Update: Madeleine

I'm pretty sure Madeleine and Ian loved the carousel as much as Alayna did.

This little sweetheart sure looks darling in the pink cowgirl hat.

One part at the rodeo they liked best was playing around in all the Fords on display. I must say, they are easy to please. One of her homework assignments this week was to make a list of her top 5 favorite things she did during Spring Break. We didn't do anything terribly exciting, but she had a hard time narrowing it down.

Patiently waiting her turn for the Euro Bobbles. She was doing flips inside her's. It looked pretty fun. Now, are you ready to hear about her cast? Wondering why I haven't mentioned it sooner? Here's the story. On Valentine's Day she hurt her hand doing a handstand at gymnastics. We didn't think too much of it because she seemed to be playing like normal afterward although it was too painful to finish gymnastics that day. The following week at gymnastics it was still hurting so we went to the doctor, got an x-ray, went to an orthopedist who said it was a stress fracture or bone bruise. Although it's not broken it still takes weeks to heal so the orthopedist suggested we put it in a cast so she would be forced to keep it stabilized. She gets it off on April 1st and we are all looking forward to getting rid of the stinky cast.

Update: Ian

Ian is a very loving brother. He fights with Madeleine plenty, but he's super sweet to Alayna. Possibly not always as gentle as we would hope, but he loves her to pieces. Here he was trying to help her be still so I could get a better picture.

Have you heard of Euro Bobbles? We let Ian and Madeleine spend 3 minutes "walking on water" at the rodeo. Truthfully I don't think anyone was actually able to walk inside their ball. Our kids sure didn't. But it looked so fun! Ian loved it.

He had to try on a cowboy hat at the rodeo. This kid's so handsome no matter what. He is 100% boy. How is it that boys have this innate ability to make amazing sound effects? And his love for video games is unparalleled.

He's a very good sport. He let Madeleine paint a beard on him one day. One of his latest obsessions is Ben 10. He's constantly asking to watch the show and you'd be lucky to see him without his omnitrix (sp?) on his wrist. Another day Madeleine painted the words "Ben Ten" all over Ian's arms and legs and he told me today she'd made a masterpiece out of him.

Update: Alayna

Alayna recently had her first experience with swings at the park and she was not disappointed. She has been a bit on the grouchy side lately. I'll go ahead and say that's because she is cutting 3 teeth right now. (She already has 4.) That's probably a good enough excuse, right? Well despite all that, she was all smiles in the swing.

And she is a speed crawler now. She was looking so cute on Sunday in her purple dress, sitting on the floor, so I tried to get a picture. Naturally she tried her darnedest to get over to me as fast as possible. Needless to say the camera on my phone could hardly keep up. I just love her in purple though. One other thing, she is already trying to climb up the stairs. Little trouble-maker.

This was at the zoo during Spring Break on the carousel. She loved it!

Finally, on another outing during Spring Break, this time to the rodeo. I think she was actually happier that day than this picture would lead you to believe.

Miscellaneous Stuff

I know I have already posted this picture before. That time it was meant for you to see how nicely we were able to hide Madeleine's self-inflicted bad haircut with her hair parted just right. This time, I want you to notice the ottoman just behind her. What you don't see is that, sadly, the leather was beginning to tear and in the months since we took this picture, the tears got really big and embarrassing. Since we didn't have room in our budget to buy something new the rips just got worse and worse. I'll blame it on having a three-baby brain that it took me this long to realize I could just cover it with upholstery fabric and give it new life. Truth be told, I thought of making a slipcover but my friend Nicole helped me to see how much better and easier it would be to just staple the fabric in place. That Nicole is one smart lady!

Here's how it turned out. I must admit, I am in love. It has truly breathed new life into our dreary living room. I've been lamenting how boring our living room is (so plain, and brown and off white). Now, between this and our media console, things are definitley looking up. Plus, for a little while I've been feeling like we had a bit too much leather in here. I mean, really, four pieces in one room is kind of a lot. I will stop my cry-babying now.
Remember this table? Here's the finished product:

Please ignore the folding chairs that are by no means a permanent feature. I actually finished this piece before Christmas but I've been secretly hoping to get my ideal chairs before showcasing the table on my blog. Obviously that hasn't happened. If things go my way, I'll quickly sell my old table and chairs and then buy something more appropriate to go with the new table.

