The Missilhouse

World's Worst Blogger

2010-11-10T17:39:00.001-08:00

I mean really....I stink!
I always think I am going to start posting more often, but I just don't. I love to read other people's though.

So here is the late Halloween post.....

"Rapunzel"Meg had told me for weeks before Halloween that she wanted to be a fairy princess. The week of Halloween she started saying she was going to be Rapunzel. I argued that she already had a Fairy Princess costume, to which she answered, "Rapunzel IS a princess!" Well ok....problem solved. So she was a Fairy Princess who just happened to be name Rapunzel. May have confused people....
.....and my snuggly bunny.
Meg had also been telling me for weeks that Molly was also going to be a princess. I wasn't sure what kind of roly poly princess outfit I would through together. The day of Halloween, Molly was wearing her (hand me down) bunny jammies. I said, "Molly could be a bunny for halloween"...which made Meg very happy. So I got out the hat that Molly's Bunny (grandmother) bought her and we called it good. She slept through trick or treating anyway.

We we so happy to have Meg's cousins Bronson (Ironman) and Austin (Storm Trooper) come trick or treat with us again this year. So sweet that they still want to trick or treat with their little cousin Meg!

See....this was Molly's trick or treating experience!

Our neighborhood was CRAZY.....Every house looked like this! We probably handed out candy to 200 kids and we were gone for at least an hour while making the rounds ourselves.

We got these cute pumpkins in OKC with my mom. I forgot to get a picture until the day after Halloween when I had already started getting out decorations for a Baby Shower I hosted last weekend.....so excuse the other things on the table. I just wanted to get a pic of our super cute pumpkins.

Yesterday Meg and I decided to make Cookies (like we had seen on Nick Jr:). She kept calling them Easter Cookies, since sadly that was the last time we made iced cookies!

Our finished Turkeys and the proud Baker

Enjoying the fruits of our labor

Florida Vacation

2010-09-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

We spent last week in Rosemary Beach, Fl. Our second year in a row to go to the Highway 30A area (aka The Beaches of South Walton). We love it there. Last year we stayed in Sea Grove and spent time in Seaside, Rosemary and Watercolor. This year we stayed in Rosemary. I love the architecture, the restaraunts and shops, beautiful pools and of course the beach.
Below is a picture of the four story Carriage house that we stayed in. It was so nice. I didn't really think to take pictures of the inside. Meg loved having her own floor all to herself. There were four beds along the walls around the staircase and she would switch beds every night and naptime. The top floor was mainly a bar area and deck, the main floor was the master bedroom, kitchen and living area. The bottom floor was the garage belonging to the homeowners (whose beautiful house was next to this.....although I didn't get any pictures). We never heard the garage door or even noticed it was there. The entrance to the guest/carriage house was on the opposite side.

Some other cool houses.

View from the beach.

This was Molly's beach experience....under the protection of her 50 SPF tent AND the umbrella. I didn't let a square in of her body see the sun all week. She loved it! She would sleep so soundly here.

This one, on the other hand enjoyed the sun, beach and pools more then any child ever has......

If you have talked to Meg in the last month, you knew that we were going "back to the beach". She has told everyone who was willing to listen. I love how well she remembered our trip last year and would talk about it all year long. When we told her we were going back, she was beside herself.

She enjoyed AT LEAST one push pop a day....and she can tell you how many she dropped. She kept count. They melt a little fast in the humidity of FL.

Me and my girls at sunset.

We must have looked like we needed a family picture, because 4 different people offered while we were on the beach this evening.

Sweet Sisters

I think Meg was a little tired of pictures by this one. She was more interested in playing in the sand.

Although we were sunscreen Natzis.....Chad even more then me....I do love her little sunkissed cheeks. I guess you can't help that when you are beachside and poolside for 7 days straight.

I can't believe how much she has grown since her beach pics from last year. She looks so old....

Sand castles with Dad.

She saw a "big girl" doing cartwheels on the beach, so she decided to try that out....

Last year I fought dragging this thing all the way to FL when we had so many other "essentials" to fit in the car. (even though it does deflate for traveling.) It was such a hit with Meg that I knew there was no debate this year. This year they even got to see some little dolphins pretty close up when the dolphins came close to shore. I, of course, threaten Chad with his life to keep her safe and stay close to the beach.

Great Vacation....Precious Memories

Sisters

2010-09-09T10:09:00.001-07:00

Despite how "thrilled" she looks in this picture....Meg is loving her little sister these days. She always wants to see her and talk to her. Molly always turns to look when she hears Meg's voice. Meg loves to "show" Molly to everyone.
Yesterday, we were talking about Meg's birthday party and she said, "Nember (remember) Molly was still in your tummy at my birthday....but now she's out! I love her."

The other night when we were telling God what we are thankful for at bedtime, she said, "I tell him thank you for my baby sister named Molly."

I love my both of my sweet girls!

Two days, alone with one baby......

2010-09-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last Meg went to spend three days with my parent's in OK. Something she AND I had been looking forward to for a few weeks. Chad was gone two of those days to OK, as well, for meetings. So it was just me and this girl.....

Funny how when you have one child it feels like you can't get everything done you want to, but when you have two and one is gone (namely the one with all of the energy), it feels like being on vacation. I had a whole list of projects I wanted to get finished while she was gone. Since Chad was gone, I pretty much worked morning to night with feeding and playing times mixed in.....and it was surprisingly relaxing.

First project on the list was the curtains for the dining room. The fabric has been sitting on the roll in the corner of the room since the week Molly was born. Here is the finished product. Pretty simple, but I love what they add to the room. I didn't get a pic of the whole room, because all of my other projects were overtaking the table!
I have a wonderful jewelry armoire that my aunt gave me for Christmas years ago. It is great a great piece of furniture that holds everything. But, for me, out of sight is also out of mind. I forget what all I have, and wear the same things over and over until I just get tired of them. So I decided to make a display. I used an old framed cork board....covered it with fabric and added straight pins.

I also got out a vase, a pedastal and a ceramic tray that I wasn't using and make a little display on my dresser. I love having all of my jewelry out where I can see it. I have worn something different every day.

Then I rearranged the living room. It seemed a little boring and predictable to me before. I like the new arrangement (though I am still working on selling this monster TV and replacing it with one that fits the room).

I also covered the back of Meg's head board, since I hadn't considered that it would be up against a window when I covered it the first time..... I worked on birth announcements.....and I got my desk area closer to the way I want it.

Molly was a huge help!

Curb Appeal

2010-09-01T06:24:00.000-07:00

This week we will have lived in our house for 3 months. Hard to believe! Also hard to believe it has taken me that long to get all of these pictures up. I am still not finished (stay tuned for the Nursery and "office").

Actually the exterior was the last major thing to get finished. Our painters were tied up on other jobs and couldn't come back to finish the outside for A MONTH after we moved in. Actually, they started the week Molly was born and were still working on it when she was born. It was kind of a special treat to see it finished when we came home from the hospital.

Remember this BIG problem

Joe and his team did a great job of fixing (and cleaning) the brick. It looks brand new.

Here is the before of the whole house.

After:

I just love the huge trees, landscape and bird bath that we inherited when we bought the house. So different then the new construction neighborhoods we have spent most of our time in.

I love my $16.99 Aqua Adirondack Chairs from Lowes. (When it isn't too hot and the mosquitos are under control)We love to sit and enjoy the neighborhood and watch Meg play on the porch or in the front yard.

I have lots of other pictures to post this week. Some of the girls, of course. Some projects that I worked on while Meg was at my parent's house for three days.....and the rest of the house pics. We shall see if I actually get them posted!

Living Room and Master

2010-08-05T12:36:00.001-07:00

Sorry for being so horrible at updating the house pictures. My list of priorities has shifted in the last few weeks. When I get both girls asleep at the same time, the last thing I want to do is get out my camera and take pictures of my house (having to pick up first, of course) and get the downloaded.

On to the Master Bedroom. Here is a before picture with the great custom window valance that we inherited when we bought the house. It wasn't painted or covered, just sitting in a corner, waiting to be used.

It is perfect and was custom built to match the rest of the built in. We had it hung and painted along with the trim.
Fortunately this picture is small enough that you can't see all of the books and clutter inside Chad's nightstand. I should switch sides of the bed with him, so his table is hidden. The man is typically reading like 8 books at one time.
This built in was one of my favorite things when we bought the house. I knew I would have fun filling it with pictures of my girls and other favorite "things".

Here is a before view of the Living Area (and archway into the dining)
After.....I know that our TV is WAY to big for the space. Kind of a decorating "no no". It was a hand me down that we were very excited about when we had a big living area with high ceilings. I would love a much small wall mounted one, but I don't think that is in our budget right now. I think I will see how much this one might sell for, though. I really have no idea.
I may eventually do some sort of window panels in here, but even making treatments for five window (plus hardware) cost as much as a new couch. That may be on the list for later.

Here is the fireplace wall before.

After. The mantel is a work in progress. I like that it has some great architectural features, like the sconces and the two levels....but it limits what you can do on it. The mantels themselves are both pretty narrow.

....And just because they are so cute

It took a little coercing to get Meg to even let Molly sit next to her. She prefers to admire her from a distance. Smiles were way too much to ask!

I guess there will be many more opportunities for cute sister pictures over the years.

Help

2010-07-25T14:19:00.001-07:00

Ok....I must have done something very wrong while playing around with my background and template. Now, when I go to the customize page, there is only Posting, Settings, Template and Monetize tabs. There is no tab for Layout. So I can't change the header or any of the sidebars. It deleted the blogs that I read and I can't add them back without that tab. Does anyone know how to fix it? That is what I get for pretending to know what I am doing.

Molly Joy

2010-07-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the delay in more house pics. I have a really good excuse........

Molly Joy Missildine

If we are friends on facebook, this is old news. Everyday I have intended to update here, but I just haven't been able to get it done.
Ready to go home from the hospital

Brand new family of four

Proud big sis.

She has been such a sweet big sister. Not totally interested in Molly until someone comes over, but then she is delighted to show her off (and show off herself a little).

Molly's shirt is still a little big. She will have to grow into it.

We took some LAST MINUTE family pictures as a family of three. I mean literally, they were taken on Tuesday evening. I went into Labor on Wednesday evening. I am not big on maternity pics of myself. I love to look at other people's, though. You will never see a picture of my bare belly anywhere on the internet; or anywhere else for that matter.....pregnant or not. I don't really like to be the center of attention anyway and pictures of just me are very rare (to the dismay of my husband....he is always trying to sneak pictures of me on his iPhone). I didn't do any maternity pictures with my first pregnancy. I started to think that I would regret not having good pictures of me pregnant, so I decided that I would compromise and do family pictures. My mother-in-law was in town, so we just snuck over to the neighborhood park to take some.

Of course, Meg was happy to entertain.

Hard to believe that our family is now four instead of three!

Bath and Big Girl Room

2010-07-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

There are many reasons why we love our new neighborhood. This morning was a great example. We got to watch this from our front steps.....

It was so cute!

On to the bathroom. This is the main hall bathroom. We love the tile work and decided to keep it. (Although, if you know where I can search for vintage tiles, let me know. There are a few cracked ones, that I would love to replace.) Here are the before pics.....

