Watchin' TV

This morning while killing time until we had to pick up Natalie I plopped myself down in the sun room to begin working on the quilt square and turned on PBS for Brady. He asked me if he could play couch cushions and I said yes. After a little noise and commotion from the living room it then got very quiet except for the sound of the cartoons. I peeked out there and Brady was resting just like this watching T.V. Of course being his Mom I thought it was the cutest thing ever, so I got some pictures.After my little photo shoot I went back to sewing and cutting. When it was time to get our shoes on I came out and he had switched to this! He was messing with his hair just chillin' there cool as can be watching the tube. He looked so comfy I wished there was room for two. It is fun to see what kids of things he can do when there is no sister there to take over!

Block one and fabrics

Here are my fabric choices for the quilt along. The blue will be the large X's that go throughout the whole quilt and the greens I will use to make all the star patches. I am in love with the blue polka dot material and the greenish swirly material on the left. That was actually the first material I picked out and the rest followed. It is going to be a huge quilt and hopefully it looks good!

Here is my first block completed! I am pretty proud of myself because most of the corners match up, except for the first one I sewed! It was hard, but so fulfilling! I really didn't get a great picture of the block colors, but you get the idea.

No flash:
Flash:

Quilt A Long

I have been reading Crazy Mom Quilts (HERE) blog for quite awhile now and she has completely inspired me to start quilting again. Awhile back she held a "quilt-a-long" on her blog where each week she showed a different square and how to put it together and at then end showed how to finish it up, and viola! All the participants had a quilt. Well, she is doing it again, and this time I am going to participate. I am so excited! I will post pictures here of my progress so that I will be more motivated to keep up! Here is her picture of the finished quilt (I am going to use blues and greens instead of pinks), and HERE is the link to the post that explains it all. Anyone can join and follow along, you don't even have to have a blog! So if you are interested, try it! She makes it really easy with great step by step directions. Wish me luck!

Little Man

Lately Brady and I have been getting to spend lots of time together. For a while there I was really feeling like he and I were not getting the quality time that we needed, and I have been so happy that we are getting closer and closer every day! He is such a sweet natured soul, sure he knows how to be a 2 year old and drive me C-R-A-Z-Y, but for the most part he is so loving and happy that I just can't bear it! One of my new favorite things that he does is, even when he is mad and screaming, all I have to do is stick out my arms wide and start counting to 3 and on the count of 3 he will run into my arms for a giant bear hug! I love these so much. I remember doing bear hugs as a kid and they were so special, it is wonderful to be able to pass this on to Brady!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

...how 'bout you, you, you? You can come too, too, too! We're going to the zoo!

Natalie has been singing that song over and over this week. And luckily for her we had been planning a surprise trip to the zoo! So it worked out well. We didn't tell them where we were going until we got in the car for fear of us getting rained out, but the day was actually quite nice with breezes, so we lucked out on that as well.

I love this picture, of course it is only good because he has no idea I am taking it. Brady was pretty much on a picture strike today. Stinker!
Nat loves her some cheesy grins!
This guy was posing it up for us, he even beat his chest a little. Cracked us up.
The kids LOVE the train. We actually splurged and bought zoo memberships so it was cheap to get an all day pass. We rode it a lot, and they would have done more if we had the time! I have a feeling some of our trips to the zoo will consist solely of train rides!
Look! She does exist! Momma on the train.
Daddy on the train.
Natalie on the train.



Love.

Look! It's Brady! In a non blurry shot! He is such a funny little boy, he had so much fun looking at all the animals. He hated to be in the stroller (big surprise), but he walked so slow! We told him to quit moseying along and catch up, and he said he liked to mosey! Too funny.
I like zoom.
A lot.
We tired Nat out, she crashed almost immediately upon getting in the car. Brady, ball of energy that he is, stayed awake. Only to crash immediately upon getting in the house!
Overall, a good day! Good weather, good family time. I am excited about our memberships. The kids love the zoo so much and it is so hard to see everything in one day! They are going to get sick of the zoo this year, I can feel it!

I'm just sayin'

How I Met Your Mother is the funniest show ever, and I normally hate sitcoms. This one literally makes me laugh out loud ever time. The writing is witty, the jokes are funny...good TV is what it is.

What are your funniest shows?

cuties

Messing around with the camera. I like the EXTREME CLOSE UP. obviously. I just need Photoshop to make their eyes sparkle like Pioneer woman does, and to get rid of the grey film (that I never noticed until she pointed it out! Thanks a lot, now that is all I see!)

A good laugh

I have been feeling ho hum lately, and tonight I find myself laughing! A lot! And that feels SO good you don't even know. First laugh of the night was too random to explain, second one came from Kelli over HERE, third laugh of the night came from a tech that just called in from Oklahoma and said the "Patient feels like he is suffercatin" (which she quickly corrected and we had a good laugh about her being in OK for too long), and the last (so far) laugh of the night came from a random post on a random blog I found about all her old blind date stories, her stories and the following comments of others are just too funny! For a good laugh check it out HERE.

Hurrah!

Update from my list! Keith found the missing bookmark, isn't that crazy?? It has been lost forever, I finally admit that it is gone, and voila, there it is!

