a mom and her camera

Showering Cathy

Today my old friend and college roommate had a wedding shower thrown in her honor.

I haven't seen her since my wedding, which with her engagment and move to CO, and our two babies and move cross-country, a lot has changed in our lives since we saw each other last. It was so great to see her, her friends and family. Post, another amazing friend from college was there and as always made me laugh... she's up there with Matthew Allen as my all-time funniest people I love to be around! Anyway, afterwards I made all the girls (minus Post, where did you go???) stay so I could take some shots outside. I made a slide show of my favorites if you want to check them out.

As the weather gets nicer...anyone want some photos??? Prcatice makes perfect right?

Check out my Slide Show!

open mouth, insert foot

As a mother my girls make me eat my words all the time, so far mainly Bailey.

"we can't stay long because Bailey didn't sleep much and will be really cranky" ... she's perfect.

"let's go to the City Museum, she took a morning nap so she'll be great" ... she has a full-blown kicking and screaming tantrum.

The biggest mouth full I've ever eaten however is in the last few months. I used to babysit for the Marshall family and on a trip to the Outer Banks I sat in the backseat of their mini van and watched Elmo videos for hours on end. I finally lost it, made them pull over at a Toys R' Us so I could buy new videos. Anything but Elmo. I told them, very emphatically I might add, that my kids would NEVER watch Elmo. They wouldn't even know who Elmo was! Not only would they never watch Elmo, they certainly wouldn't WEAR anything with Elmo on it.

Yesterday's outfit:

The photo is a little fuzzy, but I'm sure you can see the little red monster on her t-shirt she is proudly pointing to! So yes. We watch Elmo. We watch him at least once a day, usually two or three times. And now we wear Elmo also. Not me, but she does, and she wears him proudly!

I'm sure this is just the begining of putting my foot in my mouth and eating my words. I'd better make sure to wash my feet.

happy birthday

How sad is it that I have no recent photos with my best friend? Sad. Very sad.

I just couldn't write about Jessica turning THIRTY without a photo, but I will admit this is a fairly pathetic attempt at posting a photo. Nonetheless...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!

You are the most beautiful, giving, empathetic, loving person I know and my life is truly blessed because I can call you my best friend. I hope you had an amazing day today! Did Becca step up and do something great for you? If you come away from this day feeling disappointed and it's because of what she did not do, I may have to fly down to Honduras and rough her up a little.

You are amazing and I get to see you in just a few short days! Here's a hint about your birthday gift...

It's creative and invloves 30 things... hmmm...

Happy Birthday!!!

PICK ME!

I just signed up to try to win a Dyson Vacuum! If you want to try, go HERE.

Good luck!

quote of the day (so far at least)

[c & j in bed playing with wide awake parker]

clock reads 7:02am

C: you know how you know we're parents of two young kids?

J: how?

C: we're excited to sleep in until 7am.

you said it man.

just shoot me.

NOOOOOOOOOO!

This is what the neighbors heard when I realized that not only was The Office a repeat, but my beloved Grey's Anatomy was also. How can they do that to me? Don't they realize that I'm a desperate housewife in need of some entertainment? It's really all I ask for. One hour a week. One stinking hour a week to myself with no interruptions. I don't care if the house is on fire, Chris knows that Grey's time is sacred time. And they took that away from me. Again. They had better show a new one next week or I may loose all hope.

Not that I think this blog is all that creative, but I actually entered the banner into a contest. You can see the other contestants by going here:

http://bp3.blogger.com/_bzk3KhrvV5g/Rf7GWYK6tcI/AAAAAAAAAQI/Ca9d78z9iwk/s1600-h/splat+contest.png

Got creative tonight and actually have a photo to show you! I work every night almost on something creative, but with the kids, chores, exhaustion, etc. I just rarely finish. At least lately I haven't finished anything. So it felt really good to finish something tonight. I made a gift for a friend's wedding shower. I wanted to do something with their new monogram, but she's not really a girly girl so I made this thinking it was more funky/traditional rather than feminine. Let me know what you think!

I also recently framed one of Bailey's paintings and I tell you this b/c I think everyone should do this for their kids. It made her so proud! She will come in the office, point to it on the wall and say "Bailey!" It's like she can't believe something she made is wall art now! I just think this little boost of self-confidence was well worth it, and you can change the artwork as often as new paintings are made if you want. As Martha would say, "This is a good thing."

Just wanted to tell you that I love commets. So far Ab and Jess are the only ones who've commented, but if you read this I would love for you to tell me and say hi! Just look at the end of this post and in tiny writing it says "comments", you just click on that and you can write something. Can't wait to hear from you!

Know of any good blogs or creative sites out there? I'm constantly in search of new inspiration so if you find something cool, please share it! I'll try to keep adding to my links on the side bar as I find new places to check out.

After all that work to complete something my brain is fried and I'm ready for pillow time. Bailey's at my parents so we can sleep a little longer in the morning! Yahoo! Until tomorrow...