Even though I love a pedestal sink, we wanted to add a little more storage in here. We got the simple black vanity at Home Depot. I originally thought I would go with color in here, playing off of the aqua tiles....but I decided that contrasting the aqua and pulling the black and white from the floor would be a more classic look. I already had the fabric that I used on this window. I just used it to cover a cheap neutral roman shade that I already had.

The front bedroom is Meg's new Big Girl Room. It was a pretty cool room to begin with. Big, with great windows. Basically the refinished floors, new light fixture, and new texture and paint on the walls, were all it needed.

I love the mirror on her closet door. Wish there were one in my room.

These pictures loaded in backwards order, but I took this pic because you had to see a close up of this sweet girl. Since we have been staging homes and living the gypsy life the past year and a half, I had most of our family portraits packed up. It has been like Christmas getting them all out and on display again. It reminds me of how much she has changed and grown up.

Another piece that I bought at a thrift store. I am to lazy tonight to find the original picture of this dresser, but I posted it a while back. It was dark wood with brass hardware.

She loves her Big Girl Bed.

We have ordered new blinds for the whole house, but they are not it yet. I haven't decided whether or not to leave the windows and let the pretty trim show or to do window treatments.

So, there you go. Enjoy your Fourth of July Weekend.

3rd Birthday

2010-07-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

In some ways, I can't believe it has been three years since Meg came into our lives. On the other hand, I can hardly remember what life was like without her. She makes every day better and keeps us laughing all of the time. My talented Sister-in-Law, Shaye, took all of these pictures (which is why they are better quality then usual). I could not find my camera charger the morning of the party. I took my old point and shoot, but her pictures are much better for sharing.

Everytime we asked, all she said she wanted for her birthday party was pink cupcakes. No theme, no activities....just pink cupcakes. That was pretty easy. We had our friend Kiley whip up some of her wonderful cupcakes and we headed to our neighborhood park.

It is not unusual for Meg to strike up a conversation with someone everywhere we go (in the checkout at target, waiting in line to be seated at dinner....) this week she has been telling everyone that she is "three years olders" and that she had pink cupcakes at her birthday party.

Dining and Kitchen Reveal

2010-06-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

I am going to do these before and afters a couple of rooms at a time.....in part, because I don't want to write one mega long post. Also, because I am not ready to takes pics of some of the rooms yet. Still too many things I want to do.

Dining Room Before: Beautiful arch and wood trim, small door into the Butler's Pantry and another small door into the kitchen.

After: We kept the arch and all of the trim. Opened up the doors leading to the kitchen. There are still some things I would like to do in here. I ordered fabric for window treatments. I may eventually add a rug for more color. (ignore the one dead bulb in the light fixture. Truthfully, I hadn't noticed until I saw the picture).
A little closer. If you have been to my house(s) before you recognize the empty frames. I have been moving them around for 6 years. I considered not using them in this house, but I still like them. There used to be one cream one and two dark brown. I decided to paint them all the same color. You can't really tell in the pic, but they turned out to be different colors, since I only painted one coat and they were different colors before. I decided I like them that way. Maybe I will take a close up before and after of those later.

Remember this? I bought it at a thrift store in Fort Worth.

I really like the way it turned out. I wanted to leave the stained back in order to make my Vietri dishes more visible. I added some of my grandmother's seashell collection and a few of my aqua colored pieces.

Kitchen Before: Remember the exposed water heater?

Narrow cabinets (and I mean narrow. No way we could have fit a dishwasher or new sink). We did love the subway tile, but weren't able to salvage it and add cabinets.

After: We had new cabinets designed that would mimic the design of the original cabinets, but we brought them around to the side wall too. We stayed with white subway tiles and black granite tops.

We had a wall of cabinets built to camouflage the water heater and add storage around the fridge.

I also ordered some fabric to make a cafe curtain for the window over the sink. I really love the simplicity of the white, black and wood. It is so clean feeling.

What do you think?

First Things First

2010-06-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

I am finally back online after the move, a week and a half of waiting on our internet, and a week of visiting my parents in OKC. I know you are waiting on pics of the finished house, like I promised. I will get to that sometime this week. They will actually be pictures of the ALMOST finished house. There is still work being done. I will be playing catch up all week, I am sure.

First I wanted to share the pics from Meg's Dance Showcase, which was the weekend that we moved. It was entertaining if nothing else. I told my sister in law, she may never be a Prima Ballerina, but she is definately a show stopper. She loves to get attention whether it is by doing what her teacher is doing or doing something totally different. We have really enjoyed dance this year.

I tried to upload some video footage, but blogger is not really letting me and I don't have the patience to make it work.

Almost there

2010-06-02T11:38:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of surprises when you get to work on an 80 year old house. If you watched the video on Chad's blog before and after the foundation repair, you may have noticed this.....

Turns out, that is not an easy fix when it comes to 80 year old brick and mortar. Chad knew that the brick crews he had used before wouldn't be up for the job. The work with new construction. He called companies all over DFW before he found someone that specializes in brick repair and was up to the task. He had 4 companies who say they do repair come look at it and refuse to mess with it.

Thanks to Joe, the bricker (Mason). Here is the brand new arch. He and his crew also cleaned the brick all over the house and it looks brand new.

Apologies again for the poor picture quality. My camera is packed, so iPhone pics are what you get. These were taken before the light fixtures went it, which would have helped a little too.

Paint....I mentioned before how much I stress over paint. You would think that after picking paint for 5 of our personal houses and countless spec houses that Chad built, I would be confident about it. It is seriously one of the hardest things about house planning to me. So many times the color on the wall turns out so much different than you think it will from the sample/colorwheel.

I am completely happy with the master color! I picked a Martha Stewart color called Rainwater and my painters mixed their own Kwall paint to match it. That always makes me nervous, but it turned out great. It is a really nice blue that has a hint of grey/green.

I was wanting to go pretty white with the main color for the house. Funny because I used to have to battle Chad to do a lot of color in our houses. This time, I was saying white and he was saying, "are you sure?". I didn't want it stark white. I am just getting tired of cream/beige. We have used a lot of those tones before because we have done more traditional, old world kind of looks. I wanted a little more classic feel to this. All that to say, I gave in to Chad's concerns and it turned out a little darker then I had originally planned, but I think it will be great once everything is moved in and there is stuff on the walls.

I love how the new desk area (old butler's pantry area) is turning out. Chad took out the drawers in the middle to make leg room. We had outlets added to the bottom cabinets for computer/printer etc. I am either going to paper or paint the inside of the upper cabinets and I bought some really cute vintage hardware to replace what is there.

Below are the kitchen cabinets after they were painted. Since this picture was taken, the black granite was installed....and the subway tile backsplash is currently in progress.

The window frame had to come out to make the cabinets fit, so that is now on the to do list.

Below is a sneak peak of the refinished hardwood floors. The look beautiful.

So....tile guys are there today. Plumbers today and tomorrow and we are planning to move in Friday, ready or not. We are ready...the house might not be.

The next pictures you see will probably be the finished product. There is still A LOT to be accomplished before and after move in.

Unfortunately for us (fortunately for them) our painters got really busy and can't come back to paint the exterior for a few weeks. That wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't painted samples on the front windows of the house! Now, it looks a little silly and won't be fixed for a while.
Oh Well!

Can't wait to share the in depth before and afters with you! The interior decor is the fun stuff.

Progress

2010-05-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well, a lot of things have happened on the house in the last few weeks. Some are not picture worthy, but there have been busy contractors there 7 days of the week.

I haven't been good about taking my camera with me or even thinking to takes pictures of the progress, but here are some that I stole from Chad's iphone in order to prove that we are moving along.

Remember the before picture of the kitchen. We liked the "feel" of the old kitchen and the look of the cabinets and backsplash. We had kind of hoped to keep what was there and add on. We just couldn't figure out how to carry that around the corner to the blank wall without loosing a lot. So we had the cabinet maker design cabinets similar to the ones that were there. We weren't able to salvage all of the subway tile backsplash either, so that will be replaced. We are going to keep the same look on that too, though.

Here are the new cabinets! I think they turned out great. Sorry you can't get the full picture yet. I will take pictures with my camera after they are painted.
This is the before picture through the dining room to the door leading into the Butler's Pantry, which will be out desk area. Behind this door was another door the same size leading into the kitchen.

Although I loved the cute doors with the glass knobs and little window, we thought it would make the whole area feel bigger if we opened it up a little.

Chad did the demolition himself and most of the framing. He did have a framer help with the shaping of the arches to match the one between the living and dining. I love the way it turned out!

Other finished projects:

Foundation, mold removal from the little bathroom, ALL new electrical wiring (not in our original budget, but had to be done), ALL new plumbing under the house, new framing and sheetrock to replace torn out walls in the bathroom and places that were damaged from the bad foundation, new texture throughout the house, refinished wood floors throughout the house and some random odds and ends and repairs.

The painters are there right now and I can't wait to see it all painted!

I always stress about picking paint colors. We probably spent $175 on samples to try on the walls. I have paint colors that I have used over and over because I like them and feel comfortable using them; but I am going for a little different tone this time, so I was kind of starting from scratch....not fun. The sad thing was that I had the hardest time with the nuetral color for most of the house. I didn't want stark white, but I didn't want too beige or too gray either.

Projects to be completed in the next two weeks....hopefully. (That is our goal move in date):

interior paint, exterior paint, brick repair and cleaning, countertops, tile, new plumbing fixtures, light fixtures and other odd jobs and cleaning.

Hopefully that will give us about 6 weeks before Baby Molly makes her appearance! Maybe we will have some time to recover before we enter the world caring for a newborn.

"Tu Tu" Cute for 2

2010-05-08T14:09:00.001-07:00

Last night we got to head over to Frisco for our Niece Maclane's second birthday. The theme was Tu Tu Cute which works out perfectly for Meg, since she has a number of Tu Tu's to choose from. She was so excited and didn't appreciate the rush hour drive, to the other side of the metroplex, that it took to get there.
Here she is sneaking up behind the cake. We found her like this a number of times. She was pretty sure that was the only reason we came, and didn't understand why we had to wait to eat it.

The Birthday Girl on her Birthday Scooter

Meg snagged another kid's scooter

Refueling

Getting her face painted by her talented Aunt Shaye

When it was time to sing Happy Bday and cut the cake, Meg pulled her little chair right up to the best seat in the house. I was laughing to hard to take a picture when she leaned forward and took at bite out of the icing....twice!

Nephew Knox and his Tiger face

Helping blow the candles out

Mama Joy and Meg

Her "New Special Prize".....the parasol party favor, which she has thoroughly enjoyed.

I don't know who this little kid is, but he stood there drinking his juice and watching Meg for quite a while.

Dream

2010-05-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

The attic in our "new" house is really big. I for one, think that this would be the perfect use of that space and solution to the small bedroom closet delimna.......but, I don't think that Chad is on board.

This is the picture of an attic/closet from a bungalow featured in D Magazine recently. I pulled it from http://www.fabulouskblog.com/.

