laugh and love. We eat wonderful chocolates! We critique new recipes together. We baby watch and talk in silly voices as Joseph coos back. We love coffee and hamburgers and quick trips to Home Depot - although not necessarily at the same time. :) But most importantly...there is plenty of that special little thing that you just can't describe. He is perfect when it comes to that.

Josh keeps me running on time. Thank god for that! Josh kills spiders and roaches for me. Super thank god for that! Josh washes our cars with crazy skill. Thank god for that, because clean cars just make you feel good. Josh even mows the lawn even when his allergies are really bad. He is pretty much the best ever!

Happy Birthday Josh! We love you!

Photoshoppin'

We got Photoshop Elements! It has been a really slow start learning what does what. You can click a bunch of different buttons and make the photo look all different, but the key is making it look GOOD different. The author of one of my favorite blogs - Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - is about to launch a photography and Photoshop blog. She takes the most beautiful pictures that are really very inspiring. I love visiting her site daily to check out her awesome work. She has a few posts already with some Photoshop lessons so those techniques are what I've been playing with this far. Check it out:

Before: Nice, but with Photoshop I can make it pop...

After: POP! It's subtle but just gives the photo the edge it needs to hold it's own.


Before: We loved this picture with the rocks and vine ceiling but it showed the stinkin' TV and our photographers' bag. See them over there to the left just in front of where we're standing?

After: I can breath a sigh of relief now. That stuff really messed up the shot. I can enjoy this picture so much more with it gone.

Before: I wanted this one in an 8x10 for the house. It's really a beautiful shot alone but I had to kick it up a notch!

After: The changes are very subtle. You probably couldn't even pick them out. I cropped in closer in and I used both techniques from the above photos. I "popped" the color and bit then took out some of the chest hair that was in front of the baby's cheek. I also darkened some shadows just for kicks...I thought it would add more drama.

I've had fun so far but it's not exactly user friendly. I feel that I really need to study up on what all the buttons and features do. And so far, it seems like less is more. As with most things in life. Right? Well, with salt anyway. And toilet paper...I clog up a lot of toilets. :)

Sleepy Baby

Tuna Helper Me Clean This Mess

Hellllloooo cooked on grease and stubborn burnt on food. On my cook top that is. When we moved in here we got a beautiful food and scratch free glass (or ceramic, I don't know which) stove. Back in the day when we were both slaves to Corporate America and didn't feel like cooking much, we made a lot of tuna helper, hamburger helper, mac and cheese, etc.... Good stuff but I am much more gourmet these days. (That was a joke.) So the thing is with tuna helper is that you have to make it by boiling milk and butter. Does anyone know where I am going with this?!?! Milk boils over sooo fast and really there is just no stopping it once it gets going. Yes, you can pluck the pan off the heat real quick and yes, you can blow like the dickens on the bubbly foam to get it to recede; but most of the time it is too late. Burnt on milk plagued my stove top for years. Boy did it bother me, too. I had such a nice and perfect cook top before the years of tuna helper-milk accidents. Then what happens is you clean it as best you can - like three days later, of course, and without any harsh abrasives so as to not scratch the glass - then continue cooking on that burner and the burnt on food becomes like a black cement hopelessly adhered FOREVER! FOR-EVER! FOR-EV-VER!

I decided to try Weimans Glass and Ceramic Cook Top Cleaner and my stove is a changed person. Er, stove. Please try this if you too need to restore the shine and original luster of your stove. It cleaned my stove spic and span. All the crud is gone. Every last memory of burnt on food, grease and sludge is history. My stove top is shiny and perfect...like me! It said to use just a dab and I used about 10 times that much - because I read the directions after I poured - so if a dab doesn't work then use more! And it didn't require that much elbow grease. Which is good because I had elbow-greased the heck out of those burners before Weimans and didn't have much left.

During the same purchase I also got their stainless steel wipes. I've only used them once so far but I liked them that one time. I used them on my tea kettle, utensil crock, toaster oven and trash can. I had mainly purchased them for the trash can because anything I'd used so far leaves streaks. Weimans did not leave streaks and cleaned beautifully.

So, there you go! I would have been doing you a disservice if I hadn't shared my new cleaning experience with you! Clean on my friends, clean on!

Lick On!

I was cleaning up our digital photo files and came across this video! I *think* this was when we first got our new camera with the video recording feature so we played with it a lot in the beginning. There is lots of video of hanging out doing nothing - hence this one. I seem to have gotten some envelope glue in my throat. Next time I'll use a sponge...

An Anniversary Story - The Ceremony

Such precious moments never last long enough. The Princess and Prince got a short time alone together and then...it was time for the next big moment: The ceremony! The Princess was very nervous and it was really hard to walk down the aisle in front of all the guests. Once at the front with her Prince, though, everything felt better. In fact, she liked to look out at all the people who came to show their support and love and it became quite overwhelming. The ceremony went by too fast and before they knew it they were husband and wife!

Little Duckies and Snowflakes!

Me and the Butter Ball are sitting watching the BIG snow flakes fall and I thought it'd be a good time to get in a post. We hope Daddy gets home before it starts to freeze. Right now it's 34 degrees - but man alive it's really coming down out there! It sure looks pretty. What crazy weather...yet just like one would expect for Texas. We're glad to be inside all warm and cozy. I hope the homeless out there have some thick cardboard to cover up with. Haha - that was so mean. If you know anyone homeless don't tell them I said that.

The family has been up to the same old stuff. I've been knitting a lot and I am well on my way to a new scarf. Oh man, and I've tried a couple of excellent recipes that I'll have to share soon. I've got a new paper flower arrangement started for a door bucket. I can't wait to post some pictures of the finished product. I think it'll look great!

This weekend my goal is to get my flower seeds started indoors. I don't think I'll attempt any veggies this year but lots and lots of flowers! They are more my speed as those darn veggies are more maintenance than I can give the effort to. I do love fresh tomatoes though so it could change. Sister Shannon had those GREAT tomato plants last year so I should steal some of her babies when they start to grow back in this year. I know they like her sandy soil better than my clay soil - but still, I can try it out and see what happens. Well shoot - see what just happened here? I've gone and talked myself into some veggie plants after I said I wasn't going to try any this spring, all in the course of a few sentences! They just call to me, plus they taste so good!

Just got a call from Josh! They closed the office early and he is coming home! Yahoo for big old snowflakes and sleet and dropping temperatures! I gotta run and go straighten up real quick so it doesn't look like I've just been sitting around all day!! hahaha - Just kidding - my house is always spotless! hahaha - Just kidding again! :)

Hugs and love to everyone! Have a sled and toboggan kind of day!