How are there so many good blogs in this world?

I just discovered the Oh Happy Day blog and I love it!

She has such fun and beautiful ideas for parties!

And the pictures of the parties she's thrown are gorgeous!

This is an anniversary dinner party that she planned for someone.

On her blog she was talking about ideas she had for her own anniversary party and she said that she wants to serve the same number of courses as years that they've been married (seven) and each course would represent things that happened in that year of their life. 

For example, her family lived in Paris for a year and so they would serve French food for that course.

I love that idea!

And she has tips for how to pull off a good outdoor movie night, including suggestions for good movies.

She calls this a pop-up dinner party.

She says, "A pop-up dinner party is where we go to a really amazing public park or space and set up a fancy dinner party in the middle of nowhere. "

This ice cream sundae party looks wonderful!

And she posts clothing and products that she especially loves.

And this is her boys' room.

Look at those rainbow ball streamers-- adorable!

And last, but not least, this quote on her blog from her sister that I want to live by:

“Never buy anything ugly. If you have to buy a trash can, make sure it is the most beautiful trash can you can find.”

The way I discovered her blog was funny.

Several weeks ago we were playing at the fountains downtown and I saw these two little boys with these super cute swim bottoms and I kept watching those boys and wondering where their mom got their swim bottoms.

Today I was looking at Rockstar's pictures and her family got together with a family in California and when I saw the little boys in the other family I recognized them as the ones with those cute swim bottoms. 

And then I found out that their mom had a blog, so I followed the link and found the Oh Happy Day blog!

I would have never found the blog if I hadn't seen her sons downtown and if they hadn't been wearing such cute swim bottoms!

Cute-o Face

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!

How did she so quickly go from that first picture to that last picture?

A year ago today I was pregnant and still had 3 months to go until she was due and 3 months seemed like an ETERNITY!

Finally Ella was born and I blinked my eyes and now she is 9 MONTHS OLD and has 6 teeth and is practically crawling and uses phrases like "DadadMom" to melt your heart.

How does time pass so much more quickly after you have your baby than before?

Every month seriously gets even more fun and exciting.

Holy cow, I love her. 

A couple of glitch pictures

How much do I love these pictures?

SO MUCH!

Like, a lot.

With digital cameras these days there aren't as many glitch pictures to be found, you know, like when someone is blinking or doing something else strange that wasn't supposed to be caught on film?

I've recently found that I kind of love those glitch pictures.

These are two of those pictures.

Adam thinks they are terrible pictures, which I just don't understand.

A Weekend

1:: Over the weekend we went to some garage sales and found Life, Clue, and Chutes and Ladders each for $2 and in wonderful condition. We love games, so we were pretty excited. Plus, we have now officially started collecting games that Ella can play in just a few years.

2:: Adam got me jewelry for my birthday and I love it so much! They are just beautiful to look at on the counter! 

3:: Ella exploring her little world

4:: Downward dog champ. Also, some of the best thighs I have ever seen. And those tiny little toes!

5:: Ella loves grocery shopping because she can watch all the people. She bounces up and down on her little bum as we walk down the aisles and we leave behind a little trail of crackers to mark every place we've been in the grocery store.

6:: The Girl and her dad

7:: Before Ella goes to bed her dad tosses her around to get out all her energy and she loves it. Plus, putting little objects inside tupperware that make a lot of noise is one of Ella's favorite toys right now.

It has a poisonous stinger and pinchers and it was just running around the house

You guys, this happened.

That is a scorpion.

That is my foot (to show you how big the scorpion is).

That scorpion is in the house.

He was crawling around the house with that poisonous stinger and we didn't even know!

Until he was dead.

Luckily the bug sprayer people came this week and sprayed in the house.

He must have died from whatever they sprayed.

If they hadn't come this week he would still be crawling around the house. 

He was on the side of the house where Ella plays while I make dinner in the kitchen.

She just scoots around and plays with toys.

If she had seen that scorpion she would have thought it was a really awesome toy and she would have gone for it, for sure, because it moves and she likes things that move.

How did he even get INSIDE?! 