For Sale:Out With the Old, in With the New

2010-05-02T05:40:00.000-07:00

Everytime we move I become less attached to some of the things in our house. I have a love/hate relationship with Craigslist. I love when I post something and someone emails me ten minutes later and comes to get it the next day. I hate to post a bunch of little things for really cheap and people want to email me with 100 questions and don't end of buying or having something sit on there for weeks. I am not patient enough for that. Here are a few of the things that I need to purge from our house. Let me know if you see something you like. Trust me....they are mostly pretty cheap.

The lamp above has a few cracks that have been glued back together. It works great, and they are not noticeable. Just wanted to let you know.

Stay tuned! I will have more. I am thinking of things as I write this.

Here Comes the Sun!

2010-04-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

I remember having a similar post to this last year. Meg and I love Spring and Summer! We love to be outside. She has been asking me for weeks to swim in the pool. I don't know if she saw my neighbors out there laying out or just realizes that it is getting warmer outside....but I have had a hard time convincing her that it is still too cold to swim. Today I had the idea to dig her Water table out of the garage. It is the perfect day. I even filled it with warm water from the kitchen instead of the cold water from the hose, although she really wouldn't have minded if it had been freezing. She loves outdoors and anything with Water. She is getting a little big to climb in the table, but don't try to tell her that!

My friend Angela sent Meg these sun glasses as a baby gift when she was still living in Japan. She still loves them, and her purple leopard sunglasses that her "Bunny" got her. I don't know how they have survived so long. Chad and I break our own sunglasses on a regular basis.
Even after we changed out of her suit to watch Alice in Wonderland she kept the sunglasses on. It must have been relaxing......I had to carry her to her bed for naptime, because she was already out.

On the House Planning/renovating front....no pictures of change to the house yet. It is still in the foundation, electrical, plumbing stage. Nothing pretty to share.

Here is one of my current projects, though. I bought this at a charity thrift store yesterday.

My plan is to turn it into something cool, like this.....

( I can't remember where I first spotted this picture, otherwise I would give the credit. I saved it from one of the decorating blogs that I like to read.)

We shall see how I do on the make-over once I actually get it home. I didn't used to have to think about how to get things home when I had a Tahoe and Chad had a truck. This one could be tricky!

On a totally random note. I came across this picture on http://www.decorista.com/. One of the blogs I like to look at for decorating inspiration. If I were getting married this year, this is the color scheme I would use. Isn't it fun?

AHHH!

2010-04-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

I got a call from Chad yesterday saying, "whatever you do, don't go by the new house!"

Here is a link to his blog to see what is going on...
http://thewayitcouldbe.com

foundation repair is a whole new experience for me. I am used to tearing out walls, plumbing, floors etc. This looks a little scary.

P.S. You could not pay me a million dollars to crawl under that house or in one of those holes! I hope those guys get paid well.

Big Girl Room in Progress

2010-04-17T12:44:00.001-07:00

I am having so much fun planning out our new house. I love change. I get sick of looking at the same things over again. I also LOVE to clean out and organize. Get rid of what we don't want or need. It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff I binge from our house every time we move. I know that I haven't accumulated a lot of new stuff since the last time. I just become less attached to things after moving it around a few times.

I am excited to be able to plan a big girl room and a baby girl nursery at the same time. I will share more on the nursery as my ideas turn into actual progress. For Meg's room I had kind of a preppy/modern pink, aqua and white thing in mind......then I went to Home Goods, my new favorite place. I have wanted to go to one for a while, and didn't even know there was one right by my house; until I looked on the website. I spotted these throw pillows and lamp and totally changed the course of my plan for Meg. I think it fits her personality better then what I was thinking before anyway. She is more of a bright and colorful, out of the ordinary kind of girl.

So here is the loot. I am aware that the lamp shades don't match. The lamps were on the clearance isle for $20 and I could not pass up the peach glass shape of the base. I can replace the shades for pretty cheap. You will have to wait until we move it to see it all come together.

Since her furniture will all be moving into Baby Sister's room, I have been looking for some sort of dresser.....also, some sort of cute toy storage/organizer (which is still I am still on the hunt for). I decided that instead of just going to the store to find something that we don't have in our budget....since the renovations are taking care of all of that....I would be creative. I went to the Arlington Resale Shop. It is a place right around the corner from my house (one of the places that I take a lot of those things that I mentioned cleaning out of my own house). All of the sale proceeds go to the Arlington Pregnancy Center. I bought this dresser for $60. I had sold a rug on craigslist the same morning and used the cash from that sale, so I like to think it was a free dresser....a trade-in, at least.

Problem #1 was that no one was home and I had to unload it before going back to pick Meg up from Preschool. I won't mention how it got from the back of my car to the garage. I got a good reprimanding from Chad already. Trust me, it was harder on the dresser then it was on me.

Anyway...I went straight to Lowe's to get white paint and some new hardware. Here is what I came up with.

I tried really hard to cut all of our stored belongings out of the background of this picture.

I am pretty proud of the finished product.

Next up on the house.....light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, paint colors, etc. I got my assignments from Chad today and I am ready to get started.

Our New Old Home....

2010-04-05T20:24:00.001-07:00

Here we go....

Move #10 is in the works.

Only, this time we plan to stay for a while. We are so excited to be buying the beautiful home of a relative of mine, in a really cool old area of Fort Worth. It is the neighborhood my dad grew up in, actually. We have always loved the area and can't wait to live there. It came about at the perfect time. Right when we were needing to get settled into a new place before Baby Missildine #2's arrival this summer.

First things first, though. This house has had the same owner since the mid 60's. It needs some work, but it has some beautiful old charactar and really great features. I decided to blog about the process as we work on making it our own. I love reading about renovations and I hope someone else out there enjoys the process, as well.

So here is the Before....
You saw the front elevation at the beginning of the post. I love the trees and the wide street. The houses all around this one have already been fixed up, which adds to the appeal.

Here is the living room. This is where you come in front door.

(Notice the little peeper watching for her daddy to come inside and run around with her.)

This is the view as you actually walk in the front door. The arch takes you into the dining room. I LOVE the dark wood trim and the arch itself. My lens isn't broken, the foundation is definately the first order of business. That is to be expected of a house this old, but it's a little like walking through the crazy house at Disneyland.

Another view into the dining

This is a cool breakfast area/butler's pantry area that is between the Dining Room and Kitchen. I think we may turn this into a built in desk/office area.
Door into the Kitchen.

This is one side of the Kitchen. Beautiful Water heater!
Other Kitchen wall. The picture doesn't show it very well, but it has really cool old White Subway Tile backsplash that we hope to salvage. We are trying to figure out how to reconfigure the kitchen and add the necessities (more cabinets, dishwasher, microwave, oven etc). This will be one of the biggest projects. I can't imagine how people used to cook in a kitchen with this little counter space and NO dishwasher.

This is the front bedroom. It has a door off of the Living Room.

Another view of the same room.

Hall Bath. I love the old tile and hardware, but it will need some fixing up. At least it isn't peach or something worse, like in other old houses I have seen. I like the blue/green.

I especially love the black and white tile on the floor.

Middle bedroom.

The other view of the middle bedroom.

This is the back bedroom. It is the smallest of the three. Can you believe how many big beautiful windows are in this house. I love all of the natural light.

This is another big project. It is a little bath off of the back bedroom. Obviously has had a plumbing leak of some kind.

I like the arched shower with white subway tile. I am hoping we can save this.

Meg hopes we don't move any furniture in. She likes to slide across the wood floors and hid in all of the closets.

So here is goes. In the (almost) eight years we have been married, we have built new homes and renovated a few old ones. Everytime, we knew we were doing it to sell. I am so excited to make this house OUR home. We probably won't stay forever, but we are planning this house for us...not for the masses. I can't wait to get started. I love to see things change and improve. I just hope we can get finished and moved before I am too pregnant to enjoy the process. I wouldn't mind missing out on the moving part, but I will want everything in it's place and looking perfect before baby arrives. I hope you enjoy the process with me.

Easter Pics

2010-04-05T19:45:00.001-07:00

We had a good Easter weekend. Easter is a lot different now that Chad is on staff at a church. (so is Christmas....) I was sad to miss being with family. Especially since all of my family was together this year, minus the Missildines. On the other hand, it was a great weekend with tons of new people, visitors and families at church. Although we celebrate Christ's Death and Resurrection all year, we pray that God did a powerful work in the hearts of those who came for the first time.

On to the Meg pics....I decided on Saturday night to try and make Easter cookies with Meg. Thankfully, and surprisingly, I had all of the ingredients we needed. She LOVED mixing the food coloring into the icing. I was only going to make 3 colors, but she kept asking to make more, so we ended up with 6 colors.

These were my feeble attempts at Easter dress pictures before Church. I kept asking her to put her bear down, but between the legs was the best I could get.

Daddy leaves too early on Sundays to do the Easter Egg hunt, so we waited until after naptime. She woke up from her nap saying, "we're gonna go hunt easters"

Life in Pink

2010-03-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already heard, Baby Missildine #2 is another little girl!
We are so excited. I really thought Meg was a girl, although I didn't admit that to anyone. This time, I really had no idea either way. It was so sweet to see her moving around, yawning, pushing against where the sonographer was pushing into her.......The Carmel Macchiato that I drank before we went in might have helped! I didn't want to risk her being curled up in a ball asleep, like Meg was at her scheduled sono.

So more pink, more princess and more of this........

I don't get to take many pictures at dance class, because we figured out a while back that Meg does much better if I am not around. I was her biggest distraction. I head down to the coffee shop with my friend Allison. The pictures that I do get aren't very good, because I am trying to stay out of the way and not CAUSE an unnecessary distraction. This was the week of their valentine party. After dance, they got to exchange valentines.

Enjoying some of the loot!

Although, if this little girl is anything like her big sister..... she will also be loud, fast, fearless and funny. What I love most about Meg is that she is her own individual. I like to say that she is a boy trapped in a girl's body, but my mom said it best when she said, "Meg isn't trapped anywhere." She doesn't let anyone define her. She is full of life and joy and personality all her own, and we love it....most of the time! In some ways I hope her little sister is just like her, because I can't imagine anything better. In other ways, I hope they are each their own person. I joke about praying for my second to be a little more laid back and "easy", (a little more like me and less like their daddy) but truth be told, another sweet and sassy fireball would be fine too.

Sisters are the best. I don't know what I would do without mine! I always wanted to be just like her and I was proud to live in her shadow (because it was a pretty perfect one to live in). Whatever our new baby girl turns out to be like, she will be perfect and we are so glad that God has intrusted both of these precious gifts to us.

Snow!!!

