Thursday, April 4, 2013

Easter

Happy Easter everyone!!

This past weekend was both crazy busy and relaxing. Along with a going away party for Lauren and Brian and a baby shower for Nichole and Tim, it was also Easter weekend and we had to get Mom and Dad and Joey, Andy and Kayden from the airport on Sunday.  We also worked in the last of the tile work in the bathroom (an update on that coming later), I started some of my seeds for my garden this summer and got all caught up on Abby's baby book.  How could that possibly be relaxing right?  Well, what was nice was although we were busy, we stuck pretty close to home.  And, there's something about crossing things off my to-do list that's relaxing.

Check out all that Easter loot!

Anywho, Easter!  This year we spent Easter morning with Dan and Ellyn and Easter afternoon with my parents after grabbing them from the airport. 




Even though Abby is blurry in this picture I love it for two reasons.  First, I love Ryan's face in this picture.  You can just see how much he loves her.  And second, this is her new face.  She's started this inquisitive side-lean when she's trying to figure something out.  It's hilarious!


"So, wait.  There's a bunny and he comes to the house and leaves chocolate and eggs and presents?  Do bunnies even lay eggs?  I don't think so Mommy.  I know I'm new to this world, but it sure seems like you're trying to trick me."



Another one that I love even though it's blurry.   You see, the reason she's blurry is because Ryan just can't sit still.  I know where Abby gets it from.  


Upside down Daddy!!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

1 Family x 12 (March)

A friend of mine had a great idea and I'm going to steal it from her (much to Ryan's chagrin!).  The premise is really easy...take a picture of the whole family once a month.  You know I can't resist a good project right?  Pretty soon my whole day will be filled up with completing projects.  Knitting, blogging, photography, gardening (yep...gonna try that this year), raising a baby and two dogs, etc etc etc.  But...I do it for me, and I love it.

Anyways, back to my point.  Here is our photo for March (nothing like squeezing it in on the last day of the month!).  It's from Easter.


What I like most about this idea is that it forces us to take two seconds to sit down together and capture life as it's happening.  So...make me stick to it guys!  One family picture each month.  Simple enough.  Come back in a day or two for more from Easter.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Grandma loves us

This past weekend we had the whole family together for a few hours.  Mom and Dad and Joey, Andy and Kayden all came to our house for taxi service (smile) to the airport.  They are in Key West this week...lucky ducks!!  Anyways, when they were there I snapped a few quick pictures with Grandma.  These babies just love her to death!


Actually, speaking of loving her to death, Abby held her arms out for someone for the first time last weekend.  Guess who it was to?  Not me!!  Not Ryan!  Nope, to Grandma.  Silly, sweet girl.   Made my mom's day.


Thursday, March 28, 2013

Messes are fun!

I've just been messing with my camera and learning how to use all the little buttons and features.  Here's some shots of our life these days.....

Enjoy!


Abby LOVES to eat her food.  She's not a huge fan of anything green, but I don't know that many babies are.  I've been watching videos of a friends little man trying avocados for the first time and it had me laughing pretty hard.  Abbers loves her carrots and sweet potatoes.  And, she loves all kinds of fruits and her baby yogurt.  Feeding her is one of my favorite times of day.  Especially once I decided that getting messy was just part of the deal and let her have at it. 



This shot will totally made it into her wedding slide show!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

More progress

Slowly but surely our master bath is coming together.  I forget where we left off with the last post.  Oh yeah, Ryan and his boogers, but here's the slow progression that we are calling progress around our house these days. 


Doesn't everyone wish they had huge saws laying on their bed?  You're jealous....I know.

Then, for a few days we had an "ET" like experience happening.  Ry put up these great plastic walls to help contain the dust while they drywalled, primed and painted the new walls. 



Then, like magic, with two shakes of a lamb's tail we got to this point.  Actually, that's a huge lie.  After we got the walls done Ryan laid the floor tile and we grouted it.  Yes, I said WE.  What really happened was Ryan did all the work and then I was on wipe down duty.  So, since technically my hands touched the floor while it was still being worked on, I considered that as helping :O) 

Ryan totally spoiled my blog reveal of our tile choices with his post of Facebook last weekend but the guy did do all of the work so I can't complain.  We know it's a bold choice, especially with the dark tile at the top, but we love it and we figured we are the only ones that are really going to see it so who cares. 