The joy Ella gets out of eating things she finds on the ground.

Also showing off her wonky teeth.

It's a good thing her dad is going to be a dentist.

Although, with a grin like that, those wonky teeth are kind of cute right now.

Frozen peas strapped to his face

This is what is happening at our place today

BEFORE

(that's an x-ray of Adam's mouth, in case there was any confusion there)

AFTER

(how come I am not smart enough to keep my finger out of this picture? I don't even know.)

Adam got his wisdom teeth pulled out this morning.

Now he has frozen peas strapped to his face and he's living on pain-killers, mashed potatoes, milkshakes, yogurt, avocado smoothies, and applesauce.

And then there's Ella who somehow always ends up scooting around naked by 5pm everyday, no matter how determined I am to keep her dressed for the full day.

She was so good hanging around the doctor's office for a couple of hours this morning while we waited for Adam to be done (as seen in the last picture).

Now I'm getting a taste of what it's like to have two children to take care of. 

Ella doesn't like that she has to sit and wait for me while I help Adam around the house and get him food and pills.

At one point I was in the kitchen making applesauce and both my "children" were down for naps and I had two monitors sitting next to me on the counter. There was the baby monitor so that I could hear when Ella woke up from her nap and there was my phone so that Adam could call me when he needed food or assistance getting up.
Every once in a while I'd go in and check on both of them.

Also, I'm really glad that several of you mentioned that you finished the first season of Downton Abbey in just a couple of days, because I'd be too embarrassed to admit it if I didn't know that you guys had done the same thing.
I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to finish the whole first season in the one week that I was allowed to keep it, but just two days after I started it, I'm now done.
I guess I had a lot of time today while I was making all sorts of soft foods in the kitchen and my two "kids" were down for naps to get through most of the season.
They took long naps.
There are just so many people on that show that are so ridiculous!
What on earth is the problem with Mary?
But at the same time I want Mary to find someone wonderful to marry and to end up happy and I hate myself for wanting that for such a spiteful person!
How does she get so many people to like her when she's so mean?
Sometimes I had to remind myself that it's just a movie so that I wouldn't feel so upset about what was happening.
Oh my gosh, that became a Downton Abbey rant!
Sorry!
I needed someone to be able to sympathize with me, and since so many of you have watched it, I couldn't resist.
(Thanks, Alyssa, for telling me that season two is one Hulu plus!
I will definitely be signing up for the one week free trial as soon as I know that I'll have time to watch it.)

Okay, that's all for now.

Good shows and stuff

You guys, I have such a problem.

I love So You Think You Can Dance so much.

I seriously want to just break into happy tears after watching some of the dances.

It's ridiculous. 

Also, I have no idea what took so long for me to hear about the wonderfulness of Downton Abbey, but I finally figured out that there are an unusual amount of people who seem to love that show and so I had to see what it was about.

But when I requested it at the library I was like #72 on the waiting list (proof that it must be good).

Luckily our library has this crazy rule about only being able to hold onto a movie for one week and they must have more than one copy because it came up to my turn really fast.

I started watching it today while making dinner.

And I will most definitely have no problem falling in love with this show.

Bum-scooting champ

That wonky-toothed girl has become a bum-scooting champ.

She drags her body all over the house and explores everything she can get her hands on.

She loves her life so much right now.

She keeps herself entertained for so long just crawling in circles around the coffee table and the ottoman, until she gets stuck and needs to be rescued.

And she can hold the downward dog position like no one else's business, bum in the air, balanced on her tiny toes.

I let her get into the diaper and wipes and blankets corner of the bedroom and throw everything around because why stop her from exploring, especially when it would take less than five minutes to clean up?

After several minutes of listening to the destruction occurring in that corner of the room, I glanced over and saw her on her back, everything strewn about and her leg kicking the diaper disposal bag and her arm hitting something plastic and grinning from ear to ear with how exciting it was to make so many noises at once. 

That moment of joy made it totally worth cleaning up that mess later 

(um... actually I haven't cleaned it up yet. Maybe tomorrow.)

Sometimes we throw her bits of food and she scoots over to it and eats it, and then we throw another piece of food and she scoots over to it and eats it. 