2010-02-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

Most of my "readers" are from DFW or OKC, so I don't really need to tell you that we had a record snowfall on Thursday. 12"!!! It was really kind of surreal. The ground was already covered when we woke up on Thursday and it never stopped snowing until after we went to bed that night. We didn't really get out to play while it was snowing, but yesterday was the perfect snow day. The wind wasn't blowing, the sun was trying to come out and there was the thickest snow to play in that I have ever seen, outside of Colorado. Meg LOVED it! She couldn't care less that besides her raincoat and rain boots, none of her warm clothes were water proof. She was soaked and frozen....I felt like a terrible mom, but she insisted that she wasn't cold and that she didn't want to go inside. We played in our neighborhood for a while and then headed to a hill near our house to "sled". We had seen a ton of people out there the night before, but we didn't brave it while the snow was still falling. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera with us. I am pretty sure it may have been on the list of things I am not supposed to do while pregnant, but it was a lot of fun and I was fairly cautious. Meg of course, laughed and giggled the whole way down each and every time, which was priceless. I love to hear the joy in her voice when she gets so excited like that. Unfortunately she went ballistic when it was time to go inside. Crying crocodile tears for 30 solid minutes, which is unusual for her short attention span. I don't usually show sympathy when a fit is thrown, but I did feel bad since she never gets to see or play in the snow. After a warm bubble bath with Mommy, everything was better. That always works!

February.....Really?

2010-02-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

This post is backwards because I did the typing first, then loaded the pictures....which loaded backwards. Blogger won't let me move them around, (why does that happen sometimes?) and I don't have the patience or time to mess with it right now. So you will have to scroll down for the "News".

Anyway...Yesterday we went to Meg's Best Friend Merrick's 3rd Birthday Party. Merrick LOVES all things Disney Princess related and even got to go to Disney land a few weeks before her birthday. So it was not surprise what she wanted for the theme. Meg chose to go as Snow White, which is of course the only princess that is red, blue and yellow. Colors that happen to clash with 98% off her wardrobe, but we made it work. I couldn't talk her into Sleeping Beauty (Skeeping Booty, as Meg says it), who would have matched her hair bows and shoes nicely. She looked pretty cute, though. Her gold tennis shoes aren't very "princess-y", but perfect for running around outside and jumping in the bounce house.

Ok, first off....this isn't really news to a lot of people. Especially if you are a friend on Facebook. I have been meaning to post it on here for, well....a month or two. Baby Missildine #2 is on the way. Due in July. I am 16 weeks along (like I said, this isn't really news anymore). We are really excited, despite my lack of blogging. Actually, I am blaming pregnancy for my lack of blogging. So here is a not so great picture of Meg announcing the news. Her hair isn't fixed and she didn't really want to get her picture taken, but I tried a number of times and this is the best I could do. She is pretty cute, regardless. I am not sure if she totally understands what is going on, but she does know there is a baby in Mommy's Tummy. Sometimes she thinks that she and daddy also have babies in the tummies, but I think she will figure it out when Mommy's tummy is noticeably occupied.

December

2010-01-02T14:27:00.001-08:00

Phew....it was a fast and furious holiday season, as usual.

I have been completely unmotivated to sit down and Blog about it all. I uploaded the pics last week and the post has just been sitting on my dashboard since. So, there is going to be little dialogue to go along with these pictures....but enjoy anyway. Meg loved Christmas this year. She especially loved seeing all of her cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents within a two week period. I took very few pictures with my family, because sadly, we were only with them for a few hours on the Friday Night Before Christmas.

Checking out her "Santa" loot from Bunny and Pop.

Trying out her new disney princess dress up clothes and shoes from Aunt Mallory and the Jackson fam.

Wearing her Sleeping Beauty dress and riding the Ariel "Bicycle" (as she calls it) that Bunny and Pop gave her.

The next pics are from Palestine where we went to see Chad's Dad and Stepmom. We got to go to their friend's ranch and do a fun Hay Ride. It was cold, but lots of fun.

Aunt Shaye and Maclane

Talking to the horses with Papa

Taking the inagural ride in the new Wagon that she got from Papa and Wyma.

Riding with Knox

Next we spent the actual Christmas in Tyler with Chad's Mom and his Sister's fam.

Craziness on Christmas Morning!

Meg and Maclane in their matching outfits from Mama Joy pushing their baby doll strollers in circles around the house.

It was a wonderful Christmas

Thanksgiving at Bunny and Pop's

2009-11-29T06:49:00.001-08:00

We had ANOTHER wonderful Holiday weekend in OK at Bunny and Pop's House. Again, I didn't get many pictures of the adults. I need to get better about that! At least there are other kids to look at besides Meg, in these pictures. Chad actually took most of these pictures. I was inside where it was warm. Meg spend hours in the sandbox, on the slide, watching Scooby Doo, playing in the grandkid's room, riding the golf carts, roasting marshmallows in the outside fireplace and enjoying her cousins.

Meg and her Chauffeur, Austin.

Picking some of Bunny's little "matatoes"

Sweet Bronson, always happy to play with and take care of his little cousins.

Winding down with a movie and some milk

Meg, Audrey, Jacob and Austin

Throwing rocks and sticks in the creek.

Austin

Jacob

Bronson

I also just realized I didn't get a single picture of Baby Halle. She didn't spend much time outside either! Looking foward to many more wondeful family holidays at Bunny and Pop's House.

Wedding Bells

2009-11-29T06:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend we were able to go to the wedding of the most precious couple. Chad and I had them both in our huddle group at church right after we got married. They weren't dating at the time, but we did get to be a part of their lives when they did start dating up until they left for College and the Air Force. It makes me feel really old since I think they were Sophomores in High School when we met them and now they are college graduates getting married.

I didn't get a single picture of Chad and I at the wedding. Take my word for it, we looked really nice. Nor did I get a picture of the Bride and Groom, the Cakes or any of the other friends or guests. I have a one track mind. We were also pretty busy trying to keep Meg from crashing the party in any way. Her best friend Merrick was the flower girl in the wedding and our other friend Luke was the Ring Bearer.....so Meg had fun dancing the night away with her friends. They were hilarious.

These are just a few I took before we left the house.

This is what I get when I say, "say cheese." I am going to stop saying that.

Fortunately we were sitting in a back corner with room for the kids to dance and play without disturbing too many other tables.

After meg say Luke and Merrick holding hands and swinging around, she said, "can you hold my hand?" It was really sweet. Usually she is happy to be independent and unconfined. That must have looked really fun.

Trick or Treat

2009-11-01T14:49:00.001-08:00

Here is just a little glimpse of Meg's Halloween Festivities. She was a pretty cute little Tiger/Kitty....depending on which time you asked her. The next few are of the cute Pumpkin kits that Chad's Mom sent her. She had so much fun decorating and redecorating and mixing around these silly pumpkin faces.
Much more enjoyable for a 2 year old then carving a pumpkin, I think.

I quickly nixed the bow tie. It looked a little to Chippendale(ish) to me. Although, Meg kept asking, "where's my hair bow on my neck?", after I took it off.

We got to Trick or Treat with my nephews, Bronson and Austin again this year. It is really sweet how excited they get to go with Meg. I am not sure why she wouldn't sit any closer to them, but we were lucky just to get her seated for a second.

I think they were both a little tired of pictures here.

I had to get an actual Trick or Treat picture, even though Meg was content to ride in the stroller and eat her candy by this point. Her cousins were so sweet to get her a piece when she didn't come to the door.

Old McDonald

2009-10-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

VACATION

2009-10-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

I am a bad blogger. I go weeks without posting and then have too much to post about. I will try to keep it short.

We have had a wonderful couple of weeks. The thursday before last my whole family spent the night at Great Wolf Lodge for my Dad's 60th birthday. The second time we have been able to do that together. The kids LOVE it. We all do! I took my camera....unfortunately I was having too much fun to stop and take pictures. I was also busy making sure my dare devil 2 year old didn't drown. We did have some pictures taken of the kids in Grapevine though. You can see those at Kristin Cook's blog.....www.kristincookphotography.blogspot.com

Then Chad and Meg and I headed to Florida for 6 days. If you haven't been to the Beaches of South Walton area on Highway 30A....you need to go. We stayed in a condo, since it was just the three of us. I LOVED the whole area. Watercolor, Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach. They are all little towns with tons of beach houses shops and fun restaurants. It is very movie like. Lots of locals and beach houses owners. It is a total change of pace from Destin which is just 30 min away. I am going to get a Beach House there, when I grow up!

I don't want to mess with uploading all the pics through blogger, so here is a smilebox slideshow if you care to watch. Meg had so much fun. No child has ever loved the beach more. She would wake up in the morning and say, "please go to the sandbox, please." She also loved riding in Chad's Kayak. I almost didn't let him bring it, for packing reasons....but it was a hit. I made sure he stayed VERY close to shore when Meg was in tow, though. We rode bikes up and down 30A one day, played on the beach a couple of days and drove into Destin to see the boats and have lunch another.

Warning....it's kind of long. I didn't even use nearly all the pictures we took.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

School Days and Such......

2009-09-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Meg started Mother's Day Out this week. She is at a different place then she went to last year, because I wanted to put her somewhere closer to where we live.....of course we don't live there anymore....but, oh well. She LOVES it. If she weren't so happy to see me at the end of the day, my feelings would be hurt at how carelessly and anxiously she runs into her classroom. She will hardly look up from her toys/books to tell me goodbye. Separation anxiety has never been a problem for her. It helps that she loves everyone and has never met a stranger. The first day she (literally) pushed past a girl who was standing timidly in the door way not wanting to go in. On Thursday she completely ignored the only other two kids who were there when we got there, who were both screaming their heads off for their moms not to leave. She just looks at them like, "I don't know what your problem is, but I have things to do and you are just wasting time."

Of course, getting her to stand on the front porch and take a "1st day of school" picture with her backpack was not an option for Meg. We just took some pictures of her roaming the yard and street....they just happened to be on the first day of school. I will keep trying to get one of her with her backpack on. It is really cute. Here you go.

This morning we woke up to Meg yelling, "I am ready to get out please!" from her bed. We watched Little Mermaid and ate cereal and then we all loaded up and went to a park that is close to the house. I had a lot of fun getting action shots....which is all I can get with Meg. Chad and I were talking about how Meg kind of demands the attention of everyone around her. She is the loudest and friendliest kid at the park. I am always hearing other parents laugh out loud at her. It is so funny to me, because I am happy to get lost in the crowd. She will be a leader for sure. She says hi to everyone she sees when we are out and about. I love it when people are in a hurry or concentrating on something or just lost in their own world and they can't help but smile when Meg yells, "Hi guys!" or just "HI!".
Here are some of what I captured at the park

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Home Again....kind of

2009-08-26T12:58:00.001-07:00

I am afraid all of you are going to think we are crazy....we moved again. #9. I almost don't even want to mention it.....but I will need to look back at this years down to road in order to remember when and where all we lived at this time in our lives. Explination: We must have done a REALLY good job staging our last house, because it got 4 offers in a week and sold immediately. We literally only lived there for 4 weeks, before the sale closed. I am sure people are starting to wonder if we are gluttons for punishment. We really do have it down to an art. The day of moving has always been the part I dread. I don't mind the packing and I like the decorating part. This was by far our easiest move. Part of the reason for that is that we have temporarily moved back to the house we lived in just over a year ago (3 houses ago). We lived there for two years.....our longest ever. That is why I named this post Home Again. "Home" has become a very loose term for us, but this house feels more like home then any that we have lived in. We lived here when we decided to have a baby and moved out a week before her first birthday. We have more happy memories here then anywhere else. It also feels like home because it was one that we planned, designed and built. I forgot how many special features we put into this house until moving back after living in three older houses. I could go on and on, but I won't. I will just say that these are all just houses, not homes and I am thankful that we are able to be faithful with our gifts and talents in a resourceful way at this time in our lives. God has been so faithful to us. We will one day build a house for us and stay for a while, but for now.....here we are....and there and here and there. Oh, and the reason we aren't staying is that it is already under contract to be sold when the buyer sells her house. I have told a few people that as Chad was somewhat stressing about moving 4 weeks after moving in, he said, "It is kind of an adventure though, isn't it?" I told him that being married to him is always an adventure! It is an advendture I have been on for 7 years that I don't see ending anytime soon. I know you just came to get Meg updates, so here you go.