The Allen Follies

Today we went to Lowes as a family. I'm sorry if some of you think this is pathetic, in our life, it's a fun family adventure. We bought two new ceiling fans for the back porch (photos will come soon, when the fans are up and I can clean it will be ready!) and then decided to get the biggest mother of a trash can you've ever seen. It holds 96 gallons! Since we knocked down the privacy fence outside our trashcans were scattered everywhere and ugly, so we're hoping this monster will hold all our garbage. Anyway, we were so proud for getting good deals and using a coupon (I'm a coupon addict) that we didn't think of the most important thing until we're walking to the car giddy with excitement over our purchases. The trash can was too big for the car.
Forget the fact that it's my car and barely fits the double stroller, that was IN it at the time. And forget the fact that because of the stroller and two car seats we couldn't lay down the seats to make more room. No matter if we cut the seats out and sat in the can itself, there was no way it would have fit in my car. The thing was as big as my car. We stood there for at least 5 minutes just staring at it trying to telepathically make it smaller. Finally, a few minutes and two fussy kids later we realized it was a lost cause. I wanted to leave Chris there so he could call someone for a ride. He thought the best idea was to balance it on top and just drive slowly. Finally, after 15 minutes in the parking lot looking like a big bunch of idiots, I went back inside and asked for some rope. The free rope they offered me was no more than dental floss, but we made it home safe and sound. Let's just say this sort of thing happens to us often. More often then we will admit. But all's well that ends well and we now have the biggest baddest trash can in the neighborhood! Now isn't that something to be proud of?

are we really here?

So I'm noticing that I can't go to bed without posting. It's becoming a habit, my ritual, and I'm loving it. I'm also noticing that my journal is falling behind. That is heart breaking to me b/c for all I write about in here, the juicy journal stuff is getting forgotten. I need to make a mental note to keep up with my journal. I mean, there is nothing in this world like hand writing in your journal. Am I right?

Today was City Museum day and it was great. Seriously, if you are in St. Louis or ever stopping by and only have two hours to SEE St. Louis, forget the arch, the stadium and anything else. Just head straight for the City Museum. It is hands down the coolest place on earth. I want to BE the person that designs it! I want to crawl in his/her brain and take a little tiny chunk of creativity from them, b/c trust me, he/she has tons to share! Most of my photos didn't turn out because it is really dark in there, like you're crawling around in places you can't see kind of dark. It's the kind of dark that is totally cool to a kid in grade school and totally scary to a toddler. Anyway, I will post my favorites, just because what is my life without photos?

And can I just ask, are we really here? Are we really the parents of a temper tantrum throwing, embarass us with screaming, take her in the other room to discipline, adorable little girl? I mean seriously. Just last week we had the sweetest cherub of a child, and now she's become Damian. If she gets one ounce of over-tired she loses it! I think the new theme of my photos will be C holding our screaming kid. Because that is the last photo of today, just like after the park the other day. I think at some point soon it will be a photo of a screaming kid and cursing husband, as he was not as thrilled today with me ignoring the tantum to take the photo. When that camera is in my hand I sometimes forget I have other responsibilities other than documenting! Anyway, here are some pics from our day...enjoy!
This is a converted log...now it's a tunnel for climbing pleasure, that is unless you are an adult male! Tight squeeze!

Bailey fit much better!

There is a new exhibt there, expensive, but worth it. It's an aquarium. This is the slide that goes THROUGH the shark tank! Notice the octopus at the bottom? Too cool.

Super cool mirrored tunnel, so excited this photo turned out as well as it did b/c there was NO light.

Me and Bails clapping for the circus to start (we never saw it b/c the tantrums started and never stopped, so we left soon after.

Peeking at the fish one last time before we leave...

And let the tantrum begin!

And for all those doubters that our sweet girl would EVER throw a tantum (GoGo), here is an example of the full-on, throw yourself on the floor tanturm. Hey, at least I got a photo of the awesome mosaic floor!

Terrilbe Two's? I say BRING IT ON!

the king and queen of bad timing

I don't know what it is about Chris and I, but when we get ideas to go do something fun as a family, we're always too late or too early. Just call us the King and Queen of bad timing. There were a few warm days in December and we had the bright idea to take Bailey to the zoo for the first time. We were actually surprised when there were NO animals outside except the polar bears and seals! What idiots. Did you know animals go inside somewhere for winter? Yeah.

So tonight Bailey was acting crazy (is this really the begining of the terrible two's? Because if it is, it SUCKS!) so C suggetsed going to Jeremiahs for ice cream. Then I had the idea to WALK there! So we load up the girls, Bailey in the stroller and Parker in the Bjorn. Ways we screwed up:
1. It is WAY too long of a walk for the Bjorn. My back was killing me half way there so C took her but he'll be feeling it tomorrow!
2. It's MARCH! It could still snow. The outdoor market and ice cream parlor are NOT open yet. This didn't dawn on us until we literally saw there were no cars!

Luckily there is a Ben and Jerry's nearby, so we did get the promised ice cream. However,

3. A cone instead of a bowl makes for cute photos (if I had remembered the camera!) but for a one year old, the ice cream is hard to keep steady. It fell off about 100 ft from the store. Bailey ate the rest of C's.
4. I forgot the wipes.
5. A sugar high that late in the day makes a tired and cranky toddler even more cranky.

All in all, we had fun. The walk took over an hour so it may have counter acted the ice cream we ate (I can only hope!) and Bailey had a great time. And most importantly, we learned a lot. Wait until the destination of the walk is open for the season, cup instead of cone if you're in a bumpy stroller, bring the wipes, and use the double stroller.

Tomorrow we're headed to the City Museum... so excited!