this and that Thursday

i love pinterest. here are some of my favorites this week.

get this free printable from the handmade home

get that dress on clearance from JCrew

get this dress tutorial from Smashed Peas and Carrots

making stepping stones with baby footprints. got that idea from Make Baby Stuff

my new ride

well, my little, red, Honda Civic coupe, finally sold. this is what i got instead:

it's a 2011 Honda Civic Pilot EX-L

I LOVE IT!

i debated sharing or not. i feel like a spoiled brat. new house, new car, beautiful baby girl, amazing husband. life is good.

weekend wrap up

this weekend was extraordinarily nice. when Tim got home on Friday morning we headed to Valhalla for breakfast. we spent the rest of our Friday lounging around the house. i did some laundry while Tim and E napped. then i watched Hot Tub Time Machine... by myself, while Tim and E still napped. while watching the movie, our house was SO hot! our AC runs all day and the house never cools beyond 83 degrees. YUCK! we had someone come out to service it earlier that week and he told us that the unit was brand new and it probably didn't cool down in our house because of the great big windows we have everywhere that don't have any window coverings. not even blinds. duh...                               

the window on the top faces the east and the window on the bottom faces the south.

they let in A LOT of light. which is great and i love how open and beautiful it is. until it's 104 outside and i'm sweating inside my house while the AC is on.

Friday evening, we met up at a local restaurant with some close friends for a gender party. we were excited to get out of the house and the heat. but, our group was seated in front of the windows that face the west and we were once again sweating like pigs. so gross. after the party, we went to visit our niece, Karissa, and love on her. she is recovering great and acting like herself again. we went home and slept terrible all night. at 2am, i began looking online at sun shades and anything we could do to protect our house. Saturday morning came and we went straight to Lowe's (after breakfast at Valhalla). we bought 2 exterior sun shades for the windows that face the west (our bedrooms!) and thermal-lined energy-efficient curtains for the 2 windows in the living room. i spent the rest of Saturday ironing 8 panels of curtains. yes 8, those windows are huge, while Tim hung the outdoor sun shades and curtain rods. it didn't make too much of a difference that evening. but Sunday, oh Sunday. i set the AC at 79 before we left for the day. we went to church and then to Ayden's, our nephew, birthday party. we got home about 3 and our house was 79 and the AC was off! it felt great in our house and it felt even better to hear the AC kick off every now and then and give our electric bill a break.

   

(please excuse our disgustingly large TV-which is going to by mounted above the fireplace-that my husband refuses to get rid of because he has a secret love affair with xbox live. and football)

i know, they are so plain and boring. i would have loved some like these. or maybe these. or i even thought about making some out of this fabric. but, these are too expensive/don't have thermal lining/would take me too long to make. so, for now, it's practical and boring.



the cat is also enjoying the cooler wall. see her there?

the part i loved most about this weekend was how much time Tim and i spent working on our home together. we spent our weekend doing things i've waited and dreamed of doing ever since i was a little girl. i love our life.



new life

our house had 4 rose bushes that looked pretty pitiful. i wasn't sure of my capability to try and save them. i've never even planted anything. i've always loved the idea of having a garden and looked forward to it once we had a house of our own. we now have the house, and i now have my opportunity. i did some research and trimmed and watered these rose bushes like crazy and they are coming back to life. i am so proud of myself and my new found green thumb.

life is so fragile

i received a phone call tonight that made my heart sink. Tim called me from work to tell me that our niece, Karissa, had drown. she is alive. she is in the hospital staying overnight. Karissa just celebrated her first birthday on June 2. my brother and sister-in-law were in their doughboy pool cleaning and had Karissa in a floating device in the middle of the pool. when they didn't hear any noise, they turned around to see her floating face down. i had goosebumps, i was sick to my stomach, i was shaking. i don't ever want to know what that moment must have felt like. my sister-in-law immediately began to give Karissa CPR while her husband called 911. Kristy resesitated Karissa! what a miracle. praise God she knew CPR. i immediately went into Emma's room sobbing and knelt beside her crib and just prayed for Karissa and for Emma. such tiny little bodies. so fragile and gentle. how quick Karissa's life was almost taken. i will surely being watching E even more closely, holding her even more tightly and thanking God even more often for this precious life He has trusted Tim and i to take care of.