You could practically jump off our roof into the neighborhood pool. (I wouldn't recommend it, since it is only 4.5 feet deep) I used to feel like it was our pool (that I didn't have to clean or care for), because it is a small gated community where we are 30 years younger then any of the other residents. There isn't a lot of action at the pool! Meg and I have been outside daily since we moved on Friday. She loves it!

Since we know that we aren't staying long and it is already "sold", we aren't decorating or unpacking anything that isn't an essential for life. I feel like I am on vacation, since I have always lived in houses that show regularly and needed to be ready to show soon after moving in. We didn't even move our kitchen table in. Just the barstools....so Meg has enjoyed having her own table in the dining room.

Another favorite pastime is getting inside the empty kitchen cabinets and closing the doors. She yells, "where's Meg?"....which pretty much gives away her location.

Her other favorite activity is taking toys up to the landing at the top of the stairs and playing; as though it is her secret and secluded spot.

The rest of the pictures are pre-move, but I didn't get a chance to post them sooner.
I think it might be time to get the poor girl some dress up clothes. She makes do, though.

Somehow Daddy's t-shirts and socks have become her favorite dress up clothes. I thought it was weird until I realized that Daddy often leaves things where she can get to it....mommy's clothes are closed up in the drawers or the laundry hamper (if you know what I mean). Here is daddy's shirt, that made it's way down to skirt level.

I also had to throw this one in. Meg has asthma and has had to do breathing treatments periodically since getting RSV when she was 8 months. The first time we gave her one, she screamed BLOODY MURDER (if you know her, you know what I mean) and faught with all of her little strength the entire 10 minutes. She has come a long way since then. Now she is so used to it that we just turn it on, turn on a video and hand it to her to give to herself. It is kind of sad, but also kind of cute. Here she is after coming inside from a swim. Coloring with one hand and taking the treatment with her other hand.

Anniversary Pics and Girlfriends

2009-08-08T09:26:00.001-07:00

The first two pictures are random, but this is Meg's new favorite thing to do. Our DVD player on the big TV in the living room died....So Meg loves to go in Mom and Dad's room and push all the pillows off of the bed, cozy up under the covers and watch Videos on our little TV. She looks like the Princess and the Pea in the big bed by herself. I always ask her sarcastically if she would like me to peel her a grape..... to which she says, "No thank you."

I already mentioned that we got to go see Legally Blonde the Musical for our Anniversary. It was so fun. I actually remembered to take my camera with us to drop Meg off at my Brother's house, so that they could take our picture. I was just thinking the other day that the last non-professional picture of just me and Chad was taken on the cruise we took right before finding out I was pregnant with Meg. That was almost three years ago. So here you go!

Meg's best little girlfriend Merrick got to come spend the day with us Thursday. Merrick is the only one of Meg's friends who talks as much as she does. Her conversations with most of her friends is one sided (which she doesn't seem to mind) but she really loves being around Merrick. They play really well together. Their conversations are really hilarious. Next time, I will get the video camera out.

They had so much fun doing all the things girlfriends like to do:

Destroying and jumping on my bed.

Watching Disney Movies

(these are my old VHS movies, so they still work in the living room)

Talking on the phone
Sharing accessories

Having tea parties

Reading ALL of the books

Eating cerial snacks

What a full and fun day!

Move #8, Anniversary #7....and counting

2009-08-02T13:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our 7th wedding anniversary. Last night Chad's mom came to keep Meg and we were able to eat at Reata, our favorite and see a movie. We tried to go to Four Day Weekend, the Improv Comedy Group in FW, but the 7:30 was sold out and we don't do anything that STARTS at 10:00pm, so the second show was out of the question. Thursday my parents are coming from OKC to keep Meg, and treating us to Legally Blond the Musical at Bass Hall. I can't wait. We watched clips from Fireproof this morning in church, which was a good reminder of how God has blessed and protected our marriage these 7 years. I am thankful! Chad told me when we were dating that he would never expect me to fulfill him, but that he would look to God for that. I am the love of his life here on earth, but God is his first love. Phew!!

Last weekend, we completed our 8th move in those 7 years of marriage. The first 6 years of marriage we lived in houses that Chad built and moved as they sold. With the housing market the way it is, we are not currently building Spec Houses, so we are "staging" houses for other builders/home owners/investors to help them sell. Buying or renting would have been too easy for Chad. (I am "blessed" with a husband with a creative and resourceful mind. I am kidding with the parenthesis, by the way. It really is a blessing.) Statistically, a lived in or furnished house sells faster and for more money then a vacant house. We have the experience and the freedom, so why not? I explained some of this when we moved the 7th time, but I didn't really even fully understand what we were doing at that time. Now, I get it. So here are some pics of our current "home". I have a feeling we won't be here long. We moved in last Friday, the 24th and it has already shown like 7 times. It is a little old house, but I kind of like it. Some day we will live in a house without a For Sale sign in the yard, but for now.....we are still on the move. Meg doesn't even seem to notice most of the time. Although I told her to go get something out of her toy box the other day and she did a 360 turn like, "where is that again?".

I don't have a lot of pictures of Meg since the last post. Partly because we moved and my camera was packed, partly because she is never still enough to capture and partly because I just can't keep up with everything. I did take these the other day when Chad called and said he was on his way home and wanted to take Meg on a bike ride. I got her helmet out and she wanted to put it on immediately. She wore it for 45 min until they actually left on the bike ride.

Catching up

2009-07-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

I am way behind, so I had to do three posts at once. Scroll down to see our Fourth Festivities, Meg's 2 year stats and birthday pics. Lots of Pictures!

Happy Fourth in OKC

2009-07-05T20:18:00.001-07:00

We were so excited to have been able to take a long weekend to Bunny and Pop's for the 4th of July. It was a fun filled 3.5 days. I will let the pictures do most of the talking. Watch out...there are a lot of them.

A leaky water hose provided at least an hour of entertainment, after Meg lost her job of helping Bunny water the garden. She wasn't very helpful!

Swinging
Sliding

Playing on Bunny and Pop's Bed

Sandbox. Unfortunately her favorite activity is smashing it in her hair.

The Waterpark with Audrey...and fam.

Meg and Audrey in their patriotic attire. Meg was saying cheese, but wouldn't take her eyes off of the TV.

Pop putting Halle in the tree

Sweet Halle. "Baby Howie" as Meg calls her.

Pop and Halle

The Slip and Slide!

Chad tossing Meg down the slip and slide

Audrey smiling so pretty for the camera. She is good at this.

Smores on the back porch

We wore her out.

Bedtime stories.

I need to get better about taking pictures of the adults. They were there. They just aren't as cute.

2 Years!

2009-07-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

Meg had her 2 year check up on Monday. She always livens up the Pediatrician's office. They all start smiling when she walks in the door and snicker behind the counter when she points out all of the same things every time she comes in and talks louder then anyone in the waiting room. Hopefully we won't be there as often this year, since she has tubes in her ears. I love my pediatrician, but I don't want to see her once a month anymore. Meg is in the 95 percentile for height and 60% for weight. She talks, "like a four year old", her Dr. says. Most of you readers may not care about these things, but I want to make sure I have this recorded somewhere. I keep forgetting to get out her baby book lately.

She keeps us laughing daily. Just a few of her favorite sayings are.....
I wanna make you sumpin
Uh No..actually..don't know (said like it is one sentence.)
You Ok Mama? You Ok Dada? You ok Honey? (asked multiple times a day and in a row.)
Wha na matter boy? (when someone else is crying)
I'm Hungry, I'm tired, She's scared....all concepts her Dr. said she shouldn't understand until 3.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 70, 8.....
M E G, Meg.
I'm Me...You're You...
Ju have a good nap Mama? (when she wakes up from a nap....I wish!)
She also likes to point out things that she "sees" when we are driving....I see rhinoceros, I see cupcakes, I see awingo (flamingo), I see helicopter....and the list goes on and on.

She is so funny! PS..I can brag about how smart she is because she doesn't get it from me. She gets it from Chad.

Tea Party for Two

2009-07-05T18:49:00.001-07:00

June 27th was Meg's 2nd Birthday. I can't believe it! We had a fun little Fancy Nancy Style Backyard Tea Party. FN is the cutest little children's book character that loves to dress up and use big words, like "Accessories" and "Fiasco". Meg calls her Mincy Mancy.

Chad's dad brought a very fun bubble machine. These pictures are of Meg ready Fancy Nancy and sitting in the wake of the bubble machine. It was a big hit with all the kids at the party.

The table

Cupcakes and Dragon fly treats (candy coated pretzels).

Notice the cute cake plate that Tricia and her mom painted.

Making some "Accessories"Meg's Sweet friend Merrick. I didn't do a good job getting pictures of all of the guests. It was her three girl friends and some family.
Meg enjoying everyone singing "Happy Birthday"

Notice the box fans that Chad rigged up in the corners of the porch. It was pretty hot.
By the time we started to open presents Meg was completely worn out. We had to bring out the paci and blankie just to make it through the gifts. After she was finished opening, she headed straight to her bed as if to say, "Thanks for coming everyone. Don't let the door hit you on the way out." When she is tired, she knows it. She has thoroughly enjoyed all of her new toys though.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl. I wish time would slow down, but I know it will only speed up. You make everyday a joy!

Daddy

2009-06-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

This video is priceless to me. Meg get's so excited to see her daddy. Her whole mood can change in an instant when Daddy gets home to chase her and wrestle with her, build forts and slides with the couch cushions, throw her on the bed and whatever else he can come up with. During the day, she will say, "Where's Dada?......He'll be right back." as if she is trying to convince herself it won't be long until he is home.

This was when I caught the tail end of quite a ticklish bed time. (You must know that Meg doesn't "Wind Down". She runs and yells and plays until you pick her up and put her into bed, where she immediately lays down and falls fast asleep. We used to try to quietly sing songs and read books, but she won't have it. She doesn't want to miss a second. We are usually trying to squeeze in a prayer as she reaches for the mattress on her way down.)

Molly's Shower

2009-06-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Molly (my college roommate) is expecting her first baby in August. I can't wait to meet little Titus. We had a fun shower this morning, at Cassy's house. Molly makes every party more fun....her shower was no exception. Pregnancy has provided with her with plenty of funny stories and comments.

The beautiful Mommy.

All four Roomies. It takes a shower to get us all together even though we all live in DFW.

I am so mad at myself for not getting a picture of all of our ACU friends that were there. It was so good to see Jamie, Kristin, Lori, Katie and Melissa among the other friends and family there.