It's almost like we have a dog.

That's how we keep her quiet in church.

Hey, whatever works, especially when she hasn't had a nap in several hours, she doesn't know how to fall asleep in my arms anymore, three hours of church with zero naps is hard.

We do what it takes to keep her happy and not screaming.

We take turns sitting in the hall or foyer with her and the rest of the parents who have children who are up way past their nap time. 

I have pictures of her in that corner of the room, loving the noisy chaos she is causing, but I haven't loaded them on my computer yet and it's late, so they'll have to be on another post. 

So you get these random other pictures instead. 

That picture in the middle of her grinning with Adam-- oh man, I love it!

8 Months Old and Nakey

8 Months 8 Pictures 8 Things

Thumb-sucking picture by Leslie

I'm going to pretend I can't count and add one more picture

1:: She says "Mama." She doesn't know what it means, but it melts my heart every time I hear it. Yesterday I was putting her into her car seat and she didn't want to go in, and she gave me this desperate look and said in the saddest little voice, "Mom mom!" Oh my gosh, I almost broke down and pulled her out. She usually says "dada" when she's happy and "mama" when she's sad. 

2:: Whenever she is sitting or laying still, she rotates her little feet in circles, round and round and round, over and over.

3:: And she gives little hugs. She grabs whatever part of your body she can and squeezes her arms really tight and lays her head down on you. But she squeezes so tight, sometimes her sharp fingernails dig into your skin and leave behind red scratches all over your chest and face.

4:: I just can't get over how funny it is that she holds her hands under her chin when she is happy, like a little chunky cherub.

5:: Thinks that drinking out of a cup is the most exciting thing in this world. She giggles whenever she sees me drinking out of a cup and gets so excited when I let her drink out of it too.

6:: When Ella is really happy, you know it, because she tightens her entire body, so tight and kicks her legs and flaps her arms around and makes grunting noises.

7:: And she fake laughs now. How does an 8-month-old even know how to fake anything? It's this little cackle that she does either to grab our attention, or she forces it when something is funny but not that funny. She and Adam have fake laughing wars, she does her fake cackle and he does his and then she does hers again. Come to think of it, I'm fairly positive she learned how to fake laugh from him because he does it all the time to get her to laugh.

8:: She has mastered the inchworm scoot. Put something a couple feet in front of her that she wants (ex: the remote control, a cell phone, a laptop or food-- did you notice how many of these pictures have her eating something? She loves food so much) and she will kick her legs and wiggle her bum and push off with her toes until she has reached the desired item, usually only to have it taken away from her, poor thing.

And just one more picture for good luck, Ella with her old lady face on:

We just sit and watch while our daughter snaps her headband in her own face

Did you catch that series of events that occurred in those last five pictures?

She snapped that headband in her face and we were laughing so hard we were crying.

I like Adam's reactions in the pictures.

She also ate cheese fondue straight off the table.

We never get tired of watching that girl.

3 birthday desserts and cheese fondue

When Adam was growing up, his mom would write a happy birthday note for him on the mirror with soap and now he does it for me!

So that's how the day started, with that sweet note.

When he got home from work the rest of the celebration began.

You know how I really like desserts?

What I wanted to do for my birthday was eat a small dinner and then go to three different restaurants and eat three different desserts.

So at the first restaurant we shared a yummy cheese fondue appetizer and then we each got a creme brulee.

The next restaurant served water in goblets and had such a cool atmosphere.

I got a gooey chocolate cake with handmade peppermint ice cream and Adam got a variation on white chocolate cheesecake (pictured beneath this big fondue picture, with Ella next to it, isn't that such a cool way to have cheesecake?) 

The final dessert was at a cupcake shop that we love, we got cupshakes there (a cupcake blended in with vanilla ice cream). 

Oh my heavens, the whole evening was wonderful! 

We took our time at each restaurant, soaking in the atmosphere and chatting about this and that.

Ella loved all the foods as much as we did and was very well behaved

(although we certainly left behind a little graham cracker crumb trail behind us at every place that Ella sat).

The End.