Just to give you a little run down of the lay out, the two larger holes to the right of Ryan are where the knobs for the shower will be.  Then, the 4 smaller holes are body sprayers.  A splurge we probably wouldn't have done, but the bathroom was already setup with those so why not keep em!  Then, the head of the shower will come down from the ceiling.  You can sort of see where if you look above Ry's head and to the left.  Not the big hole, that's the fart fan (Ryan's term).

Let's see, what else?  We've got crown all around the top which we both love.  Six canned lights (we will be able to see hairs and blemishes ANY time of day....yippee) and radiant heat in the floor.  I can't wait for that sucker to be turned on.  It's going to be glorious!

Two of my favorite parts are the little ledges Ryan made and the built in (picture below).  So the story on the ledges is that I wanted a place to put my foot when I'm shaving.  Have you ever stood in one of these showers without a ledge and wondered just how you'd shave.  Then, you precariously dance around trying to not slip and not miss any spots thinking to yourself this shower MUST have been made by a man!  Well...I have!  So ladies...I demanded a shaving ledge for my foot.  Other than shaving (*count how many times I said shaving in this post!) we will use them for shampoo and soap bottles etc. 


Here's a shot looking back into our (messy!) bedroom.  The two pipes coming out of the wall are for the sink.  You might remember that originally the sink was in the bedroom, NOT the bathroom.  So, we moved the wall back to get it inside where it should be.  But, what I was really taking a picture of is where our awesome built in will go.  So, just to the right of the light switch on the small wall we will cut in a medicine cabinet.  It won't have a mirror since that will be above the sink.  But, it will have one shelf that is exposed (below the door to the cabinet, for decorations) and then a few shelves inside for things like toothbrushes and contact lenses.  One of the coolest things though you can't even see yet.  Ryan thought far enough ahead to bury a plug in that wall so when we cut it open and add our built-in there were be a place to plug in his toothbrush on the INSIDE!  So...no more crap on the sink.  It will all be neatly tucked away inside that custom cabinet.

It's moments like these that I LOVE being married to a guy in construction.  It's like having a genie in a bottle.  I just say "I want a shelf so I can shave!" or "Let's do a built in for our bathroom crap" and then I close my eyes (for about 4 months), wiggle my noes and like magic, my wish is granted. 

I CAN NOT wait to show you guys the finished product.  Expect a few more "progress" posts between now and then but we are making big strides now that we are on to the tile.  I'm hoping to get the toilet and sink back in by this weekend.  We are getting close my friends....very close!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Why are rolls cute on babies but not adults?

Don't we all just wish we could be this cute and still have rolls?  Babies just don't know how good they have it!!!  They can sleep whenever they darn well please, eat whenever they demand it and sport rolls that make them look like wrinkley puppies.  Man...now that's living the life!





Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Momma


Awhile back I realized that I already have so few pictures actually WITH my munchkin.  You see, first off, I'm often the one behind the camera, not in front of it.  No matter how much I love Ryan, he doesn't think to himself, "This is a memory I want to remember forever", and grab the camera.  It's not that he doesn't want to remember it, or that he doesn't love us, it's just that grabbing the camera is usually the last thing on his mind.  Then, to make it worse, I am the one to do all the editing and filing of the pictures and the writer of the blog.  So, when photos like this one do show up, I'm quick to dismiss them because maybe my hair doesn't look perfect, or maybe I didn't have makeup (both true in this picture!).  No matter how good I get in photoshop, there are some things I'm not qualifed to fix :O)


Long story short, I made a vow to start making sure to be present in pictures with Abby.  Someday, when I can't remember her being this little, when I can't feel the weight of her in my arms, or her little hand wrapped around my finger, I will have pictures like this to look back on.  And, in those moments, I won't care what my hair looked like.


And, not just present in pictures.  Present all the time.  Since going back to work I feel this constant tug at my heart when we are apart.  Sure, we have bad days.  Days when I just want someone else to take over.  But those moments are few.  And, when someone else does take over, I find myself wanting her back near me. 

This little lady has taught me a lot since she came into my life.  Making elaborate dinners just don't matter much anymore.  I often leave my phone in the bedroom when I'm home (on silent) and don't look at it for hours (sorry Mom!!).  I don't check emails often from home.  Blogging and knitting?  Those things happen after my peanut goes to bed.  When I'm with her, I'm WITH her and she is what is most important to me.


I will remember to ask Ryan to grab the camera every now and then.  And, I will remember that my hair, makeup, and clothes won't matter to anyone, least of all Abby.  All she cares about is that we love her with every ounce of our being.  And that, I can promise, I do!