I love this picture of Emerson Guerra and Molly's Mom Tracy looking on. Tracy is like the baby whisperer. Babies love her. I think it's her cute baby talk.

Molly, modeling her presents.

Miracle Worker

2009-06-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

Go see the preview of Meg's 2 Year pics at www.kristincookphotography.blogspot.com. We did them a few weeks early because Kristin is 8 months pregnant. Poor things had to chase my crazy girl all over the Mandalay Canal in Las Colinas. We were there almost two hours and I still can't believe she got these wonderful ones. Meg was her usual curious, fast and furious self. Kristin is a genius!

Lovin' the Sun

2009-05-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

Meg LOVES water of any kind. You may remember this from last summer. Here is the daily (at least the last three sunny days) progression of her time outside.

"I bet it would be fun to get into the water table....it's like a mini pool"

"I might as well get the full effect"

"WOO HOO!!"

(notice that I forgot to change her into a swim diaper. This thing weighed like 9 pounds when we took it off)

This part lasts until I turn the hose off and say, "oops there's no more water....all gone."

She would just sit in the middle of this sprinkler being pelted with (freezing) water all day long. She usually has purple lips and chattering teeth when I turn it off.

Poor girl....she is perfectly happy with 3 inches of water to sit in and a 3' circular sprinkler. She needs a pool! She literally greeted me in her crib this morning with, "wanna put simsuit on?" (that is a statement disguised as a question.)

New Look

2009-05-13T12:49:00.001-07:00

Well, I decided it was time for a fresh look. Especially since my header pic was from the week Meg turned 1 and she will 2 in a month and a half. I REALLY wanted to Shauna to come up with another beautiful creation for me, but there is not a "blog design" envelope in our Dave Ramsey budget plan and I keep spending my Miscellaneous envelope on other things. I will have to save up for that.

That being said, I am somewhat proud of what I was able to put together with the help of free downloads and backgrounds from TCBOTB. It is not as wonderful as Shauna could have done, but it will work for now. Besides, it took me FOREVER to figure it all out. I don't have that much time on my hands.

The Zoo with Friends

2009-05-09T14:01:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful time at the FW Zoo this morning thanks to our wonderful friends who invited us along to use their season passes. Thanks, Mike and Mandy.

These pictures are going to be totally out of order, primarily because I am too tired to care. Meg loved seeing all of her favorite animals, riding the carousel, running ALL over the zoo (literally) and especially sharing it with her best friend Merrick. They are so funny together.

I am still shocked that Chad went into the bird place. He is so scared of birds! I guess it was worth it for him to see Meg so still and intrigued.

Two Good Dads

Meg would absolutely go right up to the animals if she could. She has no fears! I don't even like her to get close to the 10' fence above the lion or bear caves. I envision her jumping in.

Obviously Chad didn't listen to me....that is a bear down there!

Sweet Merrick.

What a fun day with great friends

My Girl

2009-05-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Just sharing some sweet pictures of Meg wrestling with her big bunny.

She is so much fun to try and capture on camera.

Random Updates

2009-04-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

I was out of town for a conference last week and away from Meg for 4.5 days....and Chad. My parents kept her part of the time and she and Chad went to Tyler over the weekend to see his mom. Is it just me, or did she grow an inch while I was gone? Her hair looked longer to me and she even acted older. I guess I sometimes take for granted getting to spend every day with her. I got home Sunday and she and Chad came that afternoon. We immediately got out her new swinsuit and water table, because the weather was so nice.

We started Dance class on Monday. A friend of mine from church teaches and has been encouraging me to put Meg in her 2 year old class. She won't be 2 until June, so we will see how it goes. The first class was new for everyone, so it was a little crazy. Meg was a little "off" anyway from mommy being out of town last week. We have some re-training going on. She sure looked cute in her leotard and ballet shoes though. Looking forward to next week.

This was free play time. Most of the time I was "dancing" with her, so I couldn't take pictures.

"We are ready to get out of here."

This morning Meg got tubes in her ears. The hardest part was the PreOp appointments yesterday. She got really tired of going to different offices and being poked and prodded. Today was easy. We got there just before 7. Surgery at 8...out of surgery by 8:15. Out of recovery by 9. Home by 9:30. Thank goodness for pediatric hospitals with pediatric nurses, toys, videos and anesthesia. Hopefully we will not have ear infections and anti-biotics once a month any more.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

This year.....

Last Year....

I can't believe how much Meg has changed.

(Yes...I am wearing the same sweater. Different dress!)

Two Babies

2009-04-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

The first and much more important of the two is my precious new niece Halle Jane Jackson. She is perfect in every way. 7lbs 14oz and 21 inches long. She was born on March 31st, but I left my camera in my parent's car, so I am just now getting to post the pictures.

The other baby is temporarily living in our backyard. We found her scared and hungry at the neighborhood park. We think someone dropped her off. She is really sweet. We named her Millie. She is definately part Lab, but her nose is pointed. She must be a mix, but I don't know of what. Feel free to offer ideas. We are currently trying to find her a home. We love her, but we can't keep a dog permenantly right now. She is still a puppy...an older puppy.

Dalmation

2009-03-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

I was wearing this yesterday when my 21 month old pointed to me and said, "I see you dalmation".

Spring is in the Air

2009-03-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

We are loving the outside these days!!

New Ride

2009-03-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This was a DADDY DAY. Pay no attention to her hair or outfit!

Meg has a new ride. Chad's sister and brother-in-law got this for him and Meg for Christmas. We have not hardly seen them since Thanksgiving however, so he drove to Frisco on Saturday to pick it up. I don't know if he or Meg loves it more. He couldn't wait to load her up. (He may not appreciate me posting pictures of him in Bike Shorts.....oh well. You can see where Meg gets her skinny legs.)

Don't worry, this was just a trial run in the neighborhood. She has a helmet now to wear in the future. Not that they will EVER ride on city streets, but they will go on the Trinity Trail right behind our house.....by trail I mean paved walkway on the Trinity, for those of you not from FW.

After the ride Meg helped Dad water the flowers. She loves anything that has to do with water.

They are a pretty cute little duo. Partners in crime! Not really...Chad is a great daddy. He know when to have fun and when to keep her in line.

I have to go now. SOMEONE just woke up from her nap and is saying, "Mama.....come here.....right now." I don't know where she learned that! Fortunately she is saying it in a sweet voice, which makes me feel a little better about myself.

Phew!!

2009-02-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

It has been a while. I have a good excuse.....a few of them actually. Here it goes:

We moved two weeks ago, left town last weekend, had a toddler with unexplained vomitting and didn't get internet service until today. 12 days after it was scheduled. I have talked to about 13 different people at ATT, got about 13 different "explinations" and no answers. Chad contacted a guy from church who works for Corporate at ATT and, big surprise....they were here the next day.

I have some catching up to do. I am only going to post pictures of Meg's first haircut this time though.

She has needed a trim for a while, but I have been a little anxious about it. On Lori and Annalee's recommendation we went to Sweet and Sassy. She did great!

(This is in the car, on the way to the haircut....I couldn't resist. Don't worry, I was at a stop light.)

I love this first picture. It is not often I can get her to pose, especially when I am ready to take her picture

Thank goodness for suckers

Back-up stickers when the sucker got old.

The "after" pose. I wish you could see the sparkles in her hair.

This is our new neighbor. Actually, we have no idea where he lives, but he wanders into our backyard every once in a while. Meg says, "Hi Chickent" (everything ends in a T right now).

He definately isn't shy. This is on my back patio. He would have walked right under my legs if I hadn't jumped back right here.

I got to be at a great baby shower for my sister in OKC last weekend. I will have to post those pictures another time. We can't wait for Halle Jane to arrive!!

Move #7, Warm Days and More Meg

2009-02-04T05:58:00.000-08:00

I just moved this picture to the top because I think it is sweet. Love those lips!

The next picture is of Meg as we were packing to move in June. It seems like yesterday until I realize how much she has changed.

We are at it again. This is how she plays with boxes these days.

We sold our house and are beginning somewhat of a new adventure. For the first time in our 6 years of marriage, we don't have somewhere to move to. Chad hasn't started anything new.....he's waiting out the slow market. Instead, we are moving to another builder's house until it sells. Chad came up with the idea....not original, there are companies out there that do this. I didn't really think it would happen but after two days of Marketing our "services" he had a number of options for us. So, even thought most of you already think we are crazy for moving so much.....it will probably only get worse. If we do a "good job", these houses will sell quicker and we will be on the move more often. I am somewhat excited about the venture. I love to have a new pallet to decorate, I love to weed through what we don't need anymore "downsize" and I will definitely love the money we will be able to save.

I am thankful that my husband loves to think outside of the box (most of the time) and find a way to use our God Given gifts even in a slow market. I will keep you updated.

Sometimes I wonder why we even have toys. This is what she really likes to do. Unload the movies. It never seems to get old.

We have played outside a little this week, thanks to the warm weather. I am so thankful. Meg's whole demeanor changes when she is outside. She is such a free spirit. She loves to have room to play and fresh air...much like her dad.

Unfortunately, I have to take what I can get picture wise. The old "where's Meg?"..."peek-a-boo" trick doesn't work any more. She knows I am just going to take a picture.

She loves to swing. Sometimes she just sits back and chills out. Other times she gets into it.

Every time we walk out or in the back door, she says "hi wing"

We have been really working on asking nicely (aka saying please) instead of whining. Of course, when she does it we cheer and make a big deal. She has picked up on that and lately will say "milk please. good job. YAY" (with a clap at the end). My mom said she is just saving us the trouble. She also says, "thank you. welcome." and "sorry. okay. I fine." It is pretty funny.

That is all for now.

PJ's, Pancakes, Pig tails.....

2009-01-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

Today was PJs and Pancakes day at Mother's Day Out.

Meg looked pretty cute in her polka dot pjs,her furry house shoes and her pig tails.

This is what most pictures look like these days, because she looks at me and says "CHEESE". I can't really get her to just smile.

We also had her 18 month check-up yesterday....even though she is almost 19 months. She keeps going up in the height percentile and down in the weight percentile. I think she will be tall and skinny like her daddy's family. I can live vicariously through her when she is a ballerina, model or basketball star. I always wanted to be tall. Her doctor also reinforced my belief that she is the smartest 18 month old that has ever lived. That is one reason I like my pediatrician so much. She always acts like everything Meg does is just wonderful. I am sure she does that to everyone, but I like it anyway.

Most of the time I think she is 100% Chad, but I did finally find a hint of compulsion in her....that's definitely from me. She loves this alphabet puzzle from her Pa pa. Lately she has been separating the letters into color groups. I am so proud!

For my own records....her new phrases are "Bye Bye, See you later", "I want it" (unfortunately), "I see you....", "I find it" "it's funny" and "I love you......" (priceless)

A Very Merry Christmas

2008-12-29T19:37:00.000-08:00

We had a Very Merry Christmas....despite a double ear infection, upper respiratory infection and a little bronchitis. Sorry for ALL of the pictures, but there was a lot going on at Bunny and Pop's house.