Oh, Alayna! You are so cute! This girl loves the bath. You may have noticed her crying face in the picture of the ottoman. She's actually been crying a lot lately. Is she already old enough for separation anxiety? If sees me, but I'm not holding her, she cries. It's making it hard to get much done. And don't I already have enough excuses of why I'm not getting everything done? Really. Oh, and she gives five now. And crawls. Did I ever mention that? She started that around 6 and 1/2 months. She'll be 8 months old on the 13th.

P.S. I hope you aren't getting too tired of all my furniture projects dominating my blog.

Cute Alayna

Instead of diving right into all the cleaning and laundry that I have to do today, I spent a few minutes playing with the kids and my camera phone, you know, the only camera we have. Here's what I learned: it's really diffiult to get good pictures, but there are some fun settings with the color. I think this black and white one is darling, as is the sweet baby in the johnny jump up.

We're still here.

I know you must be SO relieved to see that I haven't completely given up on this blog of mine! Life is just so busy and I haven't had a lot to say. And not that I have much to say now, but I do feel it's time to post something. I promise it will not be earth shattering. In January, Ian's preschool took a field trip to the Downtown Aquarium in Houston. It happened to be on a day off for Madeleine so we all got to go."We all" being me and the kids. The aquarium is pretty small but I thought they had really cool stuff to see even though there wasn't a ton of it. Then there were a few rides outside that were easily the highlight of the day. I lost count of how many times Ian and Madeleine rode this one. It's the kind that shoots straight up in the air and drops down a few times. Ian was just barely tall enough to ride it. There weren't many people there besides our group so they went on it over and over and over and over. They could have stayed all day!

Madeleine's cute face paint at a friend's birthday party recently.

Remember this ugly buffet I was going to rehab and make into a media table?

To go under the TV in place of the ridiculously tiny TV stand we were using before.

Well, here's how it turned out. What do you think?

I haven't appeared on here in a while, so here you go. I have bangs now. I am pretty lazy when it comes to my hair. I like to be able to just pull it back if I don't have the time or want to take the time to style it and bangs require effort. And I am not at all adventurous. Do you have any memories of me with short hair? I doubt many do. But after having Alayna and losing tons of hair that is now growing back, cutting bangs was the only thing to do to hide all the baby hair growing in along my hairline. Despite the extra effort involved, I actually really like my bangs. What a welcome surprise!

Quick Catch-up Post

Just so that an entire month doesn't go by without a new post, here are some random pictures of stuff going on around here. First, I am so in love with this table! I neglected to get a shot of it before I sanded it so you'll just have to imagine its boring, old, stained oak finish. Stay tuned for the after shots. I am really eager to move it into my breakfast nook but I want to give the finish plenty of time to cure before subjecting it to daily use by our kids.

Spencer took the kids to a Santa breakfast at Madeleine's school and miraculously captured this wonderful photo. How cute are these three?? I can hardly stand it! Of course there are times I take all three to the grocery store and reality hits. Cute isn't everything.

Yet another furniture project. I am absolutely DYING to get started on this one!! But alas, there are too many other pressing items in line ahead of this. Anyway, this is going to become our new media console. Stay tuned for the after pics. Hopefully soon!

Upon downloading our most recent pictures, it appears that this is the last one Ian took before he broke our camera. Again. Second time this year. What are we going to do with that kid?

This is one sweet baby! We all adore her so much! I hope she is not getting too spoiled. Believe it or not, she is "skinny" for her age. I still can't quite wrap my brain around how this chunky little thing isn't big enough, but at her four month doctor visit we found that she had only gained 6 ounces in the past 2 months. So, although her weight itself is in the 50th percentile, in conjuction with her height and age she is too skinny. So she's eating cereal now (and loving it!) and nursing a bit more frequently throughout the day. I kind of liked having 4 hours between feedings but doing it every three hours instead is not only helping her gain weight, but helping me lose weight. It's a win-win!

It turns out Madeleine's even more far-sighted than Ian. We got her new glasses today. She picked them out herself and I think she looks quite stylish! I am trying to figure out where this far-sightedness come from. Any family members have any ideas? They say that it's possible to grow out of it so we are hoping for that for both our kids.

I love this picture! This was at the end of the Warrior Dash I did the weekend before Thanksgiving with my friend, Nicole. It was similar to the Dirty 6 I did in 2009, but way, way better. It was so much fun! If it happens to be coming to your area, I highly recommend it!