we love you, Karissa

9 months

here we are again. on June 27, E turned 9 months old. she is developing more and more into a little toddler and less and less into a little baby. her daddy and i are so proud of her. everything she does amazes us. we both have over 500 photos on our phones. of her.
at the moment she:

• pulls up and stands on everything, including my legs when she wants to be held, is tired and hungry.
• stands with only one arm balancing on something.
• stood alone for 5 whole seconds! amazing! 
• moves from furniture to furniture or along furniture.
• looks under the bed when we say 'where's the kitty?'.
• laughs when you chase her.
• is fearless of animals. she chased after every dog that ran by at the beach last weekend.
• loves to pull every book off her bookshelf.
• face plants it every time her daddy gets home (from crawling so fast to get to him).
• still has only two teeth, but is working on the top two.
• gets frustrated when she can't reach something.
• is learning to wave. she will do it, just not at the right time.
• is getting more hair! there's enough to hold clips.
• pulls her shirts off. this girl loves to be naked.

 

i could hardly keep her still


 

i managed to get a couple



she basically asks for a nap. she pulls up on her crib, finds and puts her binky in her mouth and stands there until i put her in. she's such a big girl.





4th of July

for E's first fourth of July (my second favorite holiday) we went to Santa Barbara for the weekend. Tim's mom and her husband rented a house 100 feet from the beach and invited us and Tim's two brothers and their wives and kids. we left Friday morning shortly after Tim got home and arrived about 2:30 pm. we immediately went down to the beach to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful beach. E LOVED the beach! she crawled, sat, explored, ate some sand, climbed over rocks, and smiled a grin so big i thought she was going to poop her pants (which she did).

once we got back to the house, it was a different story. E woke up Saturday morning with a runny nose. a change in the weather, maybe? then she got rosy little cheeks and a low fever. getting sick, maybe? her fever broke and all that was left was a fussy, clingy, runny nosed little girl who couldn't stop biting and drooling on my shoulder. teething. ugh, while we were on vacation. 4 hours from home and the comfort of her own bed. needless to say, the next two nights were spent trying to console a hurting, tired baby without waking up the whole house. which she did. both nights. once we got home on Monday afternoon she went right back to her sweet, happy self, with a runny nose. she went right back into her bedtime routine and slept all night. although, we kept her up an extra hour so she could watch fireworks for the first time. our dear friends, Marissa and Jake, had everyone over to their house to watch the fireworks at the bowl from their front yard. we did the same thing last year. but this year E was there, in my arms, staring in awe at the sky. not in my tummy. it made me happy and sad at the same time. i loved every minute of being pregnant with her. it was a whole different feeling of closeness to her. i was never alone. but now she is here, and she is amazing, and my life is forever changed for the better because of her.

saying hello to her bff, Stella, at Marissa and Jake's

daddy and E. my two favorite people

i couldn't get her to keep that cute thing on

so i cute off the bow and attached it to a clip



happy first 4th of July, sweet baby

to daycare or not to daycare

not. at least not right now.

a few posts ago i explained our new schedule and the need we had to put E in daycare. we thought we had found the one. nothing changed with the daycare. everything changed with my mommy instincts. i had sleepless night after sleepless night where my thoughts would take over and before i knew it, it was 3 am and i had convinced myself that E would sit in a corner all day at daycare crying and find no comfort until i came to pick her up. that there would be another kid that would pinch her and no justice, i mean discipline, would be done. that she would be lost in the crowd. that a stranger would see her take her first steps. i know that daycare is great for most people. but i just couldn't shake my mommy instincts. it wasn't going to work for our family. what has been working out is: my mom watches her on Tuesday and a close family friend, Dannyell, watches her (at our house) on Wednesday and Friday. i have every other Friday off and Dannyell still comes over to watch E so that i can run a few errands and work around the house. it's working great for our family.