Welcome Spring!

Happy Spring, everyone! The first day of spring is coming to a close, and I have got to say, I am pooped. Shortly after rolling out of bed this morning {when I was finally fully awake}, I started baking cupcakes for our lunch guests tomorrow. I baked Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes, and I tried one, of course... amazing! Anyway, after that I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning the house thoroughly. I feel very accomplished, but really, really tired.

I'm not the only one who had a rough day, though. Benjamin is teething big time and he is really being bothered. He didn't want to nap this afternoon at all, so I tried to keep him occupied and happy as well as I could. We went outside and I snapped a few pictures...

Benjamin's silly scrunched-up face



Not really sure about this newly warm weather...





He found his aspirator and decided it'd be good to teeth on.





Precious.


After all this, we had dinner and Benjamin had a bath. Instead of going to bed, he cried, so we let him watch some Wiggles before bed. Now he is finally asleep and hopefully will stay that way until morning. Before sitting down to update this, I browned the ground turkey and onion for the spaghetti we are having tomorrow.

I'm just about ready to go to bed...

But not before sharing one of my favorite moments from the first day of Spring:

Featured?! Me?!

What do these three things have in common?:





All are components to a wonderful Family Date Night! Tonight we had some shopping to get done for the weekend {we are having a couple from Church over for lunch on Sunday} so we decided to just have a family Date Night. We first went by Chris and Kayla's to drop off Mariah's babydoll which she left over here. Apparently there had been a wreck or something on the way so we stopped by and visited while the traffic jam cleared on the road outside their apartment complex.

Then, we headed to Steak & Shake. I love eating there. I had a Southwestern BBQ & Bacon Cheese burger, fries, and a Hershey's special dark milk shake, and it was fantastic. Okay, now, that is not a good start to a healthy evening, but I think I can live with that. ;-) Anyway, Benjamin had his mini corndogs, which he gobbled up {except for one that he dropped - and that got him attention from our waiter, which he loved}.

After that we went on to Target to pick up a few things. We had a $5 gift card for purchasing 4 boxes of Mini Wheats the other week. We ended up buying 1 box of Devil's Food cake {Betty Crocker's Devil's Food Cake mix was on sale for $1, BUT Duncan Hines - which I think is better - was only 97cents. We went with Duncan Hines}, a jar of peanut butter, a bag of confectioner's sugar, a Get Well card for my grandmother, and a 2-pack of sippy cups. All together it was $8.99 - but that's after we took off $5 with the gift card. I guess all in all it wasn't a bad shopping trip, considering the fact that we usually spend loads more than that.

Between Target and Starbucks we went to Walmart and Walgreens trying to track down Boudreaux's baby wash and dry skin ointment - with no luck. Then we went to Starbucks {drive thru} to put the cherry on my Not-Eating-Healthy night. I got a Java Chip Frappe, and I am loving it.

We got home around 10:00PM and Benjamin was awake enough for a quick bath. Now, he's hopefully sound asleep in his crib... and I am still working on that Java Chip.

I got an e-mail not too long ago, by the way, saying I had been Featured!! I have never been featured before so this is a big deal to me! Check it out! My birthday banner is featured on The City Cradle!

Holla!

Benjamin, you are fourteen months old!

How many times to I have to tell you to stop being such a big boy?? You are breaking momma's heart with how big and "grown-up" you are getting. I say "grown-up" and laugh because you still have a lot of growing to do. It just seems like everything is going by so fast these days. One day you were struggling to keep your head up, and now, you're practically running! You hardly ever sit still and when you do, I can tell that you are either a) sleepy or 2) pooping. Sad but true!




You are becoming more and more independent. You don't like us to hold your hand when we are walking together {maybe one day!} because you like to do your own thing. You have been sleeping through the night for a while now, and mommy is SO thankful for this! You usually go to bed between 8-9 {unless it is Sunday or Tuesday} and usually wake up 12 hours later. This is wonderful! You're not too bad about going down for a nap, though the past few days it's been kind of rough going down. Some days you skip your second nap all together, which is fine, as long as you behave!





You are a little preacher!! You are such a chatterbox and ham, you just have to find yourself a podium just like daddy to stand at and preach to everyone, hand gestures and all! It's the cutest thing ever! Everyone has high expectations for you, young man, so the sooner you start up, the better, I suppose. You crack everyone up at church with your cheesy smile and just how you run around to visit everyone. You are so friendly and sweet. You know no stranger, that's for sure!






