the hair massacre, eh, cut

I decided today that my children needed haircuts....today. I got a bee in my bonnet about it (why??? who knows?) and took them to the salon on base. I didn't know quite what to expect. Leah, along with Bernice's help, did great. She did look so grown up sitting in the chair by herself. She just got an easy trim, to cut off all of the scraggly ends. Easy peasy.

I wish I could say the same for Ian...

Before

and After.

This picture doesn't quite do it justice. His hair looks busted. It was a bit of an ordeal, though, since he basically didn't stop moving the entire time. I held him in my lap, trying to distract him with pictures on my phone. It didn't work. But the girl was a trooper and kept going. It actually wasn't too bad (although at one point as I looked on the floor and saw all of his curls laying there, I felt instant regret and wanted to cry a little) until she got the razor trimmers out. Since I hadn't taken a child for a haircut ever, I didn't realize it was at this point that I should have spoken up and said, "no thanks." I wanted his mullet to be gone, but I didn't necessarily want him to look like he had had a haircut. The razor trimming didn't go well, as the noise of it bothered him and he kept moving his head about. It ended up very straight and blunt near his ears and on the back of his neck. The good news is that it grows back. I have a lock of his curls saved so I can remember my sweet curly haired baby when he's all grown up.

happy {sniff, sniff} birthday Ian

Dear Ian,

Today was your first birthday. I cried about it a little last night. Your dad didn't quite understand why. I just don't know why time has to go by so quickly. I feel like we're on fast forward mode. I want life to slow down so I can take the time to cherish all of the moments I have with you and Leah and your daddy. I think it's special to have your birthday so close to mother's day each year. Last year, you were born on the Monday after mother's day. I think you're just about the best gift I could ever get and I'm glad to be reminded of it on your birthday.

XOXO
your mom

ps - you've got to stop eating soap. How will I ever cure the potty mouth you're sure to have later on (thanks to your father, I'm sure) if you have developed the taste for soap? And I won't even go into the grossness factor of putting your mouth in the bathwater....

the birthday partay

Our sweet Ian turned one and we decided to keep it nice and low-key with a cake and a candle. My mother informed me that now was the time to establish with my children that birthday parties consist of our family and a cake and some balloons. The balloons didn't quite happen this year, but if Ian asks, I'll have to cover for myself.


Looking pretty interested in the candle on top. He doesn't get the whole blowing out thing, so Leah and I helped him. I was surprised to see that Leah knew to blow it out.

No, it's not a number one cake (sorry Elizabeth!) or a pirate cake or a dinosaur cake. It actually more closely resembles a wedding cake. It was the best I could do last minute (when I decided today at naptime to figure out what kind of cake to make for the party tonight).

Ian is a big fan of cake so I knew this was going to be a no-brainer for him.

It didn't take long for him to dig right in. This is one of the reasons that I think he's so awesome.

Don't you love the crossed legs??

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

Red velvet cake + cream cheese frosting + red sprinkles = a very pink and sticky Ian


After a much needed bath, we got down to the real birthday business: unwrapping presents.

He didn't quite get it, but Leah was kind enough to "help" Ian unwrap all of his gifts and steal them to play with herself. Big sisters are the best!

Easter 2011.....please be kind

Ok, before I start on this post, you have to know a couple of things:

1 - Leah needs a haircut (like nobody's business). I am aware of this, and hope to fix it soon (we'll see...)

2 - This is the first thing that I've made for my little boy. You must know that I love it (the night I finished it, I just sat back and looked at it over and over again and kind of giggled to myself. Lame, I know, but true.). With that being said, I am fully aware that it is very close to being too girly for a little boy. So don't you just sit there in your computer chair, thinking to yourself, "Wow, look what Becca is dressing her son in." I know, I know. And it has lots of issues that could be repaired. Like the elastic in the back is pretty much big enough for Michael's waistband, not Ian's. I know. It may be hard to look at the pictures and see what I see, but just know that I love it, flaws and all.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, here are the pictures of our little ones' Easter outfits. After hunting down Ian's outfit, we staged a little photo shoot last week. I don't think Leah could understand why none of the eggs had candy in them. I was kind enough to take all of the candy out of the eggs on Easter night after bedtime. No one who lives at this house (under age 3) needs that much candy at their fingertips. She keeps looking though. Good luck Leah.

