our sweet gems is already 10 months old...
happy 10 month birthday!
she is the best baby ever.
i can't believe she will be 1 in just 2 short months!
gemma is so excited to have a new little girl cousin
eric, gemma and i stayed with the 3 kiddos while ryan and adrian were in the hospital.
the day they came home we thought it would be fun to welcome baby avery home with a 'welcome home' sign.
of course, everyone had to have a sign to hold, even gemma.
we love you avery!
why i like mowing the lawn:
*instant gratification... if you wait long enough to cut the grass, it is so long, that the second you swipe over it with the mower it looks 10x's better
*get a nice tan...just slip on a tanktop (not a t-shirt) unless you want a funny tan line
*it is completely mindless work
*the cut grass lasts longer than 5 minutes...unlike housework, dishes, and laundry, the lawn will at least stay short for a couple of days, maybe even a week
*i feel like i get a workout without working out...just pulling on the cord to start the push mower is like lifting 20 pound weights 10 or 20 times (depending on how long it takes me to start it)
*i like to do things for my husband...this usually surprises him and is one less thing he has to do
*it inspires me to do other things around the outside of the house, as far as gardening, to make it look nice
eric has been teaching a sunday school class for the last few months
right now he is focusing on Jesus' attitudes. each week he highlights a different attitude that the kids should work on. attitudes like... respect, pride, selfishness, etc...
each week he records a video of himself portraying the bad attitude and then the way he should have handled the situation.
the series is called... 'little boy eric'
he got quite creative with his video for next week...
can you guess the attitude they will be discussing next week??
starring: my hilarious husband (who also did all the editing)
( i am the recorder and the mystery 'mom' voice...which by the way we did eat those leftovers that night right before our recording session)
she literally signs 'please' all. the. time. for. everything.
i never thought it would happen to me but it has...
i have gone crazy.
remember the purple room? since then i spotted some paint in our garage that the previous owners left here.
there were lots of different paints left here...
my favorite?
mandarin orange
i couldn't resist so yesterday i got to work and finished off the laundry room in just a few hours.
so now... even though i still hate doing laundry
at least now i will enjoy going into the room even though what the room symbolizes is no fun.
(this picture of gemma doesn't really have to do with painting,
but i just couldn't resist her sweet face)
we had a little visitor in our house the other day.
i guess he decided to make our home his
how about a close up
the two fearless lizard catchers, cornered him in the kitchen, caught him, and put him outside to find a different residence instead of ours.
i had a blue room in my house...
it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't my favorite either.
but i needed inspiration. i didn't know what to do with it. then it all came together beautifully.
a friend of ours found a futon that a neighbor was getting rid of... the best price free. how could we pass up this offer? so we went and picked up the futon, bought a new cover and a couple of pillows and the room looked great.
besides a few small details
the room did look great with the futon, but it was still blue and didn't match my newly purchased yellow and purple pillows...so what is a girl to do...
the only thing i could possibly do i bought purple paint, of course, and painted three walls purple. the accent wall is an ivory/cream color which we mixed ourselves with some paint that we found in our garage from the previous owners.
thanks to the help of some visitors this weekend we finished the entire room in less then 2 hours. i must admit... i love it. i never thought i would like a purple room... but i do!!
now i am just going to take my time to either buy or paint a perfect picture for the accent wall.
the other day i went to Bible study and when i got home this is what i found...
the loves of my life reading together.
gemma has a new found love for books and
eric and i love to read to her
so it works out quite nicely.
trying to plan a surprise date night with the hubs.
it is kind of difficult...and it is actually more of a date afternoon/evening.
it seems like it has been forever since we have been on a date with just the 2 of us. i heard several times before we had gemma that we need to keep spending 'just us' time together. stuff happens though and schedules get crazy.
i am going to make it happen tomorrow though...
plan so far... drop gems off with aunt adrian and the kids, surprise eric at work (he only works 1/2 day on fridays), have a picnic lunch somewhere, this is the part of the date i am not too sure about yet (any suggestions are greatly appreciated; can you think of anything to do on a hot afternoon with the hubsters?), then for dinner i am planning on going out to eat for an early dinner. then we will head back to pick up gems and actually spend the night at ryan and adrian's. (we are going to a wedding saturday so... jenni and tim are staying the night there as well... we are probably going to stay up way to late and eat too much junk food, but that's what makes 'slumber parties fun, right?!)
so that's the plan...i am also planning on bringing my camera to take some pictures of just the two of us. i was trying to find some today and can't find many so i better make that a priority!!
let me know if you have any suggestions as far as something to do on a sunny afternoon!
after a hot morning at play group and a nice walk around the park
of course, after a short nap, quick lunch and some time with grandmama
we finally got around to...
gemma's new-to-her-kiddie pool
we got a small kiddie pool from some friends and gemma enjoyed it immensely.
i think we will be spending lots of these hot afternoons there.
when it's cold outside, i've got the month of may.
well, i guess you say what can make me feel this way
my girl
talkin' bout my girl
it is unbelievable how quickly and how young kids can pick up on things.
eric and i have seen the benefits of sign language with babies...
so we have been working on baby sign with gemma. she is doing really well too. she has 'please' down for the most part (with a little help.)
after 14 years...we said goodbye to the family cat. ole' zeus.
it is now time to find a replacement...
cy and nolan, i think, picked just the right one...
he doesn't have a name yet, but he will soon!
(it is either this kitty or another one...i will let you know which one gets chosen)