This is just a first attempt at a cute picture in the Christmas Dress Bunny bought her. She isn't really into posing for pictures....especially when I dress her up and make a big deal about it.

Meg Loves to talk on the phone. She always asks for Bunny's phone. I think because it is pink and it flips. She got two phones for Christmas.

"Can I take a message please?"

Audrey's Barbie Jeep was a favorite gift for sure. Meg was perfectly happy to be a her passenger.

Meg was not a fan of the remote control dinosaurs. She could hardly enjoy her own gifts, because she was so scared.

Bunny and Pop's new house is a grand kid heaven. The chalkboard wall is always fun; not to mention the Wii, the child sized golf carts, baskeball court and.....

The new Mega Fort/Swing Set....it's like a mini park in their backyard. Meg went face first down the slide about 100 times. This was my parent's Christmas gift to each other. You can tell what their priorities are.

Christmas Jammies!

It doesn't have a motor, but Meg loves her new cruiser too.

Carmel Apple Christmas Pancakes! Yum!
Enjoying the pancakes

There were actually adults there, but we aren't as interesting or fun to photograph. Hope you all had a great Christmas and are going to have a Happy New Year.

Give Thanks

2008-12-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

We had a very wonderful Thanksgiving in East Texas. Meg loved being with her cousins and playing outside, swinging, and riding in the wagon. We spent two days in Tyler and two days in Palestine. She loves to explore new places. The hardest part was keeping her out of the pond at Chad's dad's family cabin. I don't think she will be aloud to go fishing for a while. She is too interested in swimming to be trusted near the water. She came home with an even bigger vocabulary then she left with. Mainly because her cousin Knox followed her around all weekend asking, "can you say_____?" Her new big thing is phrases. She has been saying "Here you go" and "It's coming" and "I get you" for a while. Our new favorite is "I like it....I like___". She says it in the cutest tone and says it all day long.

Here is an assortment of pics from her holiday adventures. Chad and I are most thankful for the joy she brings us everyday.

Rock N Roll Marathon

2008-11-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

Back in August, Chad decided he was going to run in the Inaugural San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon. I said that I MIGHT run the half. The next thing I knew he had signed my up and paid for me. He also decided to pull together a group of friends to join us. So three months ago we had a group of 12 each planning to go and run the half marathon.....when it came down to it, there were only 4. Truthfully, had Chad not paid for me to do it, I may have dropped too. Only because training for it has been like the last priority on my list. I counted my aerobics teaching for short runs and did maybe 4 long runs total before the race. I skipped from 7.5 miles to 11 miles the week before.

We had a great time. There were 30,000 runners! The weather was perfect (once we started running). It was pretty chilly that morning and had been freezing cold on Saturday, so I made the stupid decision to wear pants. I regretted that after mile 1.

So here we are, the survivors:

Chad was really enjoying me being in his face with the camera after he finished his 26 miles!

Chad and our Friend Ryan decided that since it was a Rock N Roll Marathon, they needed to wear rock n roll wigs. So we made a 45 min. detour in Waco to find wigs. I thought for sure they would shed them after a couple of miles. But, here is Chad at the finish line....proving me wrong. They both said it was great motivation, because people cheered for them specifically all along the way. Chad got called everything from White Snake to Hannah Montana. I didn't get a picture of Ryan running in his, because he finished before me. Chad was running the full marathon, so he finished after me.

I am so proud!

Family Pics

2008-11-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

We jumped on the Kristin Cook bandwagon and had some pictures taken this past weekend with Chad's family. You can look at her blog for the sneak peak. We also had pictures taken with my family last month with the photographer who has taken all of Meg's pictures. I don't think there are any on her blog, but I will let you know. You may have to come to my house to see those.

www.kristincookphotography.blogspot.com

Halloween Week

2008-11-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

What a fun Halloween Week. Much more fun then last year when Meg had no idea why I was squeezing her into a flower costume. Not that she understands it all this year, but at least she enjoyed it. The Friday before last, we went to Boo at the Zoo. It was a lot of fun. Meg loves animals and candy, so she had a blast.

"ephiphan"

"Awe Bear" (with arms reaching for a hug)

"Zeba"

This was the Hay maze in the toddler area. I didn't think we were ever going to get her out of here. She just kept running back and forth laughing and running into other kids.

She had farm day at school last week....I guess they don't celebrate Halloween. She looked really cute in her pigtails and freckles.

The Halloween lips that Mama Joy gave her.

I wish her freckles showed up better. They were pretty cute.

And as for Halloween....she was a the sweetest ladybug. I made her costume, and it was pretty cute, I have to say. Actually she made it cute. It was nothing special on it's own. She wanted to wear her silver "neckli".....and I thought it was a nice touch. It matched her silver shoes, since we didn't have any black ones.

She kept calling her trick or treat bag "purt" (purse).

Meg loved trick or treating with her cousins Bronson and Austin. It only took her 2-3 houses to get the hang of it. She would just follow them up to the door. (She would follow them anywhere.) She did try to go in a few houses...especially the ones with dogs. She LOVES dogs.

Scooby, Darth Vader and the little lady.

What a fun Halloween!

Accessorize

2008-10-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

Can you tell Meg likes the purse and necklace that her "Bunny" got her?

"I am ready to go"

"Could you get me a latte?"

"Even pajamas need a little something extra"

"Pink pearls go with everything!"

"Hold on, I really need to take this one."

"Thanks"

(PS....if you have really good vision, that is a picture of me on her shirt. It is my t-shirt from preschool. )

So I guess even if Meg is fast and fearless...at least we know she loves to accessorize!

Botanical Gardens

2008-10-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

Chad had a great idea the Friday before last to take a picnic to the botanical gardens. We had so much fun....especially Meg. She did not have much of a picnic, because she did not sit still long enough to eat. We learned pretty quickly that we needed to stay far away from the ponds. I caught her about 5 inches from diving into one of them. Here are some of the highlights. I took a thousand pictures.

Tonight we took a little walk around the neighborhood. Meg loves our neighbor's front porch. I think it is precious too. Fortunately they are sweet grandparents themselves who are happy to have her exploring around. Here are she and Chad relaxing in their chairs and running on the lawn.

This is just a funny picture of Meg reading with her fishing pole over her shoulder. Just in case she wants to go fishing later.

Sugar Lips

2008-10-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

This is what Meg looked like when she woke up a week and a half ago. We think it was just an allergic reaction to a bug bite or something. It was only temporary, but pretty funny. She did not even seem to notice.

Shoowee

2008-09-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

I don't do many posts without pictures, but you will appreciate the fact that I am not posting pictures of this.......On Sunday mornings, Chad has to be at church most of the day. Meg and I usually go to late service so that she can take a nap first. We are almost to the point that her morning nap is too late to make that work; but I tried again this week, anyway. She had wet on her pajamas, but I didn't want to put on her church clothes yet. It was warm in our house (thanks to the AC Nazi....not naming names), so I just put her down in her diaper. She never fell asleep. She just played and talked in her bed for an hour. When I went to get her up (dressed and ready for church, mind you), she was standing in her crib...naked...with a big smile on her face. I laughed and said, "when did you learn to take your diaper off?". She then pointed to her diaper on the bed and said ,"Shoowee...shoowee". I picked her diaper up and said , "this isn't shoowee, this is just wet". Then I noticed a little gift that Meg had taken out of her diaper and thrown on the floor. I will leave the rest of the details to your imagination. That was probably TMI already.

Is 15 months too early to potty train?

Listen in

2008-09-19T13:10:00.000-07:00

These are some wonderful family friends of mine. They sang in our wedding. Click on the link to listen to their new song. The more people who listen to it, the better their chances of being recognized and picked up by radio stations and such. Click and listen as many times as you want. It is beautiful.

http://www.thetwister.com/cc-common/artist_submission/player.html?art=189480&gateway=exiting

Going Green

2008-09-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

Chad bought us these black reusable bags a few months ago to use for groceries. Unfortunately I usually get to the check out and think, "Oh Shoot" when the girl asks me if I want paper or plastic. I usually don't even remember to bring my shopping list, let alone those bags. I am trying though.

For some reason Chad thinks it is really funny to put Meg inside of things (ie. baskets, bags, blankets) and carry her around. Here she is getting a ride in the "green bags".

One of Meg's favorite things to do is unload everything from underneath our bathroom sinks. Don't worry....I have babyproofed it. I now just toss it all back in. No need to organize when it will all happen again tomorrow. Here she is in the act.

I usually find a clippy or my brush or Chad's toothpaste in little hiding places throughout the house.

An update on words that Meg is saying at 14 months:

Mama, Dadda, Baby, Bubble, Ball, "Show"(shower), Bath, "Nack"(Snack), Diaper,

"Tantu"(Thank you), Bye Bye, Hi, "No"(Nose), "Mou"(Mouth), Eyes, Hot, Uh Oh, Up(When she means up or down), Milk, Shoes, Thanks, Flower, "Peas"(Please), Shoowie(everytime I put her on the changing table), Dog, "Hop Hop"(Bunny) and "NO".......I am sure I am forgetting something. The girl talks all day long. These are at least the favorites. She will try to repeat almost anything you say, but these are the words she says on her own.

She is a miniature version of Chad.....talkative, high energy, very smart and flat out crazy(I mean fearless). Everyday is an adventure. As I have always said, "God put Chad in my life to push me out of my comfort zone". He must have had a lot more work to do on me, because He gave me another one!

Labor Day in OKC

2008-09-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

My dad took Chad, My brother, my nephew Bronson and my brother-in-law to NYC for one of last games at Yankee stadium. Then they took the train to Boston for a couple of games there. So.....Meg and I headed to OKC to stay with Bunny, Mallory, Jacob and Audrey. We had a blast. Meg loves her cousins and she thinks she can do everything that they can do. This is the best of our attempts to get the three of them together for a posed picture. Meg was the uncooperative one. She kept taking off.

It is really entertaining just hear the conversations that go on between these three. Sometimes it is friendly and other times it is not so friendly. Meg and Audrey especially have a love hate relationship. Jacob kind of does his own thing a lot of the time.

The golf carts are always a hit at Bunny and Pop's house. It is usually the main event on any of the boy's agendas. Meg can't even ride as a passenger, because she has been known to dive out of a moving object....like the wagon. Here she is pretending to drive though.

Like I said, we had to stand close as Audrey pulled Meg in the wagon. She has no sense of fear what so ever. She is going to give me a heart attack at some point.

It started to rain, but the kids didn't skip a beat. I think it added to the fun. That is why Meg's hair looks so silly. They went straight to the bathtub, because they were filthy.....especially Meg.

Meg topped off the weekend by nose diving out of my arms straight towards the concrete floor, as we were leaving Chipolte at lunch. I caught her upside down about 5 inches from the floor. Everyone in the restarunt was staring at us and my heart was pounding for about an hour. AWESOME!!

She really is going to give me a heart attack. My mom always said that she was afraid people would think she abused me because I was so covered in bruises. I am now understanding what she meant.

(FYI....for my own records. Meg had her first full fledged ear infection last week. We went to the doctor on Friday because she had been a little fussy all week and was not sleeping as well as usual. She had some 'slight inflamation' around her birthday, but this is a double infection. We are on Anti-biotic and doing good. 14 months is pretty good, I think, for the first one.)