So I also made Leah's dress. I used a pretty easy tutorial I found online and I think this is the most "un-handmade looking" dress that I've ever made. Score one for me (especially after Ian's Holly Hobby dungarees). I'm pretty proud. Leah called it her princess dress and enjoyed twirling in it. After eating her lunch in it today, I'm kind of rethinking the whole silk fabric choice. Hmm...


I just can't get enough of that little face. He's really getting big. It's sort of breaking my heart, but I'm trying hard (kind of) to not be that crazy mom who doesn't want her kids to ever leave her or grow up.

Leah is always kind enough to show Ian the ropes. These two play together lots, if playing together means Leah stealing all of Ian's toys and yelling "mine!!". She's got it down to an art form.

Even Bernice got in on the photography action. Leah laid her nicely down on the rocks and then said "smile, Bernice, smile" over and over again. I loved it. What else could I do but take a picture?

I'm famous one more time

this picture has nothing to do with the post, but who posts without a picture?



So back in February of 2009, I wrote in to this amazing interior design blog for some help with my house. I posted about it here. Christine was awesome and gave me great advice, which I didn't exactly follow. Because of that, I never sent in my "after" pictures. I've had some guilt issues about that, as I've continued to follow her blog. And even though I didn't follow her exact advice for me, I did use the advice she gave to others on her blog to help me finish off my living room and kitchen. I finally wrote back in to her and sent her some pictures of my finished room, which she nicely posted on her website. You can check it out here.

Remember those before pictures? How embarassing!!! Somebody needed to slap me - Mom where were you? Seriously.

I didn't realize...

how hard it is to get a house ready to go on the market. Yikes. But here it is. We had pictures taken on Friday, and it should be officially on the mls tomorrow. Also, I realize that it's Easter and we had a little sewing factory set up here until very very late last night. I'd love to post pictures but I don't have any yet. And I was hoping to get some put up tomorrow but Ian's outfit is missing in action (he gets passed around a lot at church and after changing his diaper, Michael didn't put it back on him. "too confusing to figure out" was what he said. Because that's why I stayed up late to finish his little outfit last night, so he could hang out in church in his onesie polo shirt??? Anyway, they are just a little pair of dungarees so I'm not really sure I agree with good old Meeshell). I'm on the hunt for it and as soon as I locate it, I'll get some pictures taken.

In the meanwhile, if you know of anyone who might want a lovely vacation home on the southside of Corpus Christi, send them my way.

Kitchen

kitchen 2
kitchen 3


living room

living room

laundry room

computer room

kid's room

master bedroom

back patio

the potty part that wasn't {warning: gross post below}

I had a really good idea a week ago or so. I decided it was high time for Leah to join the world of big girls and princess panties. Let's be honest, I'm really just growing tired of spending so much hard-earned money on diapers. I mean, there are so many more fun things to buy, right? So, in mentioning that I was planning on doing the potty training thing, a good friend informed me that I just had to have a potty party. "Make it a big deal," she said. Ok, I can do that. We made cupcakes, we bought balloons, we welcomed a lovely little frog potty into our home to live, we even bought the plain (cheaper) panties and convinced Leah that they were really princess panties. The party was to commence at 3pm, after Leah returned from preschool.

It started out very promising, as I pumped her full of juice, soda, chocolate milk, water. Anything to fill her little bladder up. We then took all of her clothes off (I know this sounds weird, but many have informed me that this is how you do it) and waited around. We tried out sitting on the little frog potty, we tried to "go", we even tried to sit on the big potty. No luck. That little frog potty is just as pristine today as the day we brought him home from the store. The highlight of the party was when I looked over and saw a piece of, well, poop on the floor. Who knows how or when it got there (well, I guess I know how, but the question is really how I didn't notice...). It was gross. I ceremoniously cleaned it up and continued to encourage Leah to try to go. No deal. Early evening and one wet carpet spot later, Leah was fighting me to even sit down on the potty. It was at about that moment that I decided we were going back to diapers. I mean, it's pretty lame to have to change diapers, but it's worse to have clean it up off the floor. And while we're on the subject, how come there wasn't any pee next to the poop? I mean, who poops without peeing?? Is that even possible?


So, there was one little guy who really enjoyed the potty party, and more specifically the cupcakes at the potty party. The picture at the top of the post is of Leah's cupcake, barely touched. She was quite ladylike about it. Ian, on the other hand, annihilated his cupcake. He took it in his two fists and went to town. It was impressive. Almost as impressive as Leah's short potty training career. We've put that idea away for another time and another day...