You haven't learned many new words this month, but you have been saying "Momma" again and it is the sweetest thing! I just love you to pieces and hearing you say Momma just makes my heart melt! As for new tricks, you've been brushing up on your dancing skills. You love stamping your feet and clapping your hands. It is so fun to watch you go to town on your dancing!



Benjamin, you are very loved, and I hope that if you ever look back on these memoirs when you are older, you will be able to see how very loved you are! You are growing up so fast - and now you are only 14 months old. But when you are 14 years old, you will still be my baby boy.




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Check out my delicious concoction from last night!

Before and After

This is my first time joining in on Pixel Perfect's Before & After Blog Hop. Benjamin is napping and we're not hungry enough for dinner yet, so here I am! I'm going to share two shots from our vacation at my parents' house. Simple edits, but I think they look nice.

SOOC:


Edited in Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta:


SOOC:


Edited in Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta:


Ta-da!

Random Thoughts For Today

Yesterday I was feeling yucky so I didn't get around to blogging. I do however have an update on my Grandmother, and I just wanted to thank everyone for praying for her. She had her surgery yesterday and everything went well! There were no complications {that I have heard of anyway}, and she is now recovering. She should be returning home over the weekend sometime I think. We are really thanking God for this!

Today I've been busy with cleaning and organizing as well as I can, not to mention sorting through clothes and bagging them for Goodwill. Twenty minutes ago Benjamin decided to have a sip of my green tea and poured it all down his front, and over his shoulders too. So we had to have a mid-day bath. I've decided to relax a bit and let him have a snack and watch his Wiggles before he goes down for another nap. He's holding up pretty well today! He's had a few off days lately concerning napping and whether or not he will go down. It's kind of strange because he usually went down no problem when we were at my parents' house, and yet when we get back to his familiar home... nope! I'm a little nervous about what we're going to do when we take our trip at the end of the month to Memphis. It should be an interesting trip anyway, because we are sharing a hotel room with Micah, her husband Justin, and their daughter Reagan. Yes, four adults and two babies in a hotel room! That is a recipe for a very interesting week! But, we are very grateful that our friends {who I haven't actually met in person before!} are willing to split a room with us!

I'm sure the nap situation will work out and it will be a fantastic week, as it usually is!



Ignore the boogers, check out those chub cheeks, and have a fantastic Thursday evening!

tomorrow is my Grandmother's surgery

This is a little late in coming, but if you all could - please keep my grandmother in your prayers tomorrow. She is going to have her surgery for her aortic aneurysm. This is a very risky procedure so if you would, please, please, please remember her in prayer. I would like for this sweet boy to grow up knowing both of his great-grandmothers.

sew geeky

I decided last night that I will no longer let my big Christmas gift from years ago go to waste. My mom bought me a nice {not TOO nice, though... sometimes I'd rather not have a piece of technology that thinks for me} sewing machine when I expressed interest in the hobby. Well, I tried last year to sew up some diapers for Benjamin when the elastic gave out, and that was the first time I used the machine. And today was the second.

Last night I cleared a place in the laundry room for my machine and today I dusted it off and began my first ever actual sewing {not repairing} project. We went out to town yesterday and I bought material from Hobby Lobby - 2 prints - with the intent of making a luggage tag. But I wanted to start off with something a little simpler, so I decided to make a camera strap slipcover for my camera, using this tutorial.

After tracing and cutting and folding and ironing, I found out that I couldn't thread my machine correctly, and then couldn't find the manual.

Two YouTube videos and 45 minutes {yes, I know. and no, I'm not exaggerating} later, I finally got things working and this is the product of my labor:




That was before I clipped some of the stray threads. So, what do you think? I think it looks pertay good for my first go.

Other than that, today I have cleaned a bit {not as much as yesterday by any means} and have food in the crock pot for Lost Night tonight. For all you Losties, here's a question. Do you have a Lost shirt? {Insert joke: I did but then I found it - ba da ting!} Hubby ordered one for me last night... I won't spoil the surprise but it's pretty awesome. And here I was raggin' on the old Hubs for being a massive geek and buying a Lost shirt...

So either he is normal or I'm also a massive geek. Which do you think?

Yeah, me too.

normal Massive Geek.