Random Happenings

2008-08-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

First of all, I have to brag on my husband. We did not get to celebrate our 6th anniversary the week of, because it happened to be the weekend of my grandmother's funeral. We have had busy weekends since then. Last Friday I recieved an email....from the other room...with a poem informing me that Meg was spending the night with my Brother's family and to be ready at 5:00 to go on a date. I would love to copy the poem to this post, but I already got in trouble for forwarding it to my mom and sister. It was really sweet though! We had a fun date eating at a whole in the wall italian restaraunt and going to see Mama Mia! We saw the musical on Broadway a few years ago...so we were excited to see the movie. He doesn't ever remember to read this or I would thank him directly. I will just brag.

Last night I got to go to Brianna's baby shower. She is pregnant with her FOURTH....that is right, 4th baby. She has three boys under the age of four. Finally, she is having a girl. The shower was at my other friend Alison's house and it was precious! I did not get pictures of anything, but Bri opening gifts. There were so many people there, that it was hard to get good pictures. I stopped by Bri's house on the way home to see the Nursery. I wish I would have taken pictures of Baby Emerson's room. It is absolutely wonderful. Bri made the most beautiful bedding I have ever seen. I would say that she should make bedding for a living, but like I said....she is going to have 4 kids!

Today Meg and I had another special treat. Cassy and Cohen came over from Allen to have lunch with us and Lori and Annalee. It was short but very sweet. Meg was not on her best behavior, but we had a good time anyway. I think she is cutting another tooth. (That is my universal excuse for fussiness of any kind.) Here is the best of our attempts to get a picture of Cohen, Annalee and Meg.

Annalee enjoyed pushing Meg in Meg's babydoll stroller. Poor Cohen had to play with the remote, because he couldn't find any boy toys. He was just looking for anything not PINK.

The only roommate I have not seen lately is Molly. (I miss you!!) She is busy with her super cool new job, and I am so happy that she loves it.

Here is just another cute picture of Meg that I took over the weekend. Don't let her dresses and bows fool you. Sometimes we think she is a boy trapped in a girl's body. She is tough and rough and hilarious. Maybe she will be like me in that I didn't mind getting dirty, but I made sure my shoes and bow matched my outfit.

A fresh look!

2008-08-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

I just have to brag on my precious new design. I always got sad looking at my blog after seeing so many other cute ones. I have been meaning to have Shauna make me one FOREVER....I just have not taken the time to line things out with her. I finally did and she made it perfect. I am creative in a lot of ways, but graphic design is not one of them. Thank goodness for those who are gifted with that. Thank you so much Shauna! Click on the See My Designs link to see other cute things she has done.

My Sunshine

2008-08-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

Meg LOVES summer! Really, she loves water. I know I have already posted pictures of her in her swimsuit...but these were too cute not to share. I love this first one of her hair. It is getting so long and curly in the back. I love it. She is becoming a little girl right before my eyes.

Meg's sunglasses came all the way from Japan. Angie Dormer sent them to her when she was still living in Okinawa. They just now fit.

If only it were cute for 28 year olds to have their belly hanging over the bikini bottoms!

We got to spend the day at Great Wold Lodge last weekend. My brother's family spent the night and let us use them to get day passes. Meg had more fun then anyone, I think. I did not take my camera, sadly. It was too cute. She would walk around the kiddie area laughing and then face plant under water and come up smiling. She has no fear! I was a little afraid people were thinking we were horrible parents to keep letting her fall, but she loved it. She would not let us hold her for even a minute. We were totally worn out when we left. She wanted to go down the little slide 1,000 times.

I just can't believe how much she talks at just under 14 months. We can't even count the words that she says anymore. Even more amazing is that she uses most of them correctly. She is not just repeating them. (I am pretty sure she is the smartest girl in the world.) It seems like everyday she say something new. Today she almost poked my eye out and said, "eyezzz" and then stuck her finger in my mouth and said, "mout".

We love her more every day!!

The Lord Giveth and The Lord Taketh Away

2008-08-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

My title seemed such an appropriate statement coming from my aunt yesterday.

He Taketh Away.....It is with a little sadness and a lot of joy that I first have to mention the loss of my Gran gran last friday. She had struggled with Alzheimer's for almost the past decade. I much prefer knowing that she is with her God and with many who have gone before her, then living with a body and mind that have failed her. We had a wonderful weekend of family and even laughter as we told countless stories and shared so many wonderful memories. Gran gran was one of the funniest women I have ever known and she would be so glad to know that there were more laughs then tears at her memorial service. She lived 89 years and blessed countless people. She was a great warrior for The Kingdom. What a precious legacy we have because of she and my Pa pa.

The Lord Giveth.....Meg is not going to be the baby in the family for much longer. My Sister, Mallory, is expecting her third baby in the Spring....and My Cousin Jared and his wife Connie are expecting their second. I can't wait!!

I don't think that I have mentioned that Mallory and her family recently moved back to Edmond. My mom used that as a good excuse to get some of our closest high school friends together for a luncheon. We had a great time catching up. I didn't get a lot of good pictures. I was busy keeping Meg from breaking anything in the tea room. These were from before everyone arrived.

As you can see....Meg loved the cream puffs for dessert.

I have been taking more videos then pictures since Meg has become mobile and vocal. It is hard to capture in photos. She keeps me laughing every day. You never know what she will say or do. Here are a couple of my favorites. It was hard to decide which ones to share. I still need to post one of her walking. I will try to do that next time.

I think you can tell by the videos and these next pictures that her new favorite thing to do is read. I am so glad. I pray that she will always like to read. I can't take credit though. She will definately inherit that from her Dad. She loves to sit in this little chair. She says "Book...book". Chad said he thought she was stuck in the chair the other day, because she never sits still this long.

This is just a funny picture showing off her 4 teeth. I think she was trying to play peek-a-boo.

One year Pictures....Reunion....fun week with Daddy

2008-07-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

First of all, you have to go to www.majorimages.com/missildine.exe. You will need to click on run for it to download and then run again. After you have downloaded it once...it will come up quickly if you do it again. (Not that you are going to be watching it over and over, like me.) It will only be online for like a week. I can't believe how Meg has changed. The first two pictures on the slideshow are from her newborn and 6 month pictures. (They really know how to get me! I want to buy them all.)

Last week Chad was home ALL week. We had a great time with him. He brought home a blow up pool to add to Meg's water toy collection. We are just borrowing this though. He even put up a canopy in the back yard. We had a fun day outside and did a lot of resting last week. Meg has really started to reach for Chad and light up when he comes around. I love it....(although I loved it when I was her favorite too!) They have a lot of fun together. I only got a few pictures that turned out cute. She isn't really still long enough to catch her picture any more.

Last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion. It was so much fun. There were only 54 in my class (private Christian school), so we were all very close. Everyone was involved in everything. It was great to see everyone. I did not get many pictures myself, because I let my camera die and everyone else was taking pictures that they said they would email me. I got to see lots of old friends and some not quite as old friends....like Meredith Ware, who was a college friend but was at my high school reunion by marriage. (Hi Meredith.) It was so neat to see that almost everyone who was there seems so happy either married or not and so "successful" in life (meaning they are where they are supposed to be). I think that is pretty rare. I loved meeting spouses and kids and hearing about where they have been. Not that the last 10 years have been easy for everyone, but we are all better because of what we have been through and we are all headed in the right direction.

This is my best friend Lynnsey

Lynnsey and Aubree (who planned the whole event)

It was a lot of fun.

Lots and Lots of Birthday Pics

2008-07-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am a week late with Birthday party pictures. Meg and I went to OKC after her party last week and we have been at church ever since we got home helping with a big project. So....here you go. I knew it would take me a while once I sat down to do it.....which is one reason that I have not until now.

We started last weekend off with Meg's Cousin Knox's 4th Birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza (I didn't even know those still existed). She LOVED all of the rides and games.

She obviously loves cake as much as I do. I hate to admit that she is no stranger to sweets.

The birthday boy with a blue mouth.

Next came Meg's party. I had already bought swimsuit invites before we knew we were moving....so we still had it at our old neighborhood pool. We still technically own a house and two lots there, so we felt like it was ok.

My friend Wendy makes that most amazing cakes (www.hautecakeandcookies.com). I just gave her the invitation and let her do what she wanted. It was as yummy as it was cute.

Meg and her cousin Audrey. Audrey loves to pose for the camera.

Cousins eating cake.
Knox

Meg's newest cousin Maclane in her turquoise bikini.
Getting ready to dig in.

She really wasn't that messy with it. She did enjoy it though.
Taking a dip in her new float with Papa and Daddy.
She loves her baby doll and stroller from Mallory, Brian, Jake and Audrey. She will spot it from across that room and say, "Baby!".

A few pictures of our trip to OKC:

This is what happen's at Bunny's house. Creating bad habits. Bunny let her take all of the toilet paper off of the roll. Now I have to put all of the toilet paper up on the counter at home.

These are the cute foofie pajamas Bunny got her.

She loves to talk to herself in the full length mirror. Here she was getting a little more friendly.

On the Fourth of July we got out all of the outdoor toys she got for her birthday. She LOVES water. Since we dont' have access to a pool anymore. I am glad we have a big yard to play in.

She is not worried about her tan line. Her straps are just a little too loose.

What a precious gift she is. We are so blessed.

Big Number One

2008-06-27T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well, what a year it has been. My precious baby girl is one year old. I can't believe it. If every year goes this fast, she will be off to college in no time. It makes me so sad to think about it. She blesses me every day with more joy then I could ever have imagined before she came into my life. I wanted to take this opportunity to document some of her tricks and favorite things.

She is taking a few steps here and there, has been "cruising" for months...but still hasn't taken off. She loves to flex her muscles and blow kisses. She smiles at anyone and everyone and will fake laugh when anyone else laughs. She barks like the dogs next door. Her favorite words are Mama, Dada, Hi, Bye Bye, Uh Oh, Thank you, Purple, Bubble, and "No Meg, No Meg, No Meg". She gives the sweetest neck squeeze hugs. She plays with my hair when she is sleepy. If she can't reach my hair...she plays with her own. She pulls my hair and say "ouch". She will eat anything she finds on the ground....including a roly poly in the house the other day. She loves little gym and her best friends Merrick and Olivia. She can't sit still for even a second. She absolutely loves swimming. Her favorite game is pulling all of her clothes out of her drawer or all of the movies out of the shelves.

Those beautiful blue eyes and luscious little lips melt my heart over and over every day. My favorite book to read to her is "I Love You So Much". I love the line that says "I can't imagine life before you came along...Me there singing senseless, no meaning to my song." I truly can't imagine what life was like a year ago. I know it was not complete.

"Lord, lead us in raising this precious child in your ways. Thank you for intrusting us with her life. Protect her daily, despite our mistakes. Bless her and use her always for your glory and the growth of your kingdom"

It is a crazy weekend. Our Nephew's party was this morning and we have a wedding tonight. I will post pictures of Meg's party when I get a chance. It is tomorrow.