First Attempt

So we tried it, the texas tradition of Bluebonnet pictures on the side of the freeway, but all the "good" places were in such a place that Keith was in no way, shape, or form gonna let us park on the miniscule shoulder. So we finally found a place and got a few pictures. We need to go again, and feel free to leave locations in the comments. I think we just didn't drive far enough on 408? There really were some great places there, but no place to pull over.Natalie of course LOVED the flowers, she wanted to take them all home! She has a handful in this picture that you can kind of see.Brady wasn't too thrilled with the long grass. Oh, I just want to pick him up and squeeze him in this picture!

a nice little list

Stolen from the wonderfully, cute Wishcake at Simply, me (HERE).

Maybe I should stop drinking Dr. Pepper.
I love being inside on a gloomy, rainy afternoon with my kiddos.
People would say that I’m bossy and controlling...I might agree...
I don’t understand why I can't just love my job.
When I wake up in the morning I always want 30 more minutes.
I lost my stinking bookmark that Keith made for me, and it ticks me off!
Life is full of crazy crap.
My past is full of blank spaces.
I get annoyed when people treat me like I am a kid, or stupid...I am neither.
Parties are not even in my vocabulary.
I wish I had more willpower.
Dogs are fun...in theory.
Cats are loving, but smelly.
Tomorrow I'm taking it easy with the kids (aka staying home, cleaning, playing, and catching up on DVR)
I have low tolerance for liars and sneaks.
I’m totally terrified of burying a child.
I wonder why I can't get ahead.
Never in my life have I done drugs.
High school was actually rather nice, good friends and good times.
When I’m nervous I sweat...a lot.
One time at a family gathering my Uncle Gary tried to teach me how to ride a bike, I failed. I didn't learn until I was like 9.
take my advice: cherish the moment.
making my bed has to be done in order for my brain to feel non chaotic.
I'm almost always ready for a nap.
I’m addicted to nothing, right now, YAY!
I want someone to hug me and tell me everything is going to be OK. (name that comic Mom)

P.S. feel free to steal! :)

Oh yeah...

I got a new camera! I am having fun trying it out, I need to take it into the sunshine, as my favorite pictures are ones with natural light. I was able to test it out while we were waiting in the car the other morning. I can see the difference between these and even the Ren Fest ones, more crisp. I love it! Thanks a million, billion, trillion Dad!

Restaurant Review: Red Hot & Blue

My Dad had to ship some things home from the FedEx store and it just so happened to be in the same strip as a Red Hot & Blue, which Keith and I have seen numerous times, but never tried. Dad ran in and grabbed a menu and after we glanced at it for like a second we decided to have our final dinner of the trip there. They serve Memphis style BBQ and you can check out their site HERE (beware, there is sound). We all really liked it, it has the same style of food as a Colter's or some other cafeteria style BBQ place, but you sit down, and there are TONS more choices of food. We will probably go back, seeing as how Keith loves ribs, but I refuse to make them (too much raw meat). The kids menu was good to, with actual vegetable choices that they would actually eat. Overall a B+.

I must have an issue with taking family pictures, because even though I PLANNED on taking pictures of my Dad with the kids, this is the only picture of him I got. We were munching on yummy spicy sausage. I think he is handsome, and I didn't even get a good picture of the ponytail! Dang it!
Mmm...saltines. Heaven forbid they wait for the food

Oooo...Ahhhhh....

I found the most wonderful window shopping site that is for sure going on my links list. It is called Everything Turquoise, find it HERE. Holy Shmoly I love all of it...lol! Oh yeah, and THIS website (found on Cuteable, HERE) home to things like this...

and this...
and this!

They are toddler shirts! So silly and so cute!

Happenings

My Dad left for Oregon today, I was sad to see him go. He was able to be here for about a week, and it was a good time. Lots of hanging out, eating out (thanks Dad!!), and lazing about. Sometimes I think that is the best because we were able to talk and it was really very nice. Dad also took some pictures of the kids which I hope to be able to post soon (hint, hint).

I knew that we wanted to do at least one "field trip" and Dad said to pick something that we wouldn't normally do if he wasn't there. So after perusing magazines and websites we settled on the Renaissance festival in Waxahachie (HERE), aptly named "Scarborough Faire" (yes, I had that song stuck in my head for days, and dang it, there it is again! Arrgg!). We really had not a huge idea of what to expect, people in costumes, real princesses, turkey legs, not much more expectations than that. Well, it was wonderful! SO many costumes, and some were fabulous (of course some were just weird, and some were just weirdos). Right as you walk in there is a place where you can rent costumes, Natalie was starting to waver on the experience due to all the strange looking people waiting around outside the gates(my favorite was the little gnome with his trowel digging for treasures), so of course Papa suggested a costume (it took an HOUR to get!!), and that helped her get into the spirit. As it was our first time we really didn't do more than walk around and poke our head in the shops while people watching. It was FUN! I want to go back so we can actually watch some of the events and things that they do, but it might take a bit of convincing to get Keith back there!
Brady had fun looking at all the people, and stuffing his face with whatever he could get his hands on!
Natalie's favorite spot was a little "fairy garden" with a gazebo made of vines. She informed me that it was hers..methinks the costume got to her...

Natalie in her fairy garden.

All hail the King...
...and the Queen!
So we had a good time, and of course took NO pictures of the cool people. If you have the time (and the money) I suggest going. Just pack